Council roads meeting was ‘hijacked’

CORK County Council has lost out on €273m of funding for regional and local roads over the past 12 years, leading to many being classed ‘end-of-life’ roads due to lack of investment, a meeting of the local authority heard this week.

Councillors were discussing the recent visit by a delegation which met with Department of Transport junior minister Jack Chambers in Leinster House to plead for more funding for roads in Cork. Some councillors claimed Oireachtas members ‘hijacked’ the meeting, which was organised by Cork County Council.

Niall Healy, Council director of roads, said they highlighted to Department officials that roads is the single biggest issue being raised by people to councillors.

‘Had the grant allocation remained at a level no lower than the 2008 allocation, Cork County Council would have received an additional €273m in regional and local roads funding from 2008 to 2024,’ he said. ‘The fact that it didn’t receive that money means the roads network here has degraded and due to recent weather events, Cork county has been hit harder than most,’ he added.

Cllr Joe Carroll (FF), who was part of the delegation, said he was shocked by the reaction from government officials when they made the comparison with other counties, like Kerry, regarding the allocation per kilometre.

‘One of the officials said they didn’t think they can find a fairer way of doing it. They had the brass neck to say what happens with Cork is fair enough,’ said Cllr Carroll.

‘We’ve made this point over and over again to our Oireachtas members and nothing was happening so we had to go to Dublin. When we got there the meeting was hijacked by a number of Oireachtas members, who could have spoken to Minister Chambers at any time about this issue.’

Cllr Michael Hegarty (FG) described the methodology being used for calculating roads funding as ‘convoluted’.

‘If all the Cork Oireachtas members were doing their job correctly and demanding that Cork get its fair share of funding, we wouldn’t have to send a delegation to Dublin,’ said Cllr Hegarty. Cllr Declan Hurley (Ind) described the allocation of funding for roads for Cork, with the biggest network of roads in the country, as ‘putrid’ and said department officials were then trying to justify the allocations.

‘We have roads here in West Cork at ‘end of life’ and that was a stark statement to make to a minister and yet none of them seem to have taken this on board. The sooner Eamon Ryan gets out of the Department of Transport, the better, as we will have no roads left in the county,’ said Cllr Hurley.

Cllr Patrick Gerard Murphy (FF) said it is not credible to come up with a mechanism for allocating money that has €10,000 going to one local authority per km and €6,000 per km to another. ‘It just does not make sense and the record is going round and round again and nothing is changing,’ he said.

Cllr Susan McCarthy (FG) said Minister Ryan is the ‘single worst transport minister’ that the country has ever had.

‘Roads will always be part of our network and it defies logic about this whole attitude he has about roads,’ she said.

Council chief executive Valerie O’Sullivan said of the Department: ‘They had funding but they chose not to spend it on the roads that needed it,’ she said.