Fianna Fáil slammed by Tipperary member who says party ‘doesn’t understand rural counties’
A Tipperary Fianna Fáil councillor has criticised his own party over what he says is a failure to understand the needs of rural counties and adequately fund roads.
Nenagh-based councillor John Carroll made the remarks during the July plenary meeting of Tipperary County Council.
The comments came during a discussion about the council’s road works programme, and the lack of funding that the local authority gets from central Government to carry out works.
Tipperary County Council has repeatedly argued that rising construction costs and limited road maintenance allocations have left it unable to address deterioration on many regional and local roads.
Cllr Carroll called on the council to write to Public Expenditure Minister Jack Chambers and Transport Minister Darragh O’Brien to seek more funding for the county.
“I certainly, as a Fianna Fáil public representative, am very, very disappointed. I said it at the annual meeting and at previous meetings,” he said
“We’re a very large county, a rural-based county, and — I say this with respect — I don’t think they understand the nature of rural counties.
“They’re predominantly city-based and I’m asking that we write to them and follow up with a meeting,” Cllr Carroll said.
The Fianna Fáil councillor pointed to a party meeting, but said that some party members didn’t show up.
“The last meeting we had in Government Buildings, it was a very good meeting, but sad to say that some of our Oireachtas members didn’t even attend.
“That tells me something. If we’re doing our best here as public representatives at a local level, they need to be burning the midnight oil.
“Some of these people have a pivotal role in Government so I’m making the call here again that we write to them, number one, but we ask our Oireachtas members what are they doing because very soon, we’re going to face very stormy waters coming into the autumn,” Cllr Carroll said.
“We had the fuel crisis, but we’re going to face an awful lot of funding deficits continually since the National Transport Agency (NTA) got an increase in funding at the expense of the allocation that the council were getting from Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII),” he explained.
“I’m very disappointed at our own two ministers [Chambers and O’Brien] that they saw fit to continue to reduce the funding, knowing that we have a huge problem here. The infrastructure of the county is going to be put at great peril,” he added.