The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
‘Better to scrap lorries than waste money fixing them’
IN 2018, Kerry County Council spent over €74,000 maintaining three Lorries that are 13-yearsold. That’s according to latest council figures released highlighting annual maintenance costs for KCC machinery.
The figures were made known when Cllr Niall Kelleher tabled a motion at Monday’s meeting of Kerry County Council where he called for investment in newer machinery, saying that some of the current stock is almost 25-years-old. Included on the list is a ’00 Scania Lorry - with over one million miles on the clock - which costs €11,499 to maintain in 2018.
Cllr Kelleher mockingly told council management that they should have brought most of the machinery to a recent scrap metal collection held in Rathmore.
“Our machinery yard has no investment. There is stock driving around with ’95, ‘96 and ’00 registration. Some of them are older than myself! They’re spending money on vehicles that they wouldn’t get one tenth of to scrap them,” Cllr Kelleher said.
The council say part of the reason for the delay in buying newer equipment is down to union negotiations regarding the re-organisation of work practices, which includes investment in new plant equipment. These talks have been referred to the Workplace Relations. The council also cited the “challenging fiscal environment”, which has led to reductions in annual income. KCC’s machinery yard in 2007 had an income of €7 million, which dropped to €3.6 million in 2016.
“I asked the council when are these talks going to be resolved but they couldn’t give me a time. Are we going to be back here in 12 months’ time again with machinery costs spiralling? There is a 2001 Low Loader Trailer on the list, which you would buy new for €40,000. That’s costing €16,000 annually to maintain.”
Cllr Kelleher continued: “The wear and tear on an older vehicle is considerably different. I’m calling on them to invest in new machinery and get value for money rather than throwing good money after bad. Our roads programmes list and revenue has increased and we need to have a proper fleet of machinery. Not to do this is only leading to greater inefficiencies and makes no sense whatsoever.”