N22 - Macroom to Ovens [postponed until post 2027]

This project was long-fingered long before Eamon Ryan took office, though. It was originally Ovens-Baile Bhuirne, but was split in order to prevent this eastern stretch blocking the vital safety work needed further west.

My take is that there are some well funded interests along this route who would rather not have a motorway built along it, and that previous governments, just as this one, decided to put their efforts into projects that would not face obstruction at every turn.

Yes. N22 is safe, but slow, while N25 between Waterford Port and the New Ross bypass is just dangerous (the rest of N25 is pretty safe.. even Kinsalebeg).

There are still dangerous stretches of National Primary routes that should be fixed before we spend a cent on making people's trips faster elsewhere; and the secondary network is even more in need of attention.

Induced demand meets a shortage of accommodation in Cork city.

Going west or east?

I'd also wonder if there are people living to the west of Macroom who used to work in the Killarney direction, now accepting jobs in the Cork area because now Macroom itself isn't a terrible barrier anymore.

Closure coming up for 19-23 Feb:

Haha yes why did we build a bypass when we could have built a border wall!