Irish Labour Party: “giving Northern Ireland £400million towards its roads is not a priority”
The Irish News today reports comments from the Irish Labour Party’s transport spokesman, Joe Costello, TD, which cast doubt on the proposed £850million upgrade of the A5 between Londonderry and Aughnacloy. From the Irish News report
…Mr Costello claimed that while it was “fine to make commitments in the middle of the Celtic Tiger years”, the southern state could no longer afford “grandiose schemes”.
“At the present time, we are experiencing savage cutbacks in education, health and social welfare. Giving Northern Ireland £400million towards its roads is not a priority for the Labour Party,” he said.
“We are no longer in a position to fund the section of the [Dublin-Derry] road in the south so how could we fund the northern section?”
The Dublin TD said he was certain people in the north would “appreciate” that their southern counterparts were experiencing straitened circumstances.
He said “all big road schemes will have to be reviewed carefully” by the next government.
Mr Costello later also issued a statement criticising the government for slashing the south’s budget for road improvements and maintenance by 30% while “the onnly increase in the transport budget is extra funding to help build a new road in Northern Ireland between Aughnacloy and Derry, an increase of 236 per cent.”
And from a separate report online here
Ironically, as the public consultation and Environmental Statement for the A5 dual carriageway, to be built from the N2/Border to Derry, and on to Letterkenny was published, Labour’s Transport Spokesman, Joe Costello, said: “Ireland is in the worst recession in the history of the State.
“Spending one billion euro on a new road from Dublin to Derry including a €500 million spend in Northern Ireland will certainly not be a priority for the Labour Party while essentials such as health and education are being savagely cut.
“The Labour Party has made it clear that we will be revisiting the National Development Plan and Transport 21 in the context of the present state of the public finances. A realistic cost benefit analysis will be applied to every project,” he said.
Should Labour form a substantial part of any new Dáil administration in 2011 after the coming elections, Mr Costello said: “We are no longer in a position to fund the road in the South, so how could we fund the northern section?”
Now, experts are predicting that if the Republic fails to deliver the €500m then the Stormont Executive could only proceed if all other road works in NI are halted for five years and therefore may be forced instead to settle for a partial redevelopment, or to defer the contract.
Topic: Economy, Government
Region: Ireland, Northern Ireland, UK
Its a bit like when your house is up for sale but you allow the new prospective owner to move some of their ‘stuff’ in early.
Thats the way to look at it.
There’s more to the northern part of ireland than just the north eastern enclave of east Antrim.
An Ceide
LOL – I am thinking of putting my house up for sale -what have you got in the way of Plasma TV etc.
I could also use a new Fridge Freezer ?
Would you like to do some prospecting and let me have some of your stuff while you are at it – no promises mind and you agree that what goes into my house stays there.
There’s more to the northern part of ireland than just the north eastern enclave of east Antrim.
Trouble is the rest of the regions in Northern Ireland in terms of its public transport provision be it roads or rail have done better than some parts East Antrim (the Larne harbour to Belfast A8 road has been approved and should start 2011, it is linked to “peace dividend” money as well, courtesy of the Irish government; but for the obvious connectivity reasons and trade benefits it could be hard to knock that back; however, work is still only scheduled to happen).
“Larne Council have been campaigning for the route to be dualled but until 2006 Roads Service had no plans to proceed in the following 10 years. However, during the optimistic political developments of April 2007 the Irish government offered a “peace dividend” to build infrastructure in Northern Ireland. The two schemes to benefit were the dualling of the A5 from Londonderry to the Irish border at Aughnacloy, and this scheme to dual the A8.
But going back shore side between Belfast and Carrickfergus: no new trains, no new roads. Despite both being promised; the introduction of both seem to be getting knocked back – time and time again. I’m told the new trains are coming end of 2011 – but I wont hold my breath.
My view is that just like unionist absence in certain voluntary and community sectors the participation deficit there has a read across into local governance. I think people from these areas just aren’t assertive enough in terms of ensuring equality of provision of road and rail services in their own area. I think there was a case most definitely for pushing harder to get some new trains onto the Larne line for some of the time – perhaps even peak services – it may have meant reductions in the frequency of services on other lines but so be it.
In terms of problems with democratic participation take Co Down and over in Bangor, I had heard recently that in the loyalist Kilcooley estate only 25% (largely working class) are registered to vote – same kind of problems arise there. Staggering levels of under-representation. I’d be interested to know if there are any other areas with similar levels.
To be honest the Larne line just needs a few more climbing lanes for HGV’s, the traffic on the line is not consistently busy enough to warrant dual carriageway from larne to belfast. They definetly do need to upgrade some of the old bone shaker trains, not nice on a cold winters evening.
An Ceide is 100% correct. The proposed A8 road scheme was cooked up with the aim of spending as much money as possible on a overly elaborate solution to a problem that doesn’t even exist. Estimated cost = £113 million pounds, estimated average time saving on the journey from Larne to Belfast = 3 minutes, and I believe that’s a pie in the sky figure considering the off-line detours planned. The number of vehicles on the A8 road each day is decreasing, and there’s been a significant decrease over the past 4 years, I’ve seen the figures! If we’ve got money to spend, let’s put it into building a decent public transport system, something we really do need.
Cynic says:
9 December 2010 at 11:52 pm
“I am touched that you think he cares”
What “touchs” you is of no relevance to the thread.
Turgon is right as was Drumlin’s Rock? when he argued against this dual carriageway a year or two ago. Major improvements have taken place in the past 30 years, bypasses around Strabane, Newtownstewart, Omagh etc but there are sections which still badly need upgrading, the horrible bend at Bready which has taken quite a few unwary lives, bypass around Sion Mills etc. But the expense of a dual carriageway along the whole route is not necessary right now.
But does this mean that the ILP is watering down their commitment to a U.I.?