Long-road faced on fixing lanes
The council has submitted an application for an additional €1.1M to deal with the eight-year backlog on laneways to be mended under the Local Improvement Scheme.
There are at present 279 applications outstanding, and with just a handful fixed each year, the estimate is it could take tens of millions of euros and around 31 years to simply catch up.
“Clearly unsustainable,” is how Sinn Féin’s Noel Connell summed up the predicament.
In 2024 the council completed works on eight lanes, and one more in 2025.
Having been asked by his constituents to raise the matter, Cllr Connell tabled a motion at the July monthly meeting of Cavan County Council putting forward a proposal that the authority see “additional funding to accelerate the pace of lane upgrades”.
His motion was supported by his party colleague Stiofán Conaty who said it was “just not good enough” that communities had applied for the scheme almost a decade ago and were still waiting for works to be done. He had heard councillors speak on the subject at both council level and at Municipal District, and the feeling he had come away with is that the authority has been left operating “with its hands tied behind its back”.
The Ballyhaise man reminded that previously it was proposed to write to the county’s Oireachtas members on the subject, and asked if this could be revived. Cathaoirleach John Paul Feeley said it could.
Sinn Féin’s Damien Brady said he wasn’t sure enough funding was being spent on surface dressing, while Independent Ireland’s Shane P. O’Reilly told the meeting that when he was first elected the backlog was 13 years, lamenting that there are “lanes now with no houses on them waiting for it to be done”.
He noted too that, since then, the cost of labour and materials had gone up, another factor impacting the amount of work that can be done; and highlighted how in the past the Department of Agriculture had been asked to come on board with regards to supplying funding for the scheme going forward.He hoped the current minister Martin Heydon would look at that proposal with a fresh set of eyes.
Fine Gael’s TP O’Reilly agreed, but said that the funding cap for individual householder contributions towards road repairs, currently set at €1,200, would probably have to be raised.
“It’s not popular to say, but it something that will have to be looked at, the contribution costs,” said Cllr T.P. O’Reilly, adding that it shouldn’t be left to a council or department to repair 100 metres of laneway. “It needs to be said.”
Fine Gael’s Winston Bennett told councillors that the party grouping had met with Tánaiste Simon Harris in early July where LIS and other matters concerning roads were raised. He hoped there would be some update on funding available before the end of this month.
“Extra funds are badly needed,” agreed Cllr Bennett, with the demand that any applications for more money be granted earlier in the year rather than later.
Credit was also given to the now retired and former minister Heather Humphreys for reviving the scheme during her tenure in government.
Cllr Feeley said the work being done by the council on laneways is to a “very high standard”, and that every road done is “audited” after to the same level as regional or national projects, resulting in delays.
Director of Services Paddy Connaughton confirmed the 2017 backlog date, with a “few” older than even that.
The council had spent €690,000 in 2024, and were on course to spend €519,000 already in 2025, though an application for €1.1M had been submitted to the department. If granted, Mr Connaughton confirmed it would provide the capacity to fix 14 more lanes.