Paddy Harte
Fine Gael Candidate for Donegal, Paddy Harte, has welcomed that announcement that Donegal will benefit from €106m in flood damage funding.
“The announcement from Minister Pascal Donohoe of an additional €106 million towards repairs to vital transportation infrastructure is a timely, practical intervention to assist local communities severely affected by recent flooding. It is tangible evidence of a Government listening to the people and standing with the people at a time of acute mid-winter stress and need.
He added that Donegal needs no reminding of the devastating impact of severe storms and the resultant rainfall.
“The Minister’s decision opens up the opportunity for much needed local authority action to repair parts of the damaged road and bridge network in the county. Equally important however is the need for public money to be directed towards measures to protect our transport system from further threat from flooding,” he said.
He referred in particular to the main inter-county road between Donegal and Tyrone at Lifford/Strabane which was totally blocked as a result of Storm Desmond at the beginning of last month.
Thousands of people, in both counties and beyond, rely on this main thoroughfare every day for access to work, healthcare, education, shopping, tourist and visitor attractions and other purposes.
Harte added “We need preventative action with robust improvements along the river embankments at Strabane and Lifford to ensure that this essential border road is fully defended from the threat of river flooding in the future.
“The Donegal road system is still playing catch-up with many other parts of the country. A county geographically more remote than most cannot afford to have vital networks disrupted or shut down – especially when alternative accesses are many miles away! This new money today presents us with a real chance for imaginative, locally led responses to address the damage and vulnerabilities in our transport infrastructure in the North West.
“We want a county that is fairly treated and integrated through modern transport links and we have more justification than most to demand that the free, efficient and safe movement of our people, vehicles and goods is protected from the harshest elements of nature along this route. Let’s make sure that this new investment today brings us long term benefits for many years ahead.”
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