Parking income drop evidence of reduced tourist footfall – Flynn

A SIGNIFICANT drop in car parking income has been described as evidence of a drop-off in tourists visiting Mayo.

Cllr Peter Flynn attributed a €87,000 drop in car parking income for Mayo County Council to the amount of tourist beds being used for refugee accommodation.

In 2023, Mayo County Council took in €2,035,000 from pay-and-display car parking charges, €87,000 less than the €2,122,000 it generated in the previous year.

The local authority charges for parking in Westport, Ballinrobe, Claremorris, Castlebar, Ballina and Murrisk. These charges are often waived for the Christmas period to encourage local shopping.

Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, the council took in approximately €2.3 million annually in car parking charges.

Speaking at the council’s budget meeting, Cllr Flynn said the drop in car parking revenue proved that tourist numbers were ‘dropping significantly’.

At least 21 percent of Fáilte Ireland registered tourist accommodation in Mayo has been contracted to the government as refugee accommodation.

The county has been forecast to lose €10 million in revenue due to a lack of hotel accommodation.

Cllr Flynn denied that he was ‘scaremongering’ when he outlined his concerns at the meeting.

“I really hope we wake up to what’s going on here,” said the Fine Gael councillor.

A Fáilte Ireland representative previously told a meeting of Mayo County Council’s Tourism SPC that their organisation was ‘concerned’ about the number of tourist beds in Mayo that had been taken out of circulation.