Pearse Doherty has slammed the government over their decision to reduce funding for the county’s regional and local roads.
The Donegal TD is the latest to criticise the almost €30 million funding granted to Donegal, which has been reduced €3 million when compared to 2018.
Speaking following the Government announcement, Doherty said that while he welcomes the inclusion of many of the projects which are set to benefit from the allocation the decision to reduce the overall roads budget compared to the year previous showed a complete lack of understanding from Government of the poor state of many of the county’s secondary routes.
Calling on the Minister to come to visit the county to see for himself the difficulties motorists here face when travelling on our county’s roads, Doherty said: “Few other counties have suffered due to a sustained and persistent legacy of chronic underinvestment in transport infrastructure like Donegal.
“One only has to take a look at the poor condition of many of our regional and county roads to see how this has borne out.”
Responding to the funding reduction, Doherty said the allocation was ‘completely inadequate’ with the amount of funding required for the county.
“This very fact makes the decision from Minister Ross all the more hard to understand when he announced grants worth €29.6 million for the county’s regional and local roads for 2019, down some €3 million compared to grants totalling € 33 million which were allocated in 2018.
“And while last year’s road budget represented a slight increase of €2 million on the levels of funding awarded in 2017 and 2016, the allocation for this year 2019 shows a decrease on the figures for the last 3 years – that is inexplicable.
“The funding announced today, while no doubt badly needed, is completely inadequate when we consider the level of investment actually required to address the years of underinvestment in our local road infrastructure.
“And the fact that the budget for road improvements this year actually falls short of what was arguably already a meagre amount as was the case last year simply reinforces the criticism often levelled at this government that it completely underestimates the scale of the challenges we as a county face with respect to our crumbling infrastructure.
“Given the sheer size of the county, Donegal has a significant road network in terms of overall mileage yet the allocations which we receive from the central government to maintain an sustain those routes has consistently failed to take this into account.
“And while I, of course, welcome the projects which will receive a share of this funding announced today, and which includes a number of local road safety measures and bridge repair works at a number of locations throughout the county, it remains the case that the level of grants awarded to the county for 2019 will simply keep our roads and other pieces of transport infrastructure ‘ticking over’ and will not be enough to significantly improve the current situation here.