“We haven’t a fecking clue what’s going on,” an angry Cllr Seamus Coleman told Tuesday night’s meeting of Fermoy Town Council after raising the matter of funding promised by the NRA for post-bypass road and footpath works in the town, which they now appear to have reneged on.

He asked if engineer Brendan O’Gorman had received any reply from the NRA to his letter asking that the funding be reinstated to allow them to carry out phases two and three of the enhancement plan. With the engineer not present at the meeting, it was unclear whether or not he had.

Cllr Coleman then asked if the funding was a solid commitment given by the NRA that was now being reneged upon, or if the funding was used for something else. “Was it taken back because we didn’t use it,” the clearly frustrated councillor asked.

Pointing out that the engineer had written to the NRA six weeks after they’d found out about the disappearance of funding, he asked: “When were we going to be told?” Cllr Noel McCarthy explained that they’d heard about it at their traffic management meeting. It had also come before their area meeting on June 26th. Town manager Katherine Walsh explained that the NRA had written to Cork County Council about it and not Fermoy Town Council. The agreement was between between both parties. That led Cllr Coleman to say they hadn’t a clue what was going on because an official in Cork County Council didn’t tell officials in Fermoy Town Council about it. “This is so intrisically important to the town,” he pointed out.

“It’s time to fight on this,” Cllr Tadhg O’Donovan declared, saying they had the engineer on their side.

The NRA had promised the works after the M8 bypass was opened. The first phase was completed. It stopped at Abbey Street.