Meeting sought with Minister for more funds for roads

The elected members on Cavan County Council are writing to the Minister for Transport, Eamon Ryan, to visit Cavan and witness first-hand the condition of local roads in a bid to secure additional funding for works.

“I think it is important,” said Cathaoirleach Clifford Kelly, addressing the need for additional monies to stem the deteriorating conditions of parts of the network.

Cllr Kelly said some patches were in a “terrible state” at present and, were the funding made available, he was certain the council would get the roads “back in shape quick-fast”.

Aontú’s Sarah O’Reilly noted where close to €3 million will be spent by the council repairing some two kilometres on 11 separate roadways in the Bailieborough-Cootehill Municipal District area in 2022. “Many roads,” she said did not get included in the roadworks plan. She added that, at the current rate of investment, it would take an estimated 55 years to get all done, by which time the roads done at the start would have fallen in disrepair again.

“The government don’t seem to be taking the situation seriously enough,” she stated, listing off areas where massive money has been spent on various other projects - the National Broadband Plan contract (€3 billion); the National Children’s Hospital (€2 billion); a second children’s hospital (€60 million), among others.

She questioned what might be done and what could be achieved were such investment targetted at fixing the national road network.

Fianna Fáil’s John Paul Feeley said the issue regarding funding, and the deteriorating condition of the roads was a legacy issue.

He said that the approach should be to target funding from a number of departments, rather than considering issues regarding roads in counties as meriting a “one size fits all” solution.

Independent Shane P O’Reilly stated the case for the Ballyjamesduff MD. He suggested letters sent in the past looking for extra resources had been “binned” once they reached the minister’s office.

While he supported the cause to ask the minister to visit Cavan, he asked that it be a cross-party engagement, and that it be conducted without “Oireachtas members arriving on a bike”.

He further asked that, unlike the situation that transpired when former Minister Shane Ross visited Cavan, whatever officials the minister brought with him would be “briefed” on issues specific to the locality.

TP O’Reilly and Carmel Brady (FG) supported the call too, the latter noting that the same issues regarding roads in Cavan had been raised “umpteen” times before without a proper answer.