Search Results for 'Michael Kilcoyne'

The HSE is to cut over €2.5 million in funding for a wide range of community services in Mayo as it attempts to balance its books. In a document passed on to the Mayo Advertiser by Independent Castlebar Town Councillor Michael Kilcoyne the HSE outlines the areas it aims to cut funding for and the impacts it expects to occur as a result of them. The cuts in funding will be widespread and varied with the HSE expecting to save €375,000 by transferring patients who may be in private nursing homes paid for by a subvention from the HSE back to public facilities, which could choke up the current public facilities. It also intends to cut €46,000 from a teenage health initiative which the HSE admits may impact on sexual activity of those under 18 years of age.

“What you have to do is spend a couple of hours a week, calling back to the people you canvassed leading up to the election, to let them know you haven’t forgotten them. Not everyone will be able to come up to you if they have a problem, so it’s important to go back to them yourself to see what you can do for them.” While she hasn’t been elected yet and faces a tough battle to take one of the nine seats in Castlebar Town Council’s chamber, Labour candidate Bernie Courtney has a clear plan as to how she will stay connected with the constituents if they put their faith in her this summer.

A notice of motion which called on the council to condemn the HSE for cuts in its community services budget and do whatever necessary including street protests sparked controversy at the monthly meeting of Castlebar Town Council last week.

During a discussion on the development row at McHale Park at last week’s Castlebar Town Council meeting, Mayor Michael Kilcoyne told the meeting that he was disgusted that the council did not seek to get a High Court injunction following the breach of a warning notice issued by the council.

A delegation from Bord Gáis assured the members of Castlebar Town Council that they would do all in their power to ensure that all works carried out by and on behalf of Bord Gáis would be done to the highest standards and all damage caused by these works would be restored to the highest quality.

Fine Gael’s high hopes of Castlebar dominance

Castlebar Mayor Kevin Guthrie hit back at critics of his decision to go to England for the St Patrick’s Day celebrations. Mayor Guthrie told the monthly meeting of the local authority: “The reason I am going is because I spent a lot of time with the group who came over here. They invited myself, Cllr Gavin, and Cllr McCormack who all spent a great deal of time with them when they came over and it would be disrespectful not to take it up.”

The issue of uncontrolled pedestrian crossings in Castlebar was raised again at the monthly meeting of Castlebar Town Council. Cllr Michael Kilcoyne brought up the issue telling the meeting: “In relation to the report we got on pedestrian crossings last month, there are very clear regulations as to what are pedestrian crossings and none of which are listed comply with that. I propose that we get the road safety officer for Mayo County Council to make a report on these crossings and let him decide if they are safe.”

The introduction of parking charges at Castlebar train station caused controversy for the second month in a row at the monthly meeting of Castlebar Town Council. Fine Gael Town Councillor Brendan Heneghan brought to the attention of the elected members representations he had received from a woman whose car was clamped in the car park in the past month. Cllr Heneghan told the meeting: “Last Friday a woman got the train to Dublin and when she came back with her elderly mother she found her car had been clamped. It wasn’t that she was avoiding to pay the parking fee, but rather that she didn’t know there was one. And when she got off the train there waiting for her were what I can only call goons to charge her to get the clamp off. The woman didn’t have any cash on her and had only her Laser card and had to ring her husband to bring in cash to her so she could get the clamp off.”

Speaking at the launch of the Mandate trade union campaign entitled ‘Respect Retail Workers’ in the TF Royal Hotel the vice chairman of the Consumers’ Association of Ireland, Castlebar councillor Michael Kilcoyne, said how pleased he was to be asked to launch the campaign. He said it was important that the public at large understood that frontline workers just carry out the policy of their employers in relation to how they treat their customers, and when consumers and members of the public have an issue in relation to the goods or services that they purchased, they should not let their anger or their frustration out on the worker.