Infrastructure Funding Boost For County Wexford Welcomed

A 24 million euro funding boost for Enniscorthy has been welcomed by a local councillor.

Housing Minister James Browne announced funding for a link road worth 20 million euro between Milehouse and the Moyne as part of the Housing Infrastructure Investment Fund this week.

Another link road at Turret Rocks will also be funded to the tune of 4 million euro.

Fine Gael councillor Pat Kehoe says this a great development for the town.

"The Milehouse Road at the minute is quite congested from 8 in the morning until 9:30am and then again in the early afternoon.

"(This new road) will open up for people who are accessing the housing estates from the back so that includes Greenville Court and the Maderia so they have direct access to an outer link road.

"This will make it easier to get out to the N30 or the motorway so it'll be transformational for the area really."

Minister Browne says these schemes will make it easier to build houses in the town.

And Councillor Kehoe says it couldn't arrive a moment too soon:

"The money is there so the next thing is to get the diggers in and get going.

"Over the next four or five years we're looking to grow the population of Enniscorthy from 14,000 to something like 20 or 21,000.

"I think over the next number of years, Enniscorthy is going to be improved greatly."

Housing projects in Gorey also got a major boost this week as a link road is set to be established in the town.

Over 10 million euro has been promised by the Housing Minister for the St Waleran’s Strategic Transport Link, seen as a key stumbling block for the long awaited St Waleran's housing development.

It's expected the road will unlock lands for around 820 houses in the area.

Chairman of the Gorey Kilmuckridge Muncipal District Donal Kenny is welcoming the news and says it massively helps their growth plans:

"We're almost as big as Wexford at this stage so Gorey is growing and growing.

"With this new ring road, it's going to relieve a lot of traffic congestion, certainly.

"Even out the Ballytegan road there's going to be 8 or 900 houses in that area so it's a good announcement for that area and for Gorey in general."

It's hoped this key roads project will be up and running very soon as people in the area have been waiting since 2019.

But Councillor Kenny is warning it could be a while yet before we see any concrete action on this:

"There will be a lot of planning which has to be done now which can be tedious at times.

"We'd be delighted to see it moving on at a speed of knots but it just doesn't happen like that.

"Having said that, maybe in the next year hopefully there will be a big push on it and they'll keep going as hard as they can on it."

That report was funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.