Mr. Eugene Dwyer, Head of Roads Department, Mr. Diarmuid MacDonncha, Senior Executive Engineer and Mr. Paul Browne, Executive Engineer presented the Draft Roads Programme for 2019 which had been circulated to the Members.

A general discussion regarding the Draft Programme took place and all the Councillors welcomed the locations listed. The Members thanked the Executive and Staff for work done on completing this Roads Programme for 2019 bearing in mind the limited funding made available to them.

The Members proceeded to highlight the following following items for consideration:

• Cllr. Fallon made reference to N61 Ballymurray to Knockcoghery regarding issues re frozen lands and questioned if there is a time frame when this will be rectified.

• Cllr. Ward stated that roads of South Roscommon are in a deplorable state of disrepair especially when Roads budget has been reduced by €10 m over last few years and requested that a letter be sent to Minister of Environment, Minister of Finance and Minister of Local Government requesting additional funding for the roads explaining in detail to the conditions of the Roads in South Roscommon.

• Cllr. Naughten made reference regarding the distribution of monies to each Municipal District and questioned each allocation to each Municipal District and what is the increase percentagewise across each MD’s in comparison to 2018.  Cllr. Naughten proposed that a letter be sent to the Department seeking clarification on how the money is distributed in the three Municipal Districts. Also needs to be address internally.

• Cllr. Keogh wished that the letter proposed by Cllr. Ward would include Minister for Transport and his commitment to this funding.

·         Cllr. Kilduff stated that monies be distributed more evenly throughout the three MD’s

• Cllr. Connaughton requested that when the new Council is formed and before a ruling group is formed for the full Council, the cooperation of the Athlone MD Councillors would be forthcoming unless it was agreed that there would be an equal distribution of funds throughout the three MD’s to reflect the condition of the roads.

On the PROPOSAL of Councillor Ward

            SECONDED by Councillor Naughten

It was agreed by all the members to write a letter to the Minister for Transport, Minister of Finance and Minister of Housing, Communities and Local Government seeking additional funding for the roads in South Roscommon and also seeking the Minister of Finance commitment for funding in this proposal.

On the PROPOSAL of Councillor Ivan Connaughton

            SECONDED by Councillor John Naughten

It was agreed by all the members to adopt the Draft Roads Works Programme for the Athlone Municipal District for 2019 subject to the amendments as agreed.