Minister Ryan refuses to fund audit of Cork city footpaths

TRANSPORT Minister Eamon Ryan has refused to fund an audit of Cork city and suburbs footpaths, which representatives hoped would paint a clearer picture on the dangerous status of footpaths right around the city.

Labour candidate for the South East Ward Peter Horgan received a response to a Parliamentary Question which stated: “Local authorities are required to carry out road safety audits and road user audits for certain State funded regional and local road works.”

Mr Horgan said: “This is raised at every door I knock on”, adding: “Basic transport is walking, but so many people — be they young, old, require wheelchairs or are pushing buggies — find that the footpaths in Cork are simply crumbling away.

“The city council has indicated they could not fund an audit, and now the minister for transport has said he will not fund one either.

“It’s simply not good enough that funding cannot be allocated to conduct an independent audit so we have a clear, objective picture on the scale and cost of the repairs needed.”

It comes as Monday’s meeting of Cork City Council was the scene of a 45-minute debate about the state of footpaths, with councillors suggesting that borrowing money to fix them and expanding the active travel scheme to also include footpaths, as walking is a form of active travel.

Ten different councillors had written motions related to footpaths, and many more spoke about footpaths in need of investment in their local area, including Workers Party councillor for Cork City North East Ted Tynan.

Mr Tynan shared that he knows of two people who have been knocked from their wheelchairs due to dangerous footpaths, and that he himself had taken a fall at a section of uneven pavement, a fall which left him winded and bleeding.

Sinn Féin councillor for Cork City North West Mick Nugent proposed “that Cork City Council write to the relevant Government department proposing that Active Travel Funding would also allow repairs to existing footpaths.”

He told The Echo: 

“It’s a kind of a continuing debate at city council, the issue of repairs to footpaths, accessibility problems, and the cost to the council in terms of cases taken is considerable.”

Mr Nugent discussed the idea of taking out a loan that had been proposed, saying: “We did it for housing, but we were able to service that loan with the rental income, so taking out a loan for footpaths could be an issue.”

“I just thought, we’re debating it long enough, why not just write to the minister and ask: ‘Can you look at this?’. Active travel funding is great, but it would be great if we could adjust it.”

Following the debate, Social Democrats local election candidate Pádraig Rice said: “Cork City Council’s debate on footpath repair is too little, too late — the council has completely
neglected to look after the footpaths in the city over the last five years.

“The €200,000 allocated by current sitting councillors to footpath repairs in Cork city is woefully inadequate.”