Mayo County Council has confirmed that responsibility for the development of greenway trails around the county has been transferred from the Department of Rural and Community Development to Transport Infrastructure Ireland - and that the only discussions regarding Mayo greenway trails underway with TII relate to the Bunnacurry section in Achill.
At the March meeting of the council's Tourism Strategic Policy Committee, Cllr Peter Flynn criticised the confusion around who is in charge of and responsible for greenway developments and condemned a response received from TII, in regard to an invitation to attend and address a meeting of the group. Cllr Flynn also asserted that the Belclare to Murrisk Greenway which had been due to be developed from funds provided to Mayo County Council two years ago, had now been scrapped, due to the 'debacle' that led to those funds having to be refunded to the exchequer.
At the SPC meeting, Deirdre Finnerty, Head of Community Engagement with Mayo County Council, reported that TII's response to a call to attend one of the SPC's meetings, stated: "Thanks for the invitation to attend and discuss greenways in Mayo. However, it is not practice for our officials to attend SPCs but TII does have one meeting per year with a delegation from each local authority. By way of an alternative to a meeting, the SPC can write to us regarding any issues of concern. I am due to meet with Joanne Grehan re the Clew Bay Greenway later this week and will discuss the matter further with her then."
Raising the TII issue, Cllr Peter Flynn said: "In the last week or so, Deputy ring put a parliamentary question, in response to which, TII confirmed Mayo County Council has not sought any finance since September 2021, when TII took over responsibility for greenways. Mayo county council must submit a request in writing for such a project to be given due consideration - but have not done so.
"I'll be honest. Management very much pushed this back towards the council's tourism and regional design team and to everybody else but themselves. It really is a very frustrating process as TII is now saying Mayo County Council is the lead agency and whether we like it or not, the Belclare to Murrisk greenway has now been scrapped, and we are back to square one."
He added that a request has been made for a special meeting to discuss all the issues with those in the council involved in the Mayo greenways in order to sort things out and proposed that the entire greenway out to Louisburgh and Roonagh, and looping over to Achill via the ferry, be the project sought for from the TII, in order to prevent years of further delay.
Director of Services Joanne Grehan clarified that TII is essentially the funding body and all developments of new greenways will now 'go through the National Roads Design Office (NRDO ) - which is in a period of transition - as opposed to Department of Rural and Community Development', so that 'any trails we submit for funding that might connect to a greenway, has to go through TII and NRDO'. She confirmed she is having monthly meetings with TII but Patsy McNulty - Senior Executive Officer in Tourism, pointed out that 'the only discussions the council is having with TII at the moment is regarding the the Bunnacurry section of the Achill Greenway'.
