A Cavan councillor has made an impassioned plea to Transport Minister Darragh O'Brien.
Shane P O'Reilly said he was "aghast" at how the Transport Minister responded to a parliamentary question on roads funding put forward by Cavan-Monaghan TD Brendan Smith in the Dail.
The Minister for Transport highlighted that Cavan was allocated €19.1 million for roads in 2026. Of this, €18.2 million has been allocated for the protection of regional and local roads.
Cllr O'Reilly said the increase in Cavan's initial 2025 allocation is true, only because Cavan County Council was involved in a pilot scheme where an additional €700,000 was given.
However, that pilot scheme was taken away and as a result of that, the local authority was allocated €27,000 less in 2026 than in 2025.
The minister also noted that Exchequer funding for regional and local roads is intended to supplement "realistic contributions" from local authorities' own resources.
Speaking to Northern Sound, Cllr Shane P O'Reilly slammed the minister's comments.
He said Cavan County Council increased its own allocation by using its own funds by 41% over the last number of years.
Speaking to Northern Sound, Cllr O'Reilly said: "What more does he want? blood? We can't do anymore unless we increase rates or local property tax. People haven't got money to put bread and milk on the table.
During his discussion with Deputy Smith in the Dail, Minister O'Brian also advised local authorities to set aside a contingency from Department allocations and own resources for severe weather events.
Reacting to this response, Cllr O'Reilly told Northern Sound: "The Department still hasn't reimbursed local authorities for the emergency works that had to be done during storm Eowyn.
"I wish the Minister would stop playing with words and stop being disingenuous to us as local authority members and don't demean what we are trying to do on the ground.
"We have been given the two fingers by the Minister for Transport regarding roads funding in Co Cavan and I'm not standing for it. Businesses are on their knees and households and the ordinary household cannot take anymore. People are well and truly at their wits end.
"In fairness Deputy Brendan Smith raised this matter in good faith and has been supportive of us as a local authority for many years. We've increased our own funding equivalent by over 40% over the last five years from our own resources and we can do no more. All the people of this county are asking for is that they can drive on a decent road.
"I'm inundated with phone calls, emails, messages where there's potholes, bridges collapsing, drainage issues and we haven't the money to fix them. The buck stops with the department. If the department doesn't want to give the money to local authorities then it needs to fund private contractors to go out and do this work.
"This is the seventh Transport Minister in a row that we've had who is based in Dublin. I've said for years, there's people going out to do NCT on cars and failing but when is there going to be an NCT for the road? Because it's our roads that is causing the problem. I'm absolutely fed up."
