If you have been reading motions by Leitrim County Councillors throughout all of 2016 it won't come as any surprise to hear that many roads throughout Leitrim are in “severe structural distress.”

A new national report has confirmed this and it also outlined that there are no funds allocated to fix these roads currently in a poor condition.

The National oversight and audit Commission (NOAC) which monitors the performance of local authorities found that 12% of tertiary roads, 6% of secondary roads and 2% of primary roads.

The Department of Transport has revealed a backlog of repairs across the national road network could cost €10 billion to complete.



The report notes Leitrim County Council has low rates recorded in the condition survey to the MapRoad system.

"NOAC would like to see the speedy completion of the surveys of all road types on to the MapRoad system by all of the local authorities,” the report says.



The Road Safety Authority says road condition was noted in two fatal and 122 injury cases in 2012.

Although many Leitrim roads need repair, Roscommon, Longford and Sligo roads fared much worse in the report.



Independent TD Eugene Murphy for Roscommon - Galway said, “Minister Ross needs to come up with a realistic and viable plan to tackle this problem nationwide as soon as possible.”

Leitrim County Council must wait until February this year before it knows how much in road funding they will have to spend on roads this year.

The report also looked at housing, waste and environment, planning youth affairs and corporate.



The report stated, “Leitrim County Council is doing extensive work on economic development. Some initiatives include the establishment of a High Level Advisory Group made up of Leitrim diaspora who provide strategic advice on economic development matters, linkage with Cavan, Longford and Roscommon County Councils to form the Upper Shannon Erne Group with a view to collaboration on projects and an event held in Dublin aimed at encouraging entrepreneurs to come and establish their business in Leitrim.”



The majority of local authorities had 74% of planning decisions confirmed by An Bord Pleanala but Leitrim along with Longford and Westmeath had confirmation rates of only 50%

The average part-time brigade response times for non fire emergency Fire Service calls were quickest in Leitrim at 4.22 minutes and slowest in Wexford at 7.86 minutes.



Leitrim again outdid the national average for library visits, the county had 5.64 per head of population, while the national average of library visits per head was 3.68.



As reported earlier this year, Leitrim County Council had the highest level of medically certified paid sick leave at 5.14% whereas the highest level in 2014 was 4.47% in Galway City. The overall cost of ICT provision per whole-time equivalent staff (WTE) was lowest in Kildare at €1,935 and highest in Leitrim at €3,855 and the median was €3,052, an increase of 4.8% on the 2014 median value.