Mayo Greens say its time they’re elected

More than 80 percent of people in Ireland are worried about Climate Change, that is according to ‘The Climate Change in the Irish Mind Project’.

With climate changee is an extremely topical subject in recent times, Bríd Conroy, Chair of the Mayo Greens, said ‘it is time to get a Green elected into the council’. 

“Keeping the status quo, may seem like the easiest option but we all need to change so that our kids and grandkids will benefit.  

“We need the council to be pushing forward with innovation and transformation yet we see that in the case of the Pathfinder Project in transport innovation, Mayo failed to even put in any exemplar,” she said.  

The Mayo Greens have two candidates running for council in the up-coming local elections, Peter Nolan for the Westport Local Electoral Area, and Mícheál Ó Conaill for the Belmullet Local Electoral Area.  

Both candidates are committed to ensuring climate change is mainstreamed into decisions at a local level and to ensure that all the funding which is available for climate change initiatives from the central government is applied for and used to best effect in the county. 

Mayo has had the second highest sign up for the Organic Farming Scheme and the Acres Scheme has been oversubscribed.  

Westport Local Electoral Area candidate, Peter Nolan, is part of the Organic Farming Scheme in a Special Area of Conservation (SAC) between Westport and Louisburgh, having returned to live here with his wife Grace Jeffers, whose family hails from Westport.  

Mr Nolan is committed to working with the urban and rural areas of the Louisburgh and Westport Electoral Area to prioritise climate change funding for biodiversity, native forestry, organic farming and on the improvement of  water and air quality.  

Furthermore, Nolan is committed to ensuring the county plays its part in Ireland’s fourth National Biodiversity Action Plan.

Mícheál Ó Conaill, candidate for the Belmullet Electoral Area, is determined to bring a green perspective to decisions made at local level.  

Raised on a small farm in Erris, in his twenties Ó Conaill became managing director of an insurance brokerage in Dublin. He later moved back to Mayo and owned and managed The Boxty Factory in Belmullet, however, most people will know him from the local filling station.

Mr Ó Conaill is acutely aware of the constant and pressing need for rural regeneration.  It is an on-going need and challenge in the Belmullet Electoral Area. 

With a proven track record in innovation and in getting things done, he is particularly committed to working on increased incentives for small farmers in disadvantaged areas who are food producers. 

Additionally, home energy is a passion for Mr Ó Conaill and he commits to working on ways to bring increased investment in retrofitting homes to more homes in the area, making it accessible and doable.