Mayo council official says roads funding system is 'bonkers'
Mayo County Council Director of Services Tom Gilligan.
There are too many state bodies overseeing the management of roads in Ireland, making the procurement process time-consuming and frustrating, a senior council official has stated.
Mayo County Council Director of Services Tom Gilligan made his comments at last Tuesday's meeting of the local authority's strategic policy committee (SPC) for roads after his colleague, Acting Head of Roads Conrad Harley, had referenced the difficulties in obtaining funding for projects.
Presenting the council's programme of roadworks for the coming year, Mr Harley said the council had to deal with the Department of Rural and Community Development for projects under the Local Improvement Scheme (LIS), the National Transport Authority (NTA) for Active Travel projects, as well as Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) for most other schemes.
"Each have their own separate guidelines and rules and processes to follow," Mr Harley explained.
Mr Gilligan said there was a lot of "duplication" in dealing with these various bodies.
"It's bonkers really," he remarked. “It would be much handier if you were dealing with one organisation in terms of roads. This is one thing the Government needs to look at. This fragmentation means we are missing out on synergies, it is all totally inefficient. You have to attend so many meetings and prepare for so many, you are not maximising the output."
Mr Gilligan picked up on the theme again at the Claremorris-Swinford Municipal District meeting the next day during a discussion on Active Travel.
“We work with the NTA on Active Travel, but within our roads section we talk to TII, the Department of Transport, the Department of Rural and Community Development, the Road Safety Authority, Local Link, Healthy Ireland and more, all of which have different funding streams and procurement processes. So there is a substantial amount of work trying to deal with all of these departments and link it all together with synergies and joined-up thinking. It can be frustrating in relation to their various timelines, funding streams and processes to follow as well.”
SPC cathaoirleach Cllr Annie May Reape said the whole system was "very frustrating".
“You go to the Department with an issue and they tell you it is not their responsibility, then you go to TII and they say the same. There are too many staff involved in it all. Somebody really should look at it. I remember back in the day when there was just the Director General and the Manager you had to deal with, two people, and it all worked much more efficiently.”
Referring to a request from SPC members for representatives of the TII and the Department of Transport to attend a future meeting of the committee, Cllr Reape it was “highly unlikely” both would attend together, meaning separate meetings will have to be arranged.
