Council asked to release €120 million motorway report

THE Department of Transport requested Clare County Council to publish a controversial report about the route selection process for a new €120 million motorway, a senior engineer has admitted.
Despite intense pressure from Dáil deputies, county councillors and a local opposition group, the council had consistently rejected calls to publish the Draft Constraints Report outlining the factors and issues, which influenced the choice of the emerging Preferred Route Corridor for the proposed Limerick Northern Distributor Road.
The council had argued it was against best practice to release this report at this stage of the public consultation process and was committed to publishing it in a few months’ time.
Now it seems Transport Minister Leo Varadkar has bowed to public pressure after senior engineer, Tom Tiernan revealed on Tuesday that the Department of Transport had requested the council to publish this report in the near future.
In a surprise move, the council announced on Monday it would publish the Draft Constraints Report on Tuesday, April 10 next.
Speaking at a Killaloe Electoral Area meeting on Tuesday, Mr Tiernan reiterated the view it was not good practice to release the report at this stage but were doing so because the department had requested this course of action.
“The publication of a constraints study at this point in the consultation process is rare and is not in accordance with guidelines. In an effort to ensure residents and public representatives are fully engaged in the consultation process, however, the council has made the decision to release draft constraints information,” he said.
Mr Tiernan also revealed this report would have to be “reconfigured” and some adjustments would have to be made to certain information because they could publish the report to ensure all the information was presented in a fair and balanced way.
While Mayor of Clare, Councillor Pat Hayes, welcomed the publication of this report, he expressed concern that its release at this stage could cause a lot of anxiety and confusion for local residents.
Stressing it was being released because of a “sea change” in the Department of Transport and not the council, Councillor Hayes recalled councillors previously had tried to explain why it couldn’t be released because it was against good practice.
In reply to Councillor Michael Begley, he confirmed it would not be possible to release all the information contained in the Draft Constraints Report until the process was completed.
Councillor Pascal Fitzgerald asked if the council would be improving the way information was provided during the public consultation later that day as people felt the last session presented the emerging route as a “done deal”.
Councillor Pat Burke wondered whether the public information meeting on Tuesday would be worthwhile considering the constraints study would not be published until April 10, which could alter any submissions residents were preparing.
Mr Tiernan hoped the information meeting would be a useful exercise and noted people had a month to assess the constraints study before the closing date for submissions on May 10. He stressed the council and consultants would only make a decision on the next stage of the process when it had received all the submissions.
He explained information at the meeting would be provided about the ecology constraints, which were protected by law and EU Directives, the constraints imposed by the Head Race upstream of Ardnacrusha, flood zones and the need to protect existing developments.
Councillor Cathal Crowe claimed there was a need for another public information meeting after the publication of the Draft Constraints Study. He also called for a more sensitive way of dealing with the concerns of people whose house or property are being adversely affected by the road in an appropriate side room rather than learning about this distressing news in a big open room.
Once completed, the 10km project will link Coonagh with the Parteen/Ardnacrusha area before crossing the River Shannon to the north of the University of Limerick and onwards to the Old Limerick/Dublin Road. The project is being led by Clare County Council, in conjunction with Limerick City Council and Limerick County Council.