€735,000 extra funding for cold snap repairs

CLARE County Council has been sanctioned €735,000 in supplementary funding to assist in meeting the unanticipated and immediate costs incurred in dealing with the abnormally cold weather snap.

While Mayor of Clare Councillor Christy Curtin has welcomed the supplementary funding, he pointed out that an urgent review of the level of funding allocated to non-national roads, which constitute 75% to 80% of the entire Clare road network, is required.
“While I welcome any contribution towards exceptional expenditure directly associated with the winter weather relief activities carried out by the council, I believe that more funding is required. We need to be doing more than repairing and maintaining our 4,000km road network in Clare and in fact should be working to upgrade our roads,” he suggested.
Mayor Curtin said what is required for significant improvements to take place is the re-establishment of the multi-annual road restoration programme but for this to take place, funding would be required.
“While the damage caused by severe weather to our road and water infrastructure has been considerable, I think we need to take to look beyond a programme of repairing infrastructure and consider the many benefits associated with enhancing our existing infrastructure.
”Despite the obvious constraints on local government finances, it is reassuring to see that the council has taken every possible action to ensure the effect of the bad weather on the general public has been minimised. We must now look towards further improving our road and water infrastructure with a view to limiting the effects of future spells of severe weather.
“I am calling on the incoming Government to carefully consider the benefits of an improved non-national road network, not only for local communities but the wider economy across Clare and the country,” added the mayor.
Mayor Curtin also paid tribute to the professional and rapid response by the staff of Clare County Council in dealing with the many difficult situations encountered as a result of the extreme weather of the past two years.