North Cork town's main street compared to ‘Third World’ road

The county council doesn’t have responsibility for maintaining the street as it is part of a national secondary road — under the control of TII

Fianna Fáil councillor Frank O’Flynn told colleagues attending a meeting of the council’s Northern Division that Patrick Street in Fermoy is “absolutely diabolical”. File photo: Dan Linehan

A north Cork town’s main street is like a ‘Third World' road, according to councillors who say they are getting it in the neck from motorists, even though the road's poor state of repair is not their fault.

Fears have also been expressed that the main street in another town nearby is heading the same way due to lack of investment from Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII).

Fianna Fáil councillor Frank O’Flynn told colleagues attending a meeting of the council’s Northern Division that Patrick Street in Fermoy is “absolutely diabolical”.

What's your view on this issue?

You can tell us here

“It’s like a Third World road. We need funding for a new surface now,” he said. Fine Gael councillor Noel McCarthy, who lives in the town, agreed with him.

“We [local councillors] are getting criticism for not acting on it,” he said. “We’re getting the blame for it even though it’s not under our control.” 

The county council doesn’t have responsibility for maintaining the street as it is part of a national secondary road (N72) and is therefore under the control of TII.

Fine Gael councillor Kay Dawson, who lives in Mitchelstown, said the main street there (Upper and Lower Cork Street) is also deteriorating badly and if something isn’t done soon it will end up in the same condition as Patrick Street.

Fianna Fáil councillor Deirdre O’Brien then pointed out that the slow lane of the main road from Kilbehenny into Mitchelstown was in such a bad state of disrepair that cyclists are having to move out onto the fast lane, “which obviously isn’t safe”.

Padraig Barrett, the council’s director of roads, said there are “significant deficiencies” along the N72 from the Kerry border, through north Cork and on to the Waterford border.

He said the council had written to TII seeking funding for a number of resurfacing projects, which included Patrick Street in Fermoy. 

“Unfortunately, I’ve no good news on Patrick Street. We have made an appeal for funding to TII for there and are awaiting a reply,” he told councillors.

The council is awaiting a reply from Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) on an appeal for funding to resurface Patrick Street in Fermoy. File photo: Denis Minihane

“We have to write to the Minister for Transport over Patrick Street, we can’t accept this,” Mr O’Flynn retorted.

Mr McCarthy said they needed to speak directly to TII bosses and Fianna Fáil councillor William O’Leary agreed. He said it has to be pursued. 

Mr Barrett said the bottom line is that TII hasn’t been given enough funding from central government for resurfacing national secondary routes.

Meanwhile, he told councillors that engineers are currently finalising design plans to make the junction at Christ Church in Fermoy safer.

He said when ready they would be sent to TII for approval and hopefully they will be allowed to put the project out to tender. However, he wasn’t able to give a date for when this might happen.