Garret Ahearn (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I follow on from the comments of Senators regarding the shocking news of what is happening in Ukraine. I express my solidarity to the people of Ukraine on what they are going through. It has been a difficult number of weeks but today is different from the events of recent weeks because it is actually happening. People's lives have been drastically changed in the past 24 hours.

I have raised the issue of the N24 on numerous occasions in this House. The construction of a new road between Waterford and Limerick was removed from the Transport Infrastructure Ireland strategy. It is a section of road from Cahir to Waterford that has been taken off the list. It would cost €1.5 million to keep it going. It is an important strategic piece of infrastructure for the south-east region, connecting two major cities. It is a very dangerous road. It was agreed in the national development plan that it would continue. Only three months after the announcement of the national development plan, the Minister for Transport, Deputy Eamon Ryan, personally decided this project was not going to continue any further. Most of the road goes through Tipperary. There are 40 councillors on Tipperary County Council, all of whom are in support of the N24 road upgrade. All Oireachtas Members are in favour of the upgrade. All officials in Tipperary County Council are in favour of it. It is virtually impossible to get full agreement between public representatives on anything but we have full agreement on this. We have a Dublin Minister who has decided this is not good for the area. I am calling on him to make a decision quickly on this issue because if the funding does not continue, the company that is involved in delivering this project will finish at the end of the month. There are approximately ten days left for the Minister to reverse his decision. He needs to reverse that decision.