John Clendennen

Overall sentiment: 0.08
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I concur with Deputy Kelly in relation to roads and the condition they are currently in. Roads have taken an absolute pounding in recent months as a result of relentless bad weather. We received funding last week, which is very much welcome, but the pace of the provision of funding and the pace of deterioration are at two very different levels. Will the Government consider a special supplementary allocation in light of the level of damage that has been done? Damage has been done to roads the like of which I have never seen before. It is not just local county roads; it is all categories of roads. I ask that more discretion and autonomy be given to local engineers. There are far too many programmes that have to be referred to Dublin for approval. It makes zero sense that a mason repair job of €10,000 on a boreen in the back-end of Offaly has to be referred to Dublin for approval. Give the money to the engineers. Challenge them at the end of the year to see if they spent it all and if projects came in under budget. Let us get more efficiency into the system.

Sentiment score: 0.08