Irish Examiner view: Ruling on Cork motorway signals road to rejuvenation

Map showing the route of the planned M28 motorway to Ringaskiddy.

Time and tide, and infrastructural development too, wait for no man. 

Despite a residents’ legal challenge, the €250m M28 motorway between Cork and Ringaskiddy will now proceed. All going well, the vital link will be operational by 2027.

The last option available to opponents of the scheme was a petition to the Supreme Court but it is understood that the court has rejected that appeal.

The court’s full ruling is expected to be published today.

In recent weeks there was a multi-agency report outlining the potential of Cork Harbour as a base for the ever-expanding offshore windfarm sector.

This ruling will add impetus to that idea, one that could have a transformative economic impact just as an earlier decision to base the country’s nascent pharma sector in the area 40 years ago had.

Whether this decision will renew ambitions around establishing an incinerator in the harbour is as yet unknown.

Plans for expansion 

Cork Chamber has welcomed the decision saying it is “very positive news that the highly valued industry base, IDA land bank, and the Port of Cork can now be facilitated in delivering on development and expansion plans...”

Although they are unconnected, the M28 decision will augment the growing optimism around hopes that the pandemic might be soon contained.

It is certain though that when it is, developments such as the M28 will play a vital role in that social and economic rejuvenation.