Séamus Kirk (Louth, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle and the Ceann Comhairle for giving me the opportunity to raise this important matter. The Narrow Water Bridge project has been a long-running saga for the people of County Louth and south Down. However, we are now entering a critical phase and it is time for all stakeholders to put their money where their mouths are. Louth County Council confirmed in early July that the construction of the proposed cross-Border bridge had been put on hold after tenders received from construction companies for the project ran substantially above the allocated budget. Tenders received ranged from €26 million to €40 million, plus VAT, some €15 million over the allocated funding. In the meantime, the council pledged an additional €2 million for the project in August. It accepted the EU funding, but the final financial package remains unsecured. The €17.4 million in EU INTERREG funding allocated for the project means a decision needs to be made in the coming weeks. If the project does not progress, a contingency plan may be put in place that is deliverable and will achieve a full draw-down in the remaining timeframe which ends in December 2015. We need to act quickly to get the project off the ground and resolve how we are to proceed.

The extremely disappointing news about the overruns comes only two months after the Northern Ireland Executive agreed to put forward its part of the funding. The Government's decision in the past few weeks not to provide additional funding is a further blow to the viability of the project. The bridge over the Newry River at Narrow Water has the support of the Governments of the Republic and Northern Ireland. The project won approval last year from An Bord Pleanála and the Northern Ireland planning authority. The funding deficit must be tackled and it is vital that the Government take the lead in addressing the issue by meeting the councils involved and creating a new source of funding to make progress on this decades-long project.

The development of the bridge will greatly assist in the growth of tourism, economic regeneration and enhancing social relationships in the respective areas. The completion of the project after decades of lobbying by the local communities will mark an important symbolic leap forward for North-South relations in the Border region. I am calling on the Government to revise its disastrous decision not to work with the Northern Ireland Executive to provide additional funding. The Government must ramp up support for the joint committee between Louth County Council and the Newry and Mourne District Council and co-operate with the Northern Ireland Executive to find a workable solution to secure funding and get the project off the ground.

Fianna Fáil has been a consistent advocate of this project and after so much progress has been made in terms of planning and securing funding from Europe, it would be a tragic decision to scupper matters at this advanced stage. I exhort the Minister of State, Deputy O'Sullivan, to convey the very strong feelings and sentiments of the people of the Cooley Peninsula and the Mourne region of south Down on the vital importance of this project to them and to the region. It is hugely symbolic and the bridge will open up an area of the country that has been severely underdeveloped as far as tourism is concerned. The potential to create jobs and to get additional spending power into the region is obvious. The bridge would be a very important leap forward and I exhort the Minister of State to convey those sentiments to the relevant Department.

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