Apathy towards the west?

OFF THE CHARTS A map of Ireland showing where the EU Ten-T Core network reaches. A Core funding arc running from Cork to Limerick, Galway, Sligo, Derry and onto Belfast was removed by then Minister for Transport Leo Varadkar in 2011, leaving the west and north west far removed from Ireland’s Core network.

Edwin McGreal

Government and Civil Service apathy towards the west is preventing the west of Ireland from being re-included in a multi-billion-euro trans-European infrastructure-funding kitty.
That’s according to Paddy McGuinness, the former Chairperson of the Western Development Commission (WDC), who was speaking in relation to the removal of the ‘Western Arc’ from the Core funding element of the Trans European Transport Network (Ten-T).
It has emerged that applying to re-add the Western Arc (running from Cork to Belfast, along the west and northwest) to the Core network is part of the current Programme for Government. The proposed transport route, considered vital to the future economy of rural Ireland, was axed from the funding application in 2011 by then Minister in the Department of Transport Leo Varadkar.
The Programme for Government’s stated aim for the Western Arc was set out thus: ‘In the first three months the new Government will apply to the European Union for the revision of the TEN-T Core Network, including applying for the reinstatement of the cross-border Western Arc’.
However, although more than two years of this Government have passed, no such application has been made.
Paddy McGuinness, who served as Chairperson of the WDC from 2012 to 2017, says this does not surprise him.
He said he raised the issue of the Western Arc with, among others, then Taoiseach Enda Kenny and then Minister of State in the Department of Transport Michael Ring, but to no success.
“I raised the issue but there seemed to be a reluctance to engage and have it reversed. I think removing the Western Arc was very much spearheaded by the Civil Service from evidence shown to me and there was a political reluctance to challenge it,” Mr McGuinness told The Mayo News.
He said it was particularly galling to note the Western Arc was removed during Ireland’s presidency of the EU and added ‘the current procrastination’ on the Programme for Government commitment ‘indicates a reluctance’ by Government to address the issue.

Background
When Varadkar removed the ‘Western Arc’ from the Core Ten-T network in late 2011 it meant that the only part of Ireland now in the Core network is from Belfast to Dublin to Cork and from Portlaoise to Limerick.
The Western Arc route would run from Belfast to Derry to Sligo, through east and south Mayo to Galway, and on to Limerick before ending in Cork.
The Core funding network is worth hundreds of billions of euro and represents over 90 percent of the EU’s infrastructural budget to 2030. Only projects on the Core routes can apply for funding from the Core network. The rest are deemed ‘Comprehensive’ routes, and they must fight for a share of the 10 percent that is left over.  
In most cases, the member state must contribute the majority of funds to such projects. However, there are instances where 85 percent of the funding for Core projects has come directly from Europe. Cross-border projects like the Western Arc could also avail of a greater percentage of funding from Europe.
To avail of either Core or Comprehensive Ten-T funding, routes must meet European criteria, and the Western Arc qualified. It is up to each individual member state to then decide which areas should be part of the Core network, and therefore eligible for a piece of the much-greater Core funding pie.

‘Questions have to be asked’
When the story broke about Varadkar’s 2011 removal of the Western Arc from the funding application earlier this month, the Taoiseach responded by stating that his actions were due to the fact that Ireland, emerging from a crippling economic recession, could not afford to commit to funding such projects.
However, Mayo Fianna FΡil deputy Lisa Chambers points out that retaining the Western Arc would not mean a commitment to any one single project, rather leaving open access to such a funding pool if and when the Irish government decided to progress with particular projects.
“Fine Gael saying they could not include the Western Arc because of the economic situation is not the case. You did not need money on the table to be able to make the application. I don’t know why they took the Western Arc off the map,” she told The Mayo News.
She also questioned why finance was raised as an issue if projects like the €500 million Dunboyne to Navan railway and a freight line to Foynes Port in Limerick were added by the Government.
Meanwhile projects like a €60 million extension of the Western Rail Corridor from Athenry to Claremorris had their capacity to attract potential EU funding drastically reduced. These projects would only now be able to apply for funding from the vastly smaller Ten-T Comprehensive fund.
“I’ve put in a question to the Taoiseach asking what criteria was used to axe the Western Arc. We’ve missed out on this funding for the last seven years,” she said.
She also criticised then Taoiseach Enda Kenny and then Minister for State Michael Ring.
“Questions have to be asked of both of them about how, on their watch, the Western Arc was wiped off the map. I want to know what Fine Gael are going to do to get it put back on,” she said.

Ring’s response
The Mayo News contacted Minister Michael Ring last night but he refused to answer a number of questions put to him, instead directing us to a statement issued on his behalf during the week.
In that response, Minister Ring alludes to many of the points made by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar.
“It’s disappointing but not surprising that Fianna FΡil representatives in the north west, including Deputy Lisa Chambers, should try and misrepresent then Minister Varadkar’s contribution to the EU’s Trans-European Transport Network (Ten-T) programme in 2011 as reported in last week’s Mayo News. However, as Deputy Chambers well knows, the inclusion of capital projects on the Ten-T network had no impact on whether these projects were funded by the Government at the time.
“Due to our economic circumstances at the time, many infrastructural projects were simply not affordable, irrespective of the support which may have been available from Europe. It is simply wrong to suggest otherwise. Ireland would still have been required to cover the vast majority of the cost of projects and we did not have the resources to do so because the country was just emerging from the worst economic crash in its history. Deputy Lisa Chambers does not need to be reminded who got us into that mess.
“However, despite the severely limited resources, the previous Government under then Minister for Transport, Leo Varadkar, initiated the €550 million Gort to Tuam M17 motorway, the biggest ever infrastructure project in the west. The opposition conveniently chose to ignore this investment in their response to last week’s story …
“No one expects the opposition to be uncritical, it is their job to scrutinise. But in criticising the Government they have a responsibility to represent the facts of the matter correctly and accurately,” he stated.

Clarion call
Roscommon-based TD Michael Fitzmaurice – an Independent who supported the Government in exchange for, among other things, the Government applying to the EU to include the Western Arc in the Core network – last night called on Independent members of Government to stand up for the west.
“Independent TDs in Government should stand up and be counted,” he told The Mayo News. “If they want support from me, let them not be one bit concerned about standing up for the west, even if it brings down the Government. The people of the west need politicians to stand up for them.”

MORE
See next week’s Mayo News for analysis by a senior economics class from St Nathy’s College, Ballaghaderreen, on the implications of the removal of the Western Arc from the Ten-T Core Network.