Ballina councillor slams ‘doom and gloom’ about the N26

QUESTIONS  Ballina councillor Annie May Reape.

Anton McNulty

MEETING with Transport Infrastructure Ireland is all ‘doom and gloom’ when it comes to any updates on the N26 to Ballina, according to a local councillor.
A delegation of the Roads and Transportation SPC in Mayo County Council met with officials from Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) in September to discuss projects around the county and how they were progressing.
While there was positive news for projects such as the N5 Turlough to Westport road which is expected to start in mid-2019, the TII informed the delegation that there was no scheme for the N26, as it was not in the current National Development Plan.
At last week’s SPC meeting, Ballina-based Fianna FΡil councillor Annie May Reape, who was part of the delegation, said it was ‘depressing’ to come home with no good news on the N26.
“We were told it [N26] was not on the National Development Plan and there is no sign of it,” she said. “I don’t see anything happening with it. Every September we go up [to see the TII] and it is depressing leaving there because we never have any news coming back. Only all doom and gloom.”
An upgrade of the N26 from Ballina to Swinford was abandoned in 2010 after An Bord PleanΡla refused planning permission due to environmental reasons and its development has since slipped down the list of priorities.
Cllr Reape described the N26 as the ‘most unfortunate road in Ireland’ and questioned the will to get it upgraded.
“We were told we should all work together, we all sing off the same hymn sheet but I am not part of the government. We have councillors and TDs who are part of the government but I don’t hear of anyone talking to them. There doesn’t seem to be the will there to get the N26 moving,” she commented.

‘Very sad’
Independent councillor Seamus Weir echoed the comments saying that the north Mayo region was being left behind and said it was ‘very sad’ that there would be no capital funding for it in the next ten years. He called on the two Ballina-based Oireachtas members, Dara Calleary TD and Senator Michelle Mulherin to ‘knock on the doors’ of the TII.
The meeting was also told the the orbital route around Ballina town linking the N26 with the N59 was ‘sitting with the TII’.
In relation to other projects in the county, Head of Roads Paul Dolan said that they were going through the tendering stage for the N5 from Westport to Turlough and hoped to have the contractors appointed in early 2019 and on site by the middle of 2019.
Mr Dolan said there was progress on schemes along the N60 from Castlebar to Claremorris with work on the 1.4km section of the N60 Castlebar to Balla road at Lagnamuck about to start with a completion date at the end of 2019. Another section at Heathlawn on the Claremorris side of Balla is due to go to tender subject to TII approval while he added that the Manulla Improvement Scheme is also progressing.
In significant news for motorists travelling between Mayo and Dublin along the N5 through Roscommon, Mr Dolan said that the oral hearing on the upgrade of the N5 from Ballaghaderreen to Longford was held in October and An Bord PleanΡla will make their decision ‘sometime in the New Year’.