Funding for Mayo Regional and Local Roads has been slashed by €96,780,960 since 2007 according to Sinn Féin General Election Candidate, Cllr Rose Conway-Walsh. Cllr Conway-Walsh said: “It is outrageous that funding for Mayo roads has been decimated to such an extent that the accumulative affect means we have lost out on almost €100 million even to stand still. I am so disgusted by the lies and spin being fed to people in Mayo that I sat down and did an analysis of the cuts to roads budgets from 2007 to 2015. It was obvious to me that the regional and local roads in this county are deteriorating rapidly as many have not had maintenance or repairs for over a decade. Many of these roads are barely passable and the plain truth is that there is no money to do the necessary works.”
Cllr Conway Walsh went on to say “Schemes such as those that used to be available for Strategic Gaeltacht Roads, Sceim na Boithre and Clár have all been done away with. The LIS (Local Improvement Scheme ) available to each councillor has been cut by over 70 per cent and is expected to cover geographical areas twice the size of the original constituency boundaries. So for example, a councillor in the west Mayo Area gets €27,600 to cover hundreds of LIS Roads from Blacksod to Leenane. People have been waiting years to have these roads done.”
The Erris based councillor concluded saying, “Bits of money is being moved around by Government Ministers and TD’s in Mayo to create the illusion that funding is available when it’s not. I can only compare it to moving the deck chairs around the Titanic. They are in complete denial about the Local and Regional Roads Crisis in Mayo. How can we ever hope to solve the problem when those in power fail to even recognize there is one.” “To add insult to injury over €25 million Property Tax has been paid by Mayo households since 2013 with a further €13 million paid in NPPR (second home tax ) and a whopping €157 million paid in Motor Tax. €439 million was handed over to the bottomless pit of Irish Water with a similar amount promised for next year. The truth is Mayo householders and road users have been robbed by the reckless economic policies of both Fianna Fail and Fine Gael
