Beggar’s End beggars belief – says Naas Mayor Brett

“Something will have to be done before something serious happens here,” said newly elected Mayor of Naas cllr Fintan Brett of a multi-road junction in Punchestown. “Someone will be killed there, in my book,” he added.

Cllr Brett was talking about the infamous five-road Beggar’s End junction in Punchestown, for which he had brought a motion to the July meeting of the Municipal District to construct a roundabout at this location, only to see the Executive shoot the suggestion down.

He asked the council install a roundabout at Beggars End Punchestown due to the complexity of this junction.

“When you come out (the Blessington Road, R410) from Naas to the junction, there’s two roads from the left from Kill and Johnstown, while the Eadestown traffic (R410, oncoming) is coming over a hill only 50m up,” he explained.

“Then when you take the turn (L2023, for Punchestown Racecourse) there’s another road immediately on your left, so you could say that within 40m there’s six roads. It’s so busy here, with the criss-cross of traffic now a multiple of what it was 20 years ago,” he said.

The acting senior engineer of the capital projects team Daragh Conlon began his formal reply positively enough.

“Kildare County Council are currently progressing a countywide junction improvement project at 10 junctions across the county,” he revealed. (Back in 2021 Beggar’s End was number five on this list.) 

“This project includes Watchhouse Cross (Ballymore Road) and Perrystreet Cross in the Naas Municipal District, (as) the Beggar’s End junction has had work completed, as part of a low-cost safety improvement scheme. It can be considered for future iterations of the junction improvement project in due course,” he did at least concede.

“He said 10, but as another member said to me ‘it should be 11’,” cllr Brett added.