Dundalk roads may go without upgrades ‘until next century’ amid cuts - Cllr

A Dundalk councillor has said planned works to roads in the town may not commence until "the next century" amid funding cuts for Louth County Council. 

Independent councillor Ciarán Fisher told the March meeting of the Dundalk Municipal District that it is "unthinkable the roads won't be touched in any capacity for over 100 years." 

Cllr Fisher's comments came after Green Party councillor Marianne Butler questioned what works could be carried out along Dundalk's Inner Relief Road.

Cllr Butler said the €800,000 allocation for the R132 could be used to address specific junctions on the road.

"If we’d a magic wand we’d do the roundabout on the Avenue Road but we know the funding isn’t going to cover that."

"It would be great if the €800,000 could be used to deal with a junction. I’m thinking of St Helena’s on the bypass and introduce new safe crossing points for people of all ages." 

"It would be great if we could do a junction like that or certainly introduce more crossings."

"I think it would help to get buy-in and public support for putting the pressure on to get the entire road done," she said. 

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Louth County Council said it hopes to complete €2 million works to the Xerox junction in Dundalk across two years. 

The council confirmed it was engaging with the National Transport Authority (NTA) to secure additional funding for the project.

Louth County Council had its Active Travel allocation cut to €4.5 million for 2026 down from €6 million the year previous.

A spokesperson for Louth County Council said the NTA have indicated the budget will likely remain in the region of €4 million for the next "three or four years".

Councillors were told Xerox has the potential to receive funding across three different schemes. 

He said the local authority has proposed to carry out works to the Xerox junction over "two annual funding periods" - 2026 and 2027. 

He said even if the NTA chose not to fund the remainder of the project, the local authority could look at Xerox to Greengates or the Dublin Road. 

"Xerox has the potential to influence three schemes. So over a two-year period, it's around a €2 million scheme that’s what we’re looking at," he said. 

The spokesperson added that Louth County Council also hope to address Sexton's Junction which "will hopefully influence the NTA to give additional funding in the future". 

However, he said the works are still subject to planning permission. 

Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.