Roads funding remains unclear

WHILE Clare County Council has passed its budget for 2013, it is unclear how much funding will be available for the Banner’s roads.

 

The budget document states the National Roads Authority (NRA) will be providing funding for maintenance and improvement works on motorway, national primary and secondary routes, while the county council will be responsible for non national routes.

With regard to these routes, the budget document states, “In 2012, Clare County Council received an allocation of €13.9m in respect of our non national roads. The 2013 budget has been prepared on the assumption that the grant allocation for 2013 will be similar to that received in 2012. Clare County Council’s own resources budget has been increased by €230k in 2013. This increase is to allow for loan charges.”

With regard to funding, Councillor Michael Hillery said it is imperative the amount of funding available is not “chipped away at” as the year goes on.

The document states preliminary design work on the Limerick Northern Distributor Road is set to be progressed next year.

Councillor Cathal Crowe said there should be less focus on it. “The Minister is hell bent on the Northern Distributor Road which could be 10 years away,” he commented.

He said a lot of money is going into something “that could be pie in the sky” and that it would be better spent on funding the existing road network. Councillor Crowe urged the councillors from the Government parties to lobby their Oireachtas members on the matter.

Responding to Councillor Crowe, senior engineer  Tom Tiernan said even though the completion of the road is still years away, it doesn’t mean work on it shouldn’t be taking place.

“I would envisage that the completed project would be in the order of ten years away but that doesn’t mean we are dealing with something that shouldn’t be considered for another 10 years.”

He added it is an important strategic project that requires considerable planning.

Councillor Tommy Brennan called for Ennis to be given more roads staff, claiming the town has a very large proportion of Clare’s population and has a lot of passing traffic.

Mr Tiernan said he didn’t believe this would be possible given the embargo on new staff, a response that didn’t please Councillor Brennan. “In Ennis I don’t think there is anyone to fill a pothole and it has been an issue for some time.”