Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I return to the issue of a bypass for Tipperary town. Two sets of consultants are looking at the road from Limerick to Waterford. Tipperary town must be bypassed and we had plans before to do that. Why has a 6 km wide passage of land now been sterilised from Limerick to Tipperary town, and including towns such as Bansha, Cahir, Clonmel, Carrick-on-Suir, Piltown and on to Waterford? People want to build houses in those areas and they cannot apply for planning because of that 6 km area. These studies were done before and major plans were drawn up for the M24. Those plans are there, so why do we have to sterilise a wider area this time?

I think this is only giving money to consultants. Surely, we can look at locations case-by-case within that corridor. That would allow those people who are lucky to have a site and a mortgage and who are able to build a home to apply for planning permission. It would help to solve or at least lessen the housing crisis. It is bizarre that a 6 km wide tract of land would be sterilised, because the dogs in the street know this is not going to be used. It is going to be a corridor similar to the one before. It is a time consuming and delaying process.

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