Mayo councillor wants Taoiseach to compel OPW to appear before them
Ballinrobe councillor Damien Ryan wants the OPW to appear before them to answer questions on flooding schemes
A south Mayo councillor has called on the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste to compel representatives of the Office of Public Works to appear before councillors to answer questions on flood relief schemes in the county.
Ballinrobe-based councillor Damien Ryan expressed his annoyance that the Office of Public Works (OPW) for repeatedly failing to appear before councillors in the Claremorris/Swinford Municipal District to discuss flooding issues in the south Mayo area.
Speaking at the monthly meeting of Mayo County Council, the Fianna Fáil councillor expressed frustration regarding delays in the flood relief scheme in The Neale and questioned if there were enough resources to advance the project.
Cllr Ryan said that the OPW cannot be allowed to ignore elected representatives and called on a letter to be forward to the Taoiseach, Tánaiste and the Minister for Public Expenditure to compel them to speak to the councillors.
“The OPW should be compelled to come in here and talk to us about what the flood schemes are, what the progress is and where they need to go. They have refused to do so at MD [municipal district] level and I think that the plenary council are certainly entitled to that with a county-wide approach.
“In the event that they're not, we should be selecting a delegation to go and meet the Minister if they believe that they're beyond answerable to the public democratic forum. So I'm formally proposing that we write to them again and we copy the letter to the Minister and indeed to the Taoiseach and Tánaiste as regards compelling them to come in and meet the plenary council and give us an update on that.
“No body or agency paid for by the public purse is beyond democratic approach, and they certainly haven't outside that,” he said.
His proposal to write to the OPW was seconded by Carrowholly-based Independent councillor John O'Malley who said he has issues with flooding at the Moyour River in Kilmeena and the fact it is not being cleaned.
Cllr O'Malley told the meeting he had been promised a meeting with a fishery officer at the river so he could point out the problems caused by flooding but this has yet to happen.