Deputy Paddy Harte gave me notice of his intention to raise on the Adjournment the subject matter of the road between Lifford, County Donegal and Strabane, County Tyrone, which has been closed to traffic due to a suspect bomb.
Adjournment Debate. - Lifford-Strabane Road Closure.
I am grateful to you for allowing me to raise this matter on the Adjournment. I am doing so because of the concern among people on both sides of the Border who cannot use this very important road between Donegal and Northern Ireland and between Donegal and the capital city of Dublin using the main road from Strabane to Aughnacloy.
The background to this is that the IRA, or some of their fellow travellers, left a bomb in a local shop along that Border road and a bomb in a motor vehicle. The bomb in the motor vehicle exploded a few hours later but the suspect device still remains in the shop putting that young man out of business and leaving the road closed. People are put to great inconvenience because they have to use either the Craigavon Bridge in Derry or the Clady Bridge, between Clady and Donegal, which is three or four miles further up the River Finn. The Clady Bridge is very old and narrow and heavy vehicular traffic, buses and heavy lorries cause great congestion. There are long delays from traffic queues going through Clady. It seems to be against all the laws of commonsense that people who live in Lifford and work in Strabane, who could walk to work, or people who live in Strabane and work in Lifford, who could also walk to work, are now put to great inconvenience and must arrange transport to do a six or seven mile journey. I am not satisfied that everything is being done to clear this road. I fully appreciate the security involvement and the safety precautions which the security forces have to take. I am not aware of any road being closed for a full week because of a suspected bomb device which cuts off the North at the Lifford Road that leads to Strabane.
There is a strong rumour in the area that the authorities in Northern Ireland are not clearing this road because of the lack of security on the Donegal side of the bridge. Being a native of the town of Lifford and living in Raphoe, which is six miles away, I am very familiar with what happens there. If this was as claimed I could not defend it. There is no Garda or military presence at the Lifford side of the bridge. What happened last week could happen every night of the week. The IRA could simply come across the Border without being obstructed or checked to a part of the road between the bridge and the military checkpoint and abandon a vehicle or leave a device sitting there. That could happen day after day. I am appealing to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, who I know has a great interest in this and who will do everything in his power to help the people of the area, to have the Northern Ireland office issue instructions to have that road cleared as quickly as possible. The question of having better security at the Donegal side of the Border is a matter between the Government here and the authorities in Northern Ireland. I would support any demand for increased security there. Any person with a knowledge of the area would agree that there is a lack of security at the Lifford side. It may be that the random security checks, which are operated at present, would be carried out in different parts of the county but at a major cross-Border checkpoint such as Lifford Bridge that is not sufficient. Apart from the Craigavon Bridge in Derry and Pettigo, this is the main entry to Donegal including one or two minor roads also. The Minister has been in the Lifford area a number of times and is familiar with it and I do not doubt his sincerity in trying to have this road opened as soon as possible.
It is inexcusable that a bomb left along the road on Thursday night of last week should cause the road to be sealed off and people to be inconvenienced. These people are against the violence of the IRA and are appalled by their actions. Because the IRA or other fellow travellers have left this bomb there, decent law-abiding citizens, some of whom have not been able to cross the Border, are now put to grave inconvenience.
In addition, most of the buses travelling to Dublin use that bridge coming through the main road through Omagh, Aughnacloy and Monaghan. That traffic has also been inconvenienced. I urge the Minister to get in touch with the Northern Ireland Office in the interests of commonsense, good community relations and allowing people to go about their work and recreation as they can do in other parts of Ireland. I have made my plea and I will leave it with the Minister to do what he can to have this road opened as quickly as possible. I have agreed to share some of my time with Deputy McGinley.
I thank my colleague, Deputy Harte, for allowing me a few minutes of his time. Also I thank the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs for coming into the House at this hour on a Thursday evening. We appreciate his presence here to hear at first hand what the position is. I had the opportunity of alerting the House to this difficulty this morning. I first became aware of the difficulty and the obstacle last Thursday night on the way home from this House when I could not get over the bridge between Strabane and Lifford and had to go by Clady.
There was a report the following morning that an explosive device went off at 2 a.m. on Friday. As Deputy Harte has said, there appears to be a suspect device in some premises between the two bridges on the Northern side since then. As the Minister is well aware, Donegal is virtually cut off from the entire Republic apart from the only land entrance from the Republic at Ballyshannon and Bundoran. This particular bridge from Strabane to Lifford is the main thoroughfare for traffic from Dublin and the South for going into west and north Donegal. There is constant traffic every day of the week and every hour of the day. CIE coaches are using this road into Letterkenny and the private coaches from various parts of Donegal which are not serviced by CIE, use it constantly. Some companies have four and five coaches leaving Dublin every evening for Donegal. When they get to Lifford or Strabane they are shunted down to Clady which, with all due respect to Clady, is a difficult town to get through. It has experienced many difficulties in the last few years. On the Donegal side of Clady there is a long winding bridge, I do not know how many turns there are on it but traffic congestion causes very long delays. The only alternative is a 20 or 30 mile journey to Derry and back, and, indeed, some people are doing that.
In addition to ordinary traffic and coaches to and from Dublin every day of the week, articulated trucks which are servicing a number of industries in County Donegal, and in particular in my own Galetacht area in west Donegal, use the roads. All products have to be transported through Northern Ireland, to either the ports or indeed to Dublin. The radiator factories, the crios factories and various other factories in Letterkenny are handicapped by the delays in transport. As the Tánaiste and Taoiseach — whose presence in the House is appreciated — know, this all costs money. Indeed the fishing industry is also affected, because any waste of time when dealing with fish can be very harmful. Every hour is crucial.
No one in this House supports or condones the placing of bombs. However, I do not think there is a proper urgency employed by the people in Northern Ireland to get to grips with the suspect car that is there, and to open up the road. They seem to be taking a long time to deal with the situation. So far as I can remember it is the first time that it has taken a week or more, in fact it is in the eighth day, to get this obstacle removed and to open up the bridge again.
I join with my colleague, Deputy Harte in appealing to the Minister to make representations to the Secretariat and to the Northern Ireland authorities to have this vital link between County Donegal and the rest of the country opened up as soon as possible, to facilitate the flow of traffic that has been using this road and which will continue to use the road in the future.
Again, I thank the Minister and the Taoiseach for being present to listen to our plea and I am sure they will do everything possible to have the matter put right as soon as possible.
The Government are fully conscious of the importance of cross-Border roads for the communities living and working in the adjoining regions. In the case of Lifford Bridge there is the added factor that it serves as a main arterial road linking the Donegal and Derry region to the rest of the country. It plays a vital role in the economic life of the region; it is a very important road for heavy duty vehicles as alternative routes are not suitable for them. It also serves families living on both sides of the Border.
For all these reasons the Government are concerned at the disruption and serious inconvenience caused by the temporary closure of this road, though we understand the reason for this. The road is closed because of suspect bombs placed by people who have no interest in the welfare of the local community and the serious effects of their actions.
The following is the up-to-date information available to me. Lifford Bridge was closed on the Northern Ireland side by the British security forces on Thursday night last, 26 January and has remained closed since. The background to the closure is as follows: At 10.30 p.m. on Thursday, 26 January, a youth left a package at Dolans petrol station in Strabane, located about a half mile from Lifford Bridge, saying that it was a bomb and that the occupants of the station had five minutes to clear the area. The area was sealed off and traffic was diverted on both sides of Lifford Bridge. In the event the package did not explode. Sixty minutes later, at 11.30 p.m. gardaí at Lifford observed a red Ford Escort, with side lights on, parked approximately 50 yards from Lifford Bridge, on the Northern side. The car appeared to have been abandoned. The location of the car was about a quarter of a mile from Dolan's petrol station. It subsequently transpired that the car had been hijacked in the vicinity by three men earlier that evening. At 3.48 a.m. on Friday, 27 January, an explosion took place in the hijacked car.
It is believed that all three incidents are inter related.
We have been staying in close touch with the British Authorities about the matter through the Anglo-Irish Secretariat. While we appreciate fully the need for a thorough clearance operation, we have also conveyed the concern of the community about the hardship caused by a prolonged closure.
Today we were informed by the British side in the secretariat that the security forces believe that there is another bomb in the car. Every effort is being made to clear the area and reopen the bridge as soon as possible.
The Dáil adjourned at 5.15 p.m. until 10.30 a.m. on Friday, 3 February 1989.