‘Deplorable’ housing estate roads to be included in Tipperary roadworks programme
Road resurfacing in housing estates across Tipperary will finally be included in the local authority’s roadworks programme after years of calls from councillors.
That was confirmed at the recent meeting of the Carrick-on-Suir Municipal District by senior engineer Kieran Malone, following calls from Sinn Féin councillor David Dunne and Fianna Fáil councillor Kieran Bourke.
Speaking at the meeting, Cllr Dunne said that the roads in some estates were in a bad way, and a solution needed to be looked at.
"In housing estates, I was in Fethard recently, and in a couple of housing estates, the roads are in a shocking state.
“Some of them had 18, 19, 20 potholes in them in places, and these are places where older residents are living, and there’s no way they’re going to be able to come up with a community fund to apply for grants,” he said.
Cllr Dunne was not the only councillor in Carrick-on-Suir to raise the issue, with councillor Kieran Bourke also raising it on numerous occasions.
Speaking to the Irish Independent last summer, Cllr Bourke said that the roads in some estates were in a “deplorable” condition.
"It’s shocking, these are people who live there, their children play there, they pay their local property tax, they’re entitled to have the roads done,” he said.
"It’s deplorable, and we were told at a workshop that there’s no funding at all being considered for road networks within housing estates, they’re just not being funded from central Government sufficiently to carry out works,” he added at the time.
At the most recent district meeting, councillors were told that the policy had changed, and that roads in housing estates would come under the council’s roadworks programme.
Mr Malone told the councillors that the change came about after a number of workshops within the council.
"We had a local road policy that was recommended by the Strategic Policy Committee (SPC) towards the end of 2025 that after this current roadworks programme, housing estates will go into the roadworks programme,” he said.
"They’ll be taken out of the Community Involvement Scheme (CIS), because it’s accepted that leaving them in the CIS puts rural roads at a disadvantage because potentially, all we would have in that scheme is housing estates,” Mr Malone explained.
"From the next roadworks programme, housing estates will go into the general roadworks programme and will be taken out of the CIS,” he said.
The change is expected to allow the council to address long-standing issues with deteriorating roads in housing estates across the county.