The Minister for Rural and Community Development, Heather Humphreys, is determined to hold Mayo County Council to account over the greenway funding fiasco.

Why funding fiasco can backfire on Mayo councillors

They were not responsible – but could pay a heavy price at next local elections

by The Tallyman

By the time the next local elections come around in 2024, the public may well have forgotten the circumstances which has led to the county being denied millions of euro as a result of the greenway funding fiasco by Mayo County Council.

The 30 elected members of the authority may have been kept in the dark for a year over the withdrawal of over €1.1 million in funding from the project after auditors discovered that monies claimed and signed-off on had never been spent.

Subsequent to this debacle, the county has been overlooked by the Department of Rural and Community Development in respect of works estimated in the region of €4 million, the latest setback being the loss of Local Improvement Scheme (LIS) monies, Galway County Council receiving an allocation of nearly €1 million with Mayo County Council getting zero.

Councillors, of course, are infuriated because they have been the ones making representations on behalf of communities for such schemes as roads providing access to people’s homes and farms. And those people will vote in the next location elections.

While the electorate realise that serving councillors were not to blame for this situation, they may feel obliged to consider their options because, despite all the huffing and puffing, there has been no accountability.

In fact, some councillors have been suggesting there is nothing wrong at all, that what RTÉ Investigates reported on the greenway and Castlebar swimming pool project was ‘tabloid, gutter journalism’, a claim firmly rejected by the editor of the programme.

Interestingly, the elected member who made the comment in quotes did not even watch the programme because he was following a golf tournament on another television channel.

Everybody is entitled to their opinion, of course, but attacking the messenger is not always the wisest option.

If the elected members cannot achieve accountability because of a split between those who have concerns and those who do not, then surely there is an urgent need to go knocking on the door of Minister Heather Humphreys even if she has indicated her unwillingness to do so at this time.

The official line that her department's officials are addressing the issues with officials of Mayo County Council is taking too much time and costing Mayo a lot of money, revenue raised from taxpayers across the county.

Then there is the matter of restoring credibility and repairing reputational damage.

This could be addressed, to a degree, when funding starts flowing again from the department, including the millions that have already been lost.

And the sooner Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII), which has taken over the task of building the Clew Bay cycle route and the new section of Achill greenway, are seen to be making progress, the better.

But there can be no question that councillors have suffered collateral damage because of the absence of a united voice in seeking answers more detailed than a systems failure having taken place and the council's ambition being greater than the ability to deliver projects.

And while it is true that the smoke from this controversy has gone over the heads of the public at large, it will be very much an election issue in 2024.