THE European Parliament is investigating a complaint from residents of Marino, north Dublin, that they were not consulted about the route of the proposed £130 million port tunnel.
The parliament's petitions committee informed the Marino Development Action Group that its complaint had been declared admissible and committee was now waiting for the European Commission to "state its views on the various aspects of the problem".
According to the action group, there was no consultation with local residents by the port tunnel project team before its selection of the "A6" route, which would involve boring the tunnel underneath more than 270 houses in Marino.
The action group maintains that, this is contrary to the 1985 EEC directive on environmental impact assessment.
It has heard from the Commission's regional policy directorate (DG16) that this complaint has been referred to the environment directorate (DG11).
Altogether, six alternative routes were examined by the port tunnel designers, Ove Arup Geoconsult, and the "A6" under Marino was deemed the best option. A more westerly route, running beneath a handful of houses, was rejected mainly on cost grounds.
Meanwhile, An Taisce has described the port tunnel project as "premature" pending a "full, objective comparative analysis of all access options to Dublin Port", "including the east west Liffey Tunnel proposed in 1993 by National Toll Roads plc.
Mr John O'Sullivan, An Taisce's transportation adviser, said there was "no political mandate" for the proposal, which he described as the northern leg of a full Eastern By pass motorway abandoned by Fianna Fail and Labour before the 1992 general election.
He noted that port related heavy goods vehicles would comprise less than 13 per cent of traffic using the port tunnel, according to forecasts by its designers.
"The vast majority of the users will in fact be cars which will only add to traffic congestion," he said.
This, in turn, "can only increase the demand for a full Eastern By pass which is precisely what the public and their political representatives have opposed for most of the last 25 years", according to Mr O'Sullivan.
