Government shelves vital bypass plan
THE government has quietly shelved its plans to build the long awaited Macroom Bypass, a project acknowledged as being vital to Kerry’s future economic growth.
The €160 million bypass plan was listed as a ‘ top tier’ project in the 2016 to 2021 Capital Spending Plan unveiled last September, in the dying months of the Fine Gael Labour coalition.
In the last month Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Minister Richard Bruton both told Kerry Independent TD Danny Healy Rae – who had sought updates in the Dáil on the status of the project – that the bypass was a ‘Government priority’ and progress was being made.
However, it has now emerged that the bypass plan has been shelved indefinitely.
At a recent meeting with members of Cork County Council, representatives of Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) told councillors that no funds had been allocated to actually build the bypass and that work on it won’t start until at least 2022.
The TII could say only that work on the bypass will begin sometime after 2021.
THE government has quietly shelved its plans to build the long awaited Macroom Bypass, a project acknowledged as vital for Kerry’s economic growth.
The €160 million bypass was included in the €6bn 2016 to 2021 Capital Spending Plan that was unveiled by the Government last September, in the dying months of the Fine Gael Labour coalition.
The bypass – seen as key to Kerry’s economic development – was initially described by the Government as a ‘ Top Tier” project under the capital plan and it was suggested that work on it could be underway by early 2019.
While the projects included in the Capital Plan were trumpeted by Labour and Fine Gael Candidates during the General Election Campaign exact details about them have been consistently hard to nail down.
In the last month Kerry Independent TD Danny Healy Rae pressed both Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Minister Richard Bruton for an update on the Macroom Bypass project.
Neither Kenny nor Bruton could give Deputy Healy Rae any specifics as to when work would commence saying only that the bypass was a “priority“for the government and that “progress” was being made on it.
For his part the Taoiseach quipped that the bypass was important because he likes “to be able to get out of Kerry quickly.”
Now it has emerged that far from being a “priority, tier-one” aspect of the Capital Plan the bypass plan has actually been shelved indefinitely.
It has now emerged that at a meeting with members of Cork County Council representatives of Transport Infrastructure Ireland said that work on the Macroom Bypass won’t start until at least 2022.
The TII officials said no funds had been allocated to actually build the bypass and that they had been told none were likely to be made available until at least 2020 or 2021. TII could say only that work on the bypass will begin sometime after 2021.
When the capital plan was announced last September the Government said all lands needed for the Macroom Bypass had been acquired through Compulsary Purchase Orders and that advance works, such as archaeological studies, had been completed.
As a result it was claimed that work on the bypass could get underway within a relatively short time-frame.
This was disputed in December by then councillor and now Cork North West Fianna Fáil TD Aindrias Moynihan who said the CPO process was not complete and that a further €19.5 million was needed to complete the purchase of lands needed for the bypass.
Deputy Moynihan – who had questioned the Government’s commitment to the Macroom bypass project – made the claim after it emerged that the 2016 state grant for the project had been cut from €5m to €3.8m.