Search Results for 'Michael Burke'

“Law and order is on the verge of breaking down in the county,” according to Swinford councillor Joe Mellett, while Belmullet councillor Gerry Coyle said that “thugs should be put behind bars”. These were just some of the indignant comments made by councillors at Monday afternoon’s county council meeting after a motion was put forward by Fine Gael councillor Michael Burke for the council to call on the Minister for Justice to provide more gardaí in Mayo, to fight the ongoing crime and anti social behaviour.

A Mayo county councillor has called on the judicial system to review its practice of approving free legal aid to drug dealers, often caught with drugs to the value of €10,000 and over.

There were eight knife crimes in Mayo over the months of July and August and one serious crime where an axe was brandished. Two people died, a garda was seriously injured in the line of duty, others narrowly defied death, and many families have been severely traumatised as a result of the thuggery. The incidents have left gardaí in Mayo ‘dumbfounded’. Superintendent Willie Keavney said “such a serious litany of incidents” was unprecedented, and was frightening not only for the gardaí but for the general public. He said the practice of young people going out at night with knives had to be looked at. “We are dumbfounded as to what to do,” Supt Keaveney told Monday’s meeting of the joint policing committee. “We don’t want to turn every fellow upside down looking for knives,” he added.

Decision making on roads programme for 2010 questioned

The members of the Claremorris electoral area committee were told that it was the Department of the Environment which was holding up improvement works on the cemetery in Ballinrobe, rather than the council’s heritage officer. Seamus Granhan, director of services for Mayo County Council, was responding to a notice of motion put forward by Fianna Fáil Councillor Damien Ryan which asked the county manager “to intervene in relation to the ongoing hold up in the Ballinrobe cemetery and improvement works which are currently at a standstill due an intervention by the heritage officer”.

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 towns of Ballinrobe and Claremorris were given a boost in the run up to Christmas this week, with the news that both towns will see free parking introduced in a number of areas in the towns for the festive season.

Fianna Fáil Councillor Damien Ryan called this week for an urgent meeting of the councillors in the Ballinrobe area in relation to a number of assaults that have happened in the town.

The elected members of the Claremorris Electoral Area were told the high level of rent allowance given to people, compared to the cost of renting homes from the council, was deterring people from taking up offers from the council.

An investigation into the loan dealings of Anglo Irish Bank during the height of the boom has revealed that hundreds of millions of dollars was provided to some of Ireland’s wealthiest people, including Galway businessmen, to buy luxury apartments in New York.