West Mayo roads are 'totally underfunded'

Funding for local and regional roads in Mayo is inadequate and a call must be made to the Government for emergency monies in order to bring them up to standard, an Achill councillor has stated.

Cllr Paul McNamara told a meeting of Westport-Belmullet Municipal District that he was not “one bit happy” with Mayo County Council's programme for regional and local roads in 2025.

Noting that Mayo had been awarded €40 million this year for roadworks, Cllr McNamara said while the figure was being touted as a 10% increase, it was actually a decrease due to the rising costs of materials and wage inflation. The Fianna Fáil councillor noted that only €20,000 had been allocated to the R319 between Achill Sound and Tonragee. The R319 is the main regional road to Achill Sound and through the island.

"It is lunacy that is all we can find. From Ballycroy Cross to Achill Sound, particularly the first half, it is in an atrocious condition; and then further down we are taking in only 800 to 900 metres a year at a time for roadworks, when the stretch involved is 35km. So it will take a full 35 years before we see an upgrade of the R319.” 

He added that the local roads on the island were just as bad and queried why there was never any allocation from the government for the roads along the Wild Atlantic Way “yet it is being promoted year in and out”.

“These roads are totally underfunded and will fall into complete disrepair if nothing is done. There is less than a third of the budget going into tarring and chipping, tree cutting, and maintaining potholes. The roads in my area are in disrepair and totally underfunded. They are the responsibility of the local authority and should be getting more funding.

“National roads receive much more funding and it is very unfair the local roads are lagging behind. If we don’t receive some emergency funding we will be at a crisis point in a number of years. Anyone travelling along national roads and then onto local roads, the difference in surfaces is chalk and cheese. I am calling for more money for them.” 

Erris councillor Gerry Coyle said all the roads in his area were regional but not “one spoon of salt was put on them when we had frost”.

“We had buses sliding around, they couldn’t make it up hills, yet the speed limits were imposed on all of them telling us to slow down. It is easier to go out on the sea to Inishkea than drive to Castlebar because the road has more bumps. To my mind there seem to be more accidents on national roads than local roads.” #

Westport Cllr John O’Malley said it was a fallacy to claim that Mayo got an extra €10m in roads funding “because inflation has taken that out, as well as the cost of oil and diesel and the rise in minimum wages”. 

“These side roads won’t be done again this year. The patcher, we have it for a few weeks, but we would need it for the whole year. When it rains there are people in my area that can’t even go for a walk as they are not able to get through the flashes of pools of rain. 

"Mayo definitely needs more money. The government must be told. It’s no good just doing a bit of a road at a time.” 

Cllr Chris Maxwell said the new coalition government needs to invest in the West of Ireland, adding: "Our TDs need to be fighting for this."

Cllr Peter Flynn said he wanted to highlight that the sum allocated for roads in Westport town centre amounted to €230,000.

“It is hard to get your head around that. Two hotels in the town centre pay over €230,000 in rates alone. I look at some of the roads outside our town, Distillery Road, down around The Fairgreen, all in a shocking state. Pedestrian crossings are falling apart. Our car parks are disgraceful. Some of the footpaths down at The Quay are in a shambles.

“Yet we have significant rates coming out of this town and people here are paying a substantial amount of money to run a business here and now to tell them that just €230,000 is being provided for the town centre, it is no wonder people are crying that the town centres are gone and Westport is paying a huge price for so-called local government reform.” 

The head of the municipal district Seamus O'Mongáin said many of the roads through Westport were national roads, which would explain why they were not on this programme for regional and local roads. 

"As for Mill Street and High Street in Westport, they have been resurfaced in the last two years and the rest would be considered in good condition, bar we do need to do some work on Altamount Street. A significant amount of work is to be done on the street but because of development works ongoing there, it would be futile to do so at the moment.” 

Referencing the R319, Mr O'Mongáin said that a section at Dookinella Crossroads and also at Ted Lavelle’s towards Bunacurry, as well as around the two bridges at Tonregee, had recently been worked on and there would be significant improvement along the route overall at the end of three years.

However, Cllr McNamara did not agree with this assessment, stating that at least 20km of the road needed upgrading.

“The road from Mulranny Cross right into Tonragee is deplorable. The best part is from the bridge to Saula, but from Polranny right into the bridge outside the former Eircom station, that road there would knock the teeth out of your mouth.” 

He added that he had concerns the municipal district meetings were now “turning into a place where you just voice your opinion but nothing happens”, adding: “The Wild Atlantic Way was free to Mayo County Council and the Department and government. It has been there since time began and no big money has been put into the infrastructure.”