AN email sent by a senior official of Mayo County Council proposing a boycott of holiday home owners has been damaging to the county and brought it into disrepute according to local councillors.

When Director of Services, Tom Gilligan hit send on the email on a Sunday night at five minutes to twelve, he couldn't have imagined the week that lay ahead for him.

He tweeted out statistics from the Census on Monday, which would form one of the questions he would be asked on national radio a couple of days later.

READ: ‘Boycott holiday homeowners in Mayo’ - proposal from Mayo County Council official

His Morning Ireland interview came after his front page appearance in The Irish Independent. The Director of Services at Mayo County Council’s proposed boycott would not only spark conversation under Mayo News articles online, his idea was being discussed in the public town hall of Liveline.

Mayo County Council issued three separate statements to clarify it was not official policy. By Thursday, he was still standing by the proposal but apologised for the public furore.

Over a week on, in their first meeting since the furore broke out, councillors in the Westport/Belmullet Municipal District were united in distancing themselves from the boycott

They are heritages homes

WHERE Tom Gilligan had invoked the historical figure of Captain Boycott, the Council chamber turned their focus on the island’s history of emigration as the explanation for the vacant holiday homes in Mayo.

A visibly upset Cllr Gerry Coyle said the proposal made his "blood boil when I heard it, I was so upset why anyone would try and put us against our own.”

The Erris-based councillor recalled how his own brothers emigrated ‘but their hearts stayed at home'. Rather than looking at these houses as holiday homes, we should view them as heritage homes.

Achill-based Cllr Paul McNamara said that “we seem to have forgotten those people who were forced to leave and now we have forgotten where they came from and what role they played in the community. Now we think it’s right they should be taxed.”

Cllr John O’Malley recalled his own experience as an emigrant in both England and the United States. He met many people from Mayo over there and quoting James Orr, he said it was true that “the savage loves his native shore”.

He went on to express that there is no way he could agree with statements about boycotting anyone.

Not impressed

Cllr Peter Flynn, who joined the meeting remotely, said that the holiday home boycott had been “hugely damaging to the entire county of Mayo and brought the whole county into disrepute.”

The Westport-based councillor added he was not impressed with a ‘half-hearted apology’ issued by Mayo County Council on behalf of the Director of Housing last Thursday.

He also questioned the silence from the Chief Executive of Mayo County Council, Kevin Kelly. “I haven’t heard one single word from the Chief Executive condemning Tom Gilligan.

If this was any other organisation, the Chief Executive would have been out within hours on these divisive comments.”

As Chair of the Housing Strategic Policy Committee, Cllr Flynn had proposed a holiday home tax and despite the foray of the last week, he stood by the Council examining how a ‘small tax on holiday homes’ worked in Wales.

He said that the tax “had a significant impact on house prices in Wales and I think we should look at it. We need to focus on how we make property more affordable” and get more people to live in our town centres.

Cllr John O’Malley is firmly against any tax on holiday homes. Speaking of emigrants who had ‘left in hard times and worked hard’, he asked, “How dare anyone say they should be taxed, these people worked hard and now to think you’d treat them like that! How could you even think about it? The state is turning into a Putin state if you’re going to talk about that.”

Cllr Chris Maxwell was equally against the tax and said that “people in this country are paying enough tax” and more tax is not going to solve the housing crisis.

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