Labour rejects naming of tunnel after Haughey as inappropriate

Calls by Fianna Fáil councillors for the Dublin port tunnel to be named in honour of Charles Haughey have been rejected by the Labour chairman of the Dublin City Council traffic committee Seán Kenny.

Insisting that there would be proper consultation on a name for the tunnel, which is due to open in the autumn, Mr Kenny said calling the project after Mr Haughey would not be appropriate.

"As evidenced by the low public turnout for Charles Haughey's funeral in Donnycarney on Friday, I do not feel there is a large public demand for naming the €750 million Dublin port tunnel as a commemoration to him."

Mr Kenny was responding yesterday to Fianna Fáil councillors Michael Kennedy and Tom Brabazon, who suggested that the port tunnel should be called the Charles Haughey Tunnel.

Mr Kennedy, who sits on Fingal County Council, said he planned to table a motion in September to have the tunnel named after Mr Haughey in the same way as the Jack Lynch Tunnel in Cork was named after another Fianna Fáil Taoiseach.

"The port tunnel would be a pretty worthy tribute. I will ask Fingal council to consider moving on it, and I believe my colleagues on Dublin City Council will also look at it.

"Other political groups, whether begrudgingly or otherwise, would admit Haughey made a positive contribution to the political life of Ireland Inc.

"I hope they will try not to block this as we have named things in honour of politicians before. I see no reason why we should not honour a man of Haughey's ability."

Mr Brabazon, who is a member of the city council, said he would back any such motion, although he doubted if the move would attract enough support to be passed.

"You would like to think that somebody whose public life was dominated by goodness would have a memorial. The memorial to Haughey in Dingle harbour is very appropriate. There is no reason why Dublin, the county he adopted as his own, wouldn't have a greater memorial."

Mr Kenny described the calls as "a piece of political opportunism".

He said it was the role of the council's traffic and transport strategic policy committee to recommend a suitable name for infrastructure projects, and it was not something that was normally decided on a whim.

"Recently the strategic policy committee approved the naming of the Samuel Beckett Bridge in honour of the Nobel Prize winner, novelist, playwright, poet, critic, and Dubliner. I will be asking to have this matter listed on the agenda for the next strategic policy committee meeting."

Keane interview conducted three years ago: page 7