Funding for N59 Mayo road project queried

CLARIFICATION has been sought on funding for the Newport-Derrada road upgrade.

When is it going to start, Councillor Johnny O'Malley asked at a municipal district meeting, saying local people think the project has been forgotten about.

Achill Councillor Paul McNamara said clarification is needed. With the tendering process now over, is the funding in place for the project, he asked council management.

The council can't award a contract if funding isn't in place, he noted, and the job would not be going ahead.

Municipal head Seamus O'Mongáin said the tender assessment has gone to Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) in the last number of days. It is a determination for TII then.

Councillor O'Malley said they had been told last June that it would be starting in late summer. It was now winter.

Mr. O'Mongáin said budget allocations are made in January or February and that decision would be finalised then in TII.

The tendering process, he added, would be gone through in good faith that there would be funding available.

It needs to go through TII's approval process and they would be making that decision early in the new year.

Councillor Peter Flynn said the project, as well as the road, includes a significant section of greenway and the Burrishoole crossing, and he got a sense from party colleagues Deputies Alan Dillon and Michael Ring that they are confident TII will approve it.

He would be 'stunned' if they backtracked, particularly with the dual purpose of the road and N59 greenway crossing, saying he was 'relatively optimistic this will happen soon'.

Councillor Brendan Mulroy said it was clear that it was the greenway that is keeping this on the table.