Tipperary County Council must justify poor draw down on Roads Grants – Máirín McGrath
Cahir local electoral area candidate, Máirín McGrath has called on the Chief Executive of Tipperary County Council, to provide a reason as to why the Local Authority has yet to draw down a single euro of the €2.2 million allocated to it under the Roads Restoration/Maintenance Grant for 2019.
Máirín was speaking after the information was confirmed by the Minister for Transport, Shane Ross:
“It has been put very directly to me on the canvass trail that that the condition of our roads in Tipperary and specifically those around Cahir and surrounding areas are a matter of significant concern.
That is why I was so shocked to see that despite the allocation of €2.28 million; 0% of it has been drawn down under this particular grant heading for the first five months of this year.
Minister Ross also confirmed that Tipperary County Council have been allocated €12.4 million for 2019 under the Roads Restoration Improvement grant. For the first five months of this year however it has only draw down €422,489, which works out as 3.4% of the total funding available.
I do acknowledge that the Council has spent €1.2 million on the roads Discretionary Grant from its total allocation of €4.6 million.
Despite this however, questions need to be answered about the low to non-existent draw down of available roads funds under the other grant headings,” concluded Máirín.