Claims budget did not do enough to address future of Cork transport

Budget 2026 was disappointing but not disastrous for transport in Cork, Darren McAdam O’Connell, Cork Transport and Mobility Forum (TMF) coordinator, has said.

Mr O’Connell said that they had been concerned about the first budget from the current government, without the Green Party, who were part of the government for the last five budgets.

He told The Echo: “There was no huge scale back, no disasters. There’s significant extra transport money, but the problem is a lot of it is going on roads.

“There was €360m for active travel, the same as last year so no cut but no increase, even in line with inflation. The funding is quite substantial, but it’s not enough to get to where we need to go.

“There is continued investment in roads which might take 10 years to complete, but in 10 or 15 years we won’t be able to have the same amount of cars on the road that we do now.

“We need some spending on roads, there are potholes that are crying out to be fixed, and we need to redo roads damaged by storms to get people to and from their houses whether by car, bike, or bus, but that’s not where the money is going. It’s going on big new motorways, there’s more money spent on them than anything else.”

Finland

He explained that he recently attended a European transport meeting and heard there that in Finland, a light rail project was first discussed at a council meeting and then operational six years later.

“In a year, they’d built an extension, in two years, the next extension, and in another two years, another extension. In another two years they’ll open another extension. 

"We are not seeing timely delivery of projects in this country, even though we should be better able to do it better than anyone, because we have the resources flittered away on motorways.” 

Mr O'Connell explained that currently, driving is more subsidised than getting the bus, saying that Budget 2026 “is not addressing that balance”. 

While he welcomed the increase in carbon tax, he said “we are nowhere near as radical we need to be”, such as on taxation for car parking.