Garret Ahearn (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The review of the national development plan, NDP, is expected to be announced in Cork next week after agreement by the Cabinet. The NDP contains a lot of road projects of which the N20 from Cork to Limerick is one. In my view and that of a lot of people, the most important road project is the N24 that links Limerick to Waterford. Once that road is completed every single city in this country will be connected by a motorway. It is a real priority that the N24 project remains on the NDP.

There are a range of issues with the project. The Minister for Transport keeps talking about small bypasses and I am very worried about the fact that the Taoiseach, during a debate in the Dáil yesterday, spoke about small bypasses. I do not know how many times we must explain the situation. Everyone in County Tipperary, including Tipperary Town that needs a bypass, want the N24 to remain on the national development plan. It has to remain. The design is going through the planning process. The money has already been invested by the Government to continue the project so there is no reason to remove the project from the national development plan.

Once design and planning is done then one will start with a bypass, in conjunction with the full N24 road, of Tipperary Town. That is what the people of the town want as well. Incredibly, they have spent 20 years waiting for a road to bypass the town. We cannot start all over again with a single bypass for Tipperary Town and forget about all of the work that has been done on the N24 over the last number of years. I cannot stress enough the importance of the route network between Limerick and Waterford, and on to Wexford and Rosslare post Brexit. The route is a crucial link for the businesses and people across the region. As much as 80% of the route goes through Tipperary and the towns that the project will have an impact on is significant, and Tipperary Town more than any other town.