Newspapers in Ireland reported last week that the free paper, which now has more than 1m readers across Britain, has struck a print deal with The Irish Times and is planning a launch in the Irish capital "in the coming weeks".

Don Gray, Metro circulation director, said that no plans had been finalised. "It would be wrong to say that we are not thinking about Dublin, but there are no firm plans as yet," he said.

The Irish Times opened a 48m print facility in 2002, housing an eight-unit 64pp MAN Roland Geoman press with two folders, and a Muller Martini mailroom.

Reports suggest that any free Dublin paper would be distributed on the Luas tramline and on the commuter rail line DART.