Sir, - Your Editorial of December 3rd expresses outrage that road building under the National Development Plan is to be scaled back. The blame, you say, lies with the IFA's unpatriotic behaviour.
Most of these roads are being built under public-private partnerships. For the farmers, the issue of PPPs is a hot one since the involvement of the private element has had a major effect on motorway routes.
For example, An Bord Pleanβla has just approved the motorway route for the Kilcock-Enfield-Kinnegad M4 motorway. Anyone who lives in the area has been eagerly anticipating the arrival of the motorway and both Meath and Kildare county councils preserved a motorway corridor north of Enfield for the past 20 years. The socio-economic impact studies conducted by the project team confirmed that the route north of Enfield would have the least negative impact on the community.
However, once the project was converted into a PPP, a route that would have the worst possible impact on Enfield, south of the village, was selected. The reason for this became apparent at the public hearing into the route selection. The new route was the cheapest. Why did it have to be the cheapest? Because the cost had to be under a certain level to attract the interest of the private company. The fact that it had the worst possible impact on the locals was irrelevant.
So, imagine you are a farmer looking at a map of a motorway that will divide your farm, probably rendering it unviable, come within a short distance of your house and completely disrupt your life. And you know that the only reason you are getting this road is not for the greater good, but for the good of a misguided policy which will make money for a private company through tolls - money that could alternatively be used to invest in public transport. I don't particularly agree with the IFA's tactics; it probably could have used its resources more wisely. But I certainly don't expect it to act for the greater good when its own Government can't be bothered.
This State's entire road-building project is being compromised by PPPs. That may not bother anyone in Dublin trying to get to their holiday home in the west of Ireland on a bank holiday weekend, but it's a bit frustrating for the pesky locals caught in between. - Yours, etc.,
Sarah Carey, Newcastle, Enfield, Co Meath.