DUP MP backs plan to for bridge between Scotland and Northern Ireland

A senior Northern Irish politician has given his backing to ambitious plans for a bridge to be built between Northern Ireland and Scotland once Britain leaves the EU.

The first drawing of the proposed bridge to connect Scotland and Northern Ireland. PIC: Professor Alan Dunlop.

Paul Girvan, the transport spokesman for the DUP, has cited other bridges and tunnels which seemed outlandish at the time of their conception but had since come to fruition.

Writing for parliamentary magazine the House, Mr Girvan backed the proposal which has been mooted for years but has gathered steam in recent months.

Alan Dunlop of Liverpool University proposed a bridge between Larne in Northern Ireland and Portpatrick near Stranraer, or between Torr Head and the Mull of Kintyre.

Conceding that the DUP didn’t ‘pretend to have all the answers’ on the bridge, which could cost as much as £20bn, Mr Girvan said a feasibility study would help address practicalities of building the bridge.

He wrote: “Across the world, bridges and tunnels have been constructed which only a decade or two earlier would have been ruled impossible or impractical. Technology moves on and we in the United Kingdom should not self-censor ambition.

“As a unionist, there will always be an attraction in seeing a physical connection between Northern Ireland and Great Britain”.

Mr Girvan also cited projects like the Oresund bridge between Denmark and Sweden to show the potential benefits of such a project.

Other politicians, including Boris Johnson and Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney, have also welcomed the idea.