The Cathaoirleach of Mayo County Council, Councillor Michael Smyth, said at the Claremorris-Swinford Municipal District meeting which took place this week, that he will be looking for a cross-party delegation of councillors to meet Minister for Rural and Community Development, Heather Humphreys, after Mayo was excluded from a €11 million package of funding under the Local Improvement Scheme (LIS ) this week.
The LIS funding is used for rural roads that are not in control of the local authority and that need to be upgraded. Cllr Smyth told the meeting the issue will be addressed at the full meeting of Mayo County Council, which takes place on Monday.
Cllr Smyth said that he had been in contact with the Minister's office in relation to the issue with a number of queries, to see whether money had been allocated to Mayo and was being held in reserve. He added that he knew that there was an audit taking place in relation to LIS funding which is being addressed at the minute.
The Cathaoirleach said: "I would have a major concern that needs to be addressed by the Minister as to whether money has been allocated for Mayo and has been held in reserve for 2022; we need to know that. We need to know, if there isn't money held in reserve, why isn't there and is the action punitive in the context of the audit that they are undertaking in relation to LIS.
"The scale of the money that is involved is so small, if it is punitive, the actions far outweigh the issue that was raised in relation to LIS and we will have an issue that we need to address with the Minster and we need to get a meeting with her.
"If it is the case that we could see timelines on the audit, we need to know when it will be completed and the money will be available to us and at what point of the year; there is no point in giving us money next October and telling us to have it spent by the end of the year on LIS, because we all know the waste of money it is at that stage."
Fine Gael councillor Michael Burke told the meeting that he did not see the Minister meeting with a delegation, as he understood it, saying: "It is very disappointing, I had been kind of forewarned that it was going to happen.
"I have to say I don't think the Minister will be meeting us as far as I am concerned until other matters and matters pertaining to LIS are sorted out in the county council. The department officials deal with this, it is not political, it is procedures and the way we do things and at the moment, you can be certain the minister will not be meeting with us, that is my understanding. It may change, but it is my clear understanding, we have a lot of tidying up to do and that is not anywhere near the final stage at this point in time.
"I would hope and I will emphasis to the Minister, there will be monies put aside for Mayo County Council, there are monies promised to people from last year and the year before and when we got LIS at the back end of last year, we got two days notice of what we could or couldn't do, which I found very hard to swallow. It is not the way I do business and I don't want to see business done like that."
