€75m needed to bring road up to standard

A report says €75m is needed to bring the only main road in West Cork up to a reasonable standard — but at the current rate of government investment it will take several generations before this is achieved.

After years of neglect, the Government has been urged to inject much-needed capital into the N71 (Cork-Bantry road), especially west of Bandon.

In addition, the state of the road is inhibiting attracting industry and increasing tourism business.

Members of the council’s western division heard yesterday that a report had been submitted to the National Roads Authority (NRA) showing how urgently it needed upgrading.

Tom Stritch, the council’s director of roads, said that works could be done on a phased basis.

Even for €75m the works would only include providing passing lanes and make dangerous bends and junctions safer.

However, councillors said they did not get any significant money for the road’s improvement during the boom times and couldn’t see much forthcoming these days, especially when the NRA only has €300m to spend this year.

Fine Gael councillor Dermot Sheehan said there had been one fatality reported each year from 2005 on the road and 82 recorded injuries over the same period.

Fianna Fáil councillor Christopher O’Sullivan said when he was younger he did a Leaving Certificate project on industry locating in Clonakilty and realised even then that the road was not helping to attract it.

Meanwhile, Fianna Fáil councillor Donal O’Rourke said that as little as €2m-3m was spent annually on safety and maintenance works on the N71 and if such small allocations continued it would take “generations” to bring it up to some sort of reasonable standard.

“We need meaningful allocations. This (bad road) is a huge disadvantage to the West Cork economy,” Cllr O’Rourke added.

Labour councillor Brendan Leahy said a costs/benefits analysis needed to be done to back the case, while Fine Gael councillor Adrian Healy said the report highlighted how very substandard the road was.

Jim Daly TD, who was present at the meeting, said he would take their concerns to government.

“The N71 (upgrade) will be my priority for the year ahead. This is having a huge impact on the wellbeing of our citizens (in West Cork),” he said.