Laois County Council accused of 'talking in riddles' on money for fixing footpaths

Dangerous footpaths are the "biggest issue" in Laois, a Portlaoise Fianna Fáil councillor has said.

Cllr Catherine Fitzgerald told Laois County Council managers that they are "talking in riddles" as she tried to get a straight answer on whether there is a pot of money to repair footpaths.

She tabled a motion to the October monthly meeting asking the council to put money in their upcoming annual budget especially for paths.

"This is the biggest issue there now. I could name five or six estates. Our discretionary money can't do it. We need to get money to do footpaths. We put up the property taxes. All the residents are saying it. Paths in estates are really dangerous," she said.

Sinn Féin Cllr Caroline Dwane Stanley supported the motion.

"We dip into our discretionary funds but not if we put them all together could it be done. I put some in O'Moore Place and Parnell Place, identifying the worst sections with the engineer. People are asking 'when will you do mine'. It's crazy.

"There are elderly people falling. If they fall and break a hip, that's a claim gone in straight away. In O'Moore Place they have not been done in 50 years apart from my patches. The roots of trees have come up through them. We need to try and get the ear of the Minister," she said.

Laois County Council say they will do repairs on a priority basis in 2025, and that given the frequency of requests, "provision will be made for the budget". 

Acting Director of Services Paul McLoughlin said that while there is no longer seperate budgets for paths paid by the Department of Transport, there is a discretionary budget given to the council that they can use for paths, on top of the discretionary budgets given to each councillor, some €30,000 each. 

"You're talking in riddles, I can get no money for footpaths," Cllr Fitzgerald told him. 

Acting CEO Simon Walton agrees that more money is needed.

"What you have in mind is a scale of refurbishment throughout the county. There will not be sufficient funding in our budget next year or the year after to deliver the project you envisage. Our only avenue of funding for the last few yers is from the Department of Transport for discretionary items like traffic calming. The IPB money expired at the end of 2023.

"All the councillors have called on the department to introduce a restoration programme for paths similar to the roads programme introduced in 1997. If you compare roads now they are chalk and cheese, there's been a huge improvement.  We've written to the department, we haven't received updates.  I can honestly say there is no provision where the roads allocation will be any different that 2024," he said.