Limerick to Cork motorway gets boost after government TDs back €1bn plan

THE Limerick to Cork motorway project has received a boost after two cabinet ministers have insisted it will go ahead.

Public Expenditure Minister Michael McGrath, Fianna Fail, and Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney, Fine Gael, have both said the massive scheme is protected, and “will be going ahead”.

Doubt had been cast on the scheme after the Green Party’s Minister of State for public procurement Ossian Smyth said it will not happen across the next five years.

The party as a whole is believed not to be in favour of the project, and fears have increased as to its future after Green Party leader Eamon Ryan became the Minister for Transport last week.

However, the two Cork TDs have told the Irish Examiner newspaper that they are adamant it will happen.

Mr McGrath said: “The projects provided for in the National Development Plan are protected and that includes the Cork to Limerick motorway which is a critical piece of infrastructure and given the provisions of the national planning framework, Limerick and Cork and Waterford and Galway are earmarked for very significant growth.”

Meanwhile, Mr Coveney, a former Tanaiste said: “I have used a lot of political capital to get the M20 moving again. Linking Ireland’s second and third cities, Cork and Limerick is a really strategic infrastructure project for buses and cars. This is a project which makes sense and will be supported. We have planned for that, there is a budget in place, agreed in the programme for government and we should get on with it.”