Residents set to appeal approval of Dublin tunnel

Residents of the north Dublin suburbs of Marino and Fairview have expressed their determination to go to the High Court to overturn the Government's approval of the £204 million Dublin Port Tunnel Motorway.

The 5.6 km motorway, which includes the 4.5 km tunnel, will link the port via the M1 motorway at Whitehall to the M50 motorway.

A £3 toll on private cars entering the city through the tunnel was to have been one measure to ensure the tunnel remained a priority route for heavy goods vehicles. However, within 24 hours of the announcement of Government approval on Monday, Mr Fintan Cassidy, secretary of the Combined Residents' Association in the north city, said a legal team had been advising residents. It would be asked to make a case to the High Court within the specified eight-week period for appeals.

He said residents had not seen the report of the public inquiry into the scheme and would be interested to see what weight was given to "expert evidence that said the ground was unsuited to a tunnel".

"It is in the wrong place. It should run east-west under the Liffey."

He also said it was unsafe. "We made all these points at the inquiry but it seems they didn't listen."

Should the appeal to the High Court go ahead the deadline for construction to begin late next year is almost certain to be missed. Other projects earmarked for the Greater Dublin area which have become embroiled in court actions include the Southern Cross Motorway, the South Eastern Motorway and the N11 improvements.

The chairman of the National Roads Authority, Mr Liam Connellan, has warned that if the national roads building programme is delayed in the courts the number of schemes envisaged in the National Development Plan will not be achieved within the seven-year timeframe, with consequent effects for the economy.

It is because of this that the Cabinet sub-committee on infrastructure has recently mooted a referendum to change the laws relating to how individual objections to large infrastructural schemes are handled. The Taoiseach has also suggested that a new division of the High Court may be established to speed up the hearing of such cases.

At £204 million, the tunnel is among the most expensive projects in the State's £4.7 billion national road-building programme.