Mulherin hits back

Mulherin hits out at Calleary’s comments

Anton McNulty

BALLINA councillor, Michelle Mulherin, hit back at Deputy Dara Calleary last week, over recent comments he made which questioned her track record as chair of the Strategic Policy Committee on Roads and Transportation.
The SPC members were discussing the allocation of funding by the National Roads Authority (NRA) when Cllr Mulherin accused Deputy Calleary of political spin-doctoring after comments he made in a local paper regarding her work on the SPC. Deputy Calleary said, following the NRA allocation to Mayo, that Cllr Mulherin must answer for her own track record as the chair of the SPC.
Cllr Mulherin said the Government had not delivered for Mayo and expressed her disappointment that Deputy Calleary had attacked the working of the SPC to excuse the Government’s lack of funding.
“I was disappointed to read a statement made by Deputy Calleary which suggests that our SPC is some way responsible for the lack of funding. To me this is typical Government spin; not taking account of their responsibilities and suggesting problems lie somewhere else. Either Deputy Calleary doesn’t know how local government works or he is being misleading. The SPC has no jurisdiction and no budget because if it did we would get the work done,” she said.
However, Fianna Fáil councillor, Damien Ryan accused Cllr Mulherin of taking a ‘cheap shot’ at Deputy Calleary in his absence. He said he was not aware of the article but said the this type of attack on the Government was nothing new for Fine Gael and was part of their party policy. He said that the Charlestown by-pass was a credit to the county but acknowledged that it was unfortunate there was no project starting in 2008 and that some issues needed to be raised with the NRA.
Cllr Mulherin’s criticism of Deputy Calleary’s comments were backed up by Mr Eddie Heneghan, a member of the SPC, who said he was extremely disappointed by his comments and for taking a shot at the committee.