Wexford County Council to spend €700m on 193 projects between 2026-28 with almost €400m for housing
Wexford PeopleWexford County Council (WCC) has outlined its vision for the next three years as it prepares to spend over €700m on projects ranging from motorways and flood schemes to new community centres and libraries. Its three-year capital programme (2026-2028) lists all the projects currently planned by the council and how much it expects to spend on each during that time period.
While the total cost of the 193 scheduled projects is a whopping €1,392,651,859 not all are expected to be completed by 2028 and some will inevitably feature on the capital programme for 2029-3031.
Chief among those is the long-awaited N11/N25 Oilgate To Rosslare Harbour Scheme. Projected to cost a total of €390m when complete, WCC has outlined its expected spend on the motorway over the next three years; with €1,150,000 being spent on it in 2026, €8.5m in 2027, and €10m in 2028.
Another much-anticipated project is Trinity Wharf which has a total cost of €40m. Given that WCC expects to spend €30m on that project over the next three years it can be expected that it will be nearing completion by the end of 2028.
The council will also invest significantly in greenways over the next three years with €18m going towards the south east greenway, a project it is running in conjunction with its neighbours in Kilkenny and Waterford County Councils. Another greenway, this one connecting Wexford town to Rosslare Harbour via the South Slob, will see an investment of €5.7m between now and 2028 – however, the total cost of that project is €36m so it too may feature in the next three-year plan.
Similarly, phase two of the Courtown North Beach and Marina Project, which will see the construction of breakwaters and beach nourishment, has a total cost €23,267,556, but will see just €150,000 of an investment between 2026-28.
In terms of housing, WCC expects to spend €398,511,731 on 54 schemes over the next three years. These range from new social and affordable housing developments, to turnkey purchases (€90m) and acquisitions from private developments (€27m).
The largest projects will see the delivery of 60 new homes in Kileens at a cost of €23,738,445, 50 units in Rosbercon at a cost of €18,770,000, a further 57 houses in Clonard at a total cost of €16.729,078, and 75 units (40 social, 35 affordable) in St Waleran’s Gorey at a cost of €29m.
The biggest scheme in terms of the number of units is The Lyre in Enniscorthy where 90 new houses are planned at a total cost of €25m. However, that project is unlikely to be complete by the end of 2028 with WCC projecting a spend of just €12.5m on it during that three-year time period.
While director of roads at WCC, Eamonn Hore, estimates that Wexford requires additional funding of €190m to bring the county’s roads to a “reasonable standard”, the estimated spend over the next three years is less than half that at €78,516,892.
A large chunk of that money will go towards the N11/N25 Oilgate To Rosslare Harbour Scheme, but a further €5.5m will be spent on road resurfacing works on the N80 between Ballycarney to Clohaman, and another €6m on the new Gorey inner relief road linking Creagh Road to College Road.
Although the Rosslare to Oilgate scheme remains some way off, the Europort will see the construction of a new access road at a cost of €16m which is expected to be complete by 2028.
As residents and businesses across the county slowly rebuild their lives following the latest widespread flooding event, the council has confirmed it will spend €47,055,449 on environmental projects over the next three years. With a total cost of €55m the flood relief scheme for Enniscorthy is the biggest in the county, but WCC projects a spend of just €12,783,000 on that scheme up to 2028.
In contrast, works in Bridgetown, with a total cost of €3.5m, are expected to be finished by 2028.
Another largescale, long-awaited project, is the flood relief scheme in Rosslare Strand. Although WCC expects to spend €3.6m on it by 2028, it has a total cost of almost €8m and will not be finished in that time.
With two new libraries in development and refurbishment works at an existing facility, WCC will spend over €12m on library services over the next three years. The largest investment (€4.5m) will go towards a new library in Enniscorthy, with a further €3.1m being spent on a library for Bunclody. There will be an additional €3.4m spent on an extension at New Ross library.
€6,758,472 will be spent on community projects between 2026-28 with new community centres in Riverchapel (€2.5m) and Ballymitty (€1.55m) seeing the largest investment.
And while staff in County Hall will be busily assigning funds to the many projects taking place across Wexford in the coming years, they will also be preparing for upgrades to their own surroundings as WCC invests €1.23m on lighting and windows at its Carricklawn base.