[Vocabulary] have any amount of a road under them since McSharry was minister

[Maria Carolina Morais]

I'm reading Kevin Barry's short story "Fjord of Killary". He's Irish and I can't understand the context of this sentence:


“You’d make good time coming out of Sligo, normally,” Bill Knott said. “Unless you had a Thursday on your hands. But of course them f**kers have any amount of a road under them since McSharry was minister.”

Does anybody know what the phrase in bold means?

Here's the link to the full story: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/20...ord-of-killary


Thanks a lot!

 

[probus]

It means "an unlimited amount of road under them" which in turn means that they can do whatever they like. I enjoyed the NewYorker piece, a delightful example of Irish dialect.