Leo: UK must pay for bridge to N Ireland
Ireland’s Premier has said he will not dismiss the idea of building a bridge between Northern Ireland and Scotland, but insisted the UK must pay for it.
Leo Varadkar said he had discussed the idea with Mr Johnson recently, revealing he told the UK premier it was “worth examining”.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been an advocate of the proposal and last week described it as a “very interesting idea”,
adding: “Watch this space.” But the Taoiseach said he had alsotoldmrjohnsonhewould expect the UK to pay for it.
“At which point he suggested, ‘no, no, the EU is going to pay for it’,” Mr Varadkar said.
“So that’s definitely not going to happen, because neither Northern Ireland or Scotland are going to be in the EU.
“But it was kind of half serious, half joking in a way.
“But all messing aside, I do think at the very least a highlevel engineering assessment should be done as to whether it is a viable proposal.”
The shortest crossing would be from the Mull of Kintyre to Fair Head, although a more realistic crossing to attract UK mainland traffic may be from the Rhins of Galloway. Other parties have been less enthusiastic about the idea, with Ulster Unionist Party leader Steve Aiken saying investment was urgently needed in Northern Ireland’s infrastructure first.
Mr Varadkar said: “I know people dismiss these things out of hand, but they used to dismiss the Channel Tunnel as well - the idea of building a tunnel between France and Britain.
“And I know what I see when I see a bridge tunnel between Denmark and Sweden, when you fly over New Orleans and you see 110 miles of bridge, it’s extraordinary.”