The release of the Public Consultation No. 2 feedback report for the Dundalk to Carlingford greenway has presented "lots of issues" according to Sinn Féin councillor, Antóin Watters.

According to the report, Louth County Council received 1,601 submissions from a possible 8,700 residential properties.

306 submissions highlighted safety as a concern, with 218 raising privacy and security issues. 182 submissions had issues with the specific routes, and 168 had "general issues".

The councillor said that planning is still at an early stage, and there is still time for changes to be made.

"It's very early in the project. If everything was to go to plan, it wouldn’t be completed until 2030, it’s still a long way away," Watters said.

"There’s 10 different phases. They’re still doing an environmental impact assessment, traffic and parking surveys. There is still a lot of stuff to do," he added.

According to the councillor, under the next phase of the project, the design team will look at possible routes for the greenway.

"What’s going to happen, at the end of May or beginning of June, they’re going to begin to look at routes and how routes are going to work, and they’ll start to engage with landowners. It’s very important that landowners concerns are taken on board, and there's a proper consultation. There was a concern that there wasn’t enough consultation," he said.

The report indicates, that the preferred route corridor will be published in late 2025, or early 2026.

Councillor Watters believes that the greenway could be used to tackle coastal erosion in the county.

"I have my own views on it, where we should be trying to use the funding and work it in with coastal protection measures along our coast line, which is eroding from coastal erosion." he said.

"There are a lot of people against it, but there are people in favour of a greenway in the right place. It’s all about taking these concerns on board, and it’s up to the project teams to address these concerns," he concluded.