Outrage at NI motorway scale back: Parsley

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Sun 25th Sep 2005

Alliance Party Councillor Ian Parsley has expressed outrage at the scaling back of Northern Ireland motorway projects, revealed by the Belfast Telegraph on Saturday.

Speaking as he attended the opening of the Dundalk motorway bypass just south of the border, Cllr Parsley stated: "The Dundalk bypass is another superb, safe piece of road built by a government prepared to think positively and strategically about the transport requirements of a growing economy. This is in stark contrast to the reactive, inadequate response of the authorities in the North.

"We hear a lot of talk from officials on both sides of the border about the creation of a dynamic Belfast-Dublin economic corridor. However, for as long as authorities North of the border fail to take account of the transport requirements of such a corridor, it will stretch only from Dublin to Dundalk.

"The simple fact is the failure to invest in serious, safe motorway-building schemes is depriving people North of the border of taking the employment opportunities a properly planned Belfast-Dublin economic corridor would create, and depriving businessmen of access to key markets. Northern Ireland will continue to struggle for access to jobs and investment for as long as its transport infrastructure remains so fundamentally inadequate."

ENDS