‘Just build the bloody road!’ - Carlow councillors ‘blue in the face’ over relief road

Carlow councillors have been left “blue in the face” over the lack of a relief road in Tullow, a council meeting has heard.

The issue was raised at the February plenary meeting of Carlow County Council.

During a discussion on the Annual Service Delivery Plan, independent councillor Will Paton expressed his frustration that the Tullow Outer Relief Road was not mentioned in the plan.

Cllr Paton said: “There are eight mentions of Tullow in the plan. Unfortunately, the one that I am looking for is not there and that’s the Tullow Outer Relief Road.

“No matter what you do in Tullow, unless the issue of traffic through the town is addressed and is addressed sooner rather than later, we are probably at very little trying to achieve other objectives.

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“The town is choked with cars, with vehicular traffic and large traffic going through it. I’m disappointed it’s not even mentioned in the plan.”

He said that he is “like a thorn in the side” of Coilín O'Reilly, Chief Executive of Carlow County Council, due to the number of times he has raised it.

He continued: “I certainly will be very disappointed if you haven’t got it as a high priority.

“The first five or six issues in Tullow are the relief road, the relief road, the relief road, the relief road.

“The rest of the issues are much smaller and we’re not going to develop as a town until the outer relief road is addressed.

“I’m disappointed it’s not in it, I welcome what is in it but the one thing that we really need to see in Tullow is missing from the plan.”

These sentiments were echoed by Fine Gael councillor Fergal Browne who compared the situation to those in other counties.

Cllr Browne said: “Maybe we should avoid using ‘inner relief road’ and call them ‘distributor roads’ because I’m blue in the face seeing our friends in Tullamore welcoming great news on distributor roads being built.

“In Portlaoise [they’re] seeing loads of houses being built up. Like ultimately we don’t care what it’s called, just build the bloody road.”

He questioned why certain infrastructure projects in the county, particularly roads, are taking so long to be constructed.

“How has road building gone so complicated when it’s been done for thousands of years?

“To get a simple stretch done now, that could make a huge difference in every town, whether it’s Carlow or Tullow - it’s mind boggling.”

In response to the two councillors, Chief Executive Coilín O'Reilly explained the status of plans for the relief road.

Mr O’Reilly said: “You remember we took it to a point. We applied to the Department of Transport with a feasibility [study] to progress it.

“It wasn’t approved to be progressed, so our ability at that stage becomes curtailed.”

At the end of the discussion, councillors unanimously approved the Annual Service Delivery Plan for 2026.