Ryan accused of pushing pet projects despite €14bn def icit
TENSIONS have erupted between the Green Party and their Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael Coalition partners over the clampdown on new road projects across the country.
Green Party leader and Transport Minister Eamon Ryan has also been accused of blocking rural road projects while pumping money into developing cycle lanes and walkways in parts of his own Dublin constituency.
The row comes after the Irish Mail on Sunday revealed late last year that rising inflation has blown a €14bn hole in the National Development Plan (NDP), threatening vital infrastructure projects, including the Metrolink in Dublin and key road schemes.
The NDP was launched amid much fanfare by then Taoiseach Micheál Martin, his successor Leo Varadkar and Eamon Ryan at Cork’s GAA stadium, Páirc Uí Chaoimh, in October 2021. It included plans for Dublin’s Metrolink, Dart+, a Western Rail Corridor, a new M20 motorway and an upgrade of existing road, rail and cycle infrastructure. But senior Government sources said the €14bn deficit and the likelihood of an early general election this year have temporarily derailed decision making on major infrastructure projects.
The Government this week announced €412m of funding is being made available to maintain existing national roads.
Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael ministers have accused Mr Ryan of waging ‘a guerrilla war’ on new road projects.
Fine Gael TD Colm Brophy said: ‘The only person who can get a road built in this country is [businessman and GAA benefactor] JP McManus.’ On the alarming rise in road deaths over the past year, the Dublin South West TD added: ‘The lack of road maintenance and road-building has made Irish roads more unsafe than five years ago.’
Minister Ryan said the priority this year would be to invest in public transport, walking and cycling routes.
Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil backbenchers have accused Mr Ryan of deliberately running down road projects, especially in rural areas.
One minister warned: ‘There is trouble brewing on this. We have a minister who has spent five years making it impossible to build roads.’
Unease is also growing over what one Cabinet source described as ‘a shutdown in building’. At the unveiling of last October’s Budget, the Government announced Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe would take up a new role to speed up the delivery of key NDP projects.
But one minister said: ‘The top public servants are waiting to see who the next political boss will be, and the current boss has politicised the process. Nothing is moving.’
Anger is also rising within Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael over Mr Ryan’s alleged ‘politicisation’ of the Department of Transport’s Active Travel scheme. It comes after figures for the scheme’s 2024 allocation reveal Mr Ryan’s political heartland of Dublin City Council received €60m – more than a sixth of the total grant of €348m spread across 30 councils. The funds were allocated by the National Transport Authority (NTA) to local authorities to spend on cycle lanes and widened footpaths, new walking and cycling bridges, premium cycle routes and pedestrian crossings.
Questions are being raised about how Dublin City Council (DCC), which includes Minister Ryan’s Dublin Bay South constituency, secured twice as much funding as any other local authority. Some of the projects earmarked for Active
Travel funding include the Royal Canal Greenway (€10m) and the Dodder Greenway (€4.5m).
DCC received almost the same amount as the rest of the three local authorities in the capital combined. Dublin South was allocated €22.4m, while Fingal and Dublin Rathdown were both granted €22m.
Mr Ryan’s council area also received more than the sum allocated to 16 rural councils.
The other big winner was Cork City, the political heartland of Tánaiste Micheál Martin and Finance Minister Michael McGrath. The city got €31.6m, Cork County Council got €21.4m. Limerick and Waterford, where Green TDs hold seats, got €21m and €25.7m respectively while 17 rural councils got less than €5m.
West Cork-based Fine Gael Senator Tim Lombard said this revealed the disparity between rural and urban Ireland, adding: ‘Millions for cycleways in Dublin and weeds growing over roads across the length and breadth of rural Ireland.’
‘Roads are more unsafe than five years ago ’