Search Results for 'Al McDonnell'

Figures released by Mayo County Council under the Freedom of Information Act have revealed that Mayo county councillors were paid out €836,212 from January to the end of June 2009, all relating to the six months pre-election. Independent Castlebar Councillor Frank Durcan who sought this information said that these figures are “immoral in the times that are in it”.

During Monday afternoon’s county council meeting, councillors vented their anger at the Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2009 which is being debated at present in the Dáil.

Fine Gael’s decision to push through its four nominees to the VEC and not give the opposition members in the council a chance to put through one nominee led to bad feeling among the other councillors at the monthly meeting of the local authority.

The members of the Castlebar electoral area committee decided to bring their next meeting of the committee forward to as soon as possible once the council have been notified of their roads grants for the year from central government. Fianna Fáil Councillor Al McDonnell brought up the state of the roads since the cold snap, which has resulted in a large number of potholes around the area.

The potential refusal of planning permission for a house at Killaghwuan, Castlebar led to one councillor asking for a site meeting for the councillors to inspect the site, and another questioning the validity of one of the councils reasons for refusing the application. The discussion took place at a meeting of the Castlebar electoral area committee on Thursday.

The proposed closure of three level crossings in Straide by Irish Rail will not go ahead if the members of the Castlebar electoral area committee have their way. Irish Rail have applied for and been given planning permission by Mayo County Council to carry out works on three crossings known as XX31, XX32 and XX33. The rail company have also been given permission to carry out remedial works at a bridge in the area, to deepen the underpass of the bridge which they envisage being used as the only access route over or under the railway lines. The works at the bridge will see the road being deepened by three and half foot to ease access. However, the councillors maintain that having this bridge as the only crossing of the rail line is totally unacceptable as the bridge is a danger already and is prone to flooding at the moment and this will only get worse if the road is lowered a few more feet.

After two days of meetings which totalled over 12 hours of discussion and debate, along with numerous in committee meetings, the 31 elected members of Mayo County Council agreed on a budget which saw them cut the rate in the county by two and a half per cent, to bring it to 68.76 on Friday evening.