The summer-long stand off between the elected members of Mayo County Council and Minister for Environment John Gormley will once again raise its head this coming Monday. In adjourning the monthly meeting of the council last Monday, the members agreed to hold a special meeting to discuss the devlopment plan issue this coming Monday September 15 at 2pm.
Fine Gael chief whip Paddy McGuinness revealed to the Mayo Advertiser this week that a four-member delegation from the council have been granted an oral hearing by the joint Oireachtas Committee for Environment, Heritage and Local Government, which is the Oireachtas committee for the department which Minister Gormley heads up. “Yesterday (Tuesday September 9 ) we got word from the joint Oireachtas Committee that we have been granted an oral hearing by them on this issue, which is good to hear that they think at least that we should be allowed to put our case forward.”
Fianna Fáil Councillor Al McDonnell, who has been his party’s leader on this issue, was also glad to hear that the council was granted the chance to put their case before the committee. “It was from the responses that members of the Oireachtas who suggested to us that we seek a hearing from the committee. Which we did and it is great that they have granted us one, which will probably take place in the next month or so. We have been charged now with synopsising the issues to the best of our abilities so we can put across the salient points.”
“There has been a lot of support from the ordinary people of Mayo on this issue and from the different members of the Oireachtas. We wrote individually to every member of the Oireachtas and have recieved great words of support from a large number of these members. In turn they forwarded on our letter to the Minister and they each recieved a reply from the Minister which they have passed on to us.”
Cllr McGuinness and his colleagues in the council have asked the minister on a number of occasions for a meeting and and have not received any communication from his office in the past number of months. This lack off communication and the support from members of the Oireachtas hasss only strengthend the council members resolve according to McGuinness. “Our views are even stronger now as far as I can see, we believe that we are right in what we are doing and that we have the people on our side. The council members have also been taking legal adivce on the situation and Cllr McDonnell explains that a lot of work has gone into this plan already and they are prepared to put in more. “We have done a lot of work trying to get this plan up and running, we have been getting legal advice on planning decisions and directives from some of the best people in this field and we will continue to explore every avenue we have in this project.”
