IDA cannot ‘corral companies to Mayo’

Fri, Jan 10, 2014

The IDA, the body responsible for attracting foreign companies to Ireland, has said it cannot be expected to “corral a company to go to a particular part of the country unless it will make sense for their business”.

EU funding available for superstorm Christine clean-up — Higgins

Fri, Jan 10, 2014

Ireland North West MEP, Jim Higgins this week has said that there is funding available at European level to help with the clean-up following last week’s series of storms. The Mayo based MEP said: “I have already been in contact with the Commission, and funding is available at EU level for the clean-up but the Government must apply immediately. I’ve studied the application form and received guarantees that DG Regional Policy will be on hand to assist with an Irish application.”

An Taisce calls for national energy policy

Fri, Jan 10, 2014

An Taisce this week called on the Government to produce a national energy policy that clearly outlines how the energy requirements of future generations can be met in the face of climate change. Further, the lack of national legislation, policy, or guidelines for the European Landscape Convention means there is no basis on which to assess the impact of the project on the landscape.

Mayo must be included in IDA plans — Barrett

Fri, Jan 10, 2014

Cllr Harry Barrett has called on An Taoiseach to urgently include Castlebar in a new IDA initiative that seeks to build three 25,000 square feet advanced manufacturing plants in locations outside of Dublin and Cork to attract new industry to the regions. The IDA announced on Friday last that three locations have been chosen to start this initiative, and the IDA plans to build new advanced manufacturing facilities in Waterford, Athlone, and Letterkenny. Barrett said according to the IDA statement: "The IDA has identified a number of specific locations where the private sector is unable currently to develop property solutions. In order to boost regional development and win new business, IDA plans to build new advanced manufacturing facilities in Waterford and Athlone, and office space in Letterkenny." Cllr Barrett stated: "I am calling on An Taoiseach, as a matter of urgency, to include Castlebar in this important initiative by the IDA. Castlebar is screaming out for such a facility and could easily be included at this early stage. The town needs another flagship employer to revive our local economy and this would be a huge boost if it were to happen, and with 2,335 people unemployed in the town, we can ill afford to see an opportunity like this go by uncontested. It is very disappointing and annoying that not one of these new facilities will be located in the west of Ireland. I have recently provided figures to show that investment by the IDA in regions outside of Dublin and Cork is dropping every year. This is certainly a wake up call for An Taoiseach; where we see again that a government funded agency is ignoring his own county. I want Castlebar to be at the front of the queue for any new investment coming in. Unfortunately, with weak political delivery and a hands off approach like this, it makes the job all the harder.”

Harkin questions honesty of those in favour of over grounding cables

Fri, Jan 10, 2014

The suggestion by the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise & Innovation Richard Bruton, that the cost of undergrounding cables in the planned EirGrid development would prevent more balanced regional development, was the type of argument which raised questions about the honesty of those favouring overgrounding of the various projects.

Ring welcomes funding for Mulranny and Foxford projects

Fri, Jan 10, 2014

Minister of State for Tourism & Sport Michael Ring this week has welcomed the announcement of funding in the sum of €800,000 on the N59 at Mulranny and of €30,000 for a pedestrian crossing in Foxford. Speaking about the funding for Mulranny, Minister Ring said: “This funding has been provided so that work can continue on the footpaths and for enhancement works which Mayo County Council are carrying out at the present time. This is something that the people of Mulranny have been looking to obtain for many years and I have made many representations in this case. This is great news for Mulranny, it will mean greater safety for the residents and I again welcome this announcement.” Also welcoming the announcement of funding for Foxford, Ring said: “I am delighted with this announcement of funding for Foxford town centre. It is very difficult for people to get across the road at times at this location and I am sure the people of Foxford will welcome the new pedestrian crossing to the town centre. It is hoped that work will be completed this year.”

Council lost up to €100,000 on Barna Waste examinership

Fri, Jan 10, 2014

Independent councillor Michael Kilcoyne queried the amount of money that was lost by Mayo County Council at the council’s annual budget meeting last Monday. Director of services Martin Keating responded, saying” “Barna Waste, Cllr Kilcoyne raised the question of when they went into examinership how much did we lose. I don’t have the exact figure but the net loss of gate fees excluding VAT would be in the region of €90,000 to €100,000. That would represent the terms that were available to our collectors at the time which would have been four weeks’ credit. Those terms have been pulled back significantly since for all those collectors.”

Council has concerns over procurement process of Irish Water

Fri, Jan 10, 2014

The issue of the procurement of services by Irish Water from outside the county and even further afield was raised by councillors at the annual budget meeting of Mayo County Council on Monday. County manager Peter Hynes told the meeting he also had concerns and would be expressing those to Irish Water. “There is a genuine issue and we have a concern in the whole issue of procurement, and that has only come to light in the last few weeks, and we will take that up in as far as we can in the regional channels. And it’s good to have good people in the regional offices from the local authority background who understand how these things work. We are not in total control of this situation and we can’t promise that it will change instantly, we share the views that are coming from the floor and we will feed them back into the system.”

Council wants to keep area offices open

Fri, Jan 10, 2014

The issue of the retainment of the network of area offices operated by Mayo County Council has been a worry for a number of councillors and members of the public as the council has seen its budgets slashed over the past number of years. However it is the council’s intention to keep these area offices open, according to county manager Peter Hynes. Speaking at Monday’s annual budget meeting of the council. Mr Hynes said: “We haven’t had a single library close in this county, a single fire station close in this county, or area office close other than rationalising two in the last 10 years. What I said is that it would be my view that we would continue with providing the services to the community as close as we can, through our existing office network and only if that’s not possible will we look to close offices. That may mean we need to rationalise the offices we have, we may need to put in specialist teams to run them. We may need to change what they do, and we may need to put information points into one or two rather than full service points.”

Winter weather call outs

Fri, Jan 10, 2014

The councillors were informed at Monday’s budget meeting that staff had been called out 35 times for winter weather maintenance so far in the winter season. Director of services Paddy Mahon explained to the meeting, “Thirty five call outs is the figure so far this winter, the winter season started on October 13. Sometimes we go out when there’s a prediction of cold weather.”

Numbers on Live Register dropped by 6.2 per cent in Mayo in 2013 — O’Mahony

Fri, Jan 10, 2014

Fine Gael Mayo TD John O’Mahony has this week welcomed a 6.2 per cent drop in the number of people on the Live Register in Mayo over the last 12 months. Deputy O’Mahony was speaking following the publication of figures by the Central Statistics Office, which show that, nationally, the Live Register has now dropped for the last 18 months in a row.