Christmas comes early with Government grants

Christmas comes early with Government grants


Major allocations for Mayo projects 

Áine Ryan

IT may be a sleigh-ride too far to compare Government TDs to Santa Claus, but millions of euros have been poured into County Mayo in recent weeks, it has emerged. From significant roadworks to new schools, agricultural grants and funding for tourism, there are some hopeful signs of an economic recovery, which will be further bolstered when budgetary changes to income tax and the USC come on-stream.  
As Taoiseach Enda Kenny and the Government partners are battered in poll after poll revealing a steady rise of Independents and a serious challenge to the status-quo, significant grants have been allocated. There is further good news in the fact that unemployment figures reveal a 12.07 percent drop in the numbers on the live register in the county.
Specific projects include the building of a state-of-the art €3 million primary school for Westport’s amalgamated Scoil PhΡdraig and CBS Primary School, announced last week by Minister of State Michael Ring. Deputy John O’Mahony also welcomed the fact that Ballyhaunis Community School has been granted monies for a much-needed extension.     
“This is wonderful news for both school communities. Ballyhauins CS has had not any major investment for the best part of nearly forty years and this project was first applied for back in 1999. Construction will start next year and that in itself will create employment,” John O’Mahony said.

Recovery
SPEAKING generally about ‘signs of recovery’, Mr O’Mahony said he was hopeful that 2015 would ‘be a good year for the people of Mayo’, noting that expectations were that the national unemployment rate would fall below ten percent in 2015.
Focussing on the agricultural sector, he said: “Farmers in Mayo received €86,833,269 in funding throughout 2014. Agriculture is at the centre of Irish life and is core to the Irish economy. Further growth and opportunity is expected in 2015 through the implementation of the Rural Development Programme for which we are awaiting approval from Europe and which would mean an investment of €2.5 billion.
Meanwhile, both Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Minister Ring welcomed the major funding tranche of over €19 million for Mayo’s national roads. Six million euro of this – the biggest single allocation – is for the N5 Westport to Turlough project.
Mr Kenny said: “Roughly, €17.5 million will be used for road improvements and the remaining €1.5 million will be used for maintenance. Improvement to our national road network will help ensure it is preserved and will assist with improving safety, reducing congestion, and will further drive economic growth.  The regional and local roads allocations for 2015 will be announced in January.”
In a statement, Minister Ring broke-down the detail of the allocation, noting that as well as the €6 million fund for the N5 from Westport to Turlough, improvement works have been included for Mulranny to the sum of €1.69 million and the N59 Rossow Bends, near Newport, have been allocated €2 million.
As Minister of State for Tourism he also announced an additional €850,000 for FΡilte Ireland to further enhance the web presence of the Wild Atlantic Way (WAW). He observed that as awareness of the WAW grows internationally, overseas visitors are expected ‘to come to Ireland specifically to do the route’.
“Tourism is playing a crucial role in our economic recovery with an increase of 8.8 percent in overseas visits to Ireland and a 9.3 percent increase in spending by those visitors recorded so far this year. And with very ambitious targets being set for 2015, we need to continue to invest in these signature and iconic programmes so that we can drive tourism forward in the years ahead,” he said.