Search Results for 'Fine Gael'

Mayo Fine Gael TD John O'Mahony has called on Social Affairs Minister Mary Hanafin to provide emergency fuel allowance payments to vulnerable people suffering as a result of the bad weather.

Castlebar Fine Gael town councillor Ger Deere has warned of the dangers of people walking on frozen lakes and river surfaces. While many of these surfaces appear to be strong enough to support the weight of a person, the risk of any ice breaking is very high and could lead to serious accidents. The dangerously cold weather is making this particularly hazardous as the water is extremely cold.

Castlebar Fine Gael town councillor and youth worker Ger Deere said it is blindingly obvious that head shops which have sprung up all over the country require strict regulation because of the dangers of the products they sell. Cllr Deere said products which have emerged to replace BZP, which was banned last year, must also be banned if they have psychoactive and other side effects.

The elected members of Mayo County Council were told that water supply levels were very low around the county following the recent weather. Director of services for water services Paddy Mahon told the annual budget meeting: “Normally we use 59,000 cubic metres of water a day in the county, but yesterday (Sunday, January 10) we used 69,000 cubic metres of water in the county, that’s 16 per cent more than normal and this week we expect it to get worse. The situation in the Castlebar reservoir is critical today (Monday) and rationing will have to be considered over the week”.

Despite some members of Castlebar Town Council saying last week they wanted a massive 10 per cent cut in rates in the town for 2010, the elected members settled on the figure of a 2.5 per cent cut in the rates.

The body of a 43-year-old milk delivery man was discovered in his home in Currane, near Ballyvary, after midnight on Tuesday following a fire at the house.

The urgent need for a new swimming pool in Castlebar was highlighted at the annual budget meeting of the Town Council this week. Councillor Eugene McCormack brought up the issue that the council had budgeted to spend €230,000 this year on the swimming pool in the town, which was currently closed for repair and had been over the Christmas period. Cllr McCormack told the meeting: “We have budgeted a lot of money for the pool again here and it’s something we should highlight, the sad state the pool is in and its need of a proper upgrade.” Independent Cllr Frank Durcan told the meeting that the pool should never have been put into Castlebar when it was and that the pool had been previously rejected by Kerry County Council before it was installed in Castlebar. Fine Gael Cllr Noreen Heston asked the meeting if there was any chance that the town could enter into a public private partnership with one of the private pools in the town as the pool cannot cope with the demand that it has which often outstrips the supply it can provide.

Unemployment is rising at an alarming rate in Westport where there are now 1,768 on the live register. The scenic town saw the largest percentage growth in unemployment in the county last month. The December figures show there has been a hike of 9.1 per cent or 147 on the November returns for Westport, and the situation has been described as “very worrying” by Dáil Deputy and Fine Gael spokesperson on Community, Rural and Gaeltacht affairs, Michael Ring.

A new pay and display system will start to operate in the Dunnes Stores car park, Castlebar over the coming weeks. This new system will see barrier free pay and display parking operating in the car park similar to the one in use already in the other council owned car parks.

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.