BY NOEL O’DRISCOLL
UP to 100 jobs may be lost as a direct result of the opening of the new stretch of the M9 motorway according to local business people who are pleading for a link road to be provided.
One business owner told the Kildare Nationalist that he will have to let up to 50% of his staff go, such has been the dramatic effect that the new road has already had on his business.
Another business owner said that he will have to cut staff working hours in a bid to keep jobs.
Seamus O’Reilly of O’Reilly’s Service Station and Tom Wall of Walls in Kilgowan said that they have been highlighting the need for a slip road for the past few years but to no avail.
Mr O’Reilly said that the situation for his staff is looking bleak. “We have seen a big drop off in business in the past few days. I have 25 staff employed here at the moment and I would expect to have to let between 10 and 15 of those go. It has taken a long time to get our staffing levels to this point and I am in a situation that one person is better than the next. They are all excellent and we work hand in glove as a team. It’s hard to know who should stay and who should go, but it is something I will unfortunately have to do. I expect that somewhere between 75 and 100 jobs will be lost in the area as a direct result of the new road,” he said.
Mr O’Reilly said that he and others in the area haven’t been listened to in their pleas for a slip road. “The slip road is the big issue and we have been hitting our heads against a brick wall in relation to this, nobody is listening to us. If there was a slip road I would be able to retain all my staff. It would make it easier to access here and with the right signage and advertising I would expect that we could have attracted the volume of business to our premises to be able to do that.”
Mr Wall said the situation had been further exacerbated by a failure by the NRA to fulfil a promise to put up signs directing people to services in the area. “It has been very quiet here in the first few days since the road opened. I have held onto all my staff so far over the Christmas break.
“I will have to cut the hours that the staff work in an effort to retain the people that I have here. We were supposed to have signs but no signs were ever put up.
In a panic to get people off the motorway and into the village we put up our own sign on the Dublin side,” he said.Mr Wall went on to add that various proposals had been put forward over the years as to where the slip road should go.
“We were told that there was no room but we employed engineers and drew up maps and identified a route for the road which would be less than half a mile long. We were also told that services would be provided along the M9 and that there was no need for a slip road. The services will take years to build at a cost of €25 million and with the way things are looking at the moment that kind of money isn’t there for that. The slip road would cost approximately €250,000 to build and the services are already here,” he said.
Meanwhile in Castledermot, which has also been by-passed by the road, butcher Thomas O’Connell said that the fall in business was expected. “We had some passing trade here and we are going to lose that but we knew that was going to happen. However I have a good local trade here so that will keep me going hopefully. If we had a slip road to bring people into the centre of the town it might have made a difference. Where the slip road is at the moment it is a bit much to expect people to come into the centre of the town from the roundabout for a pound of sausages so there’s nothing we can do about it,” he said.
These comments were reiterated by Mrs Dawn Cope of Cope’s Londis in Castledermott who said that she expected that the M9 would be good for the town. “We haven’t seen any effect so far but it’s hard to tell at this stage.
“We would be very hopeful that the open¬ing of the new road will encourage people to come into the town now that the traffic conges¬tion has been cleared. We had a very busy Christmas and we are looking forward to that continuing into the New Year.”