The Department of Infrastructure confirmed the figures to the Herald after a local councillor vowed the people of the county would take to the streets if nothing was done to address the growing pothole problem. 

The Department has insisted as many potholes are being fixed as is possible within its resources. 

Cllr Sheamus Greene, however, said it was unacceptable how few were being repaired.

“After months of reporting potholes to Road Service all that has been done so far is a few potholes have been marked with yellow paint in the Roslea area in recent days,” said Cllr Greene.

“This is totally unacceptable, and the people of this area deserve a lot better,” he said. “Roads around the Knocks, Donagh, Lisnaskea, Brookeborough and Roslea areas are in an extremely dangerous state and I demand that Road Service in Fermanagh immediately take action on these issues.”

Cllr Greene added: “The Road Service in Fermanagh seem to think that we the people will sit back and be treated like second class citizens. If we need to picket their office at Enniskillen Castle we will!”

In response to Cllr Greene’s comments, the Department said it had “a statutory duty to maintain public roads to a reasonable standard” and part of this involved ensuring heavily trafficked roads were inspected more often. 

“Response times for the repair of defects are dependent on the severity of the defect and range from repairing within one calendar day to inclusion for action in the next road repair programme for a particular route,” said a spokesman, who added 38km of road had been resurfaced in the local area this year. 

The Department urged motorists to report defects at www.nidirect.gov.uk/services/report-pothole, but added those reporting should not “under current financial and staff resource constraints, the Department cannot deploy labour squads to react to ad-hoc reports of carriageway 

defects on lighter trafficked roads.”

“Defects on these roads will be recorded for action during the following repair cycle,” they said.