Ireland's first motorway service area to open on M1

Ireland's first official motorway service area will open today at Lusk on the M1 Motorway in Co Dublin.

The service area was developed by an Irish-owned consortium at a cost of €70m. It will be run by one of the investors, the forecourt retailer Applegreen.

The consortium will open two more service areas in the coming weeks - one on the M1 at Castlebellingham in Louth, and another on the M4 at Enfield in Meath

Joe Barrett of Applegreen said the service areas would create a total of 300 new jobs.