Fears over ability to repair nation’s byways

The head of the National Roads Authority (NRA), the IFA, and a county manager have added their voices to the growing clamour about the need to pour money into repairing the country’s roads before they fall apart.

It’s not only the country’s byways which are crumbling, but even the highways.

Last week, NRA chief Fred Barry said his organisation was struggling with a significantly reduced roads maintenance budget, down this year by 14% on the 2011 figure.

And, in recent weeks, Cork county manager Martin Riordan told elected members the road budget allocated by the Government was totally inadequate.

Mr Riordan has said the stark reality is that he has just enough money to repairs potholed roads or, alternatively, ensure adequate roadside drainage.

However, he told councillors he could not do both.

Inadequate drainage will damages roads if the county council does not tackle the problem. The county manager has warned there is a risk of further deterioration to many of the 11,000km of roads under his command if the drainage problem is not addressed.

To add insult to injury, the Government is now asking people living on cul-de-sac rural boreens to stump up 50% of the cost of repairing them.

Under the community involvement scheme, the Government previously sought a 25% local contribution.

Mr Riordan said already hard-pressed families could not afford such an increase in contributions and thus believes this scheme is now unworkable.

The IFA has asked road safety chiefs to conduct a full safety audit of rural roads after branding the condition of some “a disgrace”.

The farming body criticised local authorities for failing to provide a basic level of maintenance on some rural roads, and said urgent action is needed to identify the blackspots, and repair them.

“This is a serious safety issue and we need to see the Road Safety Authority highlighting it,” said Eddie Downey, IFA deputy president and its countryside chairman.

He has now written to the RSA requesting that it urgently carry out a full safety assessment of rural roads to establish the full extent of the problem.

“The state of disrepair of rural roads in some areas across the country are a disgrace,” he said.

“There are roads which are almost impossible to travel and pose road safety issues.”

He warned local authorities that this cannot and will not be tolerated.

Farmers and rural dwellers have a basic right to have rural roads maintained, he said.

“Properly-maintained roads are critical to doing business,” he said.

“The agri-food industry is the country’s largest indigenous industry, employing over 300,000 people.

“The vast majority of these people are employed in rural Ireland.

“The failure to maintain a basic service such as an adequate road network will have a negative impact on the competitiveness and future growth of the sector.

“This is now causing significant road safety issues.

“It is now time for local authorities to step up to their responsibilities, repair these roads and ensure that farmers and rural dwellers can commute safely to and from their homes.”