M20 plan ‘is wrong’, says expert

LEO Varadkar has insisted the €850million Cork-Limerick motorway will go ahead, despite an expert warning that it would undermine development in both cities.

The construction of the longawaited M20 was delayed by the financial crash but is now being mooted again following an improvement in finances.

However, Economic and Social Research Institute professor Edgar Morgenroth, who led the research that underpinnned the Government’s National Planning Forum, said the motorway was ‘exactly the wrong thing’ because it would facilitate urban sprawl rather than driving people towards regional cities.

He claimed the plan made ‘no economic sense’ unless the road was built without exits to prevent houses popping up along the motorway, instead of in regional hubs.

He added: ‘Einstein once said stupidity is doing the same thing again and again and expecting a different outcome, and that’s exactly where we are: the same mistakes again, and then nothing changes, and that means Dublin just grows bigger and bigger.’ But in a major boost for campaigners for the new motorway, the Taoiseach yesterday said he disagreed with Prof. Morgenroth and that the motorway would go ahead and ‘empower’ rural areas to grow faster than Dublin.

‘A particular decision that we have made is that we are going to link Cork and Limerick by motorway; we think that makes sense,’ he said. ‘The single biggest transport investment by this Government is the Gort-to-Tuam motorway – €550million, a bigger investment than Luas cross city – and that has already linked two cities together, Limerick and Galway, by motorway.

‘So for the first time all motorways do not lead to Dublin and all roads do not lead to Dublin.’

Mr Varadkar said that ‘we now want to connect Limerick and Cork via the M20, so that we can connect Cork, Limerick and Galway by motorway and therefore... empower them to grow faster than Dublin in the ten, 15 years ahead’. He added that the motorway would not just benefit cities, but could also foster growth in nearby towns such as Charleville, Buttevant and Adare.

The Cabinet is scheduled to meet in Sligo this Friday, after which it will formally launch the ‘Ireland 2040’ National Planning Framework, and the State’s ten-year capital investment plan.