PLANNED INVESTMENT in cross-Border infrastructure projects will be a key issue for Fine Gael despite Labour misgivings, a Donegal TD has said.
The Irish Government is committed to spending £400 million (€466 million) on key transport projects north of the Border in addition to other planned investments. Taoiseach Brian Cowen underscored this commitment in the immediate aftermath of the Budget.
However, Dublin Central Labour TD Joe Costello believes the next government may not be able to afford key road upgrades linking the Border with Derry and Letterkenny and improving access to Larne harbour in Co Antrim.
“We may not be in a position required to build the road from Dublin as far as Aughnacloy, [Co Tyrone] not to talk about making a half-billion [euro] contribution to Aughnacloy to Derry,” he said.
His remarks have prompted alarm, not just within Northern Ireland, but among Labour’s potential coalition partners in Fine Gael.
Donegal TD Joe McHugh said: “If it’s a case that we are looking at Fine Gael and Labour with the numbers to form a government, then it’s obvious that this is a project we’re going to fight hard for to ensure that it’s on the table.
“It’s not a parochial issue, it’s not just about Donegal, it’s not just about giving money across the Border. It’s about a win-win situation on both sides of the Border.”
The planned A5 Western Transport Corridor is designed to provide 85km of new trunk road between Derry and the Border at Aughnacloy and is a key upgrade to the road serving Dublin and Derry/Letterkenny.
Estimated to cost £650-£850 million (€758-€992 million) in total, the Irish Government is due to fund this and other road projects, principally the €126-€138 million Larne road, to the tune of £400 million (€466 million).
Irish Government investment in the £60 million ( €70 million) Satellite Radiotherapy Unit at Derry’s Altnagelvin area hospital, due to open in 2015, will also serve health needs in Donegal while the construction of a cross-Border bridge at Narrow Water linking counties Down and Louth is also planned.
For Mr Costello, the issue is uncomplicated – you cannot spend what you do not have no matter how desirable the project.
But for Mr McHugh there is a deeper significance, an argument that finds resonance across the board in Northern Ireland.
“This is a critical access project for the whole of the northwest and not just Donegal and it’s symbolic of the ambition to have joined up thinking in terms of an integrated transport strategy for North and South,” he says.
“That’s embedded in the Good Friday Agreement.”
Mr Costello’s remarks jangled nerves at the office of Sinn Féin regional development minister Conor Murphy.
He insists it’s too late for any stepping back by an Irish Government.
“Payments are being met,” he said. “This isn’t simply a project which is sitting there for someone to decide if it will happen or not. I think it would be a huge mistake and an abandonment of the people of the northwest if this project were to be reneged on by any government in Dublin,” he told the BBC.
The new Ulster Unionist leader, Tom Elliott, from Fermanagh, believes there could be a solution to the problem.
“I share the views of many of the people on both sides of the Border that the project could be scaled down to a more modest version ensuring good roads design and safety conditions are met, this could be achieved at a fraction of the cost.” But that is not a view widely shared.
SDLP Derry Assembly member Pól Callaghan said his party would meet its fraternal colleagues in the Irish Labour party and other parties to ensure the investment goes ahead as planned.
“Economic growth is the only credible way out of the current recession and stemming that growth by not completing the A5 would have disastrous consequences for the future economic recovery of the entire northwest of Ireland.”