'It's unacceptable': Calls made for action to be taken at 'very dangerous' Offaly junction

Calls have been made for immediate action to be carried out at a ‘very dangerous’ junction in the Faithful County at the September meeting of Offaly County Council at Áras an Chontae in Tullamore on Monday afternoon, September 21.

Tullamore Municipal District Councillor Neil Feighery brought forward the motion asking for the council to address the serious safety issues at the Idle Corner junction on the N52 in conjunction with Transport Infrastructure Ireland.

The junction in question is located is between Blueball and Kilcormac and straddles the Birr and Tullamore Municipal Districts.

Councillor Feighery stated: “Since 2022, I have led a campaign in collaboration with local residents to work with the engineering team at Offaly County Council to develop a design scheme that will address the very dangerous nature of this junction.”

“The engineers have developed a number of design options with the full consent of local landowners in terms of potential land take required to improve the very dangerous sightlines.”

He continued: “I have worked with the system as recommended by the senior officials and I completely understand the resource challenges that TII have.”

“However, I was advised that priority had to be given to the dangerous junction on the N52 at the High Road in Durrow which rightly received a lot of discussion in this chamber.”

The Fine Gael representative outlined that he was told that the Idle Corner junction would be addressed after the conclusion of works in Durrow. “I was assured that the focus and the investment of TII would be directed towards the Idle Corner project thereafter.”

“Recently the soundings that I have received have given me much cause for concern that this much needed scheme is being stalled. Accident data from the Idle Corner junction is available for all to see and thankfully there have been no fatalities or serious injuries reported in recent years.”

Councillor Feighery illustrated his own familiarity with the junction and is adamant that the area needs to be looked at urgently.

“As someone who grew up 1km from the junction, I have a keen awareness of the number of accidents that have taken place, with residents' boundary walls, hedges and fences repeatedly damaged over the years.”

He added: “The Road Safety Authority has recently produced an interactive map of road collisions covering the 9-year period between 2016 to 2024. This data shows that there have been numerous accidents. Road users are running the gauntlet every time this junction is used particularly when vision is hampered due to poor weather conditions.”

The accompanying data revealed that a series of accidents have taken place at the junction throughout that period. This included collisions in February 2019, September 2019, March 2022 and July 2022.

Although there was injuries recorded in these accidents, none were deemed to be serious except for the one that occurred in March 2022 which caused a serious injury and two minor injuries among those involved.

Cllr Feighery concluded his motion by highlighting poor Sightlines as the main problem for the repeated incidents at the junction.

As the motion was introduced at the meeting of the elected members, Cllr Feighery invited a group of 6 residents living near the Idle Corner into the chamber to be present for the matter being discussed.

He pointed out that residents attending in the public gallery for the issue is a testament to the concern and strength of feeling that local people have on the matter and they are eager to see action being carried out on that junction.”

Cllr Feighery described the ongoing situation for residents at the busy junction in detail. He said: “Thankfully, there have been no fatalities in recent years but the residents here have had to experience the frightening situation where boundary walls, hedges and fences have been repeatedly damaged. The real problem is sightlines and speed.”

He finished by calling on the TII to amend the issue. “I think there is an obligation on TII, who is a national authority, to address the sightlines. I can see this issue dragging on but It's been going on too long already.”

“We need to see progress here. This cannot be not brought any further. That's the point of my motion. You just can't see with the sightlines so I think we have to see the action. We need all the resources and pressure to put on TII to try and get this delivered.”

Councillor John Leahy showed his support for the motion and agreed that action must be taken. He said: “I want to start by welcoming the residents but it's regrettable that they have to come into the chamber for this issue to be highlighted. I also want to thank Councillor Feighery who's taken the lead on this from day one and has kept members updated.

The Birr Municipal District Cathaoirleach remarked: This is actually the most dangerous junction on the N52. We have traffic travelling at 100km plus and people are turning left and right as well as trying to get out onto the main road.”

“We have a situation where landowners and neighbouring people have decided to give up pieces of their own land in order to make it safer. We have people trying to do the best they can for their families, for their communities.”

He continued: “It's a very, very busy junction, we've all seen it and passed it. Speed and sightlines are the big thing here with sightlines being the most important thing. TII are very quick to react when we put in an application for land development but they're not so quick when we want them to do something so they can't have it every way. Action has to been taken.”

Councillor Eleanor Clendennen also endorsed the motion stating: “This is a matter of public safety, work needs to happen to get the issue resolved because we don't want to wait for another serious accident or even a fatality so if the council could write to the TII and try to move it on.”

Offaly County Council Cathaoirleach Declan Harvey offered his support on the issue as well before introducing Offaly County Council Director of Services, Paul McLoughlin to provide an update from the council’s perspective on the matter.

He detailed: “In 2025, there was significant progress made to develop a safety scheme for the Idle Corner Junction. There was a traffic analysis of the junction which in turn created four possible design solutions for the junction and this progress was with the landowners' support to refer design to be developed in conjunction with the TII.”

“Meetings were held as landowners effectively proposed a preferred design option and a verbal agreement of principles was reached on land acquisition and required accommodation to facilitate those works. Moving on to early 2026, TII issued a report identifying high-collision locations for Offaly with five locations listed but the Idle Corner was not among them despite the concerns raised.”

The Director of services further explained: “It’s the priority of TII to concentrate available resources on the high collision locations and that is where they are carrying both the resources and safety allocations and making provision for interventions.”

“Subsequently no major progress has been made to date directly in 2026. However, It is the intention of the Offaly County Council to progress it as a high-collision location as we have the local knowledge here.”

Councillor Neil Feighery responded to the latest update as he admitted: “That doesn't fill me with too much enthusiasm and it is disappointing. They are running off data that is based on the last number of years when our accident data is clear and dates back to a particular number of accidents in 2019. At the very least, there are a number of small measures that could be done to try and improve the sightlines.”

He added: “It is really disappointing, frustrating and infuriating because I know when I travel that junction day in day out how dangerous it is and for some manager up in Dublin to be saying that the accident data isn't good enough is very disappointing.”

“TII have a responsibility and a duty to the people that use this junction, the community and the people with young families that are sitting here today that are afraid that their boundary wall is going to be smashed in when the kids are playing in front lawn. It is just unacceptable.”

Birr Municipal District Councillor Peter Ormond also gave his reaction to the motion. He said: “I would just like to support the other Councillors and what they are looking for here today. I think from what Paul McLoughlin has said, this is not going to change in the next couple of months or at least next year.”

“I think we have to go and tackle the matrix which TII are using for these works because are they waiting for somebody to die before it becomes an issue. We have been fortunate in the past during the number of accidents that some of the injuries were only minor but those are still accidents for everyone involved.”

The Fianna Fáil representative continued: “If someone dies at that junction then it goes up in the estimation of TII and that's not just good enough because we are all here to encourage the people we represent and the people sitting in with us here today have an issue so I think we have a duty to go back and highlight this at the very highest level in terms of ministerial that we need funding for this project.”

“This project has been bought into by all the stakeholders, the local authority, the land owners, the community and the only one that is missing is TII.”

The topic was concluded with Neil Feighery asking Cathaoirleach Declan Harvey for the TII to be invited into the chamber at a future meeting to discuss the issue at the Idle Corner along with their matrix for deciding what areas are in need of works.