Carrick-on-Suir MD councillors seek meeting with Minister over stalling of Cahir to Waterford N24 upgrade

Carrick-on-Suir Municipal District’s councillors have added their voices to the outcry over the Government’s failure to provide funding to progress planning for the new N24 route between Cahir and Waterford and are seeking a meeting with the Transport Minister.

The District’s five councillors have decided to write to Minister Eamon Ryan to request a meeting with him to press for funding to enable the preparations for selection of the new N24 route between Cahir and Waterford to continue.

Their letter follows hot on the heels of a similar face-to-face meeting request the Minister has received from Tipperary County Council in recent weeks about the stalling of this part of the N24 project.

Carrick MD’s Chairman Cllr Mark Fitzgerald of Fine Gael proposed the letter be sent to Minister Ryan at the District’s monthly meeting last Thursday.

Councillors highlighted the urgency of securing funding to progress this road project as people with land within a 6km corridor between Cahir and Waterford where the new N24 will go are precluded from seeking planning approval for houses and businesses until the preferred route is finalised.

The issue was top of the agenda of a joint meeting of Carrick Municipal District and neighbouring Piltown Municipal District councillors in Piltown, county Kilkenny on Wednesday. 

Meanwhile, the monthly meeting of Carrick MD heard of the efforts being made by local Oireachtas members to pressurise the Government to allocate funding for the Cahir to Waterford section of the N24 upgrade.

Carrick-on-Suir Cllr Kieran Bourke highlighted how his Fianna Fáil party colleague Jackie Cahill called in the Dáil last week for €2m funding to allow surveys be completed on the Cahir to Waterford section of the N24.

This would allow most of the 6km corridor of land currently sterilised for planning applications to be freed up to allow people to build houses and develop their farms and businesses.

He urged his fellow councillors on Carrick MD to lobby their local TDs to also press for this funding to be allocated.

Cllr Fitzgerald reported that Fine Gael Senator Garret Ahearn raised the issue twice in the Seanad over the previous week.

He pointed out that €2m was small money in the whole scheme of things compared to the €170m being allocated for roads in the greater Dublin area.

Pointing to the huge impact the sterilisation of land along the Cahir to Waterford N24 corridor was having on landowners, he felt it was only appropriate for the District’s councillors to write to Minister Ryan and request a meeting with him.