Multibillion-euro projects to support rural areas, build new hospitals and to fund start-up businesses will be unveiled today under the long-awaited national development plan.

The lack of a motorway between Cork and Limerick is the “single biggest gap in Irish infrastructure” and planning needs to be kick- started urgently, the boss of the Construction Industry Federation (CIF) has said.

The agriculture minister, who has an office on one of the country’s worst bottlenecks, has met with road building chiefs amid fears work on the long-awaited €160m N22 bypass could be delayed by up to five years.

Work will not commence on a Macroom bypass or new Cork-Ringaskiddy road until at least 2022, as priority is being given to upgrading the Dunkettle/Jack Lynch Tunnel interchange.

The development of Cork and the southern region is being held back by the failure to start essential infrastructural projects, according to the Construction Industry Federation.

The Government’s upcoming capital investment programme must provide for a number of regionally and nationally important infrastructure projects in Cork over the coming years.

Pressure is mounting on Transport Minister Paschal Donohoe to prioritise the multi-million upgrade of the vital N28 artery linking Cork and the city’s sprawling port operations in Ringaskiddy.

Despite protestations by some public representatives, county council management in Kerry has declined to reveal details of settlement of a major cost overrun on two bypass roads.

Lobbying is being intensified to get the green light for a long-awaited bypass on the N22 road linking counties Cork and Kerry.

At the current rate of allocations, it will take at least three years before enough money is made available to secure land needed to construct a badly needed bypass in mid-Cork.

Councillors will get a chance midweek to press Transport Minister Paschal Donohoe about the importance of building a bypass to relieve congestion in a grid-locked Cork town.

Recently appointed Transport Minister Paschal Donohoe is being lobbied to get work started on building the long-awaited Macroom town bypass.

YOUR report of last week’s meeting of Kerry County Council treated us to a re-run of the ‘environmentalist and the snail’ story (Snail blamed for delays to Cork-Kerry road plan, June 22). We were told a judicial review on behalf of the snail by “environmentalists” was holding up the road.

KERRY county manager Tom Curran has promised to maintain pressure on the National Roads Authority (NRA) and Cork County Council to ensure work on the long-awaited Macroom bypass road goes ahead.

IN future, the private sector may have to help Ireland’s largest local authority fund vital projects such as water and sewerage schemes.