Most fatal Kilkenny roads unlikely to see major safety improvements any time soon

Councillor Ger Frisby has expressed his disappointment that significant works to improve the safety of the N25 that runs through South Kilkenny could be 'another ten to fifteen years' away.

He expressed his disappointment at this month's meeting of Piltown Municipal Distict Council following a meeting he had alongside Cllr Pat Dunphy with Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) representatives.

"TII have sought interest try to do more traffic calming, relocate speed vans and addressing right hand turns," he said, "but it’ll be another 10-15 years before we see significant works on the N25 due to funding issues."

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Cllr Pat Dunphy also expressed his disappointment that nothing significant will be happening soon to improve safety on the nearby N24 as the road is currently being upgraded as part of a major overhaul.

The N24 overhaul is still only at the new route option selection phase and TII have stated that it would be premature at this stage to consider significant changes. 

"It's simply not good enough," Cllr Dunphy said.

"We brought up to them the articles on newspapers such as Kilkenny People showing how dangerous these roads (N24/25) are but it looks like significant safety upgrades are still a long way away."

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The N25 is the most dangerous road in Ireland according to recent statistics, claiming over twenty lives since 2017, new figures have revealed.

The road runs through South Kilkenny and connects Cork in the South-West to Rosslare Europort in the South-East.

Notably, the nearby N24 has witnessed twelve fatal crashes during the same period, putting it just under the N25, N2 and N15 for fatalities.