Plans for a tolled motorway between Cork and Limerick have opened up a debate about the route - and whether it is needed at all.
The Cork to Limerick N20 is to be upgraded to a full motorway, improving travel times between the two cities by around 30 minutes.
The project will also have "up to 100km of active travel infrastructure" such as cycling and park and ride facilities for public transport.
The project has been costed at approximately €2 billion.
Cork-Limerick Alliance Group Chairman Brian Hyde told Newstalk Breakfast he doesn't believe a motorway is necessary.
"This would mean building a completely new road, taking thousands of hectares of land, splitting farms, destroying people's homes and businesses to build a motorway," he said.
"[A motorway] has a capacity of 57,000 vehicles a day - the number of vehicles actually travelling directly between Limerick and Cork is 3,000 vehicles a day and rest of the traffic is inter-urban traffic.
"While we believe the N20 must be upgraded for safety reasons and time improvements between the two cities, what is needed on the N20 is bypasses of Charleville and Buttevant and the opening of the Northern Relief Road in Mallow town.
"There's no justification to build a motorway".
The planned N20 motorway between Cork and Limerick. Image: Limerick City and County CouncilFianna Fáil Councillor for Bandon-Kinsale Gillian Coughlan told the show they need to futureproof the region.
"I believe we really have to be ambitious with population growth and with a vision for regional development for the south-west," she said.
"I believe a motorway really is very important to connect the second and third largest cities in this country.
"The time of just tinkering around with roads is gone - we must be more ambitious, we must scale up".
Cllr Coughlan said a motorway will also help smaller towns to grow.
"The way in which this is being planned with the transport hubs along the route will provide an extraordinary opportunity for those small towns and villages to grow and to serve the cities of Limerick and Cork," she said.
"I think it's an extraordinarily ambitious plan and I welcome it wholeheartedly".
Cllr Coughlan said there needs to be a "counter-balance to Dublin".
'Limerick and Waterford'
Mr Hyde said while he welcomes regional development, he believes there is a better approach.
"The most effective way is to build a new N24 between Limerick and Waterford and connecting into the M8 at Cahir," he said.
"This would allow for effective linkature between the cities at a fraction of the cost of what they're proposing.
"When you take into account that this motorway is going to into Blackpool, which is a bottleneck, our major industries and our deepwater port is on the eastern side of the city.
"So we're going to have to build a link between Blackpool and the interchange to get access to our industrial base and also the deepwater port".
Cllr Coughlan said an N20 motorway "will open up the south-west region" for industry and connectivity and 'rejects' the proposal of building a road from Limerick to Waterford.
The next steps will see a consultation opened to the public and stakeholders with a planning application scheduled for 2025.
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