‘Absolute war’ expected this winter if Wexford council doesn’t repair roads in New Ross district
Wexford PeopleA little over a week after €13.49m in funding was allocated for roads repairs in Co Wexford the battle lines have been drawn and the fight has begun. That fight will be contested between county councillors from Wexford’s five districts, all of whom believe their roads are in the worst condition and they deserve the most money.
By virtue of being the first district to meet since the funding was announced, the councillors from the New Ross Municipal District (NRMD) had the opportunity to argue their case at their July session in The Tholsel.
Councillor John Dwyer opened the discussion by describing the funding - which has been allocated to repair roads damaged in Co Wexford during Storm Chandra - as “derisory” and noted that the NRMD alone required €13.5m to fix its roads.
Fine Gael’s Bridín Murphy was more positive.
“I don’t think anyone is going to argue that this money is enough, we all know the scale of the works required,” she said. “But equally, we didn’t have this €13m a week ago. We should be grateful we got something - my understanding it was a long-fought battle (to get it).”
In terms of how the money will be allocated across Wexford’s five districts, Cllr Murphy said it should be distributed “fairly” with the worst-affected roads “dealt with first”.
However, Cllr Michael Sheehan had been crunching the numbers and knew exactly how much the NRMD was due.
“I hope the council can divide it proportionately,” he said. “Given that 40pc of the initial application was for New Ross we should receive 40pc of this funding, which comes to €5.2m.”
Failure to spend the money wisely and restore roads in the district which have been practically unpassable for the past six months will result in “absolute war” come winter according to Cllr Pat Barden.
“When the weather turns bad we are going to be inundated with calls,” he said. “The roads won’t be done and people won’t be able to get out of their homes. I have a video of a woman stood in a pothole and it goes up to her thigh.”
While Wexford has a total of seven TDs in Dáil Éireann, Cllr Murphy said one in particular had let down the county when it came to securing more money.
“It’s disappointing that we have the leader of the government, the ceann comhairle (Verona Murphy), from this district, and she did nothing to release funding,” said the Fine Gael councillor.
Ceann Comhairle Verona Murphy speaking Photo; Mary Browne
With two members of Verona Murphy’s Independent Alliance in the room it was unsurprising that they both leapt to her defence.
“The two government parties are well represented in Wexford and the best they could come up with was €13.5m,” contested Cllr Pat Barden of the Wexford Independent Alliance.
A new battle then commenced, with Verona’s Independent Alliance on one side and Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil on the other side.
“We got the biggest allocation out of anyone,” argued cathaoirleach John Fleming (Fianna Fáil). “Kilkenny got €3.46m, Waterford €5.5m, Laois and Louth got €1m each - they asked for €11m - Tipperary got €1.1m, we got €13.49m. So, with regards to percentages, we’re way above everyone else.”
“The reaction from our government colleagues speaks volumes,” said the other member of the Independent Alliance, Cllr Marty Murphy. “The senior minister (James Browne) in the county couldn’t deliver any more than €13.4m.”
However, given the ceann comhairle’s senior role, Cllr Bridín Murphy said the NRMD actually had “four government members” in its ranks, Cllrs Barden and Marty Murphy included.
With Cllr Fleming threatening to throw Cllr Barden out for speaking out of turn, director of roads Eamonn Hore brought some order to proceedings and declared himself “delighted” with the amount of money received.
“There was only €40m available for the whole country and I believe we got so much because the DIPR (Driver & Vehicle Computer Services Division) dictated the allocations not the government,” he said.
Vowing that no area will be left “unattended”, Mr Hore said works would be carried out on all the roads damaged during the storm.
“The roads which need strengthening will, at the very least, get significant patching and surface dressing,” he said. “The really bad ones will get a full restoration, the less bad ones will still receive works. We will bring a list of the roads and what works will be done on them to each district.”
Announcing the funding last week, Housing Minister James Browne said the funding will help restore roads that suffered “significant damage many of which have become dangerous for both walkers and our motorists”.
“Many of our local communities have experienced disruption as a result, and repairing this infrastructure is essential to ensuring safe and reliable access for families, businesses and emergency services,” he added.