The announcement of capital funding for the long awaited Sallins by-pass and M7 upgrade projects is welcome. Having campaigned strenuously for years on this issue, these road projects will bring a dramatic improvement to the lives of people living in Sallins and travelling through as well as the thousands who use the M7 everyday. A by-pass for Sallins was first talked about in the late 1990s. After many stop-start attempts at the much needed project, I welcome the announcement today of funding for this. However, as we’ve seen many times before, we won’t be sure until the actual roadworks under way. The Government had already stalled this project at the start of the year.

All the design and planning stages are completed and the Department of Transport is telling us that land procurement will commence in 2016. It is expected for the projects to take 26 months to complete once started. So far we’ve little other detail regarding the Government’s new capital programme and I would hope that the Sallins by-pass and M7 upgrade is treated as a priority matter. Traffic in Sallins and the wider Naas area is reaching crisis point and I would hope that this is on the Minister’s radar. These projects cannot commence soon enough.