Search Results for 'Gerry Ginty'

The upcoming visit of Bishop Desmond Tutu to Ballina did not meet with the unanimous approval most would have expected at Wednesday night’s meeting of Ballina Town Council.

The upcoming visit of Bishop Desmond Tutu to Ballina did not meet with the unanimous approval most would have expected at Wednesday night’s meeting of Ballina Town Council.

The issue of housing Traveller families came up at the November meeting of the housing SPC of Mayo County Council this week. Both Cllr Gerry Ginty and Cllr Eddie Staunton brought up the issue at Thursday morning’s meeting. Director of services for Mayo County Council, Martin Keating, told the members: “We will be having a meeting of the local Traveller consultative committee in December to review the progress we have made this year and will report to this SPC in the new year.”

With the impending dissolution of town councils coming up at the end of their current term in 2014, the members of Ballina Town Council are determined to forge ahead with conservation work on the Augustine Abbey in the town. The abbey which was built in 1423, is the birth place of the town as it is today and the members were give an update on the first phase of restoration works undertaken by the town council in recent weeks. Kevin Keegan, town architect for Ballina Town Council, told the November meeting of the council: “We’ve made some good progress, the ivy on it looked more like a forest than anything else. We were worried about the weight of the ivy which could become top heavy on the ruins.”

There were differing opinions in the Mayo County Council chamber this week on the proposed changes to local government in Ireland that were announced by the Government in October.

There was widespread condemnation of Independent Castlebar Cllr Frank Durcan by his fellow elected representatives this week after he laid a charge of “bare faced fraud” against county manager Peter Hynes at the November meeting of Mayo County Council. The firebrand councillor had taken to the floor of the chamber to speak on an item to approve an overdraft accommodation of €10 millon for Mayo County Council for 2013.

There was plenty of outrage this week from the elected members of the three town councils in the county to the news that they were to be disbanded following the end of their current term. The news was announced by Minister for Environment and Local Government, Phil Hogan TD flanked by An Taoiseach, Enda Kenny and An Táiniste, Eamon Gilmore in Dublin Castle at the launch of Putting People First, Action Programme for Effective Local Government.

Labour Party Castlebar town councillor Harry Barrett was the only member of either Mayo County Council or Castlebar Town Council to oppose a notice of motion in relation to abortion put before both councils this week. Independent Cllr Frank Durcan who sits on both of the local authorities put forward a notice of motion to both councils stating “that the members resolve, in keeping with the will of the Irish people as emphatically expressed in the referendum of 1983, to oppose any form of legalisation of abortion under any circumstances”.

Independent councillor Gerry Ginty this week took over as chairperson of the Ballina Electoral Area Committee.

Numerous tributes were paid to outgoing Cathaoirleach of Mayo County Council, Cllr Austin Francis O’Malley, at the May monthly meeting of the local authority. The Louisburgh based councillor brought a meeting of the local authority to his heartland for the first time in history this week. The meeting was held in the Ocean Lodge, in the village of Killadoon just outside Louisburgh, where one councillor joked before the meeting as he looked out on the Atlantic Ocean, “next stop is the Statue of Liberty”. Padraic McNamara, chairperson of the Killadoon Community Council, welcomed the 31 members of the council and the officials to the area at the start of the meeting.