Deputy Michelle Mulherin has revealed that she has received “shocking news” from the National Roads Authority that it “no longer considers the N26 Phase 2 a potential project”.
“The NRA have now stated that their interpretation of the An Bord Pleanála decision of February 2010 which refused the previously proposed road is that environmental protection is the priority consideration and that there is no potential route that avoids the Moy Valley and a river crossing, and therefore the road cannot be upgraded,” Dep Mulherin said this week.
“I had been vigorously pursuing the matter of obtaining funding for the planning of a new route for the N26 with Minister Leo Varadkar and I am absolutely dumbfounded by the NRA response.
“Nearly €6m and years of planning have already been pumped into the N26 Phase 2 to date. Suddenly the NRA turns around and tells us that a town the size of Ballina with the poorest connectivity of any hub town in the whole country shouldn’t have a road on environmental grounds.
“This interpretation of An Bord Pleanála’s decision is totally unacceptable and disingenuous. The board’s decision rather took issue with the scale of the road proposed and suggests that a ‘more modest upgrade may be acceptable’.
“After the refusal, Mayo County Council in September 2010 in consultation with the NRA submitted a fresh traffic study and assessment to the NRA to try to get the project back on track. While the project had been dealt a severe blow by the refusal it was deemed to be a setback only, and the NRA cited lack of funds as the cause of their inability to progress the project, not that we should have no road at all.
“The NRA wants to turn its back on the N26 Phase 2. However there is an 18km corridor of land running from Mount Falcon to Ballina which is sterilised. Landowners who have been and continue to be prohibited from building upon or developing their lands have been very patient but are in limbo and at a potential financial loss.
“The N26 scheme has been included in the Government programmes for over 10 years since the publication of the National Development Plan in 2000. It was included in the National Spatial Strategy in 2002, Transport 21 which was published in 2005, and the latest National Development Plan 2007-2013 which was published in 2007, and it is also included as a priority investment in the Regional Planning Guidelines document 2010-2022.
“This is unacceptable and I am calling on Minister Varadkar to take the NRA to task. A major town like Ballina cannot do without this vital piece of strategic infrastructure. The road isn’t just about connectivity to the east but also about providing a proper road to Ballina as the gateway to the whole of Erris and to access the N17 to Galway [the Atlantic Corridor] and to connect with Knock airport.
“The N26 Phase 2 must proceed to route selection if we are to get value for money for the €6m spent already on the constraints study, public consultation, EIS, and scrutiny by experts at An Bord Pleanála.”
