Am I being too simplistic?

up for anything

This is a fecking disgrace. The town and county councils of Ireland were allocated over €400 million to be used by the end of 2010 to repair roads damaged by the severe winter of 09/10. I would hazard a guess that they spent a lot of well-paid time preparing their begging letters to the Minister for Transport and reaped results which they haven't bloody used. I would have thought the summer would have been the optimum time for road repairs if they plan to do them and not leaving it till the last minute. Almost half of the money has not been drawn down yet. Not one of the urban local authorities have drawn down a cent yet! There is a lovely table in the link which shows the local authorities, the amount they were allocated and the amount still to used.

If they are not going to use the bloody money, could it not be given to Mary Harney to help reduce the €600M cuts she is saying she will have to make to the health budget. At least then the people who wreck their cars and bodies due to the pot holes could be assured of some medical treatment.

If I ran my household budget as poorly as the people in local and central government run theirs, I would be laughed out of town. :mad:

Tom Hayes TD South Tipp

ALMOST HALF OF WINTER ROAD REPAIR MONEY STILL NOT SPENT, FURTHER 4 DEATHS ON OUR ROADS THIS WEEKEND

October 18th, 2010

Almost half of winter road repair money still not spent, further 4 deaths on our roads this weekend- Hayes

Hayes tells councils to ‘fix the potholes’ as winter approaches

Time is running out for local authorities to repair roads damaged in last year’s Big Freeze before the winter weather returns, Fine Gael Road Safety Spokesman Tom Hayes TD has warned.

Deputy Hayes has learned that almost half of the money allocated to the councils has still not been used, even though winter is approaching rapidly.
“Some €414 million of emergency funding was given to councils this year to repair badly damaged roads. Yet €184 million of that funding has still not been spent – that’s 44% of the total.

“Councils can only avail of this money until the end of the year. But the biggest losers of all will be motorists, who witnessed the dramatic deterioration of roads all over Ireland last winter. This has serious safety consequences, as well as causing untold damage to vehicles.

“As we come to the end of Road Safety Week, I am calling on local authorities to make maximum use of the available funding. There is no guarantee that similar funding will be available next year. Yet the coming winter is set to be just as bad, if not worse, as last year’s.”

“For example, in South Tipperary the County Council itself has drawn down only €8 million of the €10 million allocated, with a fifth remaining to be spent, but more worrying than that, none of the urban councils in the county have drawn down the funding allocated to them – which totals almost another million euro.”

Mark200

Perhaps they don't need the extra money....?

Funny how it's a disgrace when politicians do spend our money, and a disgrace when they don't.

gbee

up for anything wrote: »

This is a fecking disgrace. The town and county councils of Ireland were allocated over €400 million to be used by the end of 2010 to repair roads damaged by the severe winter of 09/10.

Whilst this is one issue, what's even more maddening is the way they HAVE to spend the money and you'll see stupid and unnecessary works, speed ramps, traffic light to nowehere, bus lanes all spring up during the Christmas Rush.

The motto is, if the money is not spent you get none next year.

up for anything

It is a disgrace if they made representations for the money saying that they needed it and yet haven't availed of it. Instead of it sitting in some account somewhere for the last ten months it could have been put to better use creating proper employment or stopping a ward closing.

orourkeda

When you consider the amount of money being spent the roads are still ****e.

Is it really representing value for money

thebigbiffo

i passed a roadworks site recently on the waterford/kilkenny road. there was one roller, 2 dumpers, 3 vans and 8 lads on site. 2 of them were holding stop/go signs, 4 were smoking fags and chatting, one was in the steam roller (stationary) and the other had legs up on the dash in front of the dumpers cab. there was no fresh tarmac or the like laid down (this was about 12.30pm on a Sat) and for all my efforts i couldnt find anything wrong with the 30 metres of road requiring such manpower.

the vast majority of that 400m will be wasted on fat b'astards scratching their hole if you ask me

Mark200

thebigbiffo wrote: »

i passed a roadworks site recently on the waterford/kilkenny road. there was one roller, 2 dumpers, 3 vans and 8 lads on site. 2 of them were holding stop/go signs, 4 were smoking fags and chatting, one was in the steam roller (stationary) and the other had legs up on the dash in front of the dumpers cab. there was no fresh tarmac or the like laid down (this was about 12.30pm on a Sat) and for all my efforts i couldnt find anything wrong with the 30 metres of road requiring such manpower.

the vast majority of that 400m will be wasted on fat b'astards scratching their hole if you ask me

Perhaps they were on their lunch break

Rabies

just because they have it, doesn't mean spend it all.

How about spend it more efficiently and put a bit away for the next time.

Flimbos

thebigbiffo wrote: »

i passed a roadworks site recently on the waterford/kilkenny road. there was one roller, 2 dumpers, 3 vans...

...and one big gravy train.

thebigbiffo

Mark200 wrote: »

Perhaps they were on their lunch break

not a chicken fillet role in sight i'm afraid,

perhaps they were dossing?

syklops

gbee wrote: »

The motto is, if the money is not spent you get none next year.

Once the IMF arrive they wont be getting any. Their probably saving it for when that happens.

gbee

thebigbiffo wrote: »

the vast majority of that 400m will be wasted on fat b'astards scratching their hole if you ask me

Going back a couple of years now, a road building company brought a whole village from Yugoslavia, including wives and children, set up a village of prefabs and built a stretch of roadway from Cork to Oven in a spectacularly short time.

There was scandal when it was revealed that the workers were paid €1 and hour and worked 18 hours a day 6 a week with a half day off. They came to the public's notice as to their diligence in their work, even working on Christmas Day and they've made a very good job of the roadway too.

however, IMO the bigger scandal was when politicians decided to give the minimum wage to all the workers, backdated [who were now back in Yugoslavia living like kings] ~ total nonsense, the project, one of the few in the state had come in under time and on budget ~ then we blow the whole concept by interfering and meddling and paying way over the odds in the end the comments came from the minister "we are a rich country we can't be seen to be exploiting these workers"

Yet, said workers had their family, accommodation, schooling, subsistence all free and still had a wad of cash to take home, a wad that would have taken them 10-Years to earn locally and we still felt had to give them even more. There were no laws broken.

Shenshen

up for anything wrote: »

It is a disgrace if they made representations for the money saying that they needed it and yet haven't availed of it. Instead of it sitting in some account somewhere for the last ten months it could have been put to better use creating proper employment or stopping a ward closing.

That money wouldn't happen to be in the same pot they will need to finance the gritting and salting of the roads out of, once winter hits, would it?

jackiebaron

thebigbiffo wrote: »

not a chicken fillet role in sight i'm afraid,

perhaps they were dossing?

Guess it was a movie for vegetarians.

Logical Fallacy

I would say over the coming months the weather conditions will have a huge effect on the roads and a lot of that money will be required then.