Concern over 'astonishing shortfall' in funding to repair county's weather damaged roads 

Funding allocated to Cork County Council to repair damage caused by severe weather could be more than €4m short, as a bill of around €11m is predicted.

Cork County Council told The Echo that “provisional figures” suggest €11m of repairs will be needed, with €10m of damage done during the snow and ice in early January, and another €1m for Storm Éowyn later that month.

Following a comprehensive assessment, the council has been in touch with the Department of Transport about emergency funding.

Last week, transport minister Darragh O’Brien announced a national investment programme which included €82,838,900 for county Cork’s regional and local roads, including €6,800,800 related to severe weather.

A council spokesperson told The Echo: “The road network across Cork County has been subjected to major severe weather events since October 2023, including 10 significant named storms such as Storm Babet and Storm Bert.

“The accumulative impacts of these severe weather events, coupled with the impacts of the extreme snow/ice event in early January 2025, has accelerated and exacerbated the damage to our regional and local road Network.

“A comprehensive assessment of resultant damage has now been completed by Cork County Council, and discussions are ongoing with officials from the Department of Transport with respect to emergency funding assistance.” 

They added: “In the 2025 regional and local road grant allocations announced last week, Cork County Council has received €6.8m in funding for damage caused by severe weather from the Department of Transport, and this is very welcome.”

Cork South West Independent Ireland TD Michael Collins told The Echo that more funding was needed for Cork roads in general, saying that “€4.2m is an astonishing shortfall”.

He added: “We have so many issues needing to be fixed, and some of these are going to have to be sidelined, because where will they find the budget for all of them?

“I’ll be raising this issue in the Dáil, and mentioning that it’s easy to prevent a lot of the problems.

“Our rivers are full, and water is coming over the edge; and when drains at the sides of roads are blocked, the water stays on the road and destroys it. If drains were cleared, then the water wouldn’t be damaging the roads.”