ACTIVE Travel has been the bane of many Limerick councillors’ existence since it moved up through the gears in 2020 and made a dogs dinners out of much of our public realm. (According to reports in this fine publication, at least!)
And according to one of the boyos out in the Adare-Rathkeale district, it’s nothing but money for old jam, TV presenters, local media types, and, of course, all the engineers you can throw filthy lucre at from a skedaddling two-wheeler.
Councillors Adam Teskey and Stephen Keary, the local authority’s answer to Statler and Waldorf, certainly aren’t fans of Active Travel, or the Council’s Communications Department either by the sounds of it. They are a hard act to please or follow, and for that you have to give them credit.
The duo feel that they aren’t getting cash, not enough of it by a long-shot, so you have to give them something.
In true firing squad fashion, as is the pair’s modus operandi – it’s usually a case of off with their heads, shoot first and ask questions later, and whatever you do, don’t let that fella from the Limerick Post inside the door – we were back with a vengeance at the Rathkeale area meetings. And I tell you what, it’s still the most off-the-wall sideshow this side of the Regional Independent Group’s party room in Leinster House.
With rifles aimed straight at the collective heads of the Active Travel team, they suggested that it was time to bury the National Transport Authority investment programme in a shallow grave out in Gortadroma and be done with it.
Sure why create jobs for 23 people when that money could instead be better used shovelling tarmac to patch up the backroads from Ardagh to Ballyneety?
Cllr Adam Teskey, West Limerick’s answer to Dick Moran, couldn’t fathom why we had Active Travel at all. Could they not just make their way out to the Limerick Greenway for themselves and take a long hike — all 23 of them?
“What’s the rationale with having a communications officer when we already fund, within the local authority on the top floor a communications department consisting of former TV presenters, journalists, and radio presenters?” Cllr Teskey inquired of the Active Travel team’s roster.
With the Adare-Rathkeale Municipal District only receiving €750,000 from the €20million Active Travel allocation for a range of projects in 2025, he suggested, his blood was well and truly up.
“I can’t get over this. It’s a duplication of work. What we’re seeing is, the more staff we have, the more depleted our resources are for all the capital works,” Teskey opined.
Deep breaths now Adam.
“We want to spend money. We’ve had this dire situation in our area and in our housing estates, but we’ve been told continuously that we cannot get the funding,” young Teskey bellowed with exaggerated effect.
“The elephant in the room is that of the rates payable to Limerick City and County Council, the highest proportion is coming from the Rathkeale area. We pay in far greater than everyone else combined. As a result, all we get is peanuts,” he insisted.
When he finished stomping his feet, Teskey gathered all his toys back in the pram and asked why the Council couldn’t just put the shekels directly into the Adare-Rathkeale piggy bank?
“What’s the need for all this bureaucracy? Forget your 23 staff and all your fancy names. Scrap the Active Travel,” he told the executive.
And as sure as Miley and Biddy were a match made in wellington boots, Cllr Keary followed Teskey with a second assault to rattle the High Nellies in Merchants Quay: “We’re paying for the sins of the city. They let the city go to rack and ruin over the years.”
Getting his Jerry Maguire on, it was a ‘show me the money’ moment from the Fine Gael man. He even had a figure in mind.
“We need another million and a half or two million out of that €20million. We need at least three million to equalise with the other areas.”
So look, if you hear of any auld jobs going, you might keep Limerick Council’s Active Travel team in mind. Chances are, Teskey and Keary will soon have those public relations types tarmacking the roads.
