Search Results for 'Matt Farrell'

The preparations for the St Patrick’s Day parades are well underway across the county. The county town will see its parade take place a day early this year due to Castlebar Mitchels involvement in the All Ireland Club Final in Croke Park on St Patrick’s Day.

Ballina Chamber of Commerce is getting ready to turn the town green for the St Patrick’s Weekend festival.

Industrial action is scheduled to take place at Mayo General Hospital on Monday next (subject to ongoing negotiations) while a protest march is being organised for Sunday February 5 next in Ballina, in response to drastic new health service cuts set to affect hospitals in Mayo, as announced as part of the new HSE National Service Plan this week.

The Ballina and District Trades Council members this week expressed their concern about the decision of Ballina Town Council to refuse planning permission for a McDonald’s restaurant in the town. A statement issued by Matt Farrell from the group said: “On reviewing the reasons given for the refusal it would seem that the whole focus was on why this should not happen as opposed to what we could do to make this employment opportunity materialise.” The members went on to call on the town council to give serious consideration for the positive aspects of the proposed development, and that a positive image of town being open for business needed to be promoted, saying: “Over the last few years there has been much talk about various retailers trying to come to Ballina but these plans have seldom materialised. As a town we need to be careful of the perception [whether true or not] that Ballina is not open for additional business. We need to strive to be seen as a town that is willing to develop our existing business and welcoming new enterprise as opposed to the town that holds a quarter of all the unemployed of Mayo.”

Gardai are probing the possibility that there may be links between this week’s murder of an Offaly publican and a similar incident which occurred last month in Mullingar.

The Vintners’ Federation of Ireland (VFI), which represents some 5,000 publicans throughout the country outside of Dublin, has expressed concern at recent attacks on publicans and is urging all its members, and especially those located in rural areas, to remain vigilant.