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Ireland's political and cultural magazine
— June – July 2013
T
HE North’s High Court has quashed
an order by Regional Development
Minister, Danny Kennedy, to proceed
with construction of two parts of the A
dual-carriageway. This is the largest planning-re-
lated decision ever overturned by a court in the
North. The grounds were that the Department of
Regional Development had failed to carry out an
appropriate assessment under the EU Habitats
Directive of the impact on the Foyle and Finn
rivers, as required under European law. The
Directive requires that any plan or project likely
to have significant effects on the management of
special areas of conservation be the subject of an
appropriate assessment unless the risk of signifi-
cant likely effects on the sites can be excluded on
the basis of objective information.
The A was to be the North’s largest-ever
road project. Originally it was to run miles
from Aughnacloy, on the Monaghan-Tyrone
border, to Newbuildings, three miles south of
Derry. At Aughnacloy, it was to link with the N
from Dublin. The government had initially com-
mitted to pay half the cost, some £m. Two
years ago it withdrew that commitment, then last
year agreed to pay £m in two parts. Last year,
Kennedy had announced the decision to go ahead
with stretches from Ballygawley, Co Tyrone, to
Omagh, and Strabane to Newbuildings.
The judgment was a victory for campaigners
in the Alternative A Alliance (AAA). This is
a coalition of farmers and environmental cam-
paigners, and raised £, (€,) to
fight the case.
In his judgment, Judge Stephens drew on evi-
dence given by the Loughs Agency, a Cross-Border
body, at the public inquiry into the project. The
Agency expressed concerns about potential dam-
age from construction work “increased levels of
silt in the rivers, increased levels of salt, loss of
habitats, the lack of emergency pollution bunkers,
increased flows of water into the river through
inadequate drainage, a lack of maintenance of
devices aimed at reducing water
flows, the risk of polluted ground
water entering the rivers from
an old municipal land fill site and
old industrial sites near Strabane,
impact on salmon and their habi-
tat, and pollution”. He noted that
this evidence was not challenged at
the Public Inquiry. Justice Stephens
concluded: “In order to determine
whether the scheme had been prop-
erly engineered detail was required
in relation to the remedial measures.
That detail was absent and signifi-
cant effects could not be excluded”.
There was a cross-border
touch to the judgment: Mr Justice
Stephens quoted from an opinion
of UK Advocate-General Eleanor
Sharpston, delivered at the European
Court in the case of Peter Sweetman
v An Bord Pleanála, in respect of the
Galway City by-pass.
The judge dismissed other
grounds of appeal which the AAA
raised.
Kennedy has announced he is not appealing
the judgment. However, in Kennedy’s state-
ment to the Assembly he said: “The non-appeal
route offers the best opportunity to progress
the scheme in a reasonable timescale. However,
the decision of the court means that there will
be a delay while further assessment work is
completed”.
Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness
said the Executive intends to press ahead with
the project within to months. “However,
there is still total commitment from the Executive
and the Irish government to the scheme”, he said.
“During the discussions with Éamon Gilmore, we
(McGuinness and Peter Robinson) also took the
opportunity to remind him that the First Minister
and I, in previous conversations with Enda Kenny,
had pressed the Irish government to ensure that
the decision that they took to withdraw from
their part of the scheme — with the exception
of £m — needed to be reviewed on an ongoing
basis. The Taoiseach gave us a com-
mitment that it would be reviewed
in ”.
There has been remarkably
little discussion in the Oireachtas
about the project. As a general
aspiration, it was included in the
National Development Plan -
: “The completion by
of a high quality road network on
the inter-urban routes linking
the major population centres of
Dublin, Belfast and the North West
(especially the Letterkenny-Derry
Gateway)” .
The politicians who are most
vocal in support of the dual-car-
riageway are nationalist. The
project was agreed as a side deal
between northern nationalist
representatives and the two gov-
ernments in the talks leading up
to the St Andrews Agreement.
However, sources in the DUP are
resentful at its being labelled a
‘nationalist road’ as they believe
they are equally supportive.
Meanwhile, there are questions over the
viability of the project. The plan to make
the N a dual-carriageway from Clontibret
(Co Monaghan) to connect with the A at
Aughnacloy has been suspended. Traffic levels
on the N between Monaghan and Aughnacloy
fell by % in the five years to July last year.
There is nothing that predicts an increase in the
foreseeable future.
Anton McCabe has been a freelance contributor
to the Sunday World, Sunday Life, Newsletter and
Spotlight.
anton mccabe
news
A5 gets
an F
As traffic falls, North’s
High Court overturns
unnecessary habitat-
destroying road for
inadequate assessment
of its effects, for the
moment
The road would have gone within 20m of this habitat on the Foyle
The
government
had initially
committed
to pay
half the
cost, some
£400m. Two
years ago
it withdrew
that
commitment
“
