North Mayo councillors call for slipways to be cleaned of algae before Christmas

Councillors in north Mayo have pleaded with council officials to ensure that slipways and piers are clean of algae ahead of Christmas to cater for public swims over the festive period.

With Christmas and New Year swims becoming ever more popular, councillors in the Ballina Municipal District called on the local authority to ensure that slipways are safe for the public and no accidents occur.

“I plead with you that the slipway at Kilcummin is done before Christmas or my life will be hell and everyone's life will be hell. Please, if you can, I implore you if you can to get them cleaned,” Cllr Michael Loftus told the monthly meeting of the Ballina Municipal District.

The Crossmolina-based Fianna Fáil councillor made the comments following a presentation from Michael O'Boyle, Head of Marine in Mayo County Council who stated that piers around the county have become very popular with the public particularly since Covid.

Mr O'Boyle added that the maintenance budget available to him to look after piers and slipways is a long way off what we need' and it was difficult to do what needs to be done.

“The usage of piers and harbours has drastically changed since Covid. Traditionally what would happen in terms of cleaning the slipways is they might do the major slipways three times a year. It can be expensive because we have so many around the county.

“Now we have piers and slipways used for leisure and we could be washing them every couple of weeks at peak time and around Christmas where there is a big demand with new year swims.

“There is a big challenge over the lifetime of this council and if we are to do it out of our maintenance budget it would require a significant increase in funding but there is a huge demand for it,” he explained.

Killala-based Fine Gael councillor Jarlath Munnelly was among the local councillors who called for the algae growing on slipways to be regularly cleaned as he fears there will be tragedy if they are not.

“I know it always goes back to budgetary issues but I have seen slipways and they are a serious hazard with the amount of algae on them. I have been told first hand this year of pretty serious things that nearly went wrong where people or a vehicle could have slipped in. If a disaster like that happens then you have RTÉ News and inquests and all the rest of it and fingers pointed left right and centre.

“There is no need to point the finger... we are saying it right now. They have never been used more but we need to maintain them and power hose them a couple of times a year and stay on top of it. I don't like saying it and I hope to be proven wrong but there is an accident waiting to happen. If something goes wrong at one of those slipways it will be a very serious accident. If we want to avert tragedy we have to find the money to make sure we keep on top of it. If we do nothing else but keep the slipways clean,” he said.

Cllr Annie Mae Reape (FF) accepted the finances were a problem when it came to maintaining piers and slipways but also called for them to be cleaned of algae on a regular basis.

“We don't want an accident like what happened in Donegal,” she said in reference to a tragedy in Buncrana, Co Donegal when five members of a family drowned when their vehicle went into the water after slipping on algae on a slipway in 2016.