Varadkar backs 32km North-Scotland 'Boris Bridge'

Proposals to build a 32km-long bridge connecting the North with Scotland have received the backing of Taoiseach Leo Varadkar.

However, Ireland and the EU will not pay for the ambitious project. A value-for-money assessment of the connection between the two islands should now go ahead, said Mr Varadkar, who spoke to British prime minister Boris Johnson about the idea recently.

Mr Johnson last week said “watch this space” when he raised the prospect of the construction, which is now being dubbed ‘the Boris Bridge’. The two leaders discussed the idea on the phone in the immediate aftermath of Mr Johnson and the Conservative’s overwhelming victory in the British elections earlier this month.

Mr Varadkar said: “Just on the idea of a bridge between Northern Ireland and the west of Scotland, we actually chatted about that the other day when I spoke to him after his re-election as prime minister and I suggested that I thought it was an idea worth examining and that we should take a look at it but I expect the UK to pay for it. At which point he suggested: ‘No, no, the EU is going to pay for it.’

“So that [the EU paying for the bridge] is definitely not going to happen, because neither Northern Ireland or Scotland are going to be in the EU.

“At the very least, a high-level engineering assessment should be done as to whether it is a viable proposal.”

Proposals to build a bridge or tunnel linking Britain and Ireland go back more than 100 years. Estimates have suggested the bridge if linked from Larne in Co Antrim to Portpatrick in Scotland would cost €23m.

There are other projects, such as fast-rail, that Mr Varadkar believes should be prioritised between the South and North.

“I definitely think we could have a situation whereby we have trains running on the hour, every hour between Dublin and Belfast and on to Cork that don’t take as long as the current ones do,” he said.