Varadkar put paid to NW projects
An application for EU funding for transport projects in the west and northwest was dropped following the intervention of Leo Varadkar when he was minister for transport, newly disclosed documents reveal.
Projects such as the western rail corridor and the upgrading of Galway and Sligo airports were deleted from an EU-wide transport programme in 2011 at the behest of Mr Varadkar, according to the documents.
The current Government is now seeking to reverse the exclusion of western projects from the European Commission’s Trans-European Transport Network (Ten-T) programme.
However, the documentation obtained under freedom of information shows this has been stalled by a need to “assess the implications of Brexit”.
Mr Varadkar’s decision effectively deprived transport projects north of Limerick of any prospect before 2030 of qualifying for EU funding under criteria which dictates there must be a rail, road, air, sea and cross-Border elements.
Maps redrawn between October 6 th and October 11 th, 2011, prioritised road-rail-port-air- port infrastructure for Dublin, Cork and Limerick, with a link to Belfast, while the western half of the State north of Limerick was excluded.
Removal of the N16 Sligo to Northern Ireland border element of Ireland’s Ten-T submission resulted in a letter of complaint to Mr Varadkar from the North’s regional development minister Danny Kennedy who warned of the possible funding implications for the A4.
A Government spokesperson in reply said: “The inclusion of capital projects on the Ten-T network had no impact on whether they were funded by the Government at the time.
“If successful, Ireland still would have been required to cover the vast majority of the cost of the projects, as the EU funding would have only covered a minority element.
“The country simply did not have the resources at that stage to commit to that level of investment, as it was only just emerging from the worst economic crash in its history.”