Mayo County Council revealed that they don’t have the funding to match the applications for grant funding under the new housing grants introduced this year.
The council’s Paul Benson told last Monday’s meeting of the Ballina electoral area committee that “We will not be able to accommodate all of them, there are over 100 applications in the Ballina area alone and there are seven other areas.”
Mr Benson also told the meeting that the bill for the grants would be around the €4 million mark and the council had only budgeted for €2.4 million this year. The grants are matched by central government on a 80:20 ratio, but Mr Benson stated that “we said this was never going to work in the beginning and it’s now a financial millstone around the council.”
He also revealed that the council had paid out the grants to all those qualified applicants who had applied before the end of May, but he didn’t know if those who applied after then would be approved.
New Leader company for north Mayo
Mayo County Council confirmed the establishment of the new Mayo North East Leader Partnership Company at this week’s Ballina electoral area meeting.
The company should be fully operational by January 2009. The new company will take in the electoral areas of Ballina, Swinford and part of the Claremorris area.
Mr Declan Turnbull from Mayo County Council told the meeting that staffing and offices have yet to be put in place but it was hoped these things would be taken care of very soon.
