Ring defends his commitment to rural Ireland

STICKING TO HIS GUNS  Minister Michael Ring.

Anton McNulty

The Minister for Rural and Community Development launched a strong defence of his and the government’s commitment to rural Ireland in light of the Ten-T controversy.
Fine Gael has come in for some criticism in recent weeks after it emerged that a proposed transport route from Cork to Belfast known as the ‘Western Arc’ was removed from the Core funding element of the EU Trans European Transport Network (Ten-T) by the then Minister for Transport, Leo Varadkar in 2011.
Minister Michael Ring was a junior Minister in the Department of Transport at the time and he along with Enda Kenny were accused by some of not challenging the decision at the time.
Speaking in Achill at the opening of the Achill Experience Aquarium on Saturday afternoon, Minister Ring was critical of the Ten-T coverage in The Mayo News and claimed positive news for the region was not being reported.
“I saw The Mayo News in the last few weeks talking about this Ten-T project. They did not talk about the €550 million that we gave for the Gort to Tuam by-pass, they didn’t talk about the Ballaghaderreen by-pass that we did, they didn’t talk about the Wild Atlantic Way or the Gathering, they didn’t talk how in every corner of this country the economy is starting to lift again.
“We took very difficult decisions in very, very difficult times to make sure we put this country first. That is what we did, we put the country first. Nobody thought that seven years on we would have the recovery that we have. My job now is to make sure that recovery is spread out in every corner of Ireland. There is a lot of positivity going on in Mayo for the last seven years since I became a Minister and I am very proud of that,” he said.
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.
The Western Arc is considered vital to the future economy of rural Ireland and when it was removed by Minister Varadkar it meant the only part of Ireland now in the Core network is from Belfast to Dublin to Cork and from Portlaoise to limerick.
The removal of the Western Arc meant that projects like the €60m extension of the Western Rail Corridor from Athenry to Claremorris had their capacity to attract potential EU funding drastically reduced.