38% Cut In Road Maintenance Funding For Cork Council

Road maintenance funding for Cork County Council has suffered a 38% cut in the last two years, according to Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) figures.

TII issued a parliamentary response after questions were raised by Fianna Fáil TD for Cork North West, Michael Moynihan.

The figures show a drop of €808 million from 2016 to 2018.

Deputy Moynihan said: "In 2016, Cork County Council received €2.107 billion from the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport to maintain national roads in the county. In 2017, it dropped to €1.998 billion, and to date in 2018, it is expected that just €1.299 billion will be allocated to the county council.


"This 38% drop in funding is severely restricting Cork County Council's ability to maintain and improve the national road infrastructure in the county.

"It must be noted that the high figure in 2016 came just as a General Election was taking place," he added.

"Minister Ross, as the Minister for Transport, has a lot to answer for. Over the past decade, there has been a significant decrease in the funding made available – this has been on his watch.

"Lives are being put at risk as our county's roads are now in a terrible state. Maintaining our national roads isn't an optional extra; it's a core part of what the Government is supposed to be doing on a yearly basis.

"I'd argue that the level of funding being put into national road maintenance is nowhere near sufficient to keep pace with, let alone catch up on, wear and tear," concluded Mr Moynihan.

(CM/MH)