Laois group lobbies Brussels against motorway route

Members of a Co Laois-based group were in Brussels this week to lobby against the emerging preferred route of the M7/M8 motorway as it passes south of Portlaoise.

The M7/M8 will link Dublin with the southern end of the Portlaoise bypass, before it divides into the M7 serving Limerick and the M8 serving Cork. The provision of motorways to the cities of Limerick and Cork has been defined as of "key strategic" value in the National Development Plan 2000 to 2006.

The M7/M8 was delayed for three years amid controversy about the habitat of the Pollardstown snail and the aquifer for the Pollardstown Fen in Co Kildare.

The group, which calls itself the Corridor Three Action Group - a reference to the number of the route option which it opposes - says the motorway will threaten the wetlands used by the migratory white-fronted goose as a breeding ground.

The group also claims that the Nore is to be crossed by a bridge which would endanger the salmonoid river as well as stocks of the pearl mussel which travel on the gills of the salmon. Other aspects of concern to the group are the locations of two woods which they describe as "significant alluvial forests" and which they claim are extremely rare, and the location of a "regionally important" aquifer.

Laois County Council, in conjunction with the NRA, has engaged consultants Ove Arup to compile a number of options for the route. The emerging preferred route is corridor three, a 28km stretch of motorway which is estimated to cost about £125 million. This stretch of motorway is Y-shaped, connecting the southern end of the Portlaoise bypass with the towns of Borris-in-Ossory on the Limerick road and Cullahill on the Cork road.

Speaking after their meeting with officials from the EU directorate DG XI, which was organised by Leinster MEP Mr Liam Hyland, the chairman of the group, Mr John Finlay, said they had been greatly strengthened in their resolve.

Mr Finlay said they had met officials from the structural funding unit, the head of enforcement at the habitats unit and the cohesion funding unit. "They told us that Ireland was the subject of 10 times more complaints than any other country, [in relation to infrastructural projects] and they said they really wanted to know why was Ireland always the subject of such complaints".

The group told the officials the Republic built 60 miles of motorway in the last 30 years and now proposes to build 300 miles of motorway in the next six years.

Mr Finlay also told the officials that the proposed motorway bisects a Special Area of Conservation. He complained that another option for the motorway was ruled out because there was an SAC there.

It is this disparity of treatment that group member Mr Ger Bergin says the group finds hardest to accept. "I suppose it started out as a NIMBY [not in my back yard] protest. But when we got to look at it, the criteria that were applied to other areas were not applied to our area. If they were, we would not have emerged as the preferred route" he insisted.

Mr Bergin said the group was requesting "simply that they judge our option by the same criteria as other options."

"We are not against motorways, we are not saying that we don't want the M7/M8 but the big issue is that we feel that we were not treated fairly. We have researched the impact of this route and submitted it to the county council, but the officials have been slow to see our points.

"As part of the public consultation process, we were allowed to see the plans but when we responded with a list of questions we were not given answers. We have had to resort to threatening to use the Freedom of Information Act to get answers."

The group has had some success with the elected members of Laois County Council, who have not made a decision on the motorway route and who are due to debate the plans at their meeting next Monday.