Councillors unhappy at Council’s spending policies

Councillors unhappy at Council’s spending policies


Anton McNulty

THE reasons given by Mayo County Council for hiring a lorry for €600 a day were compared to the reasons for believing in the mystery of the Holy Trinity at last week’s meeting of the Belmullet Electoral Area Committee
The comparison was made by Independent councillor Michael Holmes during a discussion on the cost involved in securing a new tar patcher to carry out works on the road. Officials for Mayo County Council informed them that the costs involved were too high but Cllr Gerry Coyle (pictured) said it was hard to believe that the Council could still pay €600 a day for a lorry.
Cllr Holmes added that logic was ‘like believing in the mystery of the holy trinity, it is hard to believe but you must believe in it’. Cllr Coyle had argued that it did not make economic sense to hire a lorry for €600 a day and would be cheaper to buy it. However, Council officials said that when you take into consideration the cost of fuel, insurance and a driver it was not economical to buy the lorry.
The issue of the tar patcher was raised by Cllr Holmes who claimed that there were still roads in parts of the Belmullet Electoral Area which had not been serviced by the tar patcher. The electoral area has two tar patchers covering the north and south of the constituency and Cllr Holmes claimed this was not enough to cover the large area. The tar patcher for the southern end of the constituency is based in Achill and has to cover Achill, Mulranny, Ballycroy, and the Newport area,
“I accept there is a budget but the time the patcher leaves Achill, the crew have to travel up to 50 miles and will only be able to spend two or three hours a day before returning. It doesn’t make economic sense. I propose we hire a tar patcher to get the problems resolved in villages which are being neglected. There are places where the tar patcher has not been since Junuary which is hard to believe. I’m a great believer in common sense and saving money and if we bring in the patcher it will ease the pressure,” he said.
However Padraig Walsh, Senior Engineer with the Council said he felt they were on top of the job in question and was not aware of any road which had not seen a patcher. He said the cost of a tar patcher in an area was €350,000 a year and they would have to take money out of the road works scheme to pay for it.