Wexford council confident of receiving ‘significant extra funding’ to repairs roads decimated by flooding
Wexford PeopleFears that Co Wexford will not receive additional funding from the department of transport to repair roads decimated by the constant rainfall have been quashed by director of services Eamonn Hore.
Although the annual budget of €34m was announced for Wexford last week the majority of that money has already been allocated for the “protection and renewal” of roads throughout the county and does not take into consideration damage caused by frequent flooding.
As a result, Wexford County Council (WCC) is seeking a one-off funding allocation to repair the many roads which collapsed completely during the long, wet winter.
However, at the February meeting of the New Ross Municipal District (NRMD) there was a sense that the department of transport would not loosen the purse strings sufficiently.
“Our chief executive said he is hopeful that extra funding will be allocated for our road network, that, to me, is suggesting we might get €200,000 extra for the district which won’t fix even a kilometre of road,” said Councillor Bridín Murphy. “Micheál Martin said he doesn't have a magic wand, well, excuse me Taoiseach but you do, you’re running the country.”
Virtually every councillor in Wexford has been fielding calls and requests from motorists who have fallen foul of potholes and flooded roads, and Cllr Pat Barden said many residents in his area were effectively trapped in their homes.
“People want to know about the interim measures and when they will commence,” he said. “There’s a lot of roads still closed in the district and people need to know how long it’s going to take before they can get out of their houses and onto the main roads. I received a photo of a man with a shovel in Cushinstown, he put it into a pothole and it went halfway down.”
With road crews currently working round the clock to fix roads, senior engineer David Murphy said his team were aware of the extent of the problems but that it would take time to address the worst affected areas.
“I have submitted a record of 90km of damaged roads to the department, I met with its inspector last week to review some of those roads,” he said. “But because there’s still so much water and the roads are saturated I can’t do concreting work on them, until the weather starts to improve all we can do is keep filling potholes.
"Even when we do get funding it’s going to take months of work, it’s not just us (looking for funding) it’s the entire county and parts of Wicklow and Carlow too.”
While Cllr Murphy was sceptical about the amount of extra money WCC was likely to receive, director of roads Eamonn Hore was quietly confident the department would deliver the goods.
“An application for additional funding has been submitted to the department and, based on previous experiences, I believe we will get significant extra funding for our roads, we’re fixing the roads on the basis that it will come,” he said.
Meanwhile, Cllr Michael Sheehan said that the onus was on four of New Ross’s councillors to apply the pressure to government TDs.
“The four of you are in government,” he said, addressing Cllrs Bridín Murphy (FG), John Fleming (FF), Marty Murphy, and Pat Barden (both Wexford Independent Alliance). “There’s no point sitting here saying ‘we can’t have money for this, or can’t have money for that’, it is your responsibility to (address this). At the moment, you’re all Mighty Mouse in the chamber and Mickey Mouse when it comes to addressing it.”
“You were in government for 20 odd years too,” replied Cllr Bridín Murphy, referencing Cllr Sheehan’s defection from Fianna Fáil in 2024.
“Maybe give George Lawlor a ring,” added Cllr Fleming in relation to a recent article in which the Labour TD described Cllr Sheehan’s performance in the 2024 general elections as “abysmal”.