'It's the poor relations outside Portlaoise, ' councillors unhappy with funding allocation
Are paths for active travel more important for Portlaoise than the rest of the county, a councillor wanted to know at a recent meeting.
Fine Gael Cllr PJ Kelly had tabled a motion asking “that Laois County Council give an update on the potential footpath cycle lane that was proposed and seconded in September 2022 from Killenard National School to O’ Dempsey’s GAA grounds.”
In a written response, Senior Executive Engineer, Active Travel Office, Diarmuid Donohue said: “The NTA are targeting schemes in highly populated areas where maximum benefit can be achieved from investment funding. This scheme also does not meet the criteria for an Active Travel scheme for due to the current speed limit of 80km/h and low level of daily usage.”
“The only advantage or disadvantage to this particular one is you had €200,000 granted and we didn’t have in Killenard,” Cllr Kelly said to Fianna Fail Cllr Paschal McEvoy, who had earlier been told a scheme where €200,000 had been allocated in Timahoe, was no longer eligible.
After reading the response, Cllr Kelly explained that the low levels of usage mentioned were directly related to the fact that there was no footpath or cycle lane at the location.
“If it is not there it can’t be used,” he said.
“The school have no football facilities where they are and the nearest football facilities is O’Dempsey's, which is up the road, 1.8km of a walk which they are quite mad to use to use two pitches,” he explained.
He said 520 people signed a petition looking for the footpath last year and he wanted to know what progress had been made.
“Obviously there is no progress made and going by Cllr McEvoy’s response there’s going to be no progress made here either,” said Cllr Kelly.
“I don’t want to be making comparisons but when you drive around the town here, there is footpaths you could park a lorry on,” he said.
“There is going to be 520 plus people very disappointed and that’s not even children who signed this, these are all adults,” said Cllr Kelly.
Cllr McEvoy said “it is a copy and paste of the answer I got in my one.”
He said the “new buzzword” has been active travel but “we all know that there is no sporting activity more used than the GAA.” He praised O’Dempsey’s as a progressive club.
“You could not walk to this pitch because you would be killed stone dead and I for the life of me cannot understand how they are not jumping at schemes like this. You talk of active travel, this is really what active travel means. It is getting people to come out of those houses at Killenard and walk down to the pitch. It is just over a kilometre and they are ignoring it. I just don’t know, it baffles me,” he said.
He too spoke of the good paths in Portlaoise.
“Are they more important in Portlaoise, the ones that are going to the pitch, than they are anywhere else in the country? I just wonder what is going on, “he said.
Sinn Fein Cllr Aidan Mullins agreed with the councillors in relation to the allocation of funding.
“There is money there for Portlaoise all the time and there’s none for Timahoe, there’s none for O’Dempsey’s there’s none for other areas of the county,” he said.
“€200,000 for Timahoe and it’s gone. It is pulled again. It is not acceptable. It is the poor relations outside Portlaoise all the time,” he said.
Head of Finance Gerry Murphy said the reply was based on the active travel scheme. He said they would have to look at footpaths that don’t qualify and to see how they can be progressed.
He said this scheme has been identified and there is a question mark over the Timahoe scheme. He asked council members to leave it with him for review and invited them to alert him to other similar schemes which need to be carried out.
“At least when I have a list maybe it will be possible to prepare a plan,” he said.
Cllr Mullins noted a scheme in Portarlington that had been rejected in the past.
Independent Cllr Aisling Moran said €2.2 million in active travel funding went to Portlaoise while just €70,000 was allocated for Portarlington Graiguecullen.
“Our area seems to get the least amount of money when it comes to this type of thing,” she said.
Cllr Moran said kids can’t cycle to school because it is too dangerous.
Cllr Kelly said a similar scheme was needed in Ballybrittas.
Independent Cllr Ben Brennan said “we are just looking for fair play”.
Fianna Fail Cllr Padraig Fleming said it was a “no brainer” to build footpaths out to sports grounds under the active travel scheme.
The issue was discussed at the latest meeting of Portarlington Graiguecullen Municipal District.