Government reps must ‘stop letting the Green tail wag the Fianna Fáil dog’

A CORK TD has claimed that “the Green tail is wagging the Fianna Fáil dog” in Government and has said local and national representatives need to insist funding is secured for vital infrastructure projects.

Labour Party TD for Cork East Seán Sherlock, made his remarks following an interview given last month to The Echo by his Cork East Fianna Fáil colleague, James O’Connor TD.

In that interview, Mr O’Connor said he was “extremely frustrated” at what he saw as a “disproportionate” level of power enjoyed by the Green Party in Government, and claimed the public perception was that Transport and Environment Minister Eamon Ryan was “the most powerful politician in the country”.

Mr O’Connor said the delivery of a bypass for Castlemartyr had been a priority for him, and since meeting with Mr Ryan in October 2021, he had seen little progress.

Describing that project as “just one microcosm of other projects across Cork county”, Mr O’Connor said his own perspective, as a Government backbencher was that the delivery of other infrastructure projects such as the Mallow relief road, the N25 road between Carrigtwohill and Midleton, the Cobh access road, and the North ring road, were being “totally and utterly prevented from being advanced, I feel, by the Minister for Transport”.

Speaking to The Echo this week, Mr Sherlock said it was up to Government representatives at national and local level to “stop letting the Green tail wag the Fianna Fáil dog” and insist that funding is secured so projects like the Mallow relief road could proceed to planning and construction.

“Media reports suggest that Government TDs are complaining that the Minister for Transport is stopping road projects proceeding, like the Mallow relief road,” Mr Sherlock said.

“Rather than complain to the media, it would be useful for Government reps to leverage their influence with senior ministers to release funds to allow Mallow relief road to proceed. The money is there, and is especially there for capital projects.”

The Mallow TD said it is “a cliche at this stage” to blame the Green Party and Mr Ryan for the stalling of infrastructure projects. “Eamon Ryan is the minister, however, there are three parties in Government and it is utterly deplorable that Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil have allowed this to happen at such a critical time when there was such great momentum behind this project.

“I am again calling on the Government to reappraise the decision to only allocate €100,000 with a view to revising that upwards to a level that would allow for the project to go to planning,”said Mr Sherlock.