Green Party Concerned by Outer Orbital Route Plans

This appeared in one of the Sunday’s yesterday but the Green’s Ciaran Cuffe today announced the party had reservations about the building of an Outer Orbital Route from Drogheda to Naas ahead of improving public transport infrastructure. Cuffe suggests that the Orbital route lies beyond what was agreed in the Programme for Government and appears to suggest that Green support for it would be conditional on the expedited delivery of public transport projects such as the Navan rail link and Dublin interconnector.

“I would seriously question Minister Dempsey’s claims that the orbital route is justified from an environmental point of view. If any infrastructure projects should be fast-tracked for economic or environmental reasons they should be projects focused on public transport, not additional motorways. We must redress years of under funding in public transport infrastructure in order to give commuters a viable alternative to private car journeys.

“The M50 is now a miserable part of the Dublin commuting experience, rather than the ring road it was designed to be. By the time the extra lanes open, demand – caused by short-sighted planning decisions, a lack of public transport and unchecked growth in car sales – will have the road bogged down in gridlock again.

“Exactly the same thing will happen to the orbital route unless rail projects, such as the Navan rail link are first completed and the Dublin Interconnector is prioritised”

As was mentioned by a commenter here recently and very validly, the route could also be subservient to the delivery of infrastructure in the West and rural areas where bad roads continue to kill (alongside speed and drink-driving) and traffic chokes even the smaller country towns. The Orbital Route however will be prioritised as a matter of course for Dempsey, bringing with it the headache balancing act for Bertie. The delivery of the route can probably be agreed upon with a completion date far enough away to cement compromise but it seems unlikely that it will not be built.

Its also interesting that the role which Ciaran Cuffe appears to have taken up within the Greens since the ascent to Government. He speaks as a Green half-in half-out of government, something very familiar to Fianna Fail members in the country side. Acting as internal opposition/conscience brings its own benefits of neutralising debate and criticism to manageable levels and certainly that is something the Green party will be seeking in the first few months of the Dail. Whether people in the consituencies will be happy with announcements alone or demand to see the concerns reflected in cabinet compromise is likely to be the really big test over the fist couple of years of Greens in government. It is why they are there after all.