TDs blamed for failing West Cork on critical funding for roads

ROADS CRISIS SPECIAL: HOW CORK IS LOSING OUT

WITH just two months to go to the local elections, candidates out canvassing are being ‘eaten alive’ by the people of Skibbereen who are furious about the state of their roads.

One public representative, Cllr Joe Carroll (FF), has hit back at the critics and laid the blame at the door of Cork South West’s three sitting TDs: Michael Collins (Ind), Christopher O’Sullivan (FF) and Holly Cairns (SD).

He said it is the duty of these Oireachtas members to secure the necessary funding for national, regional and local road improvement works.

Cllr Carroll provided The Southern Star with a detailed breakdown of the funding being provided for Cork county, and how it compares, unfavourably, with other counties.

He pointed out that Cork has 12% of the roads network of the entire country, which makes it the largest network of any local authority.

He said Department of Transport guidelines state that each county should – by means of tarring and chipping – resurface approximately 5% of their respective roads network each year.

However, Cork County Council, which has 12,200 km, is only achieving between 2% and 2.5%, annually due to the level of grant money being allocated. What this means in real terms is that roads can only be resurfaced once every 45 to 50 years – instead of once every 20 years.

The lack of funding means there is a growing backlog of roads that need to be resurfaced. The problem is further exacerbated by this year’s historically wet and stormy winter, which has led to an even greater level of deterioration over the last five months.

In 2024, Cork County Council was allocated €70,199,560 for regional and local roads. This was a slight reduction on the 2023 allocation of €71,340,042. While the reduction may seem small, Cllr Carroll said that if you drill down into the figures on a county-by-county basis, the results are shocking.

The breakdown of regional and local road grants per km shows that Kildare got an allocation of €11,163 per km, with Limerick city and county coming a close second at €10,062 per km. By comparison, Cork County was allocated €6,011 per km – the third lowest in the country.

‘If Cork County had received a similar level of allocation per km to, say Limerick, Cork County would have received an additional €47.5m in 2023,’ said Cllr Carroll.

In real terms, Cllr Carroll said Cork would have received €118.8m instead of the €71.3m it was allocated.

Aside from the regional and local roads allocation, Cork was allocated €61.82m for the maintenance of its national roads within the county.

But this figure – under the national roads funding programme – represents a 26% reduction on the 2023 allocation, a drop from €83.6m to €61.82m.

While the extent of government funding for key strategic projects – such as the Dunkettle Interchange – is welcomed, Cllr Carroll said there are major concerns in relation to the rapid deterioration of the regional and local road infrastructure.

In any county in the country, Cllr Carroll said its road network is considered ‘a key asset to development,’ but conditions in West Cork, indeed throughout Cork County, are so poor it’s shameful. ‘The roads are as bad as they were 100 years ago, or even at Famine times,’ he added.

Referring to a comparative analysis of the Department of Transport’s regional and local road grant allocations from 2008 to date, he said Cork’s allocation in 2008 was €64,994,744, but the economic crisis saw the allocation drop to €43,880,723 the following year. Cork’s lowest figure, over a 17-year period, came in 2016 when it bottomed out at just €29,651,945. And it was only in 2021 when the allocation crept above the €60m threshold.

Despite the recent upward trajectory, Cllr Carroll said the Council’s general positioning has been stagnant for the last 17 years, especially when the huge rise in material costs are factored into the equation.

Cllr Carroll said the government – and indeed the Cork South West TDs – had not given any recognition to the relatively poorer quality of the roads in Cork county.

He believes increased funding from the central government for critical resurfacing and maintenance works in Cork is ‘an imperative’ if the local authority is to prevent the road network from further sustained deterioration and degradation.

After consulting with the relevant Council officials, Cllr Carroll said it has been shown that if the grant allocation had remained at a level no lower than the 2008 grant, an additional €273m would have been allocated by the Department of Transport and the regional and local roads maintenance programme in the intervening years. 

Cllr Carroll said the All-Island Research Observatory (AIRO) report commissioned by Cork County Council has shown that Cork county has 76% more local roads than its nearest comparator, Galway.

And that West Cork has the fifth longest roads network of any local authority in the State.

The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform read the AIRO report and acknowledged ‘the useful insights into grant funding’ but instead of being at the top of the heap, Cork is at the bottom of the ladder.

‘It’s clear that the quality of regional and local roads across the county falls far short of the standard that is demanded by residents, businesses, and visitors alike,’ said the Fianna Fáil councillor.

‘These are startling figures and they are going totally unnoticed at government level,’ said Cllr Carroll.

‘Our engineers do brilliant work with the resources they have – I don’t understand how they are able to make it stretch so far.

‘The fact is the money is not coming from central government.

‘That is why our roads are in a shocking state,’ Cllr Carroll added.