Green party members call for Limerick-Waterford link

GREEN party representatives across the province say a motorway linking Limerick to Waterford would be preferable to one to Cork.

Members in Limerick, Cork and Waterford have said “knitting” Munster’s three cities together would still mean Shannonside is linked to Leeside, but via the M8.

And this, they add, would see the Treaty City linked to the city on the Suir.

Limerick Green Party representative Rachael Bermingham explained: “Instead of a Limerick-Cork motorway, a Limerick-Waterford motorway would do the same job. It would connect Cork and Limerick by motorway via the M8, but it would also do much more.

"It would knit the three regional cities of Munster together, bring Clonmel and Carrick-on-Suir onto the Munster motorway network, and connect every regional city in the Republic of Ireland directly by motorway.”

Ms Bermingham also said the road could eventually be linked to Rosslare Europort, allowing access for all Munster to trade and ferry routes to Britain and Europe.

Making the point that the proposal has the backing of the former secretary general of the Department of Finance John Moran, Ms Bermingham disagreed with the notion a Limerick-Cork motorway is the ‘missing link’ Finance Minister Pascal Donohoe described.

“The Green party accepts that connectivity is important between our cities, but when the proposed M20 is done, we will still be left with an obvious hole in Munster’s motorway network. We’ll still have to build an equally long Cork-Waterford motorway. And then after that connect Waterford and Limerick.”

The Green Party says under its plan, journey times between Limerick and Cork would fall from 90 minutes to 75 minutes. Under the proposed M20, travel between Ireland’s second and third cities could be cut to just 47 minutes.