The reality that there is no Government commitment to making the N17 a safe and competitive element of roads infrastructure has been amply demonstrated by the announcement by the National Roads Authority that the Tubbercurry by-pass was not a priority in the Government’s National Development Plan to be announced later this month.

This was stated by Marian Harkin TD, MEP when she described the proposed Atlantic Road corridor from Letterkenny to Waterford as a fraud designed to fool people throughout the West and South that their inferior roads structure was to be addressed in the Transport 21 programme.

Sligo County Council and the people living on, and using, the N17 have received confirmation that the absolutely essential by-pass of Tubbercurry and upgrading of one of the country’s most dangerous stretches of road to Colooney is not on the agenda for the next seven years, Marian Harkin said.

“The Atlantic Road Corridor is a device to give the impression that there is to be equal treatment in roads provision between and within regions but County Councils along this phantom route will learn that when it comes to delivery the funds will not be available because they are already committed to the already more competitive areas of the country”, she said.

The N17 was vital to the future development of the West and North West and was particularly important to the area’s tourism industry, she said. “People have, thankfully, an early opportunity to express their view on the continued refusal of the Government to deal with fairness to our region when their request for votes can be by-passed next May”, Marian Harkin TD, MEP said.