A Fianna Fail TD has criticised the government's plan to postpone decisions on the border dispute between Waterford and Kilkenny.
Bobby Alyward, TD for Kilkenny Carlow, says it’s now likely to be either July or August before a report on the Kilkenny/Waterford boundary review will be published.
Alyward spoke to Beat News on the issue, voicing his dissatisfaction about what he believes are negative advances by Waterford.
"You can't just come along and take over a part of Kilkenny and say 'we want it' for whatever reason", he said.
"Thats not the way it works; if there was consent from Kilkenny to hand over the land to Waterford OK, but I don't think you're going to get that consent."
"Having said that I have no problem cooperating with Waterford", he continued.
The issue is a contentious one for Alyward. He sees the potential expansion of Waterford as having negative consequences, both economical and social, for the people of Kilkenny.
"We all have county identities and they're very important and a Kilkenny person is a Kilkenny person", he said.
"There would also be a potential economic loss of €110 million to Kilkenny, and we can't afford to lose that."
"We also don't want to lose Kilkenny; we want to keep every inch of Kilkenny that we have", he explained.
"Of course we want Waterford City to grow at both sides of the river, but why this conflict every ten years?"
Alyward expressed his fatigue over the dispute, explaining that this wasn't the first time he had seen this issue coming to the fore.
"This is the third time in my political lifetime fighting off Waterford's advances into Kilkenny. This has to be stopped, and I'll continue to fight it."
