This article is from page 13 of the 2010-01-26 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 13 JPG
FIANNA FAIL county council- lor Pat McMahon has called on the Minister for Transport to revise his view on funding for damage caused to roads during the recent bad weather.
Minister Noel Dempsey has said that additional money will not be made available to local authorities to repair roads damaged in recent weeks. How- ever, his party colleague, Councillor Pat McMahon said the statement is “outrageous” and has called on the minister to rescind it.
The Newmarket-on-Fergus council- lor made the comments during a de-
bate on roads at a meeting of Shannon area councillors last week. He said the minster was “irresponsible” to make such a statement.
“He’ll have to rescind that state- ment. That’s outrageous. He consist- ently amazes me,” he said.
Cllr McMahon said the minister had shown “naivety” in his attitude towards local government.
Independent councillor Gerry Flynn said there were problems on roads where surface dressing was in place. “Tt really highlights the idea of sur- face dressing and is it value for mon- ey? .. It has been a complete waste of taxpayers’ money,” he said.
“Local people were prisoners in
their own homes. The local roads and footpaths were impassable,” he said.
The mayor of Shannon, Councillor Sean McLoughlin (FG) asked would money be set aside to repair the roads where potholes have become a domi- nant feature. “Will the council be de- manding special money? I think the council should demand money. Every road you drive on has potholes,’ he ene
Independent councillor Patricia Mc- Carthy said, “It would appear liquid poured on the roads is not suitable. There isn’t a road in the town or sur- rounding area that isn’t without a pot- hole. The concrete roads are literally falling to pieces.”
‘Whatever review 1s going on has to take into account the centres of popu- lation. It’s not simply a rural isolation. It’s an urban isolation,’ she said.
Fine Gael Councillor John Crowe said that in the past, the roads in the Shannon area were “exceptionally good, but very, very good roads are deplorable at the moment. There is a major, major job to be done.”
Councillor Tony Mulcahy (FG) said, “We were too late dropping grit. The locations we dropped it in seemed to work. It isn’t feasible to have 20,000 workers in the county working on it,” he said.
He acknowledged the excellent work put in by council employees during
the cold snap. “The council don’t have the manpower and resources to grit every footpath in the county. We have to take individual responsibility too,” ltemcrs BCG
Senior Executive Engineer with Clare County Council, Eugene O’Shea said the type of material used on some road surfaces was not suitable given the “unprecedented” weather. He said that a more permanent finish would be desirable “but it comes at a cost and you can only do so much.”
In relation to funding, he said that the county engineer has asked each area council for a list. This will be submitted to the Government and funding will be sought.