€20.2m allocation for Donegal regional and local roads

Donegal County Council is to receive €20.2 million for work on regional and local roads, the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Shane Ross TD, announced on Tuesday.
The allocations includes €1.4 million for the long-awaited Cockhill Bridge project, as well as €14,598 for the R245 at Woodlands and €30,000 for the Mullantiboyle Bridge outside Glenties, which opened to the public last year.
The council’s allocation also includes funding for bridge rehabilitation and safety improvements on regional and local roads. 
The allocations are part of a €324 million programme for regional and local roads nationally that the minister announced this week.
Pat “the Cope” Gallagher, TD and leas-cheann comhairle, welcomed the allocations but said the announcement “falls far short of our expectation and basic need in order to maintain the county’s roads network and infrastructure”.
He said the grants showed no “real terms increases” on 2016 and said government must look at them again.
The leas-cheann comhairle also said he was “extremely disappointed” that government did not provide funding for Local Improvement Schemes, which he said were “desperately needed in rural Ireland and especially in Donegal”.