John McGahon (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I do not think it should be a case of the Newry southern relief road or the Narrow Water bridge. There is no reason we cannot have both. There are many reasons the Newry southern relief road makes sense in terms of vehicular traffic, access and so on, but it should not be a case of one or the other. As Senator McGreehan rightly pointed out, it is the symbolic nature of this project that we should be talking about. It is for that reason this project is being progressed by the shared island unit as opposed to a Department of Transport or Department for Infrastructure.