‘We are getting it at the doors over roads’

Where is the money for our roads? We are out canvassing and people are very, very annoyed about the state of the roads in the Bailieborough-Cootehill Municipal District. What do we say to them?

These were some of the questions posed and concerns raised by members of the municipal district at their April monthly meeting in Kingscourt last week. Local Election hopefuls say these are the issues people are raising on doorsteps as they are out canvassing for votes.

The details emerged after Cllr Val Smith (FG) put forward a motion asking for a discussion on the “current levels of LIS/CIS funding in the county”.

Cllr Smith acknowledged that, while the recent allocation of €1.2M under the Local Improvement Scheme was “great”, he wanted to know how much money Cavan County needs to upgrade and maintain the county’s local roads. “And,” he continued asking, “if we got that money, could we get the contractors in and get the job done?”

Director of Services, Paddy Connaughton, said it would be difficult to even provide a time frame in which all works needed could be completed. “We don’t even know what funding we will get, although in somewhat of a new departure, this year the allocation of €1.2M is for two years - 2024 and 2025. To put that into context, in 2022 Cavan County Council received €374,000 under LIS and then €900,000 around July or August; in 2023 we got €337,000 and then an additional €1.4M. The primary focus we have is that the €1.2M will be spent as effectively and as soon as we can.”

Mr Connaughton went on to say that the local authority currently has in excess of 200 outstanding applications under the LIS scheme.

“While we haven’t costed all of them, we are talking about at least €10M,” he estimated, before adding that, if Cavan Council was to be given €10M, “which is unlikely”, projects could only be delivered in the context of the local authority’s own resources and staff.

Cllr Sarah O’Reilly (Aontú) then asked about the criteria around applying for Community Involvement Scheme (CIS) funding, She highlighted how there were a number of roads in her area that “the council just won’t do any more work on”. She also pointed to how difficult the campaign trail is at the moment because “people are very unhappy with those roads”.

“They are saying to me that they are paying taxes and are struggling to see where exactly that money is going,” said Cllr O’Reilly. “I also saw a post on social media indicating that the LIS is now closed to new applicants and confirmation is needed on whether or not that is true.”

Kenneth Glennon from Cavan County Council told those gathered that the CIS in Cavan was allocated €325,000 for 2024 and the funding will be split between the three municipal districts in the county.

He said that CIS is over subscribed and the schemes that go ahead are based on the Department allocation and on the volume and type of work that needs to be done. “Because of this year’s funding and the allocation that this district has received, Cavan County Council is only in a position to deal with one scheme,” he confirmed.

“It is very difficult to say that to a voter on the doorstep,” Cllr O’Reilly fumed.

Cllr Paddy McDonald (SF) then highlighted how he has been “out canvassing” for the last few weeks and has experienced people’s annoyance over the state of the roads in the municipal district. “People are very, very annoyed,” he added.

“Whatever we can do as a Council to get more funding, we need to do it. You only need two homeowners living along a laneway now to apply for funding under LIS.”

In conclusion, Cllr Clifford Kelly added: “We have been let down by the Department when it comes to roads funding and it’s very, very unfortunate.”

*The Community Involvement Scheme (CIS) provides communities with opportunities to have road repair work carried out at relatively modest cost on local roads and cul-de-sacs that would not normally be included on the Council’s main roadworks programme.

*The Local Improvement Scheme (LIS) applies to non-public accommodation roads where projects must benefit two or more parcels of land owned or occupied by different people or serve the public.