Public consultation events planned for N24 Cahir to Waterford route selection process

A series of public consultation events will take place in Cahir, Clonmel and Carrick-on-Suir about the route options selection process for the N24 Cahir to Waterford upgrade scheme in early May.
These events will take place shortly before the preferred new route for the N24 between Limerick Junction and Cahir is announced at the end of May.
Tipperary County Council senior engineer John Nolan informed the council’s monthly meeting of the start of the N24 Cahir to Waterford route options selection public consultation process.
This public consultation process will be important for any property owners with land included in the route options study area from where the eventual route for the N24 upgrade will be chosen. The first public consultation event takes place in Mooncoin, county Kilkenny on Tuesday, May 3.
It will be followed by similar events at Raheen House Hotel, Clonmel on Wednesday, May 4, Cahir House Hotel, Cahir on Thursday, May 5 and the Carraig Hotel in Carrick-on-Suir on Friday, May 6. All four public consultation events will take place between 2pm and 8pm.
Members of the public can attend the public consultation events, view maps and other information on display about the route selection process and put their queries to experts working on the project.
There will also be an online briefing to Oireachtas members and councillors on the morning of May 3.
The start of this public consultation process follows the allocation of €2m by the Department of Transport last month to progress the route selection process for the stretch of the N24 between Cahir and Waterford. There was an outcry among public representatives in Tipperary, Waterford and Kilkenny earlier this year when the Department initially failed to allocate this funding. The Department, however, bowed to political pressure and granted the funding.
Meanwhile, Mr Nolan confirmed to councillors that the selection of the preferred route corridor for the N24 upgrade between Limerick Junction and Cahir is on track to be announced in the last week in May.
He was responding to Fine Gael Cllrs Michael Fitzgerald and John Crosse who sought assurances that the announcement will be made in May. Cllr Fitzgerald explained the pressing need for the preferred route selection not to be delayed and urged the council’s roads section staff to keep the pressure on to ensure this didn’t happen.
“I have never seen such an amount of young people to go through the pre-planning process and be told that they were premature because the N24 preferred route hadn’t yet been selected,” he said.
“The cost of building any type of new house is now gone through the roof. Builders can’t hold the price for a week. We need answers to this in May at the very latest and that it is not dragged out any further.”
Mr Nolan said it wasn’t the case that anybody with property in the N24 route study area can’t get planning permission. More than 200 planning applications were referred to the N24 Limerick Junction to Cahir design team and only 12 of them were recommended as premature as the route hadn’t yet been selected.
“I know it’s disheartening for the 12 who get that news but unfortunately this is a major project and we have to protect the route options.”
Clonmel’s Cllr Siobhán Ambrose, meanwhile, welcomed the upcoming start of the public consultation process for the N24 Cahir to Waterford route selection process.