Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy is absolutely right about the importance of Tipperary town getting relief from the traffic running through Main Street. It is plagued by very heavy levels of freight traffic. As the Deputy knows, traffic from large industrial areas in Shannon and Galway heading towards Rosslare or the Port of Waterford all run through the likes of Tipperary town. That leads to huge problems, including congestion.

Vacancies on Main Street and so on are very high because of the town's characteristics. It is exactly the sort of priority I mentioned earlier, namely, putting town centres first and creating new and vibrant urban public realms in the centre of our 19th century market towns.

My understanding that in the public consultation that occurred recently a variety of options were discussed, including by TII. A section of the road between Cahir and Limerick Junction could have a bypass for Tipperary town as a first priority. The journey from Cahir to Limerick Junction is 35 km, as the Deputy knows. The project would not be cheap; it would cost several hundred million. We are constrained by budget and engineering capability. Therefore, the best thing we could do would be to choose particular blackspots, as I said to Senator Dooley, and address them quickly. The town needs to be rescued from its traffic difficulties as quickly as possible, which could involve highlighting and addressing shorter sections of 6 km, 7 km or 8 km and a bypass of Tipperary town. If there was a future upgrade of the wider road from Cahir to Limerick Junction, the project would fit within that. My priority is to deal with the likes of Tipperary town quickly.