"There's a road in that pothole" - Roche

A local election candidate has joined the debate on dangerous potholes around the county after puncturing his tyre driving through one near Trinity in Taghmon.  Sinn Féins Mick Roche said that it wasn't a case that there was a pothole in the road, but rather a road in the pothole, referring to the sheer size of the crater.

Mr Roche has called for funding to be made available to the local authorities immediately to deal with dangerous and destructive potholes like this and has demanded that the government use funding generated from motor tax revenue on the upkeep on the road network instead of spending it to set up and maintain Irish Water.

"All across the county motorists are incurring charges because of the state of our roads," Mr Roche said, "These are motorists who have already paid their motor tax and in many cases, their local property tax.  Motor tax is supposed to be used to maintain our road network.  The LPT was supposed to be used to fund local authorities.  Why then are we left with an epidemic of potholes and mechanic bills?"

"In my case I had to get a new tyre.  Other people are faring much worse, and even those who believe they are escaping are more than likely suffering subtle damage to their vehicles when driving under these conditions.  It's not acceptable."

"The government needs to wake up to this.  Local authorities are powerless to do anything at the moment as they have no funding.  That's because our national government has been diverting motor tax revenue and other income into places where it should never have went.  Why was €600 million from motor tax revenue giving to Irish Water when our roads are in this state?"