Cavan councillor claims Simon Harris missed a trick in not removing Eamon Ryan from Transport portfolio

One of newly elected Taoiseach Simon Harris’ first jobs should have been to remove Transport Minister Eamon Ryan from office, a Cavan county councillor has claimed.

In a hard-hitting interview with the Irish Independent website, Cllr Shane P O’Reilly said Mr Harris missed a beat in not including the Green Party leader as part of his Cabinet reshuffle.

The Independent local politician was speaking ahead of a local authority Ballyjamesduff Municipal District meeting on Friday in which he is expected to table renewed calls for additional roads funding to be assigned to the Breffni county.

Cllr O’Reilly branded the €18.1m assigned by Mr Ryan’s Transport Department in February as “absolutely ridiculous” in light of storm damage caused by Storms Isha and Jocelyn in January.

“It came with great fanfare the roads funding and yet it was still only at 2008 levels,” he said.

“It was the same figure we got for 2008 and our roads are crumbling and the reason they are crumbling is because we are a very industrial county and we also have a massive agricultural industry.

“The roads are under severe pressure, but you can’t be coming on saying that you can deal with the roads issues when you are still working off 2008 figures. It is absolutely ridiculous.”

Cllr O’Reilly said he personally raised the topic with Mr Ryan himself during a recent visit to the county by the Dublin Bay South TD.

Those overtures, he contended fell on deaf ears, describing Mr Ryan’s response as “pathetic” as he called on Mr Harris to revise his Cabinet reshuffle to include that of the Green Party leader.

“We had the Minister for Transport down and I put it to him very, very straight that we needed more money and his answer was: ‘I feel your pain’,” he said.

“It was a pathetic response and it just goes to show how out of touch the man is with his brief and I really hope that he ((Taoiseach Simon Harris) takes Eamon Ryan out of transport because putting a Green in transport, all they want to do is look at bringing in electric cars, electric bikes, walkways, blueways and greenways.

“They are very important pieces of infrastructure for tourism, but they are no good for anyone that wants to get to work, to school or do their business on a daily basis.”

Cllr O’Reilly said if Mr Harris wanted to live up to recent talk of making an impact ahead of an anticipated general election in 12 months’ time, the most practical way of doing so was to remove Mr Ryan and put a stop to policies that are “absolutely crippling” local councils.

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