Roads Funding Announcement Is AnEelection Con Job – McGrath
Independent TD Mattie McGrath has accused the Minister for the Environment Alan Kelly of attempting to pull the wool over the eyes of Co. Tipperary residents following his announcement that the county has been allocated €16 million for road repairs in 2016. Deputy McGrath went on to say that while commitments to continue the restoration of Lismalin Bridge and the Latteragh upgrade between Nenagh and Thurles were very much to be welcomed, they did not reveal the extent of the funding cuts which had already taken place:
“We are being told by the Minister and his partners in Government Minister Hayes and Deputy Coonan that €4 million of a discretionary grant will be distributed between Tipperary’s five Municipal Districts this year.
What they have failed to reveal however is that during the lifetime of this Government all the councils in the entire county had their overall local government funding cut by €6.8million.
This means, as Minister Kelly well knows, that the councils are still be going to be almost €3 million short of where they were before he and his government colleagues took power.
That throws this apparent act of generosity into a more realistic perspective.
The Minister is deliberately taking the people of Tipperary for fools if he thinks this kind of slight of hand will not be seen for what it is; a desperate electoral ploy that will do next to nothing to advance the long term improvement of the county’s roads network,” concluded Deputy McGrath.
