A Connemara County Councillor is to ask the National Roads Authority chief if it is his policy not to meet with County Councillors in discussions about the development of roads throughout the country. Councillor Seosamh Ó Cuaig said he had advised the Border, Midiland Western Authority that this would be a question on the agenda when that authorty met the NRA Chief Executiye, Fred Barry.

The question arises as a letter from the NRA to Gaeltacht Minister, Éamon ÓCuí TD, about a new road to Connemara, continues to provoke controversy. The NRA said in its letter - issued following a May 3Oth meeting in Minister Ó Cuív's office in Dublin - that they not would build a new road from west Connemara to Galway.

The NRA said that there were not enough people there to justify it and that there was an SAC designation on part of the suggested route. The NRA said it would also be an expensive project to undertake.

The letter has been described as a "slap in the face" to the people of Connemara by the Carna Comnmnity Forum in west Connemara. They say that just about everything seemed to be taking precedence over the welfare of the people of Connemara, in this case. They hoped that Minister Ó Cuív did not accept the NRA policy.

"What is going on here," Councillor Seosamh Ó Cuaig asked. "We are talking about a vital link from west Connemara to Galway - I wiII certainly be pursuing this at the BMW meeting and I want explanations."

Meanwhile, the Carna Forum says that the three Oireachtas (members) should give an account of how the case for the road was put at the meeting with the NRA by the three Dáil and Seanad members present, including Minister Ó Cuiv. In the past few days, Michael D. Higgins, T.D. has again meiterated his support for the new moad fmom west Connemama to Galway stating that it was now an urgent matter.