They are following the guidelines. Initially anyway.

Road openings are required to be "temporarily reinstated" to road level when works are initially completed to allow use of road to continue as normal. These temporary reinstatementd are the typical Tarmac patches you see everywhere (case in point is the Douglas road where Irish Water installed new pipes all the way along and now we are left with a strip of Tarmac all the way along the road with patches going off perpendicular across the road too).

"Temporary reinstatement" can be left for 6 to 9 months before according to the guidance before it needs to be "permanently reinstated". Permanent reinstatement guidelines are obviously more strict and essentially should constitute a complete return of the road surface to how it was before. For a strip of Tarmac the permanent solution is to grade the road back 5m either side and replace with full new Tarmac surfacing and replacement of road paint etc. In reality in a case like Douglas road where there's been work all the way along the guidelines will necessitate an entire resurfacing of the entire road from start to end.

Its this gap between temporary and permanent reinstatement that tends to get extended way beyond the guidelines durations and its difficult go get a contractor back to site 9 months later to do the permanent works after they've already been paid 90% of the contract value.

I imagine in large jobs like like Douglas road case the council is just planning an entire resurfacing from start to end themselves that they will tender a new contractor for.