Discretionary spending fails to fill hole in road funding

The transport minister’s decision to give power to Cork County Council on discretionary spending of €15.5m to repair weather -beaten roads looked good on paper initially.

Councillors welcomed Leo Varadkar’s decision to allow some autonomy in how they spend road repair money.

However it quickly emerged, when the figures were analysed, that the exact spend will not fill in too many potholes, and that far more money will be needed to address the serious deterioration in the county’s roads.