Business leaders in the south-east yesterday pledged their support to a campaign to have the proposed Dublin-Waterford motorway or dual carriageway routed through Carlow and Kilkenny.
Politicians from the two counties lobbied the Taoiseach this week amid fears the National Roads Authority will recommend that the highway be routed down the east coast.
With a decision from the NRA imminent, the chambers of commerce of Waterford, Kilkenny and Carlow held a joint meeting yesterday at which it was agreed the N9/N10 route, through the latter two counties, would best serve the economic interests of the region.
The issue has provoked a political storm in the past week, with Carlow interests strongly critical of Kilkenny-based TD John McGuinness, who represents both counties in the Dail, for suggesting the road should bypass Carlow to the west.
Carlow business leaders say such a bypass would take the route away from Co Carlow and into Laois, which already has the advantage of Objective 1 status and access to two other national primary routes.
Mr McGuinness said last night, however, there had been a "smokescreen of misinformation" about his position. He wanted to ensure that neither Kilkenny nor Carlow were bypassed by the highway, which is to be completed by 2006 as part of the National Development Plan.
He had been asked to support unreservedly an eastern bypass of Carlow, which would dissect the county in two, and he was not prepared to do that. His support for a western bypass was because that would be closer to the town, but his opinion was not "carved in stone".
"These were only opinions and reservations. They were opening shots in what I hoped would be a constructive, wide-ranging debate," he said.
Mr McGuinness was part of a joint Carlow-Kilkenny Fianna Fail delegation, led by Kilkenny County Council chairman Mr Jimmy Brett, which met the Taoiseach on Tuesday. Mr Ahern was presented with a declaration supporting the N9 route, signed by the chairmen of Waterford, Kilkenny, Carlow and South Tipperary county councils, as well as the mayors of Waterford, Kilkenny and Clonmel.
The chief executive of the National Roads Authority, Mr Michael Tobin, said this week the cost of developing the various routes being examined would be a factor in the NRA's considerations.
