Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Thursday, 1 Apr 1993

Vol. 429 No. 1

Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Balbriggan (Dublin) Road Project.

Trevor Sargent

Ceist:

4 Mr. Sargent asked the Minister for the Environment if his attention has been drawn to the fact that the town of Balbriggan in Fingal, County Dublin has an incomplete inner relief road which will cost about £1 million to finish; if, in view of the fact that 855 people out of the 2,000 families in the town are unemployed and that over the last ten years 30 per cent of the shops in the main street have closed and that this modest road will give access to land already zoned industrial as well as ease congestion from new traffic flows caused by Euroroute section soon to be constructed, 2.75 km east of the town, he will in keeping with the advice of the IDA, the technical staff of Dublin County Council and all public representatives for the area sanction a special improvement work grant, similar to the £1.75 million grant given to provide road access for Shannon Aerospace recently, to complete this modest road and help alleviate unemployment.

Mr. M. Smith

In 1985, my Department informed Dublin County Council that it was not proposed to provide a special road grant for the Balbriggan inner by-pass. Revised proposals for Balbriggan by-pass, involving a 12-km new route from south of Gormanston, have been included in the Operational Programme on Peripherality, 1989 to 1993 and, subject to the statutory procedures involved, the scheme is scheduled for construction in the period 1994 to 1996 at an estimated cost of £35 million. This will be met in full from State road grants, with assistance from EC funds.

As the proposed inner relief route would not form part of the network of national roads, responsibility for undertaking the project is a matter for Dublin County Council. The council may use the discretionary grants for non-national roads provided annually by my Department to supplement expenditure from its own resources on such works. The determination of priorities in the expenditure of these funds is entirely a matter for the local authority.

Mr. Sargent

Does the Minister realise that the M1 will do nothing for the commercial or private traffic which must deliver to shops or pubs or take goods away from the agricultural or industrial areas around the town? Will the Minister sanction a loan, because the council do not have the money, to allow access to be created to the industrially zoned land, for the sake of employment, as was done at Aerospace Industries Limited by the Department? The development levies would become available as a repayment to the Department. Does the Minister realise that there is an overwhelming feeling of neglect in the town of Balbriggan? The fact that I am standing here as the only TD from Balbriggan in the past 60 years would bear out what I am asking.

An Ceann Comhairle

I want to assist the Deputy to elicit information but we must proceed by way of supplementary question rather than statement or debate.

Mr. M. Smith

My difficulties are well understood in this House. If a situation develops where the responsibility of the State and the EC is two-fold in terms of providing resources — in this case for a by-pass which is quite substantial — involving expenditure of approximately £9 million from the taxpayer and £27 million from the European taxpayer to solve overall problems affecting Balbriggan and if alongside that we have to find, from State resources, inner relief routes in tandem——

Mr. Sargent

£1 million.

Mr. Smith

——every area in the country will be seeking £1 million. It is not possible to find all these resources. The resources available to me are limited — £5.7 million out of a total of £340 million — in terms of grants for that purpose. The Deputy raised the question of Aerospace Industries Limited which was grant aided and was serving a new industry and other potential development, but that is not comparable with the situation the Deputy has outlined. It involves considerable acquisition of land, 1,000 jobs which should be on stream next year — 340 are already on stream. It was a direct response involving a totally new road. There is little scope for assistance of the nature outlined by Deputy Sargent.

An Ceann Comhairle

Does the Deputy wish to intervene again by way of a supplementary?

Mr. Sargent

I simply want to ask the Minister to meet the people who have been affected and who have sought some assistance in this regard during the past 40 years. Minutes of various meetings with commissioners and chambers of commerce exist locally. I understand the Minister is aware of the situation. I would ask whether he would agree to a meeting so that we can discuss the matter more fully outside this House?

Mr. M. Smith

I have a reputation for being a very accessible Minister at all times.

Mr. J. O'Keeffe

That was what Michael O'Kennedy found.

An Ceann Comhairle

Let us proceed to other questions to the same Minister.