The lengthy and much awaited report by An Bord Snip Nua which was released yesterday outlining a potential saving of €5.3bn has recommended the abolition of town councils and regional authorities, along with reducing the number of county councils from 34 to 22.
Currently there are three town councils in Mayo servicing the towns of Castlebar, Ballina and Westport, each of the town councils has nine elected councillors who were returned after the recent local elections in June.
Recently elected Mayor of Castlebar Cllr Michael Kilcoyne said he was not surprised with the recommendations. “Unfortunately I’m not surprised by the recommendations of the report in relation to the town councils, for years we have seen the authority of the town council withered away. We lost control over the water, the sewage and the refuse collection in recent years. We even have the situation were there are roads and footpaths in the town which are not under our control, but of the county council. This recommendation though is a backward step for democracy in Ireland - these authorities should be given back power.”
Another potential blow to Mayo in the report was the recommendation to abolish the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs. This department is due to have its headquarters based in Charlestown as part of the decentralisation programme. Fine Gael TD John O’Mahony told the Mayo Advertiser: “For counties like Mayo it is vital that the department itself is retained, it deals with a lot off issues that effect Mayo. There were commitments given that the department would set up in Charlestown and they have to be kept too, while there has been some suggestions that it may merge with the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism in some way, they will still have to go ahead with having the offices in Charlestown as promised.”
The report also recommend a number of major cuts in funding for programmes such as axing the rural transport scheme, cuts in island infrastructure and Gaeltacht schemes. It also recommended the merging of smaller primary schools, which could effect a number of rural schools thought out the county if the report is put into action by the Government.
The recommendations in cuts to welfare will hurt those who have the least according to Mayor Kilcoyne.
“It’s the most vulnerable who are going to get hit the hardest in this again, things like the cuts in social welfare or the end of the half carers’ allowance that people received for taking care of someone at home. You have the cutting in the limit for people getting a medical card and the payments for your prescriptions for medical card patients.
“Let me tell you something there is no one who has a medical card that can afford to live without it. This government are sending out a clear message to you, if you can emigrate do emigrate because there will be no one left here to take care of you when you’re older if you stay.”
