Disappointing tourism not linked to roads

THIS week a councilor has described the level of vitriol directed at him by members of the public over the state of roads in west Cork.

Skibbereen-based Cllr Joe Carroll (FF) said he and other colleagues are being ‘eaten alive’ as they campaign, seeking votes in the region.

The response is not new or surprising: councilors have been calling for more funding for local roads to Cork County Council and local district assemblies for several years.

It’s not as if their calls have fallen on deaf ears – the Council’s various managers largely agree with them, and in recent weeks interim County Council chief executive Valerie O’Sullivan even said they were ‘blue in the face’ was looking for financing. for Cork roads.

The problem appears to lie in the budgets allocated to local government by the relevant civil service departments, and their lack of understanding of the geography and remoteness of the roads in West Cork.

Cork is not only the largest province, but due to its extensive coastline it also has a huge network of small rural roads in often difficult to reach places.

The fact that a large number of these roads are often coastal roads determines the type of wear and tear they experience. Unlike roads inland or in some of our more densely populated counties, the vagaries of Atlantic weather mean that road surfaces in West Cork are particularly poor. vulnerable.

Increasing rainfall, the regularity of Atlantic storms, combined with rising temperatures all put our road surfaces in the direct line of fire of climate change.

But there appears to be no ‘joint thinking’ at central government level when it comes to the allocation of road funding. The size of the road network, rather than its current condition, appears to be of paramount importance when considering the financial resources allocated to a province.

But when the current road stock is already in a critical condition, an element of rehabilitation and repair certainly needs to be included in the costs before the money for resurfacing is taken into account.

Cllr Carroll estimates that in some cases West Cork’s roads are as bad as they were during the famine of the mid-1840s. And that’s hard to argue when examining some access roads to big cities, let alone remote roads in corners of isolated peninsulas, or those on our windswept islands.

Driving around the region you almost get the impression that the budget apportioners assume that no one in this area will stray beyond the county boundaries to see how much higher the quality of the roads is in, for example, neighboring Kerry, Waterford and Tipperary.

To say Cork is the ‘poor relation’ is an understatement.

Some of the main roads in this area have surfaces that would not be out of place in European cities currently ravaged by war, such as the prevalence of huge potholes and the complete lack of a road surface.

We’re about to launch a new summer season in one of the country’s most popular holiday destinations, and it’s almost embarrassing to welcome visitors to this corner of Ireland when any welcome must be tempered with warnings and precautions regarding driving on the most important routes in the region and Borens.

It is disappointing that the importance of West Cork as a tourist destination is not part of the conversation when road budgets are debated at senior levels.

Cllr Carroll says he is being ‘eaten alive’ by potential voters when he questions them. But he blames senior politicians who, he says, are the ones who have better access to those in control.

Although a general election is looming either side of next Christmas, very few main party candidates are still in the running. You wouldn’t envy their job if the welcome given to local politicians is anything like a warning.