UUP Call For A5 Money To Fund Children's Hospital

North Antrim Ulster Unionist MLA Robin Swann has called for any unspent money from the defunct A5 project to be put towards a new children's hospital for Northern Ireland.

Mr Swann said he has called on Health Minister Edwin Poots to argue the case at the Executive.

Early in April a judge quashed a proposal to build the A5. The £330m dual carriageway project would have formed part of a proposed cross-border business route linking Dublin and the north west.

The judge found that a fuller assessment of the impact of the proposals on the rivers Foyle and Finn Special Areas of Conservation (SAC) should have been carried out.

Mr Swann said: "The A5 project was an Executive initiative using Executive funds and since it is no longer progressing in the short term there is a requirement to re-allocate the funds. I know my colleague Danny Kennedy will have alternative priorities such the A26 in my own constituency, which I support, but we should, as a society, consider all of the competing Executive priorities which could benefit from a re-allocation of these funds.

"The building of a new children’s hospital has been a requirement for many years but has always been held back for the lack of capital resources. The Health Minister has in the past indicated that he requires some £200 million for this project and I would urge Minister Poots to make a bid for this money as soon as possible. Indeed I am disappointed that he has not already done so.

"The provision of a new children's hospital would be of great benefit to the people of Northern Ireland. The need to address competing priorities is a challenge for the Executive but initiation of this project would show that there is a least an intention to deliver by Doing what's right for Northern Ireland."

(IT/CD)