With the opening of the Sligo Inner Relief Road, another part of the Government’s road strategy is complete and another region’s infrastructure improves.
Our commitment nationally is to deliver polices that benefit locally. Here in Sligo, enhancing infrastructure is critical if we are to protect and grow the gains the county has undergone in recent years.
With the completion of this project, a significant traffic bottleneck is removed. In removing this bottleneck, Sligo is opened to new development opportunities, existing businesses can prosper and jobs in the area can grow.
Balanced regional development, here in the North-West and all the regions, is an economic and political imperative. If Ireland is to continue to have a prosperous future and, critically, one in which quality is enhanced, we cannot allow a situation to persist where growth is skewed towards one particular region. That is the context in which the Spatial Strategy was devised and that is the national context in which this Government will continue to develop policies that benefit the regions.
And this is why we are committed to investing in the road network. €1.3bn this year alone. When our roads programme is complete, Ireland will, for the first time, have a modern infrastructure to support economic and social life. The Sligo Inner Relief Road is a significant step towards reaching this goal.
Mr Martin Cullen TD
Minister for Transport