Offaly County Council is the latest local authority faced with changing its development plan to accommodate the road building programme being implemented by the National Roads Authority (NRA) on behalf of the Government.
The upgrading of primary routes is one of the most controversial issues in the Midlands, with the acquisition of land and environmental concerns to the fore.
Up to 50 people protested outside the council in Tullamore this week as elected members met the NRA.
Last month, the council postponed adopting variations to the development plan which will pencil in four possible routes for the N7 to Limerick, in order to seek clarification from the roads authority on a number of issues.
Mr Michael Egan, director of corporate services for the NRA, told the council this week the organisation rejected the charge that in providing for different route options it was attempting to pit communities against each other.
Mr Jim Minogue, spokesperson for residents on the Nenagh to Castletown section of the favoured N7 route, said people were not only concerned about the future of their homes and land, but also about environmental issues. Landowners were in the minority in the opposition groups, he said.
"I don't think anyone is begrudging about the building of new roads or motorways. But there was a proposal in 1998 to upgrade the existing N7. What happened to that?" Mr Minogue said the new N7 route would run straight through the Slieve Bloom park area, an important environmental feature in the region.
"There are other issues they are not taking into account. This is all about increasing the speed of inter-city traffic."
Mr Minogue said the "real scandal" was the underfunding of the railways and public transport. "The private car lobbies and the hauliers are pushing this through. There's a railway line between Ballybrophy and Limerick which is practically unused. They are talking about doubling the number of cars on the motorway. I think it's insane."
Mr Pat Kennedy, also on the protest, owns what he describes as a large dairy farm. But the route thought to be the most favoured for the N7 will run right through it. Splitting his farm, which had been in his family for generations, would make it unviable, he said.
The NRA says, however, farmers will be compensated for land and, where feasible, underpasses or overpasses will be built to prevent farms being severed.
Mr Egan told councillors it was for local authorities to discuss the issue of compensation for those affected by the routes. He believed the authorities had, in practice, erred on the side of generosity in negotiating such compensation. Average prices emerging for land were in the region of £15,000 to £24,000 an acre, compared to an average value of £3,800 recorded by the Central Statistics Office last year.
Mr Egan said the State had 90,000 km of roads, which transports 96 per cent of all passengers and 90 per cent of goods. Of that 90,000 km, national roads accounted for just under 5,500 km, or 6 per cent. Upgrading was essential to maintain performance and to increase safety.
However, the NRA would never claim that roads alone were the solution to transport problems. No matter what the investment in public transport, roads, which play a key role in the State's environmental welfare, would continue to be the dominant form of transportation.
Mr Egan added that An Bord Pleanala was charged with policing roads schemes on environmental and planning grounds and if the developments did not stand up to scrutiny following an oral hearing and the report of an independent inspector, they would be rejected. Environmental Impact Assessments would be prepared for each project and the effects on individuals and farms would be looked at.