The elected members of Ballina Town Council gave their unanimous backing to retention of Easkey District Court, which is operated out of the Ballina District Court office, at their monthly meeting this week.
Fine Gael councillor Michelle Mulherin put forward a motion at the meeting calling for the retention, which was fully supported by the other eight members of the council. “Four people work in the Ballina District Court office in Ballina and we had to fight hard to retain that service here before,” Cllr Mulherin told the meeting. “There is currently a statutory instrument being prepared by Government to close the Easkey District Court which could have an effect on this office. The fact that the Ballina office handles the paperwork for the Easkey court means that a large volume of people travel into Ballina to use this service and it brings business to the town that would be lost to Sligo if the Easkey court was closed.”
Cllr Willie Nolan told the meeting: “I strongly agree with this motion, Easkey has always been a natural hinterland of Ballina and we should do what we can to maintain that link.”
Cllr Gerry Ginty said: “I’m fully in support of this motion, the people of Easkey have more in common with Ballina than it would with other places in Sligo and indeed many more places in Mayo would have with Ballina.”
