The Department of Transport says funding for the N24 Road Cahir towards Limerick (Planning and Design Stage) is subject to financial constraints. Tipperary County Council(TCC) is appealing a Department decision to allocate only €1M for the project this year as TCC had requested €3.25M.
In a statement issued to TMWR the Department says “as the greater portion of the funding in the National Development Plan becomes available in the second half of the decade, projects up to 2025 had to be prioritised. The priorities for the Department are; “protection and renewal of the existing national road network, progressing major projects in or near construction, progressing major projects which are pre-construction but well advanced in the development pipeline and bringing market towns back to life and prioritising projects which provide for local bypasses and compact growth in Ireland’s towns and villages” – the latter would be beneficial to Tipperary town.
The Department says it is in regular communication with Transport Infrastructure Ireland regarding specific projects and the national roads programme more generally. The N24 project will be kept under review for 2024 and considered in terms of the overall funding available to TII according to the Department of Transport. The design work is being led by ARUP consultants and it is unclear if the funding issue will delay a planning application for the Cahir towards Limerick N24 project which had been scheduled to be submitted to An Bord Pleanála next year.
The full statement is as follows –
A number of major new national roads projects are included in the National Development Plan, with the Government having earmarked €5.1bn for capital spending on new national roads projects from 2021 to 2030. This funding will enable improved regional accessibility as well as compact growth, benefiting Tipperary and the wider Munster region. The funding will provide for the development of numerous national road projects, including the completion of projects which are already at construction stage and those close to it, as well as the development of a number of others.
As the greater portion of this funding becomes available in the second half of the decade, this means that there was a constraint on the funding available for new projects this year. As a result of this, a prioritisation exercise was necessary. In line with the NDP and Government policy, national road funding for 2023 was allocated in a manner which seeks to achieve the following key outcomes:
- Protection and renewal of the existing national road network
- Progressing major projects in or near construction
- Progressing major projects which are pre-construction but well advanced in the development pipeline
- Bringing our market towns back to life and prioritising projects which provide for local bypasses and Compact Growth in Ireland’s towns and villages
In total, almost €10 million has been allocated for national roads and greenways in Tipperary, with approximately €83 million being allocated for national roads and greenways in County Cork.
The Department and Transport Infrastructure Ireland are in regular communication regarding specific projects and the national roads programme more generally. I can confirm that €100,000 has been allocated for the Mallow Relief Road scheme in 2023 in order to meet project commitments. The N24 Cahir to Limerick Junction project, which would include a bypass of Tipperary Town, has been allocated €1 million to allow work on the design of this scheme to continue. As with all national roads projects in the NDP, the delivery programme for these projects will be kept under review for 2024 and considered in terms of the overall funding envelope available to TII.
