Garret Ahearn (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We have succeeded. It has taken a long fight but I will now start another fight. It has not got funding to continue to design stage yet. That needs approval by the Minister for Transport. It needs to be prioritised as quickly as possible. As the Leader knows, that route is divided into two sections, one of which is from Limerick Junction to Cahir. That is in design stage at the moment and moving along well. However, the section from Cahir to Waterford is approximately one year behind it, essentially. We cannot have what happened in previous stages of this process, which is a delay or a decision not to fund it, and then we have to start a campaign to try to get it funded. We need a decision by the Minister for Transport as quickly as possible to say that he recognises we are now at a stage where we need to make a decision on funding the design up to when a planning decision or planning application would be made. I ask that this decision be made as quickly as possible.

People who have houses or families with farms who have houses and potentially want to build are within that buffer zone. Until it gets to design stage and the road is actually designed, that buffer zone will not reduce any more. It is 300 m wide at the moment. It will reduce to 100 m six months after the design stage starts. For the design stage to start, however, we need the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, to commit to funding this. I ask that we get that done as quickly as possible so that the people who live on the rural stretch of that road can have certainty as quickly as possible.