‘Ryan is holding Longford back’, says irate Cllr Brady

The two main government parties were being urged to cut their ties with the Green Party in the wake of claims by Transport Minister Eamon Ryan that the protracted upgrade of N4 by-pass is not a key government priority.

Fine Gael Cllr Paraic Brady launched a blistering attack on the Green Party leader at a meeting of Longford County Council last Wednesday, accusing Mr Ryan of effectively stymying Longford’s economic recovery.

Cllr Brady said unless clear progress was made over the next number of months in ring-fencing capital investment for its development, the project could be stalled indefinitely.
“It is regrettable to hear the comments from Eamon Ryan regarding the process of the N4 getting further funding and his answer was that it’s not a key priority of government,” he said. “We had the IDA in town this morning and it is very hard to bring investment into the county when we haven’t got a proper roads structure.”

In a further thinly veiled attack on Mr Ryan, Cllr Brady urged both his own party and that of the Fianna Fáil hierarchy to consider severing ties with its government coalition partner.
“I don’t know where we go with this from here but I do feel the process has to continue and if it means political parties have to pull away from the Green Party I do think that’s what’s needed because he is holding Longford back with a statement like that,” he raged.
“To say it’s not a priority, what does he want? Does he want somebody killed on the road? What does this man want, really and truly?”

The Drumlish based local politician said the minimum councillors and local stakeholders should accept is for a preferred site to be chosen and for that process to at least reach planning stage.
“Even if we get planning that will at least stay in place for a number of years if the funding isn’t there. If we don’t get to the planning stage then, well, we are after wasting the last 15 years talking about it,” he added.

Those remarks were roundly supported by a large cross-section of Cllr Brady’s fellow elected members.
Independent Cllr Mark Casey said while there was no denying the importance of what a modern motorway system could bring to Longford and surrounding regions, there was an equally undeniable political paradox at play.

“It is a critical piece of infrastructure not only for Longford but for the whole of the west of Ireland,” he said.
“I definitely think we should lobby and lobby as much as we can. The irony is Green Party is getting blamed for this for the last three years they have been in government, but in previous years before that they weren’t in government and it still hasn’t happened.

“I think blaming the Green Party isn’t the thing here, the Government is to blame as a whole. From the Taoiseach, to the Tanaiste down it hasn’t happened and it is an absolute disgrace.”
One of the more outspoken elected members on the demand for the project to be fast-tracked, Fianna Fáil Cllr Seamus Butler, said the number of road deaths along the same infrastructural corridor was indicative of the crisis now facing transport chiefs.

“Between 2008 and 2021 there have been 20 fatalities on that road and that even excludes one year they don’t have the information for,” he said.

“They (Department of Transport) are talking about doing works on the N5 from Scramogue back to the Frenchpark area, but that’s piling it all into one stretch of road.
“There is an agenda going on somewhere and it’s not necessarily a green agenda because even when we are driving hybrid and electric cars, we will still need a motorway.”