'Joke' that Portlaiose is 'completely choked' rails Laois representative

A Portlaoise ring road first sought during the Celtic Tiger must be put back on the agenda after it didn't appear in the recently revised nationon al plan, according to a Laois Government TD.

Willie Aird insists that the proposed Portlaoise Northern Orbital Route must be delivered just as Brian Cowen engineered a major Tullamore bypass because Dep Aird insists the town's roads and streets are 'choked' with traffic.

Dep Aird raised the issue of the road, which, if built, would take N80 traffic away from the town centre via a route to the north of Portlaoise. Laois County Council originally envisaged that the project would be funded by development levies charged on developers building housing estates that would access the road.

However, this approach was abandoned after the economy collapsed when the Celtic Tiger property bubble burst. However, the ambition to build the road never fell by the wayside and was later added to the National Development Plan, only to be removed from that also at a later date.

Dep Aird raised the issue with National Transport Authority officials at a recent committee meeting in the Dáil.

"I am very frustrated regarding Portlaoise from my years as a county councillor. We had the Portlaoise Northern Orbital Route, PNOR, on the (National Development) Plan, and it was taken off the Plan," he said.

The Fine Gael TD was disappointed again late in 2025 when it not reappear on the revised National Development Plan that was committed to in the programme for Government. 

"I was waiting for it to pop out of this magic envelope that was opened up recently, but there was no sign of it at all," he said.

He described the traffic situation in Portlaoise.

"It is a total joke because we are completely choked in Portlaoise," he declared. MORE BELOW PHOTO.

Willie Aird in Dáil Éireann.

He said traffic avoids the town, but this means heavy vehicles will go through Emo, passing the two schools. He said lorries can bypass the heart of the town on a road where schools are located.

He said the absence of a Government committment to the project is uncomfortable, but he wanted answers.

"Not alone is there zero money, but it is embarrassing...Who actually sits down and makes the decision not to give anything to Portlaoise? Obviously, someone does not like us," he said.

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The TD contrasted the situation to Tullamore where he said that when Brian Cowen was Taoiseach, got a "complete bypass" for the Offaly town.

"What did we get? Nothing. It is time for the NTA to look at us and give us something in Portlaoise. We are the single biggest expanding town in Leinster at the moment. That is no reflection on Tullamore or anything, but please do not choke us," said Dep Aird.

The NTA told the meeting of the Joint Committee on Infrastructure and National Development Plan Delivery that the Department of Transport has ultimate approval over the funding of the route.