An updated National Roads Authority (NRA) study has found that there is merit in constructing an orbital route linking Drogheda, Navan and Naas, Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey told the Dáil.
He said that as part of the study various possible route corridors were examined in detail.
"A corridor linking Drogheda to Navan to Naas was identified as the optimum route having regard to the policy objectives set out in the various policy documents on the route.
"There are no plans to extend the route through the Wicklow mountains to Arklow or Gorey." Liz McManus (Labour, Wicklow) said there was considerable concern in Wicklow, Wexford and Carlow about the Government's proposal for an outer orbital route which ended at Naas.
"The southeast has already experienced certain difficulties in economic development and employment. Does the Minister agree that this area would lose out badly if it is not included in this major infrastructural development?"
Mr Dempsey stressed that the Government was not proposing the route yet. "It is for consideration in the Programme for Government. The report that was commissioned by the NRA is still under consideration."
Mr Dempsey said there were technical difficulties in trying to get through the barrier of the Wicklow mountains.
"I do not accept that if the outer orbital is provided, and the remaining leg is left out, this will cause a major disadvantage to the southeast from a roads point of view.
"There will be two major routes to the southeast along the east coast and to Waterford. The southeast will be well served by a good road network."
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