Somebody ‘is going to be hurt or killed’ on the ‘abysmal’ N71

BY DAVID FORSYTHE

THE funding deficit for roads in West Cork will ultimately lead to fatalities, a councillor told Cork County Council’s report on road funding allocations for 2024.

Niall Healy, the Council’s roads and transportation director of services told councillors at County Hall that funding allocated to Cork County Council was ‘nowhere near where it needs to be’ as he outlined a total package of €166,426,408 which includes an allocation of €13m to address damage caused by Storm Babet in October last year.

The funding includes €61,836,848 for national roads schemes and greenways issued by Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII).

For regional and local roads the total amount of funding from the Department of Transport is €83,199,560 and from the National Transport Authority (NTA) an active travel investment grant of €21,390,000 has been approved.

The total investment represents a decrease of more than €10m compared to the 2023 total of €177,128,135 with most of the difference accounted for by the completion of the Macroom Bypass and Dunkettle interchange.

Mr Healy said that the allocation to repair damage caused by Storm Babet was only about half the required amount and Council officials would continue to lobby government for more funding.

There was particular disappointment among West Cork councillors as it was confirmed that there is no money available for badly needed resurfacing works on the N71 between Bandon and Ballinascarthy and no funding for the proposed Bantry Relief Road.

In national road funding €1.6m was approved for the N71 between Ballylickey and Dromkeal and €800,000 for the N71 at Gallanes.

In Bandon €150,000 was allocated to progress route options for the bypass and in Rosscarbery there was €100,000 to progress route options on the N71 Newmills to Owenahincha realignment scheme.

In local schemes €1m was approved for the R595 Old Court/Baltimore scheme, €1.5m for advanced works at the R586 Ilen Bridge, €50,000 to complete the preliminary design of the R572 scheme in Adrigole and €50,000 for the Archdeacon Duggan Bridge in Kinsale.

Pedestrian and active travel schemes included €1m in funding for the Clare O’Leary walkway in Bandon while the Cork to Kinsale greenway received €450,000 for assessment and the Cork to Schull greenway was approved €800,000 for the same purpose.

Kinsale-based Cllr Kevin Murphy (FG) described the funding as ‘abysmal’ and said that at least €20m extra was required.

He said: ‘The N71 from Bandon to Ballinascarthy is in a dreadful state, it’s dangerous. Unless we can find some way of getting that section done somebody is going to be hurt or killed there. Effectively what is happening is that the road is subsiding all over the place and it is highly, highly dangerous.’

Mr Murphy said that he was not opposed to greenways but said that funding for them could be reallocated for badly-needed road repairs as a temporary measure.

Dunmanway Cllr Declan Hurley (Ind) slammed the current Minister for Transport, Eamon Ryan.

‘The bottom line is that in my time here in Cork County Council we have the worst Minster for Transport I’ve ever come across. He’s clearly asleep at the wheel and dreaming at the wheel, and this presentation is a clear indication of what he’s about.

‘Every year we have this discussion and rather than getting better, it’s getting worse and unfortunately successive governments have led us down this path,’ he said.

Cllr Hurley added: ‘It’s all very well to have the big projects, the sexy projects, they look well on paper but it’s our regional and local road network that keeps this county ticking over. It’s not easy to maintain roads with the paltry amount of money we are receiving.’

Bantry-based Cllr Danny Collins (Ind) added: ‘Cars are falling apart and not passing NCT tests because of broken shocks and whatnot.

‘When are we going to get the money that we need? Our government TDs and ministers are letting us down. They should be held accountable for this.’

Cllr Hurley said that a meeting had been arranged with junior minister Jack Chambers on April 24th.