Rising costs could lead to reduced roadworks programme in North Tipp

A Council official recently warned councillors, during the May meeting of Nenagh Municipal District, that rising costs could lead to a reduced roadworks programme.

“We are facing big challenges,” said Barry Murphy of the Council's roads department, “because of the rising cost of fuel and the rising cost of construction work and materials. If the economy faces further economic shocks then we may have no choice but to drop some planned roadwork projects in the county. As it is, we are having to renegotiate things with our contractors.”

Cllr Michael O'Meara said it's a time of flux and crisis. Rising costs, he said, are very worrying for everyone. “Hopefully things will improve and we will be able to stick to our roads programme target.

“The condition of our roads is a huge issue for us councillors. We are often getting complaints about roads from the public. The roads are in a bad state in quite a few places in the county.”

Cllr Ger Darcy added that there has been a lot of foliage growth this year. “The sightlines at a number of road junctions are very bad. We need to cut back the foliage at quite a few junctions, to make it safer."

Cllr Joe Hannigan said that because we are going through an energy crisis, the proposed decommissioning of the wind farm in Derrybrien, East Galway, made no sense to him.

Director of Services Marcus O'Connor pointed out that unfortunately the process followed during the construction of the wind farm was flawed. He said that in November 2019, Ireland was fined €5 million in the European Court of Justice for the state’s failure to carry out an environmental impact assessment at the Derrybrien site.