O’Meara: Further increase needed in Nenagh roads funding

This year, the road programme in the Nenagh municipal area will get 7 percent more funding than last year.

Members approved a budget of over €12 million to cover roads across the Nenagh, Borrisokane, Newport and Ballina areas.

Cathaoirleach of Nenagh Municipal District, Michael O’Meara, told Tipp FM the increase is welcome, but considering current rising costs, more is needed.

“Will be needed because of inflation, the increased cost of materials and contractors costings.

“I welcome the increase in the budget, but I’d be just concerned at the volume of roads that we’re getting through – I estimate that it will take another five or six years to get through all the roads in the municipal area, which is not quick enough.

“We still have an awful lot of roads in very, very bad condition, in the red zones as they call them nationally.

“I would be concerned that we need to get an awful lot more of these roads done, but I welcome the amount of roads.”

He added that the quality of the works done on the roads is very high, but that the Government need to allocate more money, so that more can be completed.