Article: No funds for road repairs - Dempsey

Seth Brundle

No funds for road repairs - Dempsey
Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey has said that no extra funds would be made available to local authorities to repair roads damaged during the recent bout of severe weather.

Speaking this morning following a meeting of the National Emergency Response Committee this afternoon Mr Dempsey said local authorities were provided with an allocation for road works and, as usual, they would have to work within this.

He said a €400 million road works allocation had been agreed around the time of the Budget and that this would be given to local authorities later this month.

"The same rules apply every year," he said. "They work inside the budget they have."

He said no emergency funding was available from Government but that local authorities were always advised to "keep aside a certain amount of their allocation to meet weather contingencies".

Gerald Fleming of Met Éireann said temperatures were returning to normal but warned that heavy rain could cause further flooding in the south in the coming days.

Mr Fleming said “we could be looking at as much as 40 to 50mm of rain” between tonight tomorrow across the south and southwest which could lead to spot flooding.

Gerry Galvin of the Department of the Environment said he hoped water supplies would stabilise over the weekend when temperatures rose.

However, he said it could take "as long as three to four moths" for reservoirs and supplies to return to normal in Dublin and four to six weeks in other areas.

Mr Dempsey said local authorities in six areas - South Dublin, Tipperary North, Tipperary South, Meath, Carlow and Kildare- were investigating if urea which was used to grit roads when salt and grit supplies were wiped out had contaminated water supplies.

He said the authorities were awaiting test results but he was not concerned about supplied being contaminated.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2010/0114/breaking60.htm

CJhaughey

The roads in West Cork look like they have been shelled, theu are in an awful state. The council have been shovelling grit into them to stop cars blowing out both tyres when they drop into them.
I don't know what the rest of the country looks like but if they are like these ones then the tyre shops are going to be doing great business.
It is not small areas either some of them are across the entire road.
Powerful stuff freezing water.

cadaliac

He said no emergency funding was available from Government but that local authorities were always advised to "keep aside a certain amount of their allocation to meet weather contingencies".
:rolleyes:
FFS.
Thats it Noel, you pr1k. In fact, what good are you to us?

CJhaughey

cadaliac wrote: »

He said no emergency funding was available from Government but that local authorities were always advised to "keep aside a certain amount of their allocation to meet weather contingencies".
:rolleyes:
FFS.
Thats it Noel, you pr1k. In fact, what good are you to us?

If he wasn't so slimy I would recommend him as filler for some of the potholes.

maidhc

A good few roads in East Cork are no more. Impassible to all but those with Unimogs. They will have to find more money, they could pretend the Roads Network is a dilenquent Bank or something and then throw billions at it.

cantdecide

CJhaughey wrote: »

The roads in West Cork look like they have been shelled

So West Cork has finally caught up with East Cork:rolleyes:

Why are we the most taxed motorists in Europe??

GreeBo

CJhaughey wrote: »

Powerful stuff freezing water.

Only really a problem is the roads are in sh1te to begin with.

When you see the lads fixing them with a shovel of tarmac you know we are in trouble.

pburns

I bust a tyre this morning - first time I had the car out in days, was driving old 4x4 in the snow/ice. €140 down and hour-and-a-half lete for work.:mad:

Dempsey is only good for chasing good PR with Irish Times readers with unecessary new laws.

antodeco

GreeBo wrote: »

Only really a problem is the roads are in sh1te to begin with.

When you see 15 lads fixing them with a shovel of tarmac you know we are in trouble.

FYP

ART6

GreeBo wrote: »

Only really a problem is the roads are in sh1te to begin with.

When you see the lads fixing them with a shovel of tarmac you know we are in trouble.

They filled a number of deep potholes in the road to our village a couple of days ago using the most modern civil engineering technique. That involves dropping a shovel of chippings with a bit of asphalt into the water filled hole and then jumping on it with wellies. It is a temporary repair that generally lasts at least a day. However, I suppose their supply of tarmac was as limited as their supply of salt as they only filled the holes in the middle of the road and left the deeper ones along the verge. Those are the ones most likley to fill with water and become invisible. Maybe they have shares in Advance Pitstop etc?

Incidentally I would not support any suggestion of Noel Dempsey beig used to fill potholes. Waste of a good hole:p

mickdw

Just to make everyone aware. The council are not liable for damage to cars on holes that occured through wear & tear or unusual weather etc. They are liable though in cases where they fixed the holes with unsuitable material or just a generally unfit repair or leaving roadworks in unfit state.
Now I would advise everyone to take a photo or two of some of the patchwork that is being carried out these last few days. I say this because the repair will last about 2 days from what ive seen. If you were then to bend a rim or worse at the location of one of these bad repairs, the council are 100% responsible.

Yakult

ffs..

If they had built the roads right in the first place we wouldnt have this problem.

Its a disgrace I cant drive anywhere now without the risk of getting a punctured tyre or even worse crashing while trying to aviod these craters. Pisses me off so much.

Does road tax pay for the roads? If so I aint paying it. (Bluffing)

Cuddlesworth

cantdecide wrote: »

Why are we the most taxed motorists in Europe??

Because years ago the muppets of this country were promised lower tax's year on year. And they believed it. And thus began the reign of indirect taxation.

Tipsy Mac

cantdecide wrote: »

So West Cork has finally caught up with East Cork:rolleyes:

Why are we the most taxed motorists in Europe??

Because we have the most paved roads per head of population in Europe, far too many roads going to the arse end of Ballygobackwards.

itarumaa

Irish roads are bit like Ireland itself.

Instead doing the road well in first place it will be done badly with high cost, a bit like Irish houses. Then it can be repaired and council will have something to do, maybe even overtime. Of course the repair cannot be too good, otherwise the councils would run out of jobs.

Yeah, I'll Get Me Coat

maidhc

itarumaa wrote: »

Irish roads are bit like Ireland itself.

Instead doing the road well in first place it will be done badly with high cost, a bit like Irish houses. Then it can be repaired and council will have something to do, maybe even overtime. Of course the repair cannot be too good, otherwise the councils would run out of jobs.

Yeah, I'll Get Me Coat

The "tar and chips" really gets me. A completely pointless road surface, but the council insist on it. One road that was washed away in the past few days got the tar and chips treatment in october.

CJhaughey

maidhc wrote: »

The "tar and chips" really gets me. A completely pointless road surface, but the council insist on it. One road that was washed away in the past few days got the tar and chips treatment in october.

Not as expensive as the 1/2" tarmac that is apparently standard on roads around here. I wonder do the contractors bill for 4" of tarmac or 1/2"?;)

Zonda999

Another disgruntled Cork motorist here, the roads in the county are now in a dire state altogether, proper big potholes and dips on even supposed national primary roads and city roads alike, and not just since the big freeze, good thing my car does'nt have alloys at the moment!

cantdecide

Zonda999 wrote: »

Another disgruntled Cork motorist here

Have you noticed that if you go in any direction with your back to Cork, the roads improve. How does that work?

cantdecide

Tipsy Mac wrote: »

Because we have the most paved roads per head of population in Europe

Would you call them paved? They're unedged, mainteneance free rumble strips for the most part.

AugustusMaximus

1. The Government are wasting money on speed cameras when repairs the roads would almost certainly save more lives.
2. The RSA have nothing to say on the issue of fixing roads. What good are the RSA ?

ART6

AugustusMaximus wrote: »

1. The Government are wasting money on speed cameras when repairs the roads would almost certainly save more lives.
2. The RSA have nothing to say on the issue of fixing roads. What good are the RSA ?

1. Speed cameras generate revenue. Road repairs do not.
2. The RSA are there to publish silly adverts and to give Gay Byrne a job. They are just another quango with no obvious other purpose:mad:

galwaytt

mickdw wrote: »

Just to make everyone aware. The council are not liable for damage to cars on holes that occured through wear & tear or unusual weather etc. They are liable though in cases where they fixed the holes with unsuitable material or just a generally unfit repair or leaving roadworks in unfit state..

...sorry, not buying that at all, and if you want (recent) precedent, you can quote Galway CoCo and N6 Construction - they have paid out €130,000 to motorists for damage to cars, caused by imploding local roads, on foot of increased damage to local roads caused by construction traffic.

And that's before I start my 2k/year tax rant.......

Tipsy Mac wrote: »

Because we have the most paved roads per head of population in Europe, far too many roads going to the arse end of Ballygobackwards.

....I'd say our definition of 'paved' and theirs, is different, somehow......I'd hardly call a lot of smaller roads 'paved' tbh......

JHMEG

The country is bankrupt, get used to the potholes, as the little amount of money we do have is being spent on social welfare and public service pay.

CJhaughey

JHMEG wrote: »

The country is bankrupt, get used to the potholes, as the little amount of money we do have is being spent on social welfare and public service pay.

You mean the 50bn+ that is used to bail out banks, developers and their buddies?
If that was used to fund infrastructure then,,,,

craichoe

cantdecide wrote: »

So West Cork has finally caught up with East Cork:rolleyes:

Why are we the most taxed motorists in Europe??

Your not, infact quite a few countries are more expensive, Road Tax on a 1.9 TDI in the Netherlands is between 1100 and 1250 a year depending on what part you live in.

CJhaughey

craichoe wrote: »

Your not, infact quite a few countries are more expensive, Road Tax on a 1.9 TDI in the Netherlands is between 1100 and 1250 a year depending on what part you live in.

But their roads don't look like ours!

McSpud

CJhaughey wrote: »

Not as expensive as the 1/2" tarmac that is apparently standard on roads around here. I wonder do the contractors bill for 4" of tarmac or 1/2"?;)

The best/worst example I have seen of that is Rochestown road in Cork which is tarmac but has been done to such low standards that has been resurfaced far too many times. You can see the top layer of tarmac basically peal off the bottom layer. I can only imagine the amount of money wasted on that small stretch of road.

cantdecide

craichoe wrote: »

Your not, infact quite a few countries are more expensive, Road Tax on a 1.9 TDI in the Netherlands is between 1100 and 1250 a year depending on what part you live in.

How much is the VRT, fuel and VAT in the Netherlands?

MetzgerMeister

Along with having to put up with the torture of potholes, the roads around thurles are covered in stone chippings. I don't know if this is from the roads being ripped up or whatever crap was put on them to grit them but since i went back to work after my christmas holidays, the driver's side of my car has been hit 8 times by these chippings and chunks of paint came off each time. The side of my car looks like a snap shot of the moon's surface.

Where is the money we all fork out for road tax going each year? Certainly not to the maintenance of the road networks!

CJhaughey

einheisserschre wrote: »

Where is the money we all fork out for road tax going each year? Certainly not to the maintenance of the road networks!

No such animal I am afraid, have a closer look at the tax form, nowhere does it state that it is road tax, it is a MOTOR tax.
Blame the Gov't for this, as it is diverted into a slush fund that is used for all kinds of everything.;)

Cuddlesworth

einheisserschre wrote: »

Along with having to put up with the torture of potholes, the roads around thurles are covered in stone chippings. I don't know if this is from the roads being ripped up or whatever crap was put on them to grit them but since i went back to work after my christmas holidays, the driver's side of my car has been hit 8 times by these chippings and chunks of paint came off each time. The side of my car looks like a snap shot of the moon's surface.

Where is the money we all fork out for road tax going each year? Certainly not to the maintenance of the road networks!

When it snowing we complain about the lack of gritting, when its stopped snowing we complain about the gritting. If I worked for the council taking complaints I'd probably go on a killing spree

MetzgerMeister

Good point CJ.

Cuddles, I never gave out about the lack of gritting. Around here they actually did a fairly top job. I'm giving out about the damage it has done to my car because our government are idiots and didn't have any salt!

wilson10

mickdw wrote: »

Just to make everyone aware. The council are not liable for damage to cars on holes that occured through wear & tear or unusual weather etc. They are liable though in cases where they fixed the holes with unsuitable material or just a generally unfit repair or leaving roadworks in unfit state.
Now I would advise everyone to take a photo or two of some of the patchwork that is being carried out these last few days. I say this because the repair will last about 2 days from what ive seen. If you were then to bend a rim or worse at the location of one of these bad repairs, the council are 100% responsible.

They may be 100% responsible but I can assure you, from bitter experience, in Co. Louth at least, they don't pay.

teednab-el

It just goes to show that the Celtic Tiger was a complete and utter farce! This country is a comedy. Our government now havent even the money to resurface the road network. How have we got to this stage?. I wont take the freezing weather as an excuse. Whats the point buying a new car in this country, sur you' ll only wreck it unless you are living near the motorways. Whats the point having the NCT or even passing the NCT when cars will be damaged on the present roads anyway. I burst a tire today and damaged an alloy and Im not happy person at the moment.