Anger over €800k shortfall for Longford road repairs
Longford is short almost €800,000 in funding for essential repairs to roads for the coming year, according to figures released at the recent County Council meeting.
County Manager, Tim Caffrey, told members that he attended a joint committee meeting on the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, which was convened to deal with the emergency response to flooding and frost in recent months.
Deputy James Bannon arranged for Mr Caffrey to attend the meeting and he said he took the opportunity to raise the issue of funding.
"We made a submission for funding, at the time of the flooding, for €388,000. We got €137,000 – a shortfall of €251,000. In addition to that, we got our grant allocation for non-national roads this year, which is down €543,000.
"In the road grant allocation, I do welcome the money for the N5 bypass and I welcome the flexibility and discretion that we have with regard to the grant, but I have to say that I am genuinely extremely disappointed with the allocation that we got," said an exasperated Co Manager.
"I was one of five counties (Longford, Galway, Limerick, Roscommon and Westmeath) that was represented at the Oireachtas committee and Longford was the only county that was hit in this way.
"I would like to know, and I will be asking the Department, what was the criteria that was used to assess those other counties and to assess Longford," said Mr Caffrey.
In relation to the €543,000 shortfall in non-national roads funding, he said there were other counties that had no cutbacks at all.
He said that when the council prepared its draft budget, they anticipated a ten percent drop in the Local Government Fund, but were delighted when the cut was just two percent, which allowed the council to put €300,000 back into its roads.
Mr Caffrey said the recent cuts, totalling almost €800,000 were "very, very disappointing" and he conveyed this to the Oireachtas Committee.
"I don't know whether it will go anywhere, but I feel that the questions have to be answered. The other four counties have significant means to raise funds themselves that we don't have," said Mr Caffrey.
Cllr Alan Mitchell said it appeared that "Longford was being treated as a second class county".
"For the size of the county, we have a huge road network," said Cllr Mitchell. "The question has to be asked, 'Why is Longford being discriminated against in this manner? I think it's totally unacceptable."
Co Mayor Cllr Peggy Nolan, who attended the Oireachtas meeting, described it as "an absolute waste of time" to attend the meeting. She added the Leitrim, one of the most badly affected counties in the recent flooding, wasn't invited to attend the meeting.
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Weather for Longford, Ireland
Thursday 17 May 2012
Today
Light rain
Temperature: 6 C to 12 C
Wind Speed: 8 mph
Wind direction: South east
Tomorrow
Light showers
Temperature: 7 C to 11 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: North east
