Members of the West Mayo Municipal District this morning (Monday, November 9 ) rejected the proposed discretionary part of the districts General Municipal Allocation. It had been proposed that the elected members would have a discretionary allocation of €390,000 to spend in the area over the coming 12 months.
Cathaoirleach of Mayo County Council, Cllr Michael Holmes said that he rejected the reduction of the allocation down from €440,000 last year to the proposed figure this year. Fianna Fáil Cllr Paul McNamara said that “this is not one step back it’s ten steps back from where we were last year.” His party colleague, Cllr Brendan Mulroy commented that “We’re being asked to have a municipal spend of €390,000 for an area the size of Leitrim.”
Cathaoirleach of the district, Cllr Christy Hyland said “this saddens me, it really does. We had a discretionary fund of €390,000 when it was just the town council.” Hyland went on to propose that the proposed allocation be rejected by the councillors and that an allocation of €500,000 be given to the area. That was supported by the other members of the district that were in attendance at the meeting. Director of Services Tom Gilligan said that he was keen to make sure it was pointed out that there was much more spending in the area than just the €390,000 which was being debated at this meeting.
For more on this story see the Mayo Advertiser this Friday or www.advertiser.ie/mayo
