Laois Independent TD Brian Stanley told the Tánaiste Simon Harris, during Leaders Questions in the Dail this week that ‘the county was bypassed for funding’ in the recently-published National Development Plan Review.
“We had the publication of the National Development Plan Review 2025 – Securing Ireland’s Future Sectoral Investment Plan: Transport.
“A number of bypasses are needed in County Laois but it looks like the whole county was bypassed for funding,” said Deputy Stanley.
“The Tánaiste was down there this week last year, exactly 52 weeks ago, canvassing for the General Election.
“Huge housing developments are needed in Laois. There has been rapid population growth in the county. It has been one of the top three counties in terms of population growth in the last five years. There is huge pent-up demand for housing and for infrastructure, but we cannot have the housing without the infrastructure.
“Throughout the county, there is a need for roads, water services, wastewater services, sewerage services and electricity services to be expanded. The national development plan review published yesterday has approximately €102 billion in capital funding between now and 2030.
“The Department of Housing, Local Government has set out in its recent national planning framework document the projected need for 1,244 additional houses per annum in Laois, on top of what is already being provided.
“This is a huge expansion in population. A 35% increase in population over the next nine years is what is being projected. This comes on top of five years of very rapid growth.
“Now, the local authorities are being asked to zone huge tracts of land. Without it being serviced, this land will be useless. People will have to get in and out by helicopter because there will not be roads. The infrastructure is required, or it will stall these housing projects. It is not possible to build 1,200 or 1,300 houses per year unless these projects go ahead.
“The roads that are critically needed are the Portlaoise northern orbital route and the Mountmellick relief road, as the Tánaiste saw himself when he was down last year. To open up all that land, particularly across the north and west of Portlaoise, the northern orbital route is required.
“Will the Tánaiste go back to the drawing board with this review and ensure that Laois receives some funding, particularly for the Portlaoise northern orbital route and the Mountmellick relief road but also for the expansion of wastewater and water services?
“We cannot have houses unless we have services. We also need to relieve the congestion on the N80, and that can only be done by the Mountmellick relief road and the northern orbital route in Portlaoise”.
I thank Deputy Stanley for raising these matters. I was indeed in Laois canvassing during the election. I was delighted that my new colleague, Deputy Willie Aird, joined the Deputy in Dáil Eireann.
“We have a lot of work we need to do to deliver for the people of Laois and the midlands,” said Simon Harris in response.
“The Deputy makes constructive and fair points. We obviously have to put the infrastructure in place to enable the housing capacity to be delivered. That is a statement of fact.
“What the Deputy saw yesterday was another piece of the jigsaw in terms of approval for a sectoral investment plan for transport under the national development plan, NDP. This is a very significant increase with regard to a number of projects.
“We will be in a position to deliver approximately €9.7 billion in investment in roads, protecting and renewing existing roads, delivering many new national road projects, trying to mitigate seasonal and climate-related impacts, rolling out electric vehicle, EV, charging infrastructure and delivering new strategic regional roads.”
The list is “not exhaustive” added Deputy Harris. “It lists a number of projects that will be delivered. There will also be an annual Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII, capital plan and we expect that plan to come early in the new year.”
“I know that when you publish a list it very quickly becomes about not just what is on the list but what is not on it. That is why I know the Minister for Transport, while welcoming the sectoral investment plan, was clear, as is all of the Government, that this is not exhaustive but it is about moving forward with some degree of clarity.
“There will be many further opportunities, including in relation to the TII capital plan. We will work very constructively with Laois Deputies in this House and also with the local authority.”
“There is no point in the Department of Local Government, under the Minister, Deputy James Browne, publishing lists like this and projecting huge growth for a county unless the infrastructure goes in along with it,” replied Deputy Brian Stanley when he got his opportunity to respond.
“I did not mention the need for health centres, schools – the courthouse in Portlaoise as well, by the way – and many other things, such as flood relief schemes, that are needed in the county.
“If we are going to have sustainable development, we have to take transport into account. At the moment, with regard to the N80, trucks from the west and everywhere else have to wind their way through the narrow streets of Mountmellick and around the junction at Pearse Street, Patrick Street and the Square, which the Tánaiste saw for himself.
“In Portlaoise, they have to go in under the railway bridge, which they sometimes get caught under, and in by the roundabout in the centre of the town. The road from the Mountmellick Road across has to be connected with the motorway on the north-eastern side of Portlaoise.
“I appeal to the Tánaiste to go back to the drawing board with this.”
