“No stone will be left unturned in seeking funding for this project” – Chief Executive
Sinn Féin Councillor Joanna Byrne has proposed yet another potential stream of funding for the Port Access Northern Cross Route (PANCR) to Louth County Council, asking them to ‘explore with enthusiasm.’
At last week’s County council meeting Cllr Byrne suggested to Chief Executive Joan Martin that she should investigate the possibility of using the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) as a source of funding for the PANCR which is so essential to Drogheda’s development.
“The CEF is a key EU funding instrument designed to promote growth, jobs and competitiveness through targeted infrastructure investment at European level and aims at building new transport infrastructure throughout Europe or rehabilitating and upgrading existing ones” Councillor Byrne said.
This is the third avenue of European funding that Councillor Byrne has proposed to the Council for this project in recent months, in March she suggested the European Investment Bank and more recently, the Peace Plus funding under new criteria for Infrastructure projects and now the CEF.
Cllr Byrne explained “Both the EIBI and the CEF have been utilised for road projects by other local authorities in Ireland – Ringaskiddy Port in Cork is a prominent example which utilised both of these avenues for funding and more recently in 2019 Donegal Council availed of funding through the CEF too.”
“Considering the significance of the PANCR and how essential it is to the residential, commercial and sporting development of Drogheda and South Louth, can you and your team undertake to at least consider this and explore all three avenues? ?”Cllr Byrneasked the Chief Executive.
“Drogheda is not a priority for this Government and funding isn’t forthcoming, so we need to start thinking outside the box here and explore any other possible avenues.”
The Chief Executive gave a commitment to explore this avenue but in her response to Cllr Byrne, ruled out the European Investment Bank as an option and that in her view that any progress on the PANCR would be ‘developer led.’
Ms Martin reassured the members that she is as committed to the Port Access Northern Cross route as they are and as invested in it as she was when she first started work on it some twenty years ago.
She asked the members to “have faith” in her to deliver it. “No stone will be left unturned in seeking funding for this project” she told the meeting.
