Important traffic calming works planned for North Tipp road with speeding problem

Important traffic calming works are being planned for Finnoe Road in Borrisokane, the recent meeting of Nenagh Municipal District was told.

The speeding problem on Finnoe Road has been an issue for a long time, with Councillors and residents raising serious safety concerns on many occasions.

Local councillors have pointed out that speeding on the road is "absolutely scary" and that "somebody is going to be killed" if the issue is not solved.

The Tipperary County Council executive is developing a proposal for the "enhancement of Finnoe Road from Crawford's corner to the speed limits on Finnoe Road," which includes plans for new footpaths and traffic-calming measures to improve pedestrian safety.

Barry Murphy, District Engineer, told the recent meeting that a significant amount of drainage work is being done on the road in advance of the traffic calming measures. Cllr Joe Hannigan welcomed the news, pointing out that the works are badly needed and will greatly improve the road which, at long last, is getting the attention it deserves.

Cllr Michael O'Meara agreed. “The works will be great for the road. This is a big project. There are a lot of residents living on that road.” He added that there are a couple of manholes in the Clarke Hall area of Borrisokane which are dangerous and are “lifting up.”

In other business, the District Engineer pointed out that in terms of North Tipperary's road network, 2025 had been “a pretty good year. The big problem we are facing is inflation and insufficient finance. Because of this we couldn't do as much work as we wanted to. The inflation and finance problem is an issue which is not going away and could get worse.”

Cllr O'Meara criticised the way the government manages its grant giving. He wondered about the government's bona fides in this matter. “They often tell us they don't have the funds to give us for our very important work, and yet they can seemingly with ease produce the funds in many other matters. In fact I don't think they are looking after us well enough at all. It beggars belief that we often can't get essential extra funding for our projects when we badly need it. I think there seems to be a void, a worrying disconnect, an indifference between the Dáil and local authorities. I think the hard truth is that some members of the Dáil are condescending towards County Councils and look down on us. In fact the obvious derision which many of them have for Councils is unbelievable. There is a job of work for us to do in this regard. We need to somehow change this worrying disconnect into something more positive. You know, we see, in the Housing Crisis, the fallout from this void, where the large cities such as Dublin, Cork, Galway and Limerick have had a lot more houses built, relatively speaking, than countless smaller towns. The funding and determination to get things done is not percolating down to us. Every year we have to go cap in hand to the government for essential funding for works.”

Cllr John Carroll said it's obvious the local authorities are not being treated fairly by central government. “In Tipperary County Council we have seen a huge erosion of our funding in recent years, as well as an erosion of our powers. Our operations and maintenance budget has been static over the last 10 years.”

Cllr Joe Hannigan agreed with Cllr O'Meara. “We need more money from the national pot. There is something not right with the central government's attitude towards us.”

In other business, Cllr Seamus Morris pointed out that “a good few people are on to me about street sweeping; we don't seem to be doing that as much as we used to. It's a similar story with cleaning out gullies. We don't seem to have enough outdoor staff to do the level of work which needs to be done. Where is the system falling down? Local government seems to be taking the back foot on everything.”

Cllr Morris added that “the rain in the last week has been hammering the roads. I am also getting hammered about the Cloughjordan Road in Nenagh because there's a visibility issue there which is not being tackled. We are spending money on cycle routes and yet we are not adequately sweeping the roads. We seem to have pots of money for certain things but not others." (Finnoe Road is pictured below).

Cllr Fiona Bonfield pointed out that Climate Change is causing havoc with our road network, “and we need money from government to help us cope with this.”

Addressing another issue the District Engineer pointed out that potentially hazardous trees are “a significant problem in the Municipal District. We are compiling a list of trees which need to be tackled. It's 20 years since we last looked at them. So far, about a hundred trees need to be tackled."

Liam Brett, Director of Services, told the meeting that road construction inflation since 2021 is running at 30%. "Our outputs are down 30%. We do need a funding increase from the Department of Transport.”

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