The absence of detailed financial commitments, or a pledge to front load delivery to areas currently with severe infrastructural deficits, raised considerable questions about the Governments new transport plan. This was the view expressed by Independent TD and MEP Marian Harkin when she stated that funds existed currently in the Transport Operational Programme of the National Development Plan which were ring-fenced for the BMW region and could be spent on the Western Rail Corridor right away instead of a completion date of part of it by 2014.
Independent TD and MEP Marian Harkin has described the attack by Fianna Fail deputy Dr. Jimmy Devins on Sligo Chamber of commerce because of it’s realistic assessment of the Government’s €3.4 billion transport plan as a classic misrepresentation of the facts.
Contrary to Dr. Devins’ contention that the ‘plan’ included a wide range of specific proposals for investment in road, rail and air services in Sligo there was in fact just one “This is the N59 Sligo to Ballina road and even this is not promised to be started until 2011 at the earliest”, Marian Harkin said. The terminology used in the Government’s announcement of the so called €34 billion plan was completely hedged around with phrases such as ‘we expect to develop’ and ‘the sequencing of projects for implementation post 2010 will be decided by the National Roads Authority at a later date’, Marian Harkin said.
“Deputy Devins’ assertion that there is a specific commitment in the Transport 21 announcement to the N59 is wrong and, in relation to the N16 Sligo Manorhamilton road, there is no mention whatever of any commitment to improve this vitally important cross border artery”, Deputy Harkin said. “The so called Atlantic Road Corridor will, if it ever happens, not be dual carriageway for it’s North West section and is the only inter-urban route for which there is no specific commitment”, she said.
In regard to rail the Transport 21 announcement specifically avoided any commitment to connecting the Western Rail Corridor to Sligo even after it was supposed to reach Claremorris in 2014, Deputy Harkin said. The recent decision by Iaranród Eireann to provide train carriages which were less customer friendly than the older and unsatisfactory ones, together with the withdrawal of the Monday ‘early bird’ service to Dublin was the totality of government commitment to Sligo’s rail needs, she said.
“Deputy Devins’ fertile imagination even extends to a non existent Sligo airport element in Transport 21 which totally challenges his credibility as air services were not even referred to in any of the grandiose statements made”, Deputy Harkin said. “The Chamber of Commerce was absolutely correct in describing Transport 21 as a non event for Sligo and Deputy Devins’ expressions of hope that some crumbs might fall our way in time reflects very badly on the attitude of this Fianna Fail led Government towards Sligo and it’s people”, Independent TD and MEP, Marian Harkin charged.
