Monaghan County Council will endeavour to prevent ice forming on 610km of Priority 1 and 2 routes as described below.
Treatment Routes By Priority 2024-2025 (PDF)
| Route Designation | Description | Level of Service |
| Priority 1 | All National Primary and National Secondary Roads | These routes are ordinarily treated during winter weather and receive pre and post salting treatment and ploughing when necessary. |
| Priority 2 | All Regional Roads and a number of heavily trafficked Local Roads | These routes are ordinarily treated during winter weather but may have interruptions to treatment in certain severe weather events |
| Priority 3 | Footpaths in urban centres and all other Local Roads. | Not treated as part of the normal winter service but may receive intermittent treatment during certain severe weather events subject to resource availability. |
The priority 1 and 2 salting routes are divided into 8 separate treatment routes for operational purposes as illustrated below.
Treatment Routes 2024 -2025 (PDF)
| Treatment Route | Priority 1 | Priority 2 | Priority 3 |
| Mobilisation Time | 1 hr | 1 hr | When possible |
| Treatment Time | 2 hrs | 3-5 hrs | When possible |
Service Limitations
Despite the resources that are applied to providing the winter service, ice-free roads cannot be guaranteed. The motorist should remember the following:
- Approximately 76% of roads are not routinely salted.
- In Ireland there are a high proportion of marginal nights when temperatures are very close to zero. This makes it more difficult to accurately predict frost than in colder countries. As a consequence Met Éireann can only guarantee 80% accuracy in their forecasts
- It can take up to 4 hours to salt a route, so any journey may start or end on an untreated section of the route.
- In heavy rain, salt can be washed away and the wet surface may subsequently freeze if the temperature falls below zero.
- In cases of extended severe weather events, the network salted may have to be reduced to Priority 1 routes only.
- Spreading of Salt does not mean that the road surface will necessarily be ice free. In freezing conditions always drive with great care even if the road has been salted.