Members of South Tipperary County Council are to meet in emergency session on the eve of the local elections in a bid to force the County Manager to provide two additional access roads from Cashel's new by-pass.
The news coincided with long traffic tailbacks on the main Dublin-Cork road in the town yesterday as 200 local people protested at the omission of the two slip roads by undertaking a three-mile march on the main N8 route.
The Fianna Fáil Chairman of the Council, Dr Seán McCarthy, said the local business sector was incensed that the two slip roads, included in the original plans, had been subsequently omitted, claiming that trade and tourism would be severely damaged.
Dr McCarthy, along with Fine Gael's Catherine McLoughlin and Jack Crowe and Independent Tom Wood, issued a resolution under Section 104 of the 2001 Local Government Act calling for the additional access routes to be re-incorporated in the plans for the overall by-pass development.
They need to get nine of the 26 councillors to vote in favour of the resolution in order to force the County Manager, Ned O'Connor, to include the two slip roads.
A meeting between local interests, Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, and officials of the National Roads Authority has been arranged for later this month, according to Cian O'Carroll, the PRO of the Cashel Chamber of Trade and Tourism, which organised yesterday's protest.
Mr O'Carroll said there was great support for the move by the four Cashel councillors and he was optimistic that the resolution would be carried.