Search continues for Westport man

Fri, Jan 13, 2012

A search for a local man in his thirties continued yesterday (Thursday) after the man’s car was discovered at The Point, Westport, last weekend.

The search has been carried out by the local coastguard, air and sea rescue, the Garda water unit, and local volunteers.

Warm welcome for Allergan two hundred jobs announcement

Fri, Jan 13, 2012

The announcement on Monday by Allergan Pharmaceuticals that it plans to create 200 new jobs over the next four years and invest $350 million at its plant in Westport, with an additional estimated 250 indirect jobs during the construction period of the extension, was feted as a top news story for Ireland both nationally and internationally this week.

Durcan accuses Mayo County Council of being a corrupt planning authority

Fri, Jan 13, 2012

Fiery Independent councillor Frank Durcan became involved in a war of words with top council officials, not for the first time, at Monday’s Mayo County Council meeting. The Castlebar auctioneer, in a notice of motion, called for a special meeting to be held to discuss “the inconsistency of planners, architects and director of services in dealing with planning applications.”

108,000 visited Museum of Country Life in 2011

Fri, Jan 13, 2012

The total visitor figures to the four sites of the National Museum of Ireland (one of which is in Turlough) for 2011 was 1,096,027, which was not only a 10 per cent increase on 2010 but also the highest figure ever for visits to the museum. However, visitor numbers to the Museum of County Life in Turlough were down slightly on 2010.

Ballina groups supportive of McDonald’s plan

Fri, Jan 13, 2012

The Ballina and District Trades Council members this week expressed their concern about the decision of Ballina Town Council to refuse planning permission for a McDonald’s restaurant in the town. A statement issued by Matt Farrell from the group said: “On reviewing the reasons given for the refusal it would seem that the whole focus was on why this should not happen as opposed to what we could do to make this employment opportunity materialise.” The members went on to call on the town council to give serious consideration for the positive aspects of the proposed development, and that a positive image of town being open for business needed to be promoted, saying: “Over the last few years there has been much talk about various retailers trying to come to Ballina but these plans have seldom materialised. As a town we need to be careful of the perception [whether true or not] that Ballina is not open for additional business. We need to strive to be seen as a town that is willing to develop our existing business and welcoming new enterprise as opposed to the town that holds a quarter of all the unemployed of Mayo.”

Councillor wants Monsignor Horan’s name back in airport title

Fri, Jan 13, 2012

Independent councillor Michael Kilcoyne has called once more for the name of Monsignor James Horan to be put back into the name of Ireland West Airport Knock. Cllr Kilcoyne raised the issue at the January meeting of Mayo County Council, having previously raised it at a Castlebar Town Council meeting.

'Ballina council fails to pass budget

Fri, Jan 13, 2012

Unlike their colleagues in Mayo County Council and Castlebar Town Council this week the elected members of Ballina Town Council failed to strike a budget at the annual budget meeting.

Eight-hour meeting and little change from draft to agreed budget

Fri, Jan 13, 2012

The elected members of Mayo County Council last week agreed on the budget for the council for the coming year. The €130 million budget was agreed after a meeting lasting over eight hours last Friday, and for the most part the meeting passed off without incident as the members picked over the facts and figures presented to them by the council officials. There were only a couple of incidents of political point scoring with Sinn Féin councillor Gerry Murray getting into an argument with Fine Gael councillor Patsy O’Brien over the way the Government is running the economy and cutting funding for services. The Fianna Fáil party also forced a vote, which was defeated, on a potential one per cent rate cut near the end of the meeting.

Durcan’s motion on tender process deemed ‘superfluous’

Fri, Jan 13, 2012

A motion by Independent councillor Frank Durcan was deemed to be “superfluous” by the council executive at the January meeting of Mayo County Council. Cllr Durcan’s motion called for the procurement officer to attend a council meeting to explain his modus operandi for dealing with tenders.

Power cut in Castlebar

Fri, Jan 13, 2012

An electricity power cut hit part of Mayo’s county town on Tuesday morning last without warning, knocking off lights, computers, heating, phones, and technical equipment in shops, businesses and and hundreds of houses around Castlebar.

Fall in number of Traveller families living on roadside

Fri, Jan 13, 2012

The number of traveller families living on the roadside in the county has fallen by 25 in the first two years of Mayo County Council’s Traveller Accommodation Plan, which will run until 2014. The plan was due for review after two years and the elected members of the council were given a report last week on the progress of the plan by Martin Keating, Senior Executive Officer for Mayo County Council.