'Not good enough' - Some Louth potholes are going unrepaired for up to 6 months despite 3,500 repairs

Louth County Council has been criticised for its slow response to repairing potholes in major towns despite it estimating it has repaired up to 3,500 in the last eight weeks

Published 29th Apr 2026, 19:31 BST Louth County Council said it has repaired up to 3,500 potholes in the last eight weeks Louth County Council has been criticised for its slow response to repairing potholes in major towns despite it estimating it has repaired up to 3,500 in the last eight weeks Sign up to our Louth Live newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know you can manage your profile, and explore all of the available newsletters from Louth Live within your account.

Louth County Council has been criticised for the delay in repairing some potholes across the county despite having repaired up to 3,500 in the last eight weeks.

Councillors raised concerns at the recent meeting of the local authority, in which it said that Dundalk had received more works compared to Drogheda.

Sinn Féin councillor Eric O'Donovan said he was unhappy with the delay in getting some works done.

"I see a lot of these potholes are getting worse and people are giving out they’re damaging cars."

"Dundalk and certain areas have received repairs in sixty-plus locations. That’s a lot of locations, yet there’s about four or five serious potholes that have been there for 6 months that have got no action," he said.

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Mayor of Drogheda, Cllr Michelle Hall said she said there is up to 100 times the amount of potholes in Drogheda compared to areas like Annagassan.

"I came through Annagassan and I think I encountered three potholes. Whereas, I think I could multiply that by probably by at least 10, if not 100 in my area alone."

"Many of these are on the R167 here [in Drogheda] and have traffic cones sitting in them they’re that deep.

When people are paying their taxes and they’re not getting a lot of benefits from other elements of the government, they expect their roads to be in a really good or even moderate condition," she said.

Cllr Hall called on Louth County Council to examine the "equity of our pothole repairs" across the county.

"In the Drogheda area we have a much higher volume of traffic and a higher number of Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGV's) going through the town after coming off the M1 especially to avoid the toll."

"I really don’t think it’s been good enough that these potholes have been left for over two months and not been repaired," said.

David Hanratty, Director of Operations with Louth County Council, said there has been a "huge increase" in repairs carried out by the local authority.

"In the last eight weeks, the operations team estimate they have repaired 3,500 potholes which is way above our normal run rate on pothole repairs. That was to address the weather in January and February," he said.

Mr Hanratty said the amount of repairs is a "huge return" and said councillors could send particular issues directly to him.

Elsewhere, Fine Gael councillor for Dundalk/Carlingford John Reilly said the council has been doing a "fantastic job" with pothole repairs especially in Dunleer and Collon.

However, he questioned the amount of staff required to operate the Council's pothole repair machine, the JCB Pro.

"The JCB pro requires a team of about six or seven. That's very labour intensive," he said.

Cllr Reilly asked whether the Council could also use the tar patcher machine, which it used up to 25 years ago.

Mr Hanratty said the operation of the JCB Pro is a "significant operation", however, he said the "output and the repair is to such a high standard and done so quickly relative to traditional means, it works out economically advantageous".

He said the JCB Pro's results are "far superior to the one done by the tar patcher" which he said "does a temporary repair at best".

Related topics: Louth Dundalk Drogheda Louth County Council John Reilly Roads Sign up to our Louth Live newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know you can manage your profile, and explore all of the available newsletters from Louth Live within your account.