New ‘Welcome to Tallaght’ sign on the way after a decade of campaigning

Decades after the ‘Welcome to Tallaght’ sign was removed from the Old Tallaght Road, a new sign may soon be greeting people entering the south Dublin town.

South Dublin County Council has confirmed that designs for a new sign are currently being drawn up and the options will be discussed by councillors before the end of the year.

A sign that was previously placed at the Old Tallaght Road was removed during the 1990s while the road network changed for the N81 and M50 and the sign was never replaced.

A local residents group called the Tallaght Community Council (TCC) has been campaigning for a new welcome sign since 2013.

Tara De Buitléar, TCC member and Tallaght resident said last year that the situation has been dragging on for too long.

“TCC has requested this gap be addressed very regularly since 2013.

“The request has been refused repeatedly as SDCC was running a tourism project to produce tourist signs. However, that project has failed to produce any new signage to date.”

In 2018, after five years of campaigning, TCC erected its own sign at Balrothery Cross, a main arterial road into Tallaght.

“TCC were frustrated after several years of being declined.

“We funded the sign artwork (to the national signage standards) and installed the ‘Welcome to Tallaght’ sign at Balrothery Cross, the prominent gateway into Tallaght from the M50, which has traffic flows of 25,000 cars daily,” she said.

“Sadly, that was removed by the authorities after just two days. This sent another negative message about value to the whole community.”

South Dublin County Council now says that a new sign is in the process of being designed, nine years after the residents group began its campaign.

“We have appointed a designer for the County Wide Signage Strategy,” the chief executive said in response to a question tabled by councillor Charlie O’Connor at a recent area committee meeting.

“The traffic section has had a number of meetings with the designers and they are working up some branding and design options for the various signs including the ‘Welcome to Tallaght Signage’,” the council said.

“There will be a consultation process with the members in relation to designs and branding preferences.

“When we have a couple of well-developed concepts, we will have a consultation meeting with the members on the preferred options.”

The chief executive says that the sign options should be presented before councillors in December and a final design will be chosen and erected shortly after.