A local Councillor has lashed the lack of state funding for safety measures at accident blackspots across the county.

Cllr Andrew Reddington said that so many stretches of rural roads in the county, in need of upgrading, cannot be done under Galway County Council’s current limited budget.

“The funding for these relatively simple schemes is just ridiculous and would not cover a fraction of the works on local roads that is required,” the Headford councillor added.

He had put down a motion at a meeting of Tuam Municipal Council that Galway County Council would apply for a Low Cost Accident Scheme in both Corrandulla and Caherlistrane.

“The motion was passed – and they haven’t actually moved on these schemes. But I looked into it deeply and have discovered that Galway County Council have not received that much money for such schemes in recent years,” said Cllr Reddington.

In 2024, the local authority received €428,000 – just €10,000 more than they did in 2023 – and only got €417,000 in 2022, which was just €1,000 more than the previous year.

“It is an awful thing to say that road deaths are increasing and particularly along rural roads. The Low Cost Accident Scheme is exceptionally good as it looks at different roads across County Galway where accidents have occurred,” he said.

“The scheme is aimed at making these areas safer, so I have put down another motion for the Municipal Council to ask the Minister for Transport for a 50% increase in funding (bringing it up to almost €650,000).”

In the Tuam area, he stated, applications have been submitted for several schemes this year and if they got the right amount of funding and they were successful and completed, it would make a huge difference to road safety.

“Communities are reaching out to try and deliver more of these schemes, but we are not receiving the Government funding that we deserve,” he said.

“I hope that when the new Government is formed, the funding required for roads will be top of the agenda.

“There are so many schemes that need to be delivered and if local municipal authorities got the money, then they would deliver these projects, no problem at all,” added Cllr Reddington.

Pictured: Cllr Andrew Reddington at a location near Cave, Caherlistrane where locals are demanding that improvement works are carried out.