Search Results for 'Gerry Ginty'

Before Cllr Joe Mellett had even handed over the Cathaoirleach’s chain to incoming Cathaoirleach for the next 12 months, Cllr John Cribben, independent Castlebar based Cllr Frank Durcan fired his first warning shot across the bows of the new council. Cllr Durcan told the meeting, “In the interests of transparency and accountability, I would call that the salaries of the Cathaoirleach, the leas Cathaoirleach and all the committee chairpersons be given to the general public”. Cllr Durcan’s call was seconded by fellow independent Cllr Gerry Ginty from Ballina.

Ballina Electoral Area Committee members reacted with disgruntlement during their recent meeting, when it was announced that housing grants will no longer be approved.

Ballina Town Council elected Fianna Fáil Cllr Johnnie O’Malley as the chairperson of the Joint Policing Committee in the town at their monthly meeting on Wednesday night for a period of two years after he defeated Fine Gael Cllr Mark Winters by a vote of five to four in the council chamber, with Cllr Winters elected in the vice chair position.

From the initial planning stages it has been a long struggle for the Mayo County Development Plan 2008 to 2014 to come to fruition to the satisfaction of the elected members and the Department of Environment and Local Government under the direction of Minister John Gormley. But last Monday the new development plan, which has taken up many hours of planning, discussion, meetings and angry exchanges across the country, finally came to a conclusion when the elected members voted in favour of a new ministerial directive issued by Minister for the Environment John Gormley on September 16 2009, overturning his previous directive of July 11 2008.

There is an estimated €7,029,542 worth of housing grants waiting for approval in Mayo County Council under three grant schemes operated by the council, the housing SPC of the council was told this week. The three grant areas that the council handle are the mobility grants scheme, the housing adaptation grant scheme for people with disabilities, and the housing aid for older people.

The decision by Mayo County Council to send the Cathaoirleach and two other councillors to the USA for St Patrick’s Day, saw a heated debate in the council chamber on Monday. Independent Councillor Gerry Ginty wanted his opposition against the trip noted saying it was a waste of public money. The council agreed to send Cathaoirleach John Cribben and fellow councillors Damien Ryan and Michael Burke on the trip.

The members of the housing strategic policy committee of Mayo County Council were given an outline of the planned programme of capital works for 2010 at their first meeting since the June local elections.

Independent Ballina town councillor Gerry Ginty hit out at this week’s Ballina Town Council meeting at the Government’s plans for raising the housing stock of the council, by getting town councils to enter into letting agreements for newly built homes with developers rather than the council itself building houses.

Ballina Town Council has agreed to fund its share of an agreement among the three town councils in the county and Mayo County Council for the FAI development officer for the next year to the sum of €7,500.

The elected members of Ballina Town Council and the management executive of the council welcomed the striking of their annual budget this week, which saw no increase in the commercial rate for business in the town. Fine Gael councillor Mark Winters told the meeting, “We’re coming off the back of a very hard year for everyone and we have bucked the trend in not increasing the rates on the business people in the town. Everyone worked very hard and long on this budget, the increased efficiencies we have seen and the value for money we have been getting reflects very well on the council management. We’ve only had to increase the rate one year in the last five. We’ve also now started to make a serious push for Ballina to become the destination of choice and our allocation towards the marketing of the town can only lead to good things for the future.”