There is a great opportunity to make significant progress on the upgrade of the N24 through Tipperary according to a local Oireachtas member.
Senator Garret Ahearn – who has been appointed as Government Chief Whip of the Upper House – says having a new Minister for Transport in place could prove very positive for the project.
The Limerick to Cahir section – including plans for a bypass of Tipp Town – continues to make progress
However the Cahir to Waterford stretch has dropped off the radar with no funding currently forthcoming.
Senator Ahearn says he has a good working relationship with Minister Darragh O’Brien and has highlighted the need to continue investing in the project.
“We’ve spent about €5 million from the very start of this project to where we are now. I said to Darragh O’Brien that essentially if we don’t change what we’re doing on the N24 at the moment and we don’t continue this project up until planning stage we’re going to end up being in a position where we just go back to where we were seven years ago. So essentially all the €5 million we’ve spent to get it to this point we may as well have just thrown it in the fire – it was a waste of money.”
Garret Ahearn says the Transport Minister is to examine the possibility of resuming funding for the Cahir to Waterford stretch.
He told Tipp Today earlier Darragh O’Brien is to look at the case being made for the N24.
“I’m quite hopeful – if Darragh O’Brien is anything he’s a man of common sense and I think he will see the argument.
“There’s two main arguments – one is the funding side of it that we’ve just wasted money if we don’t get it to planning stage because that’s critically important because ones it’s at planning stage you never go backwards once its approved and the second point is the obvious one that we understand in Tipperary that there’s people living in that buffer zone who want to build and are told they can’t even apply for planning.”
