*The N85 in Kilnamona.
A GATEWAY to North Clare is “an embarrassing piece of road” with top officials in Clare County Council failing to follow up on intent from six years ago, one councillor has said.
Failure of Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) and Clare County Council to progress the N85 realignment project in six years has been criticised by elected members of the local authority.
Director of Service, Carmel Kirby stated in December 2019 that consultants would be appointed “in early 2020” to upgrade a 3km section of road from west of Kilnamona Cross and an additional 1.5km to Whelan’s Quarry. No funding has been sanctioned for the scheme by TII in 2023, 2024 or 2025 but the energy exerted by Council officials in their bid has also been questioned.
In a fresh proposal, Cllr Shane Talty (FF) asked the Council to request that TII “ensure that the N85 realignment project from Ennis to Inagh be recommenced and project development funding be allocated in the 2026 roads budget”.
He recalled raising the project in December 2019 when he was told a project brief was to be developed for 2020. “We haven’t seen any action on it since, what had been an annual allocation of €40,000 to €50,000 hasn’t been forthcoming. This road is carrying north of 1.5 million visitors into North Clare, it is an embarrassing piece of road which is also carrying commuters to Ennis and Shannon daily for work”.
Talty continued, “There is no place to overtake, there’s dangerous bends, ongoing crashes and incidents from Kilnamona to Inagh, it is an embarrassing piece of infrastructure”. He questioned the top table on what roads they were trying to secure funding for and progress. “The intent from December 2019 hasn’t been followed through in six years”.
Seconding the motion, Cllr Joe Killeen (FF) commented, “All that has changed is different posters for election candidates going up on the section of road. 100km/h is the speed limit there but you would want all wheels on the ground to be able to do it, there was a sign in Kerry ‘do 100 if you dare’ and you won’t be able to do 100 on this road. People get impatient on it when stuck behind a car, it creates frustration and tailbacks. The road edge is inadequate in places”.
With Clare to host the Irish Open and Walker Cup next year “the road is not good enough,” Cllr Pat Daly (FF) flagged. “We got substantial funding previously when Tom Carey was engineer for new road from Ennis to Inagh but it wasn’t taken up, we’ve several buses on the road every day, people heading to work and people visiting where tourism is a big earner”. He added, “a lot of money has been spent in Dublin, it is time the West got its bit”. When the motion was discussed in December in 2019, Cllr Talty remarked “If we were in Mayo we could have get €280m in funding for a motorway to Ennistymon”.
Airing his views, Cllr Tom O’Callaghan (FF) said, “we can’t be blaming ourselves or the Executive, look at the Ennis MD where in fact funding has been reduced on the fact standards of our roads are okay for now and funding increased elsewhere. This is the part of infrastructure we’re trying to develop”.
Clare is not getting fair treatment from the TII, Cllr Michael Shannon (FF) felt. “I am going to Shannon to work for nearly thirty years and for twenty of those years there has been plastic bollards on certain parts of the N85, the TII are not treating us fairly in Clare. They are main arteries to West Clare and North Clare, carrying tourism, people going to work in Ennis, Shannon, Limerick and Galway, we need to be more ambitious with our plans and more creative with how we get them to fruition. At best we can only alter small bends on the N68 for the big golf tournaments, this project needs to come on line and be reignited”.
There needs to be a strategic approach for developing road projects in Clare, Cllr Rita McInerney (FF) affirmed, “identify the main ones and plan them accordingly from a funding and infrastructural perspective”.
Senior engineer, Cyril Feeney told councillors, “the Executive share the desire for the upgrading of our road network. Some of our elected members accompanied the Executive to a meeting with the TII in Dublin in May, we outlined many of the concerns articulated here today, TII at the meeting explained the situation for funding on overlays”.
Chief Executive of the Council, Gordon Daly said, “We will prepare a document, I am not sure what it look like but as soon as we can we will and we will prepare it for Government”. He added, “We’re talking about a case which outlines the need for investment. I acknowledge the two-events which are welcome for the short-term”.
Concluding the discussion, Cllr Talty remarked, “We’re here representing the public, it is very hard for the public to think in the six years we’ve gone from being on the verge of appointing consultants to moving the project on to going back to square one and starting again. For the public it is not acceptable”.
