De Facto and the facts

I would like to reply to the points raised by columnist Liamy MacNally in last week's Mayo News in his De Facto piece entitled "Lights, Camera, Action".

Mr MacNally refers to the news that last year Westport's water contained eight times the recommended aluminium content and raises the issue over responsibility and the distribution of such information.

I can confirm for you that Westport Town Council is responsible for water supply to the town and under Better Local Government we pay Mayo County Council to run the service for us. Last month in the town's 2008 Budget we allotted the sum of nearly €300,000 for the public water supply.

With regard to the distribution of such information I can confirm I became aware of the issue of water quality through reading an article in the Irish Independent. At no stage was I contacted by either Westport Town Council or Mayo County Council to inform me of the situation and my subsequent query on the issue have been directed to a Mayo County Council Engineer (on the 6th February) but as of time of writing (13th February) I have received no reply.

I have been informed by Westport Town Council Management that the HSE has released a statement on the situation but I have not seen that statement published nor has it been sent to me.

With regard to the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) it is unusual for the Dept of the Environment to instruct a town as small as Westport to carry out such an assessment and while I warmly welcome the move it does mean we have to re-set the start date for the drawing up of our Town Plan.

There is, to my knowledge, no statutory obligation for us to carry out the SEA and we are doing so as a result of an instruction of the Dept. In response to my questions at the meeting when this issue was first raised in late 2007 I was told that the SEA will cost approximately €20,000 to carry out and that the Westport Town Council must carry this cost. Nevertheless I think it will prove to be a valuable tool for both development and conservation and I welcome it.
With regard to Planning enforcement, councillors have no powers over planning at all. We have no input into either applications or enforcement. While we can zone lands we do not have a say in actual applications and thus any discussion of applications at council meetings is merely discussion.

With regard to the issue of the "phantom" CCTV cameras which were erected around the town I can confirm that again councillors were not informed about them. I do know that the erection of such cameras in such a manner is contrary to the Data Protection Acts and to good government. Any and all such filming, even on a trial basis should be done in an open and informative way with the citizen and their councillors informed every step of the way. Following this episode I requested the minutes of the special Town Council committee that was established to look into CCTV proposals for the town only to be informed to request them from the Gardai. Why I would have to seek the minutes of a Town Council committee from the local Superindent is questionable.

Ultimately it is the weakening of the role and powers of local councillors which is at the root of the matter. At the recent special meeting of Westport Town Council on the issue of restoring power to councillors I proposed Directly Elected Mayors with executive powers as the solution to these problems. Cathaoirleach Cllr Declan Dever expressed his concerns that the council with a €5.5 million budget could not afford such a Mayor. In light of the above matters I ask can we afford NOT to have such a Mayor?

The People's business

Today when people refer to the "The Republic of Ireland" they are usually talking about our soccer team but not so long ago our country was always described as a republic.

It is a shame that we seemed to have dropped this description because it should serve to remind us of the type of country we aspire to be.

In recent decades the perception has formed that republican meant anti monarchist or even anti British and I think this has lead to use of the term 'republic' being dropped in offical circles.

While many politicans and political parties have wrapped themselves up in the term republican along these lines the word Republic means so much more than these narrow definitions.

The word republic is derived from the Latin 'res publica' meaning the 'people's business' and a republican government while spurning monarchy, embraces the involvement of the people in public affairs.

A republic is a nation which derives its power to rule from the consent of the people and that's worth remembering and respecting.

Mining in Mayo

News reaches me that the Minister for Natural Resources is almost ready to make a ruling on the Reek Gold mining issue.

Lets hope Eoin Ryan gets it right and protects the Special Area of Conservation, the Holy mountain of Croagh Patrick and the scenic area that make up the huge area applied for under the exploration by Mayo Gold.

I do not believe that it is anyone's best interest; except the mining company’s, to open this area up for mining.

I hope the Green Party Minister agrees!

SEA for Westport

One of the more unexpected events of recent has been the instruction from the Dept of the Environment that Westport must carry out an Strategic Enviornmental Assessment SEA as part of our new Town Plan.

I welcome the move as I believe there is a lot of merit in the suggestion but my concern is that this is an assessment as opposed to a survey. Basically this means that the company hired to undertake the SEA will only use existing data to compile their report.

My concern is that there are senstive areas like the Railway Line Walk wetlands which have not been properly surveyed and thus there could be "blindspots"int he SEA.

There is a public submission process involved and this will give everyone their say in the SEA so we will just have to wait and see.

N5 to Bohola from Westport

Another no-show at the February meeting (is there a pattern) was Joe Beirne the County Engineer who was to give us a presentation on the proposal to run a new road to Bohola via Castlebar.

This plan would superceed the new N5 planned to link up Westport and Castlebar. At the moment the NRA are investigating the route and consulatants have been appointed.

I am sceptical of this approach. If it was viable why wasn't adopted years ago instead of going to all the trouble of planning out the new N5 route and sterilising all the land on the new route for all these years.

Of course this also means that the by-pass roads so badly needed by the town will be postponed even futher as the NRA have made it clear that they will not build these until the new N5 is in place.

Watch this space but don't hold your breath!

Irish Rail and Westport

For the third time in as many months Irish Rail failed to make a presentation at Westport Town Council's monthly meeting.

As I said at the meeting this showed nothing but contempt for our town or worse that we were being ignored altogether.

In 2005 Irish Rail promised us that new rolling stock would be ont he Westport line by the end of 2007 and that we could look forward to five services to Dublin.

Instead the service has deteriated and there is still no guarantee of getting hot food on the train.

I remember in the 1980s my father writing angry letters to the Mayo News about the state of the Westport line.

Nothing has changed. I seconded the motion at our February meeting for a meeting with the CEO of Irish Rail on this issue as I was fed up with going to meetings expecting Irish Rail to update us on the situation.

Three times in a row they failed to show up. As I said at the meeting, 'Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me!"

The time for presenations is over and we are going to demand answers from the Organ Grinder and not the monkey!

January meeting of Westport Labour Party

Well the Branch have just posted the minutes of the January meeting up on our website www.westportlabour.blogspot.com and you can read them there.

We have just held our AGM meeting and will be posting the report from that meeting up very soon.

If you have any questions about membership of the Westport Branch of the Labour Party please do not hesitate to drop me a line or give me a call.