Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)

Ar an gcéad dul síos, ba mhaith liom mo bhuíochas a ghabháil leis an gCeann Comhairle as ucht na saincheiste seo a ghlacadh. I am delighted that the Minister of State, Deputy Healy-Rae, is here because I know that he is an understanding man who travels rural roads every hour of every day of the year. He knows how important this project is. He travelled on this road recently on his visit to Cahir. The N24 from Cahir to Waterford is a massive project that is at a critical juncture this year.

Only €80,000 was given in 2025 to keep the project alive. It did not keep it alive; it actually wound it down. The councils of Tipperary, Waterford and Kilkenny met last Monday night. They are very anxious that this will go ahead. They called on the local Oireachtas Members. I thought that Deputies Cleere, Cullinane and McGuinness would be here. However, Deputy Murphy and I are here pushing with the Minister of State to try to have this important road link moved on.

The number of fatalities over the decades has been just appalling. Twenty-five percent of all fatalities are on that part of the road, which goes from Foynes Port to Rosslare Europort and on to Waterford Port. It is so important for infrastructure, connectivity, trade, business, tourism and everything.

We are making progress on the Cahir to Limerick and the Cloghabreeda to Limerick sections, and that is very welcome, but we want this project now. I am appealing to the Minister of State to ask the Minister for Transport, Deputy O'Brien, whom I speak to on a weekly basis about it, to try to make sure this project is kept alive and that we get the requisite funding to bring it to An Coimisiún Pleanála.

As the Minister of State knows, a lot of money has been spent on this over the decades - almost €20 million. It is wasted money if we are not able to continue it. When Shane Ross was Minister for transport, I took him to the Piltown stretch where it was a slaughterhouse. Thankfully, we installed flyovers there now, although they should have been in on the first day.

I cannot impress enough how important this is for people living on the route, farming on the route and people who want to get planning permission for anything else. This development must get the green light. We must know where we are and get certainty. We have to be sure where we are going.

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