Confusion over road repairs grant amount
THERE WAS confusion at a Wexford Borough Council meeting over whether the Department of the Environment cut or increased the annual grant for road repairs.
Cllr. Jim Allen of Fine Gael condemned the Government's decision not to give extra funding for roads ravaged in the recent freeze.
He said Minister Noel Dempsey reduced the grant from €675,000 in 2009 to €470,000 this year.
'This will impact on safety levels on our roads which are in an appaling condition. The people of Wexford pay millions of Euros in road tax and the least they should expect is to be able to drive safely', he said.
Cllr. Allen said it was the Government's fault. His message to people who had complaints was - don't ring me, ring Paddy Nolan, Fergie Kehoe or Danny Forde.
Cllrs. Nolan and Kehoe are members of Fianna Fail and Cllr. Forde is a Green Party member.
Cllr. Nolan said he would tell anyone who rang him about the orations he had to listen to from Cllr. Allen at Borough Council meetings.
He said if Cllr. Allen had been listening half an hour earlier, he would have heard the Borough Engineer Tadgh O' Corcora saying he was going to give a report on the roads programme at the next meeting.
'And that there has been a 6% increase', piped in Cllr. Padge Reck..
The Engineer had indeed informed councillors about a roads grant increase of 6% on 200 and promised that a full programme of works would be outlined at the next meeting.
Director of Services Adrian Doyle said the roads grant was cut in the Government's Budget but there was a 6% increase on the original reduction in a revised allocation.
Cllr. Nolan said he was prepared to wait for the Engineer's report.
Cllr. Anthony Kelly of Sinn Fein said the money allocated would go nowhere near addressing the problem in Wexford. 'The potholes are breeding at the moment, they're so bad'.
'However Cllr. Reck said - 'Until the Engineer tells us the extent of the problem, we can't say what the problem is'.
