Anger over funding cut for road network

CORK motorists are subsidising drivers in the greater Dublin area and – to add insult to injury – they’ll have to endure even more potholed roads in the future, a council debate in Cork heard yesterday.

Last year motorists in Cork city and county forked out more than €77 million in road tax but not a cent of that money stayed in Cork.

Instead it was gobbled up by central government.

The Government, in turn, gave the county back €60.5m to maintain its non-national roads, the largest network of roads in the country.

This year, the Government’s allocation to Cork has been slashed to €48.8m but there are no plans to reduce car tax.

Road maintenance is likely to be reduced as a result, leaving many of the county’s roads in a very poor state.

But what will gall Cork motorists is that many counties in Leinster get far more money to maintain their roads.

In a debate on the issue in County Hall yesterday, Cork county manager Martin Riordan said he couldn’t understand why Cork got an average €5,300 per kilometre to maintain roads in the county when the counties in the Dublin region were getting up to €10,000 per kilometre.

Councillor Jim Daly said the money raised on motor tax in Cork should be spent directly in the county.

The Fine Gael councillor said there are many roads in the county which are already in a very poor state and having less money to repair them would have considerable consequences.

The county manager said he was concerned the drop in funding for non-national routes would see roads in Cork “deteriorate in the next three to five years”.

Mr Riordan said National Roads Authority (NRA) maintenance grants for national routes had also been reduced. He added that clean-ups the council had undertaken on the main roads leading into the city could also be a thing of the past due to a lack of money.

He added that he would report to councillors in July on the financial implications of the cutbacks.

“It’s shocking all the money goes to Dublin and we don’t get much of it,” Cllr Deirdre Forde (FG) said.

Cllr Jerry Mullally (Lab) said the council should seek a meeting with Environment Minister John Gormley to get further funding.

“The main street in Carrigaline has been riddled with potholes since Christmas and 19,000 cars a day are using it,” an angry Cllr John A Collins (FG) said.

Cllr Dan Fleming (FF) said the way potholes were being filled in had to be looked at again.

“We’re still filling potholes in the old-fashioned way. In England they cut out a square, clean out the hole and then seal it,” Mr Fleming said.