Anger in Cork over neglect of key route: ‘We’ll give TII a spin on it, they better hold on tight’

By Peter McCarthy, Corkman

Councillors have accused Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) of being “totally disconnected from West Cork” with parts of the N71 “an accident waiting to happen” unless steps are taken immediately.

At this week’s meeting of the West Cork Municipal District Cllr Daniel Sexton called on Cork County Council to write to TII calling for immediate resurfacing of the N71 between the junctions with the L8016 Bohonagh and L8020 Knocknageehy and also for the N71 Newmills Owenahincha realignment to be included in any upcoming funding.

Cllr Sexton said the section between the junctions “is subsiding to the left and the right, when you're driving there your car is pulling into the ditch. There's something wrong if you have to grab the steering wheel with your two hands and hold on that you don't go into the ditch. That particular section of road is an accident waiting to happen, it is dangerous. There will be a crash or fatality on it and TII will be the cause of it if they don’t wake up and get a bit of action on it quickly.”

The Independent Ireland councillor said the Newmills Owenahincha realignment is also an urgent safety issue. He said that after a fatal crash there in 2014, “funding was announced but nothing has happened since. It's a very, very dangerous section of road.”

Council engineer John Ahern responded that a meeting took place between TII officials and a deputation of Cork County Council in October at which the two locations were discussed, adding that “we await funding allocations for 2026.”

Cllr Sexton said he was “very disappointed with that response but I could have predicted it. What can we do to wake this crowd up? It’s just a disgrace how TII is treating West Cork. If Cork County Council were in charge of it I think it would have been sorted, but TII is totally disconnected from West Cork.”

Cllr Joe Carroll said he was part of the delegation that recently met with TII. “They said they'd look at our complaints and when they get money, we might get something. But the N71 is not a priority. I'm after seeing the TII twice or three times and nothing. The TII has been written to. You might as well be writing to Santa Claus. They look at these things and they throw them in the bin. You might get a reply from Santa Claus,” the Fianna Fail councillor said.

Cllr Carroll said that nobody living around Skibbereen uses the N71 to get to Cork. “We do not use it, we wouldn’t even think about using it. It’d take me 25 minutes longer to go to Cork. That’s putting it in perspective. It shouldn’t really be called a national road because it’s not fit to be called a national road.”

Independent Ireland Councillor Danny Collins said he was part of a delegation that met with TII in 2016 in which the councillors outlined all the issues with roads in West Cork. “That journey was a waste for us to be quite honest. We went up by train, came down, basically with our tails between our legs. It's nearly 10 years now and what we were requesting at the time, nothing has been done.”

Cllr Sexton said that if a TII delegation ever wants to come to West Cork, “they’re more than welcome, we’ll give them a spin all around West Cork, we’ll do the whole N71 a couple of times and I’m sure all the other councillors would jump in the car too. They’d better hold on tight.”