Mayo councillor questions if senior official 'is focused on his job'

A senior official with Mayo County Council was questioned if he is focused on his job and has time to do it after it emerged he also runs two separate companies.

Tom Gilligan, the Director of Services with responsibility for housing and roads in Mayo County Council came under pressure at the monthly meeting of Mayo County Council from a number of councillors for what they see as failings in his departments.

During the meeting Fine Gael councillor Peter Flynn questioned if he was able to do his job as he is a director of two companies, one of which is a pet sitting business, which featured recently in an article in the Irish Independent lifestyle magazine.

Cllr Flynn took exception to comments made by Mr Gilligan during the meeting where he claimed that the council were 'victims of our own success' in relation to the number of people who had applied for the vacant homes grant.

“I don't understand how you can make a comment that you are a victim of your own success when these people are struggling to get the work done,” Cllr Flynn commented.

“I am beginning to wonder, Tom, if you have time to do your job and I am being straight up with you. It was great to see you on the paper last week with a two page spread in relation to the company you are running...and at what point are you focused entirely on this job or are you focused on some other company.”

Earlier, Castlebar-based councillor Donna Sheridan had questioned why applicants in the Vacant Home Scheme were waiting 33 weeks for payments and claimed the delay was resulting in some people going into debt.

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The Fine Gael councillor said she wanted truth and transparency from Mr Gilligan and his department and to inform the public how long they will have to wait for inspections. She was supported by party colleague, Cllr Alma Gallagher who said that applicants were also waiting weeks for inspections to take place and this was resulting in delays in getting contractors.

In response, Mr Gilligan said that the council received 900 applicants for the Vacant Home Scheme and claimed they had become the 'victims of our own success'.

“I am sorry that people are having to wait but the reality is we are the victims of our own success in relation to this. We have such an enthusiastic response to it which is great to see and at this stage we have 900 applications which have come in and we are going through them as quickly as possible,” he said.

He also claimed that 90 percent of applications had not been fully filled out and this was leading to delays.

During the meeting Mr Gilligan also came under pressure after he was asked to explain why €235,000 in funding for the LIS scheme in Castlebar for private roads was never spent. He confirmed that the local contribution towards the cost of schemes was not paid and as a result the money was sent back to the central government.

Under pressure from a number of councillors as to who was responsible for the failure to spend the money, Mr Gilligan said that he was taking full responsibility and he was not going to throw a colleague under the bus.

Cllr Peter Flynn questioned Tom Gilligan if he is focused on his job

Cllr Flynn said that there was clearly 'something significant wrong' in the housing and roads departments and questioned if Mr Gilligan was up to the job.

“I take no pleasure in having a go at you but I am so frustrated at the lack of progress in terms of housing where we claim to be the victims of our own success when in reality we are top of the table in terms of derelictions and well down in terms of affordable housing. We are doing nothing and standing still and forgetting about the people we are supposed to be serving.

“I really do have difficulty that somebody has two separate companies while supposed to be a senior public servant running the two most significant functions in roads and housing within our council. I think questions have to be asked and I am not a bit happy with the way things are going. I really have difficulty in somebody claiming we are being successful and we are victims of our own success. We are anything but,” he concluded.