CORK AND KERRY JOIN FORCES OVER BYPASS

IN an unprecedented move, county councillors in Cork and Kerry are uniting forces in a bid to progress the Macroom-Ballyvourney bypass following the announcement that works could be delayed until 2022.

Despite the N22 road’s inclusion on the current Capital Investment Plan (2016-21), Transport Infastructure Ireland officials told a Cork County Council delegation that no funding was allocated to the project.

The cross border delegation is now planning to travel to Dublin for a meeting with the Minister for Transport, Shane Ross to push the €150million project to go ahead at an earlier date.

Mayor of Killarney Brendan Cronin insists that the county’s lack of ministers in the Dáil has had a negative effect on the N22 campaign which has been ongoing for some 25 years.

“It is quite clear that we, as a county, have no clout; we have no ministers, we have no say at the cabinet table. The only option is to join colleagues across the border in Cork,” he said.

Fine Gael TD Brendan Griffin, who campaigned for the bypass before the 2016 election, has said that he is again discussing the matter with Minister Shane Ross.

“I discussed the matter in detail again today (Tuedsday)with Minister Shane Ross, explaining again that it would make greater sense to build this road ahead of the other roads being queued ahead of it. Minister Ross has agreed to revert to me soon with an update,” he said.

Fianna Fáil Cllr Gobnait Moynihan proposed that Cork County Council travel to Dublin as a delegation to highlight the urgent need for a bypass in the area.

“We will definitely go to Dublin as a municipal and, with the help of Kerry County Council, meet with the Minister and re-iterate how important this project is to both counties,” she said.

The new N22 was originally included at the end of 2015 in the Government’s Capital Plan for 2016-21, however a specific time-frame for completion of the project was not provided at the time.

Meanwhile, TII regional manager Paul Moran has insisted that the N22 road scheme is still included in the Capital Investment Plan and that this will facilitate the commencement of construction on the scheme in 2020 as opposed to the original 2018/19 start date.