Money for graveyards must be ring fenced – councillors

COUNCILLORS in the Westport/Belmullet Municipal District are calling on Mayo County Council to budget for the upkeep of graveyards in the region.

The lack of financial assistance from Mayo County Council towards the maintenance of graveyards has been heavily criticised by the councillors, who claim that without their allocation of money from their GMA funds there would be no support at all for cemetery upkeep.

The matter was raised at the monthly meeting of the municipal district by Achill councillor Paul McNamara.

“I think it is very important that money for our graveyards is ring fenced and distributed out,” he said.

“The graveyards are receiving little if no money whatsoever and are depended totally on the GMA funding we get and for us to allocate for the upkeep of the graveyards. All we can allocate is €1,000 to €2,000 of our GMA money, and that is nowhere near enough for the work that needs to be done on all our graveyards.

“I am just speaking for my area, where I get numerous calls about footpaths which need to be replaced and walls replaced, and there is absolutely no funding. It is hard to believe we have no funding ring fenced in Mayo County Council for them. It is of the utmost importance that going forward money is ring fenced and there is a small allocation separate from the GMA funding provided for our graveyards.”

‘Disrepair’

CLLR McNamara added that Mayo County Council receives €800 per plot in a graveyard and suggested that some if not all of that money should be designated for graveyard maintenance.

“It is not that there isn’t money there. We all know how many funerals we go to a year. It is my belief that a certain amount of that money [plot fees] should go back to the graveyard.”

The councillor said that some graveyards ‘will fall into disrepair’ if Mayo County Council ‘does not step up to the mark’. “They [the council] can’t depend on the local community and local contributions all the time,” he said.

The Achill councillor was supported by his other colleagues, who all gave examples of having to provide funding for local graveyards to keep them maintained.

Erris-based councillors Gerry Coyle and Seán Carey also called for the expansion of both Ballycroy and Killgalligan Graveyards, which are now close to being full.

Head of the municipal district, Padraig Walsh agreed with the councillors that funding was not available for the maintenance of graveyards. However, he clashed with them when he suggested that it was the fault of the councillors when they changed the way the GMA fund was distributed.

Cllr McNamara claimed that under the old system graveyards received €1,000 from the council, while the allocation from councillor’s is almost double that.

“I don’t agree that the change in GMA structure led to graveyards receiving less funding. If anything they received more funding,” Cllr McNamara said. “The GMA funding is [the] only money they get now, and if the GMA structure was not changed I don’t know what money they would be getting.”

Mr Walsh said he will bring the suggestion to the Head of Environment but said that it could require a change of policy on how graveyards are budgeted for before any funding could be made available.