Labour Councillor concerned Mallow Relief Road is ‘falling off Government’s radar’

LABOUR Party councillor Eoghan Kenny has expressed concerns that the Mallow Relief Road is in danger of falling off the Irish Government’s radar.

It was announced in February that the N72/N73 Mallow Relief Road had been allocated €300,000 by Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) after they published the 2024 grant allocations for national roads, active travel and greenways.

The Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan recently confirmed in the Dáil that the allocation of €300,000 for the Mallow Relief Road will enable the project to progress through the planning and design stages.

Cllr Kenny who is a native of Mallow however has expressed his fears over the possibility of the Mallow Relief Road progressing to the planning stage by the end of this year following the recent publication of the Roads and Transportation report by the Director of Services, Roads and Transporta- tion Niall Healy at a full council meeting.

Mr Healy told the councillors that Cork County Council has engaged with Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) since the announcement of the €300,000 funding seeking an increase in funding.

Mr Healy revealed that no funding is in the pipeline and he added that he wasn’t confident of securing the extra funding, which would be in the region of €700,000, to progress the relief road to planning stage.

Cllr Kenny said the Mallow Relief Road is in ‘significant’ danger of falling off the government’s radar. “This Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Green government are failing the people of Mallow and the surrounding towns and villages. The Mallow Relief Road is in severe danger of falling off this government’s radar. The fact that Cork County Council are not confident of securing or sourcing extra funding, means the relief road is going to be delayed by another year.

“We have a traffic congestion crisis on our main street and this has not been addressed since this council term started in June 2019. We need the extra funding and we need it now.

“I will work along with my colleague Deputy Seán Sherlock to secure the funding needed to bring the relief road to planning by the end of this year,” he added.

Cllr Kenny has also written a letter to both the Tánaiste Micheál Martin and the Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan requesting more funding be allocated towards the relief road.

In the letter Cllr Kenny pleaded with the Tánaiste and Minister Ryan to liaise with TII and Department of Transport officials: “The paltry €300,000 that was given is nowhere near what we need...in progressing the relief road significantly. The figure requested by Cork County Council was €1.2 million. The anger towards this piecemeal approach is very significant. I am respectfully asking you to engage with Department of Transport officials and TII to source the extra funding this year. I urge you to address this funding immediately.”

“Mallow Relief Road is needed as soon as possible,” Cllr Kenny said. “We have a severe traffic congestion crisis. It is harmful to the economic development of Mallow town, our town amenities and the overall development of our main street.”