Search Results for 'Conway Walsh'

The Fine Gael whip in Mayo County Council, Cllr Jarlath Munnelly, was accused of parroting the views of Margaret Thatcher in the council chamber this week.

The application by a single company, BioAtlantis Teo, for exclusive rights to cut and harvest seaweed in Clew Bay has sparked major fears among local farmers who have traditionally cut seaweed in the area. Such has been the concern to the application for 10 year exclusive rights lodged by BioAtlantis Teo a new community group the Clew Bay Seaweed Association was formed recently.

Two Mayo Sinn Féin representatives have hit out this week at what they described as a calculated campaign to use an alleged sexual abuse victim as a political pawn to stop the rise of their party.

The community of Belmullet is in a state of shock and mourning following the death of a local teenager in a car crash on Wednesday evening.

The marked gender imbalance on Mayo County Council looks unlikely to be addressed in a significant way in the upcoming Local Elections on May 23.

A number of councillors have called for the €8.5 million Community Gain Investment Fund that has been put up by the developers of the Corrib Gas project as part of their planning permission to have a wider geographic reach. Cllr Rose Conway Walsh, speaking at the April meeting of the Belmullet electoral area committee, said: “I do want to see it extended to areas like Ballycastle, it’s very unfair that it’s not included.” The idea of seeing it extended was supported by other councillors including Cllr Michael Holmes and Cllr Michael McNamara. At present the fund is confined to the Cill Chomain area. While asking for the geographic remit of the fund to be expanded, Cllr Conway Walsh hit out at the small nature of the fund compared to the overall profits that the project developers will make, saying: “Overall we need to look at this fund being from our own natural resources, not the developers” and “it’s a lot less than the people deserve”.

The long awaited construction of a wastewater treatment plant and wastewater pumping station in Belmullet moved a step closer this week with the approval of the Part 8 planning by the members of the Belmullet Electoral Area Committee. The planning for this scheme has gone as far back as 1994 and it has taken this long to come to the planning stage. The existing wastewater collection network in the area dates back to 1957 and is currently discharging untreated waste into both Blacksod Bay and Broadhaven Bay.

The July meeting of the Mayo County Council this week heard a presentation from Mary O’Sullivan, the HSE West resource officer for suicide prevention and Máire Ní Dhomhnaill, a counsellor from the Family Resource Centre in Castlebar. The pair explained that they were working the Mayo Suicide Prevention Group, which was made up of some 50 organisations which aimed to help people and promote mental health. One of the suggestions that was put forward was that the Mayo County Council could provide funding so it could recruit a part-time suicide prevention officer, which could work in a similar role to that of the road safety officer. The idea was supported by the councillors, but the county manager told the meeting that while he was supportive of it, he could not commit to such an investment.

It is inexcusable that, with only two years left of the LEADER Programme, Gaeltacht areas are in the seventh month of waiting for a mechanism to distribute the funding, according to Sinn Féin councillor Rose Conway-Walsh. Cllr Conway-Walsh said the reply on the matter from Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government Phil Hogan was totally inaequate.