Eoghan Murphy, left, and Leo Varadkar have met Fine Gael TDs from ‘the regions’ over the plan

The architect of the forthcoming national planning framework (NPF) has said the promised €850m Cork-Limerick motorway will undermine its aim of expanding regional cities in order to counterbalance Dublin.

The government will launch the NPF and a €115bn 10-year investment strategy, the national development plan (NDP), following a cabinet meeting in Sligo on Friday. The NPF is based on research by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), which recommended promoting growth in Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford as this would benefit the surrounding regions and the wider economy. A draft of the NPF, published last year, adopted this approach and promised to stop sprawl from cities and towns.

However, Edgar Morgenroth, the author of the ESRI research, said yesterday the promised Cork-Limerick motorway undermined