Council chief denies Mayo County Council ‘went missing’ during Storm Éowyn

THE Chief Executive of Mayo County Council has denied that the local authority ‘went missing’ after Storm Éowyn.

Elected representatives complained that there was a lack of communication from the county council regarding power and water outages caused by the storm.

Cllr Peter Flynn, Fine Gael’s whip on Mayo County Council, described the communications process in the aftermath of the storm as ‘extremely flawed’.

Speaking at the monthly meeting of the local authority, Cllr Flynn said that the council ‘went missing’ until the Monday after the storm struck the country.

The Westport-based councillor said there was a ‘complete breakdown in communication’ from the council, who he accused of not stepping up as required after the storm.

“We certainly cannot have a repeat of what happened in terms of the lack of communication. As local representatives and local councillors, we are probably the ones that got it most,” he said, noting the number of inquiries councillors received regarding utilities and roads.

“We had nothing to fall back on. We had absolutely nothing, bar the workers on the ground who we might happen to know within the various organisations, and particularly within the council, we would have been completely and utterly at sea.”

Cllr Flynn asked why it had taken until the Monday after the storm for Mayo County Council to hold an emergency meeting regarding the storm.

In a written reply to a motion tabled by Cllr Flynn, Kevin Kelly, Chief Executive of Mayo County Council, said the council was represented at meetings about the storm since the Wednesday before it struck.

Describing the scale of the damage as ‘unprecedented’, Mr Kelly wrote that the council received over 1,400 calls and had 13,000 incidents of trees and debris needing to be cleared from roads. The council’s fire service successfully responded to the callouts during the red weather warning.

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Mr Kelly told the January meeting that the local authority had ‘constant’ meetings, phone calls and engagement with government ministers and TDs before and after the storm.

“A phone call might take seven attempts, even for a short phone call. We all had to do various things in order to be and remain connected. On the Friday afternoon, I spent about five hours in my car to ensure I had a connection at these various meetings,” said Mr Kelly.

Mr Kelly said he was ‘certainly proud’ of the council’s response to Storm Éowyn and thanked all those who assisted in the response. He added that a national, regional and local review of storm response was needed.

“We all know that the issues arising from this storm related to our water and telecommunications, none of which are our responsibilities,” he said.

Fianna Fáil whip, Cllr Damien Ryan, called for a county-wide coordination body chaired by the Cathaoirleach of the County Council to prepare for and respond to future storms.

In a written motion, Cllr Ryan said that councillors ‘found it virtually impossible’ to get accurate information from service providers, despite being the first to be contacted by constituents who lost power and water.

The Ballinrobe-based councillor said the councillor should ask the Minister for Local Government to give the council powers to compel the relevant individuals to attend the new forum.

“Whoever represents the various groups that I’m talking about needs to form part of this,” he said.

He added that councillors should have a ‘go-to person’ to contact in the event of an emergency.

Cllr Ryan said it was ‘not acceptable in 2025 that we have to go to our respective engineers and our managers’ to deal with emergencies.