Road money better spent on buses and trains

YOUR report of the go-ahead for the €300m Cashel/Mitchelstown road project (Irish Examiner, January 4) is accompanied by the usual claim of “attracting companies to locate in the county,” although this is unsubstantiated by any evidence.

More reasonably, a handy supply of labour attracts companies to a region, but what use is this without public transport? The fact (which is ignored by planners, politicians and the media) is that the majority of Irish people do not own and have use of a car.

The money for this road, which will probably end up doubling by being over-budget, would have been better invested in trains, trams and buses from which there is some financial return rather than being squandered on building more and more roads such as these which are presumably free of any tolls or charges and provide no financial return whatsoever. They are just going to generate more traffic, more pollution and more global warming.