Fresh tensions have emerged at Cabinet over the spending on roads projects, with frustration mounting within Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil at Green Party leader Eamon Ryan.
There were pointed exchanges at Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting prompted by a memo that suggested that inflationary pressures meant the National Development Plan (NDP) was facing a multibillion-euro deficit unless more money was allocated.
Details of the potential shortfall were disclosed in a memo brought by Mr Ryan in his capacity as Minister for Transport, first reported in last weekend’s Mail on Sunday, which outlined that projects may have to be deprioritised.
A source familiar with discussions at Cabinet said there was “strong pushback” following the presentation of the memo, with several ministers from Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael outlining that specific roads projects were important due to the lack of alternative public transport. The source also said there was a general frustration that roads projects were not being sufficiently progressed by Mr Ryan.
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Jack Chambers, the junior minister in Mr Ryan’s own department, Minister for Justice Helen McEntee and Minister for Higher and Further Education Simon Harris were among those to make contributions.
“There’s a fundamental disagreement on the prioritisation piece,” said a Cabinet source. Tensions have been present for some time, with critics of Mr Ryan of the view that key road projects have stalled in development limbo rather than making sufficient progress towards construction.
While sources played down the suggestion that a fully-fledged row had broken out at Cabinet, one said there were concerns in Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael that projects are being stalled or suspended at planning and design stages, which “puts them back years”.
“By stopping them early [Mr Ryan] is stopping them altogether despite them being in the NDP.”
Green Party sources disputed the suggestion that Mr Ryan was obstructing progress on roads projects, pointing to investment taking place “along the lines of what was agreed in the NDP”, including an allocation of €460 million to the 34km N5 Ballaghadreen to Scramoge Road project, which was approved by Cabinet on Tuesday, and argued that nearly half a billion euro will be spent this year on national roads, with a further €626 million for regional and local roads.
The Greens believe that there has been a historic underinvestment in public transport and that there is much greater capacity possible on public transport compared with roads, as well as the benefits of reducing congestion and cutting emissions. Mr Ryan is said to be concerned that further increasing spending on roads beyond what was agreed in the NDP would have what a source said would be a “serious impact on long-awaited public transport projects” such as Metrolink, Dart+ West, Dart+ Southwest, BusConnects and Cork Community Rail.
Earlier this month, Mr Ryan attended a meeting with Fine Gael backbenchers and Senators who have been agitating for increased spending on roads projects, many of which are in their constituencies.
In June, it emerged that the Department of Transport had underspent its capital budget by almost €100 million in the first quarter of the year. A spokesman for Mr Ryan said at the time that officials in the Department were confident that it would use all its spending allocation for capital projects – which comes to some €2.6 billion – by the end of the year.
