{"id":367701,"date":"2026-03-27T08:19:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T08:19:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/367701\/"},"modified":"2026-03-27T08:19:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T08:19:09","slug":"army-may-be-required-to-help-wexford-road-crews-fill-pothole-our-staff-are-working-in-extremely-volatile-conditions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/367701\/","title":{"rendered":"Army may be required to help Wexford road crews fill pothole \u2013 \u2018our staff are working in extremely volatile conditions\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Esmonde Road in Enniscorthy.\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/d289ad1c-7ad1-445a-99a2-121f530783a7.jpg\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"100%\" data-testid=\"article-image\"  \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_caption1 indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_secondary indo-66f0fec7_regular indo-1d70522a_marginbottom0 indo-1d70522a_marginleft0 indo-1d70522a_marginright0 indo-1d70522a_margintop3 indo-b48c4984_left\" style=\"color:var(--color-grey-60)\">Esmonde Road in Enniscorthy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom0 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">Armed forces may be required to ensure a pothole in Enniscorthy, Co Wexford, is filled after council crews were subjected to \u201caggression, bordering on violence\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">The pothole, which is situated on Esmonde Road, Enniscorthy, and is currently \u201ca metre long and a metre wide\u201d, has been growing exponentially since Storm Chandra caused mass flooding in the area. <\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">However, despite Wexford County Council\u2019s (WCC) best efforts, it remains unfilled. <\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">At the March meeting of the Enniscorthy Municipal District (EMD), Councillor Jackser Owens asked why the road had not yet been repaired and warned that a \u201cserious accident\u201d was inevitable unless work was carried out. <\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">Referencing efforts to invite representatives from Blacktown City Council to the recent St Patrick\u2019s Day parade, Cathaoirleach Barbara Anne Murphy said the pothole could be utilised in a number of ways. <\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">\u201cIf it gets any deeper we could use it as a portal for our Australian visitors\u201d, she said wryly.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">\u201cIt\u2019s being used for fishing at the moment,\u201d added Cllr Owens.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">Senior engineer Neil Dempsey said efforts had been made to fix Esmonde Road.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">\u201cI\u2019ve had our own staff and contractors up there working in extremely volatile conditions, but we had to remove them due to health and safety concerns,\u201d he said. \u201cIt got very aggressive, bordering on violence. But it remains on our list.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">Taking a hardline stance, Cllr Pat Kehoe suggested hiring additional muscle to ensure the work got done.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">\u201cIt needs to be expedited even if it\u2019s the first pothole in Ireland that needs security to get it filled,\u201d he said. \u201cWe can\u2019t allow anyone to stop our crews from doing their work. Whether it needs the army or the civil defence to come down and support us, we will get them, fill the pothole, and that\u2019ll be the end of it.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Esmonde Road in Enniscorthy. Armed forces may be required to ensure a pothole in Enniscorthy, Co Wexford, is&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":367702,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43,920],"class_list":{"0":"post-367701","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-simon-bourke"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=367701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367701\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/367702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=367701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=367701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=367701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}