Mayo ‘penalised’ financially for council's anti-immigration stance

A member of Mayo County Council is calling on his elected colleagues to seriously reconsider the decision to suspend all dealings with the Department of Immigration over the settlement of migrants and refugees in the county.

Fianna Fáil Councillor Al McDonnell described the decision taken at the January meeting of the authority as ‘a grave error of judgement’.

The long-serving representative said members knew it would have no effect whatsoever when they passed the vote and the debate was “nothing more than a futile exercise.”

Councillor McDonnell said the fact Taoiseach Leo Varadkar took exception to the vote by condemning it as “an arbitrary stance” has not been helpful to the county.

He said he believes that Mayo has been penalised for its anti-immigration vote on January 15 by way of reduced central government funding.

Councillor McDonnell cited the fact that Mayo only received an active travel allocation for 2024 of €3.5 million compared to €11 million for Galway, €13.5 million for Meath and €4 million for Louth.

“Despite being the third largest county in Ireland, we got one of the smallest allocations.

“My view is that we have been penalised for the controversial stance we took at our meeting in January and I think it now needs to be revisited for the overall good of the county,” he stated.