'We had three ministers out and promised everything' - Louth councillor slams roads funding delays
It will be several weeks before Council finds out what government funding it will receive for emergency road repairs
Cllr Antóin Watters has expressed his disappointment and anger at the news that it will be another number of weeks before Louth County Council will find out what funding it will be receiving from the Department of Transport to help with the emergency road repairs needed in north Louth, following last Halloween's devastating floods.
The Dundalk Democrat contacted the Department of Transport last week, following the Louth County Council January meeting where councillors were informed by Director of Services David Jones, that the local authority has not yet received a response from the Government to its request for funding to assist with the repairs.
The Democrat asked the Department how the talks with Louth County Council on the requested funds were progressing, when funding would be made available, and how much would be provided.
A spokesperson for the Department of Transport said that: “Ireland is in the middle of the 2023/2024 winter storm season and to date has already experienced several severe weather events which have caused damage to the regional and local road network in numerous locations across the country.
“Prompt restoration of our roads and bridges is essential to maintain social/economic connectivity as well as enabling safer journeys.
“It is important to highlight, in accordance with the provisions of Section 13 of the Roads Act 1993, each local authority has statutory responsibility for the improvement and maintenance of their regional and local roads. Works on those roads are funded from local authorities' own resources and are supplemented by State Road grants.
“The Department remains committed to working closely with Louth County Council to assist in addressing the issues caused by storm events and to help restore road network.
“In this regard, and within available resources, the impact of severe weather events on the road network has been taken into consideration in the preparation of road grant allocations for local authorities in 2024. Publication of the allocations is expected in the coming weeks.”
Cllr Watters slammed the Department's comments, telling the Dundalk Democrat that “all they're doing is pushing it down the line, they're not even telling us what they're going to give.
“They way I look at it is, it's going to be about 16 weeks since this happened by the time we hear anything about it at the end of February.
“We're still going to be no further on with works, we're still going to have to start programming them and putting them out for tender and all that. To me they're not treating it as serious as it should be.”
Highlighting visits from government ministers to the Cooley Peninsula directly following the floods, Cllr Watters added, “we had three ministers out and promised everything.”
He continued, “and even about the humanitarian scheme. I had to go and try an make representations on behalf of people where they were getting half of what they needed and we had to fight to try and get it.
“At the time of the floods it was promised that money would be no issue and now look at it. Especially with the road network. We made initial repairs, the repairs are now washed away. And then they're blocking drains and causing issues with the water coming down again”, adding that “all the bad weather hasn't really started yet.”
Calling on the Government to act without delay, Cllr Watters further added: “We don't need anymore promises, we don't need anymore running commentary on it, just get the money to us so we can get the work done.”