Irish Examiner view: Rate rise could tackle more than just potholes

State of Cork's roads opens window into more serious problems

Macroom only has two outdoor county council workers, one of whom is part-time. Picture: Denis Minihane

For some reason, one way to denigrate politicians who appear too concerned with their own constituencies is to accuse them of being focused on fixing potholes. An obsession with the quality of road surfaces has come to stand as a modern replacement for the dismissive term ‘parish-pump politics’.

Those airy dismissals don’t emanate from drivers who have to contend with terrible roads, however. As reported earlier this week, some of the roads in Cork are so bad at present that councillors are suggesting the army will be needed to repair them, presuming the army can get past the potholes in the first place to do so.