Mayo councillor is 'glad the Greens are gone'

A WEST Mayo councillor accused the Green Party of destroying rural Ireland while they were in government and stated he was glad they are gone.

Independent councillor Jon O'Malley made the comments at the monthly meeting of the Westport/Belmullet Municipal District where he called for rivers to be cleaned to prevent the future flooding of land in his home parish of Kilmeena.

The Carrowholly-based councillor told the meeting that following Storm Bert in November, roads to homes were flooded with up to three feet of water and claimed that if the local Mayour River was cleaned of trees and debris it would prevent flooding.

“Those rivers have not been cleaned for 20 years and it was hard to think that an area that would never flood had three feet of water on it. It is not good enough and something needs to be done about it,” he said.

Cllr O'Malley said that the Government needs to put a programme in place to clean rivers and commented that he was glad the Green Party were no longer there to prevent it.

“Thanks be to God the Greens are gone. There is one left and I wish he was gone too. When John Gormley [former Green Party leader and Minister] was in it he destroyed rural Ireland and he got put out. Eamon Ryan was the only one left then and he built on it and destroyed rural Ireland. We have no one left but I hope the people of Ireland are clever enough not to make the same mistake as before by putting them back in,” he said.

Cllr O'Malley added that trees growing in rivers were blocking the flow of water and rejected any suggestion that clearing the trees would be back for habitats.

“We don't have to worry about them [Green Party] as regards the cleaning of rivers go and there is nothing wrong with cleaning rivers. The wildlife will survive and have more brains than the people trying to protect them and are much more clever. It won't kill them to have the river cleaned and in fact it will enhance it for them,” he concluded.