Minister hits out at motorway protesters

People who take court actions against state infrastructural projects are stealing from their fellow taxpayers, a Government minister claimed today.

Transport chief Martin Cullen launched a stinging attack on those who mount legal challenges to block major road projects as he opened the final sectin of the much delayed M50 motorway around Dublin.

A number of proposed projects have been delayed by court proceedings taken by conservationists and historians because of their proximity to sensitive sites such as the Hill of Tara and Carrickmines Castle.

But Mr Cullen said campaigners should accept the decision of the planning authorities and stop resorting to courtroom battles.

“When independent assessments are made and projects are given the green light, I am not accepting of people then using the court systems to delay, delay and cost the state a fortune,” he said.

“My point is they are robbing money out of the taxpayers’ pockets of this country unfairly.

“This is a democracy, when the decisions are taken by fair institutions and different bodies, we should accept them.”

Mr Cullen said only a small number of people opposed most projects.

“We have a highly, independent, transparent statutory process in this country where all of these projects go to, everybody gets a fair hearing, everybody gets a chance to make their point,” he said.

“When the decisions are taken, they should be accepted.

“The vast majority of the people on all of these projects are fully behind them, it is time that the very few, and it is the very few, causing massive hold-ups and robbing money out of taxpayers’ pockets in this country that could be well invested in other transport areas or indeed, many other areas of the economy, and it is time that it stopped.”

Mr Cullen said a democracy was about going through the proper processes and having a majority coming to a conclusion.

“Abuse of democracy is what goes on beyond that with people using every element of the court system to block up and freeze up and stop investment in this country,” he told RTE radio.

“I won’t stand for it and it’s time that this sort of carry-on was stopped.”