M24 Motorway?

My reaction is no. I'm a fairly regular user of the N24 and I just don't see the merit. I'm not entirely sold on the M20 either though, but I'm certainly more for it than either an M24 or M25. I do like the idea, however, of combining the M8 with the M20 to get maximum use out of the M8, say from Dunkettle to junction 13, with the M20 branching off to Limerick. But as has been pointed out here plenty of times, the current N20 would still need substantial realignments and upgrading.

The N24...is not as crucial a route as it first seems to be. It passes through some stagnant one-horse towns and villages. I suspect very few journeys are made on it daily from Waterford to Limerick. That said, it too needs to be realigned in several places, but wide single carriageway would suffice in my opinion.

Lads, N24 is to be upgraded to 2+2 / HQDC along its entire length (a la N4 Sligo to Longford).

You will pick up on this from the development plans.


When this will happen god only knows, but at least it is a plan.

I would say no need for 2+2 either.

Furet wrote: »

I would say no need for 2+2 either.

I'd say no too, but I guess its the old adage here, if you're doing a big (Limerick - Waterford) S2, you might as well make it a 2+2.

Bards wrote: »

my whole point, If I were from Cork or Dublin we wouldn't be having this discussion. I would have been able to point out that Sligo wasn't a city, without recourse, but just becasue I publish where I am from, (unlike others who just say "Ireland" ) I am being accused of being parochial. This is not fair, and not right.

Not true. It doesn't matter where you say you are from. What matters here are the perceived delusions of grandeur you seem to have for Waterford as an urban area. You seem to want parity of esteem for all the cities (such as when you place Waterford on a par with Limerick and Galway).
But not all cities are equal.
While Limerick and Galway are also very small in an EU context (as is Cork), they are considerably larger than Waterford. So they are not equal in size, they are not equal economically, they are not equal in importance, and they cannot be equal in terms of infrastructure. You are drawing false parallels, and you refuse to see that. And, with respect, it is childish foot stomping to wail about the unfairness of it all.

Why do you say that Waterford is an honourary City ( where's your facts?) If that is the case therefore Limerick & Galway are both honorary cities too. We all have city councils, City Mayors, Galway even has the same number of city councillors as Waterford

I should not have asserted that Waterford is an honourary city. I should have written that that's the most that could be said for it, if someone wanted to argue the point. Waterford received its city charter from a Norman king in the 1100s, back in the day when settlements of 10,000 were considered massive. I hope you can appreciate that humanity's sense of scale has changed a lot since then. Somehow Waterford managed to retain its historic title as a city - but not - obviously - its importance. I view this titular retention as an honour - a tip of the hat, if you will, to former times. And there is nothing wrong with that.

I live in Ireland, I live within Irish Law, what is the point of having a statute book if we can have a la carte laws, and are allowed to pick and choose what laws we like and don't like.

See, this is a straw man. Irish Law doesn't have anything to do with the decision to provide certain forms of infrastructure, which is what this discussion is supposed to be about.* Of course you can keep the title 'city' behind the word 'Waterford'. No-one has suggested taking that away. I myself refer to Waterford as a 'city' in every day speech too; but economically, demographically, financially, culturally, infrastructurally, I know that it isn't a city in the modern sense of the word. (I mean, If Bono received an honourary doctorate in Law from Trinity College, I'd hope you wouldn't hire him to defend you in a murder trial.) In terms of the provision of infrastructure, population and demand should be the only deciding factors. Whether a place is listed as a 'city' or not on some piece of paper does not matter. That is the issue that you seem to struggle with Bards: Nomenclature Does Not Matter. Demographics do. You need to acknowledge that.

The bottom line is that your reaction seems to be primarily emotional rather than rational. You seem to take it personally. In your heart of hearts, can you say that that isn't true?

*And no, this discussion has not veered off topic. It is very much on topic. We cannot discuss whether or not to build an M24 without addressing the numbers of people that would use it, and this in turn means that questions of scale and questions of national importance must be raised. This has naturally offended certain people, but that is their problem, because their reaction is emotional and irrational, rather than strategic.