Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I took time when I was in Tipperary last week to drive up and down nearly every street and every part of Tipperary town and I could see exactly what the Deputy is saying. It is an area that, in my view, has been suffering decline for a long number of years, not just in the past three or four years but possibly for even 20 or 30 years, and not because of Covid or Brexit or anything else. It is fair to say the bypass will make a big difference and is important. The message I got from all the groups I met in Tipperary was to make sure that that bypass happens and that the road upgrade happens to go along with that. That is a priority and I agree it would open up the town. Issues around IDA and Enterprise Ireland were mentioned to me as well and I was shown the options for the land. I am happy to engage with the Deputy directly on that. With the regional plan, I stressed to all the groups there that they need to focus in on that and that any key actions we want on a regional basis need to come through the regional action plan because that helps us as three Ministers involved in the drawdown of the funding from the different parts of Departments.

As the Deputy will be aware, his local authority is very much involved in driving the new actions in Tipperary under the Tipperary task force that was set up by the previous Government - just as it finished up - under my old Department. That is also bringing forward a very useful strategy for the town. I got a briefing on that when I was there last week. There is great potential in it. It will mean all the businesses working together. The Deputy is right that a big part of that has to be make available space where existing businesses are-----

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