Road Projects
Dail Éireann — 2026-09-24
============================================================

Brian Stanley (IND), Laois

I thank the Minister of State for his reply. He is correct regarding the allocation to the council but my point is that €3.5 million was given for active travel. I do not have a problem with that allocation; the problem is how it is being spent. He mentioned the departmental guidelines, which is where the issue arises. The specifications and stipulations set out in those guidelines are completely off the wall.
To give one example, I was calling for action from the council on Triogue Way 25 or 26 years ago. One section of footpath was put in there across Millview car park. It has worked out to be the most expensive car park in the world because of those specifications. The footpath part alone, which is 74 m in length, cost €105,000. Other work was done as well, with the whole project coming in at more than €400,000. That is crazy money. The amount of concrete that went in underneath it would support a section of motorway. An articulated truck could be driven down it. It is over 13 ft wide in places. That is absolutely ridiculous. It is happening because the Department is telling the council it must be done a certain way. Concrete was being poured for months, with a private contractor crew working on it for four months. Meanwhile, overseers and engineers cannot fund even drainage works or basic repairs to rural roads. That needs to be looked at again.

---

Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-09-24/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-28T05:50:50+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-09-24