Industries in Co Mayo are calling for urgent Government investment in the region's roads, writes Tim O'Brien
AN ATTEMPT is being made by a group comprising domestic and multinational industries operating in Co Mayo, to get the Government to make an urgent investment in upgrading the N5.
Industries in Mayo which directly employ 3,000 people, and claim to support another 6,000 jobs indirectly, have told the Government that jobs will be lost because of the "wretched quality of the N5 between Longford town and Westport, particularly a 35-kilometre distance between Scramoge and Ballaghderreen in Co Roscommon.
The N5 is in part a single carriageway, winding, undulating, footpathless road, which is prone to flooding in places. The group said the condition of the road is so bad that multinational industralists have complained they are unable to read in cars, as they are driven to Mayo.
One company estimates the poor surface of the N5 costs it €800,000 per year in higher packaging costs, accelerated depreciation of trucks and increased breakages.
Criticism of the condition of the N5 has been on-going since the launch of the previous National Development Plan 2000-2006 which left the route out of the inter-urban roads selected for upgrading to motorway or high-quality dual carriageway standard.
However, criticism has intensified since the publication of the current National Development Plan which also failed to prioritise the route, while the N4 to Sligo have been significantly imporved, and a new motorway from Ashbourne in Co Meath, via Monaghan to Derry in Northern Ireland has been identified.
Last week the Western Development Commission told the Oireachtas Committee on Transport it was aware of one company which estimates the poor surface of the N5 costs it €800,000 per year in higher packaging costs, accelerated depreciation of trucks and increased breakages.
Commission chief executive Gillian Buckley said the road was "a serious issue for the company in question".
The commission has identified poor quality stretches of the N5 as being particularly bad, namely the road between Scramogue and Ballaghaderreen, and between Bohola and Westport as well as from Westport to Ballina.
The National Roads Authority (NRA) has said it has a particular difficulty in identifying a route for a new highway, because of significant archaeology particularly in the Roscommon area.
But compromise suggestions have included a 20 mile upgrade of the existing road between Frenchpark, Co Roscommon, and Carrick-On-Shannon Co Leitrim, which would link Mayo with the N4.
While the group members do not wish to be identified pending attempts to meet the Taoiseach, Mr Cowen and senior ministers, one chief executive told The Irish Timesthat the high level lobbying project includes testimony from foreign industrialists that the route is not just the worst inter-urban, national route in Ireland, but as bad as anything experienced in Asia and the Caribbean.