The story of the Ballymun interchange is a story of secrecy, deception, lack of public consultation and misuse of EC funds. From start to finish the Dublin County and City Councils involved in this interchange have shown little regard for the interests of the rights of the inhabitants of Ballymun or Glasnevin North. They have also shown little regard for the public representatives of this area and adjoining areas. They have gone so far as to suppress documents which show the true extent of the devastation caused by their plans. They have misled and manipulated councillors and have generally acted in a Stalinist and totally Fascist manner, as if the requirements of democracy, fair play and openness are just disruptive impediments to their grand plans.
The motion passed in the Dublin City Council for a section 59 agreement did not refer in any way to the Ballymun interchange on the route and all local public representatives have gone on record as being unaware of the proposal. The only public consultation was through an advertisement which just referred to the Dublin County Council area and obviously did not attract the attention of the people in Ballymun or Glasnevin North who are in the Dublin Corporation area. The first time the residents learnt of the proposed interchange was in November 1990.
The effects this road will have on the local community are devastating. The Dublin County Council laid them out in their Community Impact Assessment, which says:
Traffic using the Ballymun Road is likely to increase substantially with the Northern Cross route as it will provide a good fast access road... the increase in traffic will mean that it will be generally dangerous to cross the dual carriageway at grade and all crossings will have to be made by subway or bridge... a heavily trafficked dual carriage with a busy roundabout is not suitable for cyclists. Consequently a separate north/south cycleway will be required.
None of this assessment made its way into the published Environmental Impact Study, which says merely that "There will be some severence at local level on a number of individual properties mainly for cyclists and pedestrians.
None of the measures to provide cycle-ways or pedestrian crossings proposed in the Community Impact Assessment are planned. The Community Impact Assessment itself has been suppressed by the council and corporation officials and the City and County Manager has denied its existence. But a copy of this document has come into my possession. It makes shocking reading — no wonder these Stalinist officials suppressed it.
I have to say also that the EIS assessment is a sham. It fails to take into account any indirect problems caused by the motorway. It makes predictions which are obviously wrong, such as predicting a decrease of noise levels on the Ballymun Road from 67 to 59 decibels despite an increase in traffic. In its section on the socio-economic environment it mentions Portmarnock Golf Club and Howth Marina but makes no mention at all of Ballymun, which is recognised as one of the most socially deprived areas in the country.
On a persistent basis in the Dublin County Council and Dublin Corporation the officials have misled councillors. Contrary to the Community Impact Assessment, councillors have been told that the Ballymun Road is suitable for cyclists and that pedestrian bridges can be provided "if it were found necessary at some future date".
Wildly divergent figures for forecast traffic levels have been supplied to the city and county councils based on two conflicting studies. Dublin Corporation are predicting a decrease of 44 per cent in traffic on the Ballymun Road leading to the interchange, whereas Dublin County Council predict an increase of 70 per cent on the same stretch of road.
Council officials have even been willing to solicit letters from Aer Rianta to back up their case and then present them as if they were written on Aer Rianta's own initiative.
Complaints have been lodged with the European Commission and the European Parliament about the lack of consultation and the failure to publish an adequate environmental impact study but council officials deny any knowledge of the investigation which the Commission is carrying out.
The effect on the local community, as I have said, would be devastating. The increase in traffic would pose a major traffic hazard for 8,000 local pupils and students attending schools along the Ballymun Road. The children of the Ballymun flats will find one of their open spaces has been converted into a roundabout and one of the internal roads of the flats converted into an access road for this roundabout. The existing road without the additional traffic is a major hazard in that it runs right through the centre of a large community.
The Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Deputy Mary Harney, promised the residents she would put their case to the then Minister for the Environment, Deputy Pádraig Flynn, and the Dublin County Council.
She said: "It is obviously unacceptable for a development of this sort to go ahead without proper consultation with the community". I would ask her and the current Minister for the Environment to stand over this and to delete the interchange from the Northern Cross Route.
