Go fund worn down and washed-out roads! – councillors demand

The state of roads and the funding needed to address them was discussed at Monday’s meeting of Carrickmacross-Castleblayney Municipal District, at the request of Cathaoirleach Paul Gibbons.

The Sinn Féin representative spoke about how the level of funding allocated last week isn’t sufficient to address the “deplorable” condition of some roads in the county.

Last week, the Department of Transport allocated almost €24.4M to spend on local, regional and national road projects in County Monaghan. It prompted a lot of calls to councillors by constituents demanding specific road works.

At Monday’s MD meeting, Cllr Gibbons highlighted the damage done by Storm Chandra among other issues.

“It’s my job to stand up for constituents who have no public transport, pay motor tax, carbon tax that rises every budget – half a tank of diesel goes on tax – and rising insurance. The deterioration of roads is very noticeable around Castleblayney and it is a huge issue for us as an MD,” the meeting’s chair commented.

Cllr Noel Keelan said: “From a road safety perspective, last year was the worst of the previous 10. Over the last week there has been devastation across the island.”

Everyone has a personal responsibility not to get distracted behind the wheel, he added. The Sinn Féin representative further commented that both roads policing and Garda numbers are down.

Nonetheless, he said that the local authority has a responsibility to the people they represent and engineers will spend any money they get on roads.

People are angry, Cllr Gibbons said, because their cars are getting damaged, roads are becoming impassable and potholes are appearing overnight.

“Storm Chandra played havoc, the weather has been unprecedented and the rain hasn’t stopped. The MD office and elected members have been inundated with calls … We need a massive injection of funding and another pothole blitz,” Cllr Keelan concluded.

Fianna Fáil Cllr PJ O’Hanlon said that annual funding schemes need to be enhanced. Observing that Cllr Keelan and himself didn’t agree on much, he had to admit that they are singing from the same hymn sheet when it comes to roads.

However, Cllr O’Hanlon, the first citizen of Co Monaghan, had a bone to pick with other elected representatives berating certain politicians for “jumping on the radio” and urging them to “stop it and deal with the facts!”

The county chair called for a full discussion at the county council meeting next Monday: “As councillors, we need the full facts in front of us. The funding needs to be put on the table.”

Director of Services Cathal Flynn confirmed that a separate announcement of €1.8M countywide was additional. This was money sought by the council for specific pilot schemes in 2026 with almost one million of it earmarked for road maintenance.

“You have to get an odd one over the bar!” Cllr O’Hanlon quipped to laughter.

Fine Gael Cllr Peter Conlon said that the overall funding announcement was disappointing and somewhat confusing. “All of us have been championing an increase in roads funding. We laid it bare for them [minister and departments] at meetings last year. We spend every cent of it; Dublin doesn’t seem to be listening.”

Cllr Aidan Campbell (FG) said that he wasn’t going to mention all the roads that needed attention. There was confusion around the €1.8M announcement, he concurred, further commenting that members had lobbied the government and that MD and county roads need more money than they are getting.

Cllr Conlon asked if there would be additional funding to address the carnage Storm Chandra left in her wake and the Director of Services, Mr Flynn informed him that the MD Executive had been on to the department and he was hopeful that another lump sum would be made available to address the consequences.

Cllr O’Hanlon welcomed that Monaghan Co Council Chief Executive Robert Burns was open to another pothole blitz on the county’s roads.

Cathaoirleach Gibbons brought the discussion to a close by welcoming the prospect of more funding coming to the MD.