The mother of a woman with down syndrome has said the planned Cork to Limerick motorway will destroy her daughter's sensory garden.
It comes as there were over 40,000 interactions from the public and stakeholders recorded by the team involved on the project.
The N/M20 road is a key element in Project Ireland 2040 - but numerous residents' groups have formed in opposition to the plans, which were first presented back in 2008.
The group is currently examining the route selection for the roadway.
Mary O'Connor, who lives three miles from Blarney, told Lunchtime Live the issue is very personal for her.
"It is proposed to run through my garden, and it's running through the trees that my grandmother grew over 100 years ago.
"And the significance of these trees is they have a sensory garden within the trees because my daughter has down syndrome.
"She's 19, she has sensory processing disorder - and this means that she has sensitivity to light and sensitivity to noise.
"The end result of this is it affects her well-being and her general ability to regulate herself.
"So if you think of it: 53,000 cars will be passing at the end of our garden, and these will be affecting my daughter's well-being".
Lisa Geary, who lives in Rahan just outside Mallow, has said it will change their landscape.
"It's going to have a huge impact on us here - for starters, it will cross the Blackwater River with a massive widespan bridge.
"The Blackwater has been deemed a special area of conservation; it will continue on then up on massive stilts up through a beautiful greenfield valley, where it will cut a farm in two - and countless other land and homes being taken by compulsory purchase order.
"It will close a riding school that primarily supports children and adults with sensory difficulties, and many on the ASD spectrum.
"And it will be 200 to 250 metres from our local national school here."
Older people 'left out'
The project team said as well as the virtual consultation, they fielded 756 online or telephone consultations, over 1,000 feedback formsand 1,100 e-mails.
But Lisa said she believes older people in the area may have missed out on the online public consultation.
"I'd love to see the demographic behind those figures - what are the average age of the people that are online?
"I can guarantee you it isn't any of our senior citizens.
"An awful lot of those people, our older people in particular, were left out of this process.
"The fact is many of them don't even have a smartphone, let alone a broadband connection.
"So they could see no maps, and you need your map to understand what is going on with the project".
'Perfectly viable option'
And Dee Hosford, chair of Whitechurch Residents Association, said: "As a group we're very much opposed to a motorway, because there are other options out there.
"We're very, very aware that there has to be improvements in the connectivity between Cork and Limerick.
"But the problem being [sic] is there's a perfectly viable option there already that they're not taking.
"If you look at the map, there's literally a straight line going from Limerick to Cork and that's the new motorway.
"And it's 95% greenfield sites just straight down the middle.
"One of the route options was an upgrade of the existing N20 - the existing Cork to Limerick road - an upgrade of that.
"We feel [that] is much more cost-effective, the road does need to be upgraded anyway, and they're not really even taking care of what's down there at the moment".
Dee said the plans would also see "four roads going to the exact same way".
"To me that's completely non-sensical, they're not using joined up thinking."
A public meeting on the road has been planned for next Thursday in Whitechruch Community Centre.
