Roads in Skibbereen can only be resurfaced every 50 years due to funding, council engineer claims

Independent councillor Karen Coakley called on Cork County Council to 'prioritise road resurfacing on the streets of Skibbereen as they are in an appalling state'.
Central government funding for road resurfacing is so low that roads can only be resurfaced once every 50 years, a recent meeting of local councillors in Cork’s Western Municipal District was told.
The issue of deteriorating road surfaces was raised in a motion by independent councillor Karen Coakley who called on Cork County Council to "prioritise road resurfacing on the streets of Skibbereen as they are in an appalling state".
Ms Coakley said: “The state of the streets is putting people off coming into Skibbereen. People are swerving to avoid potholes and it’s only a matter of time before there is a serious accident. It’s causing damage to cars, how many claims will Cork County Council have to pay out because of damaged vehicles?”
She added: “Skibbereen used to be referred to as the ‘Capital of the Carberies,’ but now I’m ashamed to say it has become an embarrassment and sometimes it feels like you are in a third-world country.”
A council engineer told the meeting that current funding levels were not sufficient to carry out necessary resurfacing works.
He said: “The grants were announced last week and the amount we were allocated is similar to what we get every year. Funding is sufficient to resurface about 2% of the roads in the municipal district. If we resurfaced all the streets in Skibbereen town, there would be no money left for any of the rural roads in the Skibbereen area.
"At the current rate of funding we will be able to resurface our roads roughly once every 50 years and we will never catch up at the current funding levels, that is the reality of the situation we are in.”
Dunmanway councillor Declan Hurley said that despite numerous attempts to set up a meeting, transport minister Eamon Ryan had not responded to councillors.
“The Transport Minster has ignored numerous calls for us to meet him. It is a waste of time trying to meet the minister, he is blatantly ignoring us. We should write to junior minister Jack Chambers, he may willing to at least listen. It’s a county-wide issue,” he said.
His colleague Joe Carroll said: “The funding we are getting is totally inadequate. There were massive cutbacks to the budget around 2009 and since then the funding has never been restored. It is an insult and if it continues our roads will fall into total disrepair. They are announcing millions for a road in Northern Ireland while our roads are falling apart. Our streets and roads have to be the priority, it's all very well having walkways and cycleways and whatever else but you have to have your roads and streets repaired first.”
It was agreed to put forward a notice of motion to the next full meeting of Cork County Council “expressing disgust” at the level of funding for road resurfacing and also requesting a meeting with the minster.