Roads gone to pot because of Irish Water - Kelly

Cllr Anthony Kelly has accused the government of blatantly hoodwinking taxpayers with claims that the local property tax was to be used for public works in the payers area when it was never their intention to use funds generated for this.  The Sinn Féin rep said that local property tax was being pumped into the establishment of Irish Water while the county's roads and other public dependencies were left to fall apart.

"Minister Phil Hogan and his Fine Gael/Labour colleagues made solemn promises that the money generated from the Local Property Tax would be used to fund local authorities and to pay for the upkeep of local public services," Cllr Kelly said, "This has not happened.  In 2013 only 60% of the funding went to local authorities and this is set to be slashed again this year."

"No matter what part of the county you are in, you will no doubt come into contact with potentially damaging potholes.  Many roads need to be resurfaced but funding is simply not available to do it.  Instead the promised allocation is being diverted, along with money from other areas including motor tax revenue, into the new perma-quango that is Irish Water."

"It seems the whole taxation system has lost its way in this state.  Motor tax is no longer used to maintain the roads and now the tax supposedly created to fund local authorities will not do so.  This needs to change before we are left with a very broken country where the only things that work are water meters."