Bobby Aylward (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister, Deputy Ross, for coming to the House to discuss this matter. In fairness, the Minister responded to Deputy McGuinness and me when we raised this matter as a Topical Issue in this Chamber last year. We invited him to come down and look at the Piltown bypass, which is a section of the N24 route between Waterford city and Carrick-on-Suir, and he said he would do so. As the Minister probably knows at this stage, 15 lives have been lost on this disastrous stretch of road since it was built over a decade ago. As a member of Kilkenny County Council at the time, I told representatives of the National Roads Authority that the road was badly designed. The 2+1 design of the N24 near Piltown means there is one lane for 3 km, then it goes into two lanes and then it goes back into one lane. There is confusion. There is a wire dividing the two sides of the road. When people come to junctions, they do not know where they are. The proof of that is that there have been 15 deaths on this road since it was built. If one goes down to the Piltown bypass, one will see 15 big crosses that have been erected by local people on the side of the road to commemorate the deaths that have taken place and to mark the worst piece of engineering they have ever seen. Local people are now calling this area the "valley of death".

I have raised this issue previously on Topical Issues. I have submitted written questions to the county council, the Minister and Transport Infrastructure Ireland to ask them to expedite this matter as quickly as possible. I was told that those who were carrying out a safety audit on the road would come back with a report in early 2017, but we are now into May. The last time I made a request in this regard, I was told that the report might not be available until the end of the year. This matter is dragging on and on. After a man was killed in an accident at the water tower junction near Piltown last year, 500 people turned up at the local hall for a meeting that was called by the parish priest. Since then, there have been four more non-fatal accidents at the same junction. The people of the area have come together and said that enough is enough. Between 200 and 300 people, many of them in tractors and cars, held up the traffic in the area for two hours as part of a protest that was held a fortnight ago. This shows how seriously the people of Piltown and the local area are taking this issue.

I ask the Minister to expedite this matter by contacting Transport Infrastructure Ireland and the local council to try to get a result in this regard. The answer is to build an overpass that would take out the two most dangerous junctions. That would provide interim relief of the problems that exist in this locality. I hope that interconnectors will be provided in the long term as part of the development of the N24 route between Limerick and Waterford, which we were promised would be done after the motorways were completed. I ask the Minister to expedite the provision of an overpass at this dangerous junction in the interim. I will hand over to my colleagues who want to say a few words on this issue.

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