N17 will be next priority after N4
SLIGO County Council is to make the N17 the “number 1 priority road” once the N4 has been funded.
Councillor Margaret Gormley’s motion on the N17 was unanimously agreed by all councillors and seconded by Cllr Dara Mulvey.
Cllr Gormley said the N17 was the main artery to Galway and it’s current state of repair was a “major hindrance” to investment in Sligo town and county.
“It’s been on the agenda for the last 20 years. In 2002 it was taken off the agenda completely by the NRA. Why? Because there was a Minister in some other part of the country who needed a national road,” she told the meeting.
“There was no heed given to this part of the country. We as a Council met with the NRA in 2005 and got it back as a standby scheme and in the intervening years we got design funding in 2006, we sent off the designs but they were returned because the NRA wanted a two-way carriageway,” she said.
Cllr Gormley said the 2007 General Election came and went and “still nothing was done.” In 2010 she said they were told that they were changing the criteria.
In 2011 “the final blow” came when they were told there was no funding available.
“It’s time we took this on board and made it a priority,” she said. “The N4 is in an advanced stage but after the N4 I’m asking now that the N17 is made a priority,” she said.
She also pointed to the 14 fatalities along the N17 as well as the fact that the lack of upgrade was affecting farmers.
“They can’t make any improvements because the route is being selected,” she said.
Cllr Dara Mulvey paid tribute to Cllr Gormley’s championing of the N17 over the years.
He said that one farmer he knows can only move fodder at night because it’s too dangerous by day along the N17.
Cllr Gormley was supported by Cllrs Keith Henry, Jerry Lundy, Hubert Keaney and Cathaoirleach Seamus Kilgannon who said some of our elected representatives have “really been asleep at the wheel for far too long on this one.”
“It’s really over to the people who are getting well paid to represent us in Leinster House to make it a priority,” he added.
Cllr Gormley sought a report on the progress made by TII (Transport Infrastructure Ireland) and the Council on the N17. “I don’t want to let it lie here,” she said.
The Council said it would engage with TII to re-start work on the N17 “at the earliest opportunity.”