Councillor pleas for Oireachtas members to intervene on road running through Kilkenny

A Kilkenny councillor has called upon regional Oireachtas members from all parties to lobby Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) to progress the N24 Waterford to Cahir scheme.

For months now, the project has been stalled at the ‘Options Selection’ stage, the second of four scheduled planning stages.

“We need to get all the TDs and councillors together at a meeting and it needs to happen as soon as possible,” said Cllr Pat Dunphy at this month’s meeting of Piltown Municipal District.

“They need to lobby the Transport Minister to get this back on track. It worked before for other schemes.”

His sentiments were echoed by fellow councillors, who raised the importance of the issue locally.

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Cllr Fidelis Doherty took issue with the scheme and others like it (including the N25 Waterford to Glenmore) being ‘pushed out’.

“Movement has to happen,” she said. “Do we go into another year and then another decade without movement?”

Cllr Tomás Breathnach brought up the merits of bringing the issue up to the regional assembly.

The points raised by the councillors were noted by Acting Director of Services, Denis Malone.

The existing N24 road within this section has a variable cross-section and a high incidence of junctions and accesses.

These factors contribute to limited overtaking opportunities and unstable traffic flow along the existing route.

This impacts the overall journey on the existing N24 whilst also impacting severely on more sustainable transport modes and opportunities in the urban centres it serves.

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