A grieving Monaghan family were forced to ask their local councillor to fix potholes in the road to their home in order to bring the remains of their loved one home. That's according to Monaghan-based senator Robbie Gallagher, who "pleaded" with the government to provide the funding necessary to fix roads here.
The critical state of the Cavan and Monaghan local road network was - yet again - raised at government level, when Senator Gallagher asked Minister of State Michael Noonan TD for "emergency funding to be found" to address the deteriorating condition of our roads. The Minister of State with responsibility for Nature, Heritage and Electoral Reform said the Government allocated €658m to roads funding last year but severe weather events like storms and "higher than average rainfall" across the country has made roads maintenance "challenging".
This time, Senator Robbie Gallagher said he was "pleading" with ministers and he told the distressing story of one Monaghan family who were worried about bringing a hearse over their local road: "Now, I'm pleading with government to do something to address this particular issue," Senator Gallagher told Deputy Noonan, "I recently was speaking to a a local councillor in Monaghan who said he got a phonecall from a bereaved family who were expecting the remains to come home and she was crying on the phone asking the council to fill in the potholes before the hearse would take the remains to their home. That's how bad and desperate as it is and, if I were to stand from now until 6 o'clock this evening trying to explain to you how bad the roads are I'd probably under-sell it. So, this is a genuine plea for help".
