Head of Mayo County Council provides Covid-19 briefing

THE chief executive of Mayo County Council, Peter Hynes, has outlined details on the re-organisation of the authority to help address the Covid-19 crisis.

In an address to elected members at this afternoon's meeting of the authoirty, he stated: “Over the past five weeks we have introduced three major re-organisations of this council, covering all areas of operation, multiple offices depots and plants and involving each and every individual member of staff.

“The position has now stabilised and we are delivering a nationally agreed suite of essential services throughout Mayo.

“We have established a Community Resilience Hub in Mayo House, Castlebar, and we are also continuing to deliver significant services across other programmes, mainly remotely.

“The Covid-19 outbreak in Mayo continues to escalate particularly in residential care facilities.

“We have new hotspots in the north of the county. This is a major concern, as is the age profile of our community and the large number of residential care and retirement facilities, both public and private, throughout the county.

“Adherence to health authority guidelines, including travel and social distancing, will play a major part in determining how quickly the outbreak here can be brought under control.”

He stated the income of all councils is clearly at considerable risk, principally in the area of rates and rents and discussions on-going regarding support from central government

Mr. Hynes also outlined the following actions under a range of headings.

COLLABORATION

Liaison with the HSE happens daily, with weekly county and regional meetings. We have offered the use of our facilities and have placed all our technical and other resources and expertise at the disposal of the HSE locally.

The major points of collaboration with the HSE to date include:

* Provision of Testing Centre at Lough Lannagh Leisure Complex.

* The use of Lough Lannagh Holiday Complex as staff accommodation/Isolation centre.

* The setting up of a contact tracing centre at Aras an Chontae. A meeting room has been converted, all IT systems are in place, 50 volunteers have been trained and another 30  are on standby.

The indications are that this centre will be called into operation next week on April 27.

Liaison with gardai take place on a daily basis with formal briefings at county and regional level each week.

The major points of collaboration with the Garda Authorities include:

* The Community Response Forum and the working group on community security.

* The patrol of public places including beaches.

* The security of all major access points into the county.

* The preparation of a register of all vulnerable or at-risk people throughout our communities.

COMMUNICATIONS

Our communications team has issued a total of 18 advice notes for circulation.

The team will continue to play a crucial role in shaping and delivering our response to the crisis in the weeks ahead.

Our communications team have issued daily updates to local media and globally via social media.

FINANCES

The income of all councils is clearly at considerable risk, principally in the area of rates and rents and discussions on-going regarding support from central government.

CRITICAL SERVICES

The agreed national list of critical services is being delivered by this local authority.

The heads of the municipal districts are fully briefed on all operational matters and have convened online briefing sessions in the past week.

OFFICES

Headquarters in Castlebar continue to operate with essential staff, including the chief executive and members of the management team.

All other offices are attended daily and postal, phone and e-mail communications, queries and services continue as close to normal as is possible.

COMMUNITY RESILIENCE

The Community Response Forum at Mayo House is up and running. It involves 20 groups.

The Mayo helpline is up and running and is operating on a seven day eight-to-eight basis.

Mayo LEO continues to operate remotely delivering support, information and mentoring services.

It also seems likely that LEOs nationally will be a key part of the delivery of the recently agreed EU Financial Restoration package and we will continue to liaise with the relevant government departments in this regard.

MAYO DAY

Mayo Day will take place on Saturday, May 2. This year giving the restrictions on travel and group activities Mayo Day will be a fully online occasion.

It will include connecting to our communities across the globe and hearing stories from Mayo people working on the frontline in many parts of the world.

The full programme, which will include formal greetings from Mayo leaders, will be circulated later in the week.