Concern as Cork gets one of the lowest budget allocations for road maintenance

If the grant allocation had been made on the basis of road length, Cork County would have benefited by an additional €9.2m. File photo: Gerry Faughnan

Cork County Council got the fourth lowest funding per kilometre of any local authority in the country for road maintenance and upgrades this year.

It also doesn't get special funding, known as the 'multiplier effect' like some other counties. This takes into account the deterioration of roads due to increased economic activity, especially from HGV movements.

A total of €65.8m has been provided to the council from the Department of Transport this year for road maintenance and improvements, up 2.83% on 2021. However, when it's broken down to euros per kilometre of road, the council is fourth from the bottom, only ahead of Tipperary, Kilkenny and Roscommon.

There are 11,740kms of regional and local roads in Co. Cork, representing 12.96% of the country's total road network. If the grant allocation had been made on the basis of road length, Cork County would have benefited by an additional €9.2m.

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While the council's allocation has gone up, it is only at the same level it was prior to the recession in 2008. Council officials said cuts to funding during the recession meant they lost out on an estimated €279m in allocations.

Fears have been expressed that this year's allocation will be eaten into by an increase in tender prices, while the delivery of some projects could be stifled by labour shortages in key sectors, such as engineering. Tender costs rose by 10% last year due to increases in material, labour and energy costs. 

There were also significant increases in steel and timber. The tender costs are expected to increase by a further 5% this year.

Meanwhile, the shortage of skilled labour for key trades continues. The number of undergraduates studying for key professions such as engineering, architecture and quantity surveying is still recovering after the last recession.

Officials said increased costs and the lack of certain skilled professionals “will have a significant impact on the quantum of work that will be delivered in 2022".

Padraig Barrett, the council's director of roads and transportation, said there's a significant argument to be made that Co. Cork should be treated in the same fashion as Meath and Kildare which benefit from the 'multiplier effect'.

He said if this was the case, Co. Cork would have benefited from an additional €15m in road grants this year. Mr Barrett said the council is “playing catch-up” with maintaining and improving its extensive road network. He said the €65.8m allocation is welcome, “but I'd argue it could be better". 

Council chief executive Tim Lucey said the council has a vast metropolitan area where growth is being driven by increased economic activity.

“We will present a case (to government) for the multiplier effect (to be added to grant aid),” Mr Lucey said.

Fine Gael councillor Kevin Murphy said Co. Cork had been on the bottom of the euro per km ratio for many years and it wasn't good enough that it is currently fourth from bottom. “There's an awful amount of work needed to get us to where we should be,” he said.

Fianna Fáil councillor Joe Carroll suggested additional “emergency funding” is needed to repair many very badly damaged roads in rural parts of North and West Cork.

Delcan Hurley, chairman of the council's roads and transport committee, said they'd requested a meeting with the Minister for Transport, Eamon Ryan, on the level of overall funding.