Plans to fast-track the Adare Bypass to ensure it is ready for the Ryder Cup in 2027 are ‘not just about golfers’, the Transport Minister has said.

Eamon Ryan will today ask his Cabinet colleagues to accelerate the project with golf’s showpiece tournament due to land in the Limerick town in just under four years’ time.

The bypass is seen as the answer to longstanding gridlock issues in the town and judicial reviews against it were withdrawn earlier this month clearing the way for it to move forward.

It is hoped the project will transform the quality of life for people living in the town and for those forced to travel through it on their way to Limerick and Kerry.

“We have to be quick now to get it built in time.”

Plans to fast-track the Adare Bypass for the 2027 Ryder Cup are ‘not just about golfers’ - @EamonRyan pic.twitter.com/b7dlwJ9Gln

— NewstalkFM (@NewstalkFM) November 21, 2023

Speaking outside Cabinet this morning, Minister Ryan said the bypass will bring one of the country’s biggest bottlenecks to an end.

“We want to fast-track the Adare bypass,” he said. “We want it built before the Ryder Cup for obvious reasons in terms of making sure that works well.

“But also, it is a bottleneck, it is where everyone gets caught.

“What I have been saying on roads is we are spending a lot of money on roads - and we will be spending a lot more - but we really do need to prioritise the bypasses so that towns can recover and can benefit and also people aren’t stuck in traffic going in and out of towns.

“So, the Adare bypass is a really good example of that and I hope my Cabinet colleagues agree on it today – we have to be quick now to get it built in time for the Ryder Cup.”

Team Europe’s Rory McIlroy at the Ryder Cup 2021 at Whistling Straits in Kohler, Wisconsin, USA, 24-09-2021. Image: Tom Russo/Sportsfile

He said the plan is about more than golf.

“I don’t think it is just for golfers,” he said.

“I mean, it is the main road coming out of Limerick and it is a huge bottleneck so the Ryder Cup gives us a timeline we have to build it by – but that’s not the reason it’s being built.”

Limerick Chamber has already warned that the bypass must be built in time for the 2027 tournament.

It is one element of the Foynes to Limerick Road Project which is a 35km road connecting Limerick to the port of Foynes.