22/08/2024
Issues monaghan council needs to address
Now that the posters are down and all the excitement of the local elections is over, it's time to return to the everyday problems of life in Co Monaghan. The previous Co Council left us with a significant number of ongoing problems that hopefully the new Council will move quickly to address.
It is widely acknowledged that our county is not only lacking a number of important facilities and services but is also ill equipped or underfunded to maintain much of our existing infrastructure and services. Underfunding is really the fault of central government but it is up to our local representatives to fight for the funding we need rather than whitewashing the failure of their party colleagues in FF, FG and the Green party to provide it.
Currently, there is a general feeling in the media that highlighting or discussing the housing crises that has enveloped this country is somehow a redundant topic, that people are sick of hearing about it and that things are improving! Nothing could be further from the truth. Never mind the worsening crisis at national level; I want to focus on the housing crisis here in Monaghan.
I attended the July meeting of Monaghan Co. Council, as an observer, where it was highlighted that in this county there currently over 1000 applications for Council houses however, the council has potentially just over 70 houses available! When I say potentially available, I mean that these are 70 houses for which the Co Council have yet to break ground!
One Councillor, acknowledging the shear inadequacy of this provision, labelled the rate at which the council was moving as “laughable”! Needless to say this ruffled a few feathers and the September Co Council meeting is marked for an in-depth discussion on the issue of housing, I look forward to attending said meeting and hopefully hearing that the Council is swapping action for talk!
On the issue of homelessness, this time last year Pauline Tully TD, noted that there were twenty five people homeless across Cavan and Monaghan (Northern Sound: 28th August 2023), a 39% increase over the previous two months! Having personally been involved in the effort to find shelter for a small number of these people I can personally vouch as to the difficulty involved.
Remember, an adequate supply of housing is now regarded as the key factor in attracting industrial investment so apart from the human misery being caused by homelessness, lack of an adequate supply of housing is hindering investment and development in this town and county.
Now to a different but not unrelated issue. Monaghan is one of the nine counties in Ireland, (Carlow, Cavan, Laois, Leitrim, Longford, Offaly, Roscommon, and Sligo are the other counties listed), without a domestic abuse shelter. A vital service/ facility we are missing and which is more necessary now than ever because of the housing crisis! The Journal (19th February 2024), states that due to a lack of available accommodation a number of women are returning to an unsafe home rather than register as homeless.
Just how unsafe was highlighted by an article in The Journal (08/03/24) which was based on Garda figures collected since 2022 and which showed that four women were murdered by their partners in 2022 alone. In addition, former and current spouses and partners were suspects in 297 threatened or attempted murders, 2,500 assaults, and over 200 rapes!
Just this month, it was highlighted that the N2 from Ardee to Castleblayney is now viewed as being one of the county’s most dangerous stretches of road with no fewer than seventeen fatalities having been recorded in the last 10 years (Irish Independent 8th July 2024). Monaghan Council has been working with the Department of Transport since 2018 to address the issue, yet due to a short fall in funding there is still no indication as to when this stretch of road will be up-graded.
When the Minister, Eamonn Ryan was questioned in the Dail by one of our local T.D.s he refused to say when the issue would be addressed saying only it remains part of the NDP 2021-2030. A classic example of “live horse and you’ll get grass” if ever I heard one! However, the real question is why are the members of Monaghan Co Council not up in arms over the Minister’s off-hand attitude?
Now to climate change and renewal energy! Monaghan Co Council’s complete lack of foresight in the past has resulted in our town missing numerous opportunities to put in electric chargers around the town. Yes, they put in two in the Co Council car-park behind the Courthouse, and there is one off Old-Cross Square.
However, the new peace project building, which was under construction for four years at a cost of €22million, would have been a perfect location for a number of electric charging points so that people could charge their cars while in the library/ museum but that opportunity was missed. As was the councils failure to install electric charging points in the new carpark on the broad road. Given that back in 2019, the government committed to having almost 1 million electric cars on Irish roads by 2030 this number is woefully inadequate.
Furthermore, as Monaghan had a population 65,288 at the last census and going on Government projections that there should be a ratio of two electric cars per eleven people, then Monaghan should have approximately 6,000 electric vehicles on its roads by 2030. Of course, that doesn’t take into account the number of electric vehicles travelling into or through the county from other parts of the country! So where will all these electric vehicles charge their batteries? At home? That is not an option for people without a driveway where they can park their car off-road to charge!
However, let’s give credited where credit is due! By installing kerbing along the Mall Road, Monaghan Co Council are finally addressing the issue of the significant number of motorists using the cycling lane as a car park. Parking in cycle lanes is a practice that is more than just an inconvenience it is a danger as it obstructs the field of view of cyclists and oncoming traffic!
