West Mayo councillor demands motorists are compensated for damage to cars

A Mayo councillor has demanded that two motorists whose vehicles were damaged as a result of 'incompetent' contractors leaving a Mayo road in a terrible state to be compensated.

Last January, a number of vehicles were damaged when contractors working for National Broadband Ireland failed to properly reinstate parts of the main Achill road near Mulranny after digging it up to lay services.

A number of unsuspecting motorists who drove at speed through the cuts in the road resulted in them getting punctures and damage to their tyres.

At the time, the contractor took responsibility and agreed to pay compensation but Achill councillor Paul McNamara claimed that two owners have yet to be compensated.

Speaking at the monthly meeting of the Westport/Belmullet Municipal District, Cllr McNamara said that one car was very damaged and questioned officials as to why they were not being compensated.

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“I have been told they weren't in on time but there was never a clarification to me to say these invoices should have been in on time. One lady in question had a lot of damage done to a new car and she contacted me straight away when this happened.

“I contacted the district here and they told me to send in the invoices. All the invoices were paid bar two and they are still outstanding. Will they be paid and if not why?” he demanded to know.

In response, Martin O'Grady, senior engineer with Mayo County Council said the contractors compensated up to 15 owners but set a cut off point in March for invoices and indicated they will not be paying out anymore.

“They [two invoices] came after that deadline and they have said several times that they have stopped now and they are not paying out. The two that are left were quite late when they came in so they are probably the reasons. They drew a line over it,” Mr O'Grady explained.

Seamus Ó Mongáin, Head of the Municipal District said that if the invoices were submitted six months after the incident it would be hard to link the damage back to the locus.

However, Cllr McNamara said there was no cut-off point for invoices to be sent in and described the timeline as fictitious. He said the two people notified him straight after the damage was done and he had correspondence to prove it.

Mr Ó Mongáin said that if Cllr McNamara provides the correspondence to show the damage was reported at the time he will look into the situation and see if the compensation can be paid.