Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I received the same response to parliamentary questions that I submitted previously on the issue. The difficulty is that it is very unlikely that Cork County Council will share its own limited budget with Cork City Council. That is the realpolitik of local authorities.

To make the case again, these communities were located within the county council boundary and now find themselves within the boundary of the city council, despite the boundary extending in nonsensical ways, for example, 20 km into rural hinterland. They are communities that were lined up to deliver on the scheme proposals. They had dealt with local engineers, had money in the bank and had collected their own percentage in preparation. Unfortunately, now they find themselves on the wrong side of an arbitrary boundary after doing all of that hard work. They have been left in no man's land. That is the reason for the appeal.

It comes against the backdrop of the publication today of a report by the All-Island Research Observatory of Maynooth university. I do not know if the Minister has had a chance to look at it yet. The report found that roads in County Cork, in particular, are massively underfunded in comparison with the national level. It is in that context that I make the appeal to the Minister on the issue.

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