FG rivals’ spat over Metro route
A ROW has broken out between Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy and Fine Gael back-bencher Kate O’Connell over proposed plans for the Dublin Metro to go underground in their leafy constituency.
Plans for the multi-billion-euro Metro sparked a major spat between the two Dublin Bay South politicians during a meeting with the constituency’s politicians and representatives, according to the Irish Mail on Sunday.
The current Metro plan foresees an underground route from Dublin Airport through most of the city, including the constituencies of Leo Varadkar and Paschal Donohoe, before resurfacing and taking an overland route through Dublin Bay South.
This would result in a key link road in Beechwood, Ranelagh being cut off. Dunville Avenue, which is home to a number of retailers, would be turned into a cul-de-sac.
As pressure mounts on Mr Murphy to keep the Metro route underground, a source who was at the meeting said that tensions were high between the Minister and Ms O’Connell, who was said to have ‘dominated’ the meeting. ‘Kate called for unity and then said that she was a mere TD; Eoghan was in the Cabinet. He had the power to stop it,’ a person at the meeting said.
According to another onlooker: ‘All the people want is for Eoghan to do what Paschal and Leo did and get the thing put underground.’