Castlebar industrial park a shabby ‘white elephant’ – Barrett

Castlebar industrial park a shabby ‘white elephant’  – Barrett


The failure of the Industrial Development Authority (IDA) to utilise the empty industrial park on the Breaffy Road in Castlebar is indicative of their attitude to Co Mayo in general, according to a local councillor.
Labour’s Harry Barrett hit out at the failure of the IDA to develop their €5 million industrial park, which has lain idle without a single development in the park.
“The IDA has failed Castlebar and has done nothing in the last ten years to sell the town. With the number of unemployed in Castlebar heading towards 3,000, nothing is being done by the IDA to sell the advantages of Castlebar as a centre for production. Any new announcement from the IDA seems to end up in the constituency of a senior Minister, with Mayo being totally left out.
“Meanwhile, their €5 million industrial site on the edge of town is a left in a disgraceful condition. On a recent walk around the park I found it litter-strewn and vandalised in parts. Despite having cost the taxpayer €5 million, it looks shabby and neglected; a bit like the treatment of Co Mayo by the mandarins within the IDA.
“I am calling on the IDA, through its regional office in Galway, to make a statement of the state of the business park and to account for its total neglect of efforts to attract one single business into this ‘white elephant’, and its failure to ensure that the site is adequately maintained.”