Campaigners calling for the A5 road to be upgraded have said there has been a “sea change” in public opinion on the issue, and said locals cannot tolerate more deaths.
The A5 has been the subject of calls for improvement due to the high volume of fatal collisions on the road, which links the city of Derry with Aughnacloy in Co Tyrone, located close to the Irish border.
A scheme to turn the A5 into a dual carriageway was first approved in 2007 but has been held up by legal proceedings from an opposition group known as the Alternative A5 Alliance (AA5A). Since 2007, 47 people have died on the single-lane road, including three members of the same family in one collision.
Read more: A5: Roads expert confident scheme will proceed as public inquiry resumes
The family members of victims and campaigners attended Leinster House on Tuesday ahead of a parliamentary motion on the issue; the Irish Government has previously committed £75 million to the project once it is approved.
The motion by Sinn Fein TD Pearse Doherty asks the Government to “honour the commitment to fund 50% of the cost of the A5 upgrade, so that it is commenced and completed as quickly as possible” in order to avoid further deaths.
Kate Corrigan, whose 20-year-old son Nathan died along with two of his friends in an A5 crash in December 2021, was among those in attendance at Leinster House. The Enough is Enough campaign chairman Niall McKenna told the PA news agency that there had been a “sea change of public opinion” in the area regarding the road, and they wanted to inform TDs and Senators about it.
“Obviously, the scheme has been delayed for nearly 16 years at this stage, so we just want to give them an update on that, and how we think things have changed at the moment,” he said.
“There has been a total sea change of public opinion in the local area regarding the road at the moment, so we just want to capitalise on that.”
Mr McKenna said his group was formed in January this year in response to the death of John Rafferty, a 21-year-old former under-20s Tyrone footballer, who was killed on the A5 in October 2022.
“John’s death was the latest in a long number of deaths on that road, and particularly a lot of young people who had GAA connections in Tyrone,” he said.
“As our name says: enough is enough. There’s enough death happening, and we can’t tolerate it any more.
“We would notice that there has been a total change of public opinion in the air. Whereas before, people have been fairly passive and sort of expected the civic authorities to deliver the scheme.
“Now, they realise that there is some sort of dysfunctionality with the system, particularly the planning system in the north regards to large capital projects. They’ve decided the silent majority can’t be silent any longer.”
A public inquiry has recently heard from the family members of people killed in road traffic collisions on the A5.
Mr McKenna, who is from Killyclogher in Co Tyrone, said he was hoping to inform both TDs and senators of how urgent the issue is.
“Obviously, the border politicians are well aware of the the implications of the road – maybe some of the others don’t understand the dangers of the road,” he said.
“But also, when we’re here, we would like to make the point that there’s a strategic importance of the road within the state here as well, particularly if you’re a resident of Donegal choked off from the rest of the state, you cannot avoid this road – you have to travel on the A5 if you wanted to go to Donegal.
“We concentrate primarily on road safety and preventing deaths and that’s what we’re all about. But I suppose we also may make the point today, if this road upgrade went ahead, you could really unlock the economic potential of the whole north-west of the island.”
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