COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

South Dublin County Council Crest

MEETING OF CLONDALKIN, NEWCASTLE, RATHCOOLE, SAGGART AND BRITTAS AREA COMMITTEE

Wednesday, January 21, 2026

QUESTION NO. 5

QUESTION: Councillor E. Ó Broin

To ask the Chief Executive if there is sufficient population in the village of Rathcoole to justify them pursuing funding for the construction of a grade separated junction that would allow vehicular traffic to exit the village onto the N7 inbound at the Poitín Stil?

REPLY:

Currently, South Dublin County Council (SDCC) is preparing a Local Transport Plan for the western area of the SDCC local authority.  A section of this plan will deal with improving travel access to Rathcoole and Saggart.  

There an engineering process to systematically go through before any final recommendations can be made.  I outline some of these steps  in the following paragraph:

Local Transport Plan Outputs:

Establish baseline travel demand at key locations. Identify the zoned areas for future growth at key locations, and calculate the increases in transport demand for all travel modes.  Add these demand growths to the existing trips currently generated.  Model the trips generated onto the existing transport network.  Include the planned major projects like Bus connects, Cycle South Dublin and TII proposals into the model.  Identify, the key gaps in transport infrastructure required.  Calculate a phased timeline for delivery of each scheme. Have a low growth, medium growth and high growth suite of proposals. Develop a first draft list of proposals.  Ensure that these proposals are aligned with known Environmental constraints. Appropriate Assessment and Screening reports.  Map up the first draft of proposals ready for the second round of public consultations.

Secondary Consultations:

Carry out a public consultation process on the first draft of transport proposals.   Shortlisting and refinement of proposals post the round 2 of public consultation.

Transport Plan Finalisation: 

Final Draft of Transport scheme proposals with estimated costs for each scheme. A table of proposed schemes (projects) and a phased delivery timeframe for each. Final mapping of transport proposals.  

Funding:

Then funding for the preferred projects will need to be sought. Larger projects such as major intersections to the National Road network, will need to be agreed by the Department of Transport, the National Transport Authority and Transport Infrastructure Ireland.

Summary:

Therefore, it is premature to predict transport solutions for Rathcoole, or to seek funding for any proposals at this stage.