N24 Cahir to Waterford preferred route to be announced in mid-January

Landowners with property lying within the preferred route corridor for the upgraded N24 between Cahir and Waterford will be notified by post of the council’s decision in mid-January.

Four public consultation sessions will take place between January 23 and 26 where landowners can meet and consult with the N24 project team.

The Cahir public consultation session will be at Cahir House Hotel on January 23, the Clonmel session will be at the Talbot Hotel on January 24 and the Carrick session will take place at the Carraig Hotel on Friday, January 26.

There will also be a public consultation session at Mooncoin Community Hall in Mooncoin, county Kilkenny on Thursday, January 25.

According to a newsletter issued last week by the N24 Cahir to Waterford project team, landowners whose property lies within any of the Option Corridors under consideration for the preferred route will be notified approximately two weeks in advance by letter of the dates and venues for these events.

Landowners whose property lies within the corridor of the Preferred Transport Solution will separately receive a further notification letter closer to the time of the preferred route going on public display from January 23 to February 9.

County councillors heard at their December meeting in Nenagh that the preferred route will be unveiled to them and Oireachtas members at a meeting to be held over Zoom at 9.30am on Friday, January 19.

Clonmel Cllr Siobhán Ambrose pressed for an in-person meeting between public representatives and the project team rather than a remote meeting on Zoom as councillors would be better able to view the route maps and ask questions.

The Council’s Director of Roads Marcus O’Connor responded that public representatives could attend any of the physical public consultation meetings for landowners the following week.

After Cllr Ambrose pressed further for the physical meeting, Council CEO Joe MacGrath said it would not be possible at the first meeting on January 19 to go into that level of detail about the preferred route corridor. The process of consultation as outlined by Mr O’Connor to councillors had worked well.

“If following that process, the elected members wanted to sit down with the consultants and go through different aspects of the preferred route corridor, that could be arranged,” he added.