‘Not a single cent’ of €10.72m emergency roads funding for Wicklow will go unspent this year

By Hugh O'Farrell Walsh, The Wicklow People

The chief executive of Wicklow County Council has assured councillors that the €10.72 million in emergency roads funding allocated last week, following the extensive damage caused by Storm Chandra, will be spent in its entirety this year.

The funding, announced in early July, comes after months of pressure from local representatives who warned that dozens of routes across Wicklow had become dangerous or impassable since the storm struck in January.

At the July meeting of Wicklow County Council, councillors sought clarity on whether the money was genuinely additional, or whether it would be offset against existing allocations, following a letter from the department that had instructed local authorities to maintain “rainy day” reserves for unforeseen events.

Cllr Pat Kennedy opened the discussion by praising the scale of the allocation and commending council staff who worked over the bank holiday weekend to prepare detailed submissions for government.

Taoiseach Michael Martin meets with officials from Wicklow County Council in Aughrim following Storm Chandra.

He said the funding was “badly needed” and urged that resurfacing works begin immediately, noting that councillors across the county had been raising concerns about deteriorating road conditions for months.

Cllr Joe Behan, however, said he was “not encouraged” by the earlier correspondence from the minister’s office and questioned whether the council had actually received the full amount it sought. He asked whether the €10.72 million was new money or whether it was being drawn from the county’s existing roads budget.

Cllr Stephen Stokes pointed out that the council had originally requested €15.6 million to repair storm damaged routes.

He asked whether the county now faced a shortfall of almost €5 million, and whether the Department had indicated if further emergency funding might be made available.

Responding to the concerns, chief executive Emer O’Gorman confirmed that the €10.72 million is entirely additional and was negotiated by the minister with the Department of Public Expenditure.

She said the earlier department correspondence was a general signal about future contingency planning rather than a reduction of the emergency allocation. Updated cost estimates, she added, show that the gap between the county’s needs and the funding provided is now smaller than originally calculated.

Ms O’Gorman said the Department expects the full allocation to be spent before the end of 2026 and that Wicklow’s districts have already moved to tender on several packages of works.

She assured councillors that “not a single cent” of the emergency funding would go unused and that the council is working “at speed” to deliver repairs across the county.