Subsidiarity and new N4 route

Dear Editor, Over recent weeks and months there have been a number of contributions in your newspaper (and others) opposing the "Green" route option of the proposed N4 motorway/dual carriageway.These contributions are vital, as they place on the table some extremely valid points.I especially commend the recent written contribution of Multyfarnham IFA that raised many pertinent questions that will no doubt be left unanswered by the NRA or any other figure.At the same time, some contributions and outpourings, some more vociferous than others, have painted a somewhat unbalanced and unfair picture of local sentiment.The truth is that no matter which route will be selected there will be losers and very devastating impacts for people; consequences that none of us would need to bear if more orderly planning had occurred in previous years, I hasten to add.All considerations must obviously be taken into account; not just social, environmental and economic considerations, but local access, junction design and safety, and a workable road design that meets the standards, dimensions and alignments required by best practice.The suggestion by any one side, therefore, that all of these criteria could be realised simply by adding 3 metres to each side of the existing road is disingenuous and not very helpful to those who have built and established their livelihoods along the existing road corridor - on foot of planning permission and assurances that they would never be disturbed or displaced again.The elephant in the room is that the entire process is letting everyone down. Call it what it is - a sham; no real forward planning over successive decades, poor route options, cosmetic box-ticking consultation exercises, and an administration in which our local representatives have no tangible say amid a national legislation developed over the last ten years that allows major projects to be designed, determined and carried out by authorities with no local cognisance, regard or accountability, and certainly with no understanding of contemporary rural issues. So much for the 'principle of subsidiarity' in decision-making.The NRA"s main purpose, which is evidently to divide and conquer, presents a challenge on how all of us should demonstrate genuine and very practical solidarity over the next months.Fintan CoffeyPortnashangan, Multyfarnham