Celtic Tiger in the context of "Post-2008 Irish economic downturn"

The island of Ireland, comprising Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, has an extensive network of tens of thousands of kilometres of public roads, usually surfaced. These roads have been developed and modernised over centuries, from trackways suitable only for walkers and horses, to surfaced roads including modern motorways. Driving is on the left-hand side of the road. The major routes were established before Irish independence and consequently take little cognisance of the border other than a change of identification number and street furniture. Northern Ireland has had motorways since 1962, and has a well-developed network of primary, secondary and local routes. The Republic started work on its motorway network in the early 1980s; and historically, the road network there was once somewhat less well developed. However, the Celtic Tiger economic boom and an influx of European Union structural funding, saw national roads and regional roads in the Republic come up to international standard quite quickly. In the mid-1990s, for example, the Republic went from having only a few short sections of motorway to a network of motorways, dual carriageways and other improvements on most major routes as part of a National Development Plan. Road construction in Northern Ireland now tends to proceed at a slower pace than in the Republic, although a number of important bypasses and upgrades to dual carriageway have recently been completed or are about to begin.

Roads in Northern Ireland are classified as either Highways, motorways (shown by the letter "M" followed by a route number, e.g. M1), A-roads (shown by the letter "A" followed by a route number, e.g. A6), B-roads (shown by the letter "B" followed by a route number, e.g. B135) and other roads. There are two types of A-roads: primary and non-primary.

Bettystown (Irish: Baile an Bhiataigh), previously known as Betaghstown and transliterated to Beattystown/Bettystown, is a village in County Meath, Ireland. Together with the neighbouring villages of Laytown, Mornington and Donacarney, it comprises the urban area of Laytown–Bettystown–Mornington–Donacarney with a combined population of 15,642 at the 2022 census. During the Celtic Tiger, with increasing property prices in Dublin, Bettystown expanded to cater for large numbers of commuters to Dublin. The area was well known before that as a spot for Dublin summer holiday visitors, with a number of caravan parks and seaside amusements.

In 2011, Bettystown and Laytown as far as the River Nanny were transferred from the three-seat constituency of Meath East to the five-seat constituency of Louth.