Labour Party, Castlebar Town Councillor Harry Barrett has expressed serious concern at the lack of representation by county council members at a recent trade mission, this week, by a delegation from Ohio, USA. Barrett made his comments after learning that only the Cathaoirleach, Cllr Johnny O' Malley, and one other councillor, turned up to meet the trade delegation in Turlough House, despite the fact that all county councillors were invited to the event.
Barrett continued saying, "That is an appalling dereliction of duty by councillors that are paid to promote our town and our county. We are going through one of the worse unemployment crises of our times and this is the way that our elected representatives deal with a visiting trade mission from America. We learned last week that the IDA has completely bypassed our county, we know that we are losing population to emigration and that house prices are still dropping.
One would think that councillors would be in taking every opportunity to engage with any initiative to bring jobs to Castlebar. However, of the 33, only two turned up to meet a the delegation. I believe that apologies were sent by some, but two councillors in attendance is an utter disgrace. Be in no doubt that if the trade mission were to organised in Ohio tomorrow, we'd have a stampede of county councillors, with suitcases packed, tripping over themselves to board the plane.” The Labour councillor concluded saying that "It's about time that councillors in this county got serious about the jobs emergency that we are living through. I would advise them that if they are not able for the job they should step down and allow those that want to push for work for our families to get on with the urgent action that needs to be taken.”
