'Bad drivers' blamed for damage to safety barriers in this Tipperary town

Bad driver behaviour has been blamed for the continued incidents of damage to the safety barrier outside a popular Thurles eatery.

The issue was raised at the March meeting of the Thurles Municipal District by Fianna Fáil councillor Sean Ryan, who questioned why the barrier outside Supermac's on Liberty Square in Thurles town was getting hit so often, and who was footing the bill for repairs to the damage to it.

In response to Cllr Ryan, the district engineer said that the barriers hadn't been changed as part of the Liberty Square public realm scheme and said that the damage was as a result of "bad drivers".

"We are making adjustments to the one (barrier) at Supermac's on a temporary basis to make sure it doesn't get hit in the interim," the district engineer informed councillors at the meeting.

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Councillors were also told that it is the district that pays for repairs to the barriers in Liberty Square, and that they can't make people pay for the damage as they don't know who is causing it.

"Unfortunately, we do not know who carries out the incidences of damage to the infrastructure otherwise we would be following up with them, but that's where we stand at the minute," the district engineer said.

"All the necessary auto tracking has been done for it, but I would primarily put it down to poor driver behaviour," he added.

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Independent councillor Micheál Lowry also questioned why the barrier kept getting hit.

"The bigger question is why is it getting hit so much. It would happen once in a blue moon before we made the changes, but why is it now almost a monthly occurrence that both sides of it are getting damaged?" he questioned.