The former Convent of Mercy site in Westport.

Construction dates for multi-million euro west Mayo projects

CONSTRUCTION work is scheduled to start on the new civic offices, library and community facilities at the old convent site in Westport in early 2025.

In Newport, the building of a new enterprise hub will begin in Q3 2025, with public realm works to follow in Q3 2026. A dark skies public lighting initiative is due to be completed by Q3 of next year.

Updates on the projects were given to Westport-Belmullet Municipal District councillors by Pat Staunton, senior engineer with the strategic capital delivery team, who are tasked with delivering RRDF and URDF projects in the county.

The Westport project on Altamount Street will be completed in summer 2027, followed by fit-out and ready for use by the end of that year.

Councillor Peter Flynn said it looked like 2027 will be an exciting year in terms of delivering these projects, which have taken too long but are now progressing.

He hoped to see Newport sewerage scheme running in parallel with this, coming on stream in 2029/30.

On Altamount Street, with the housing project also running alongside their own works, it was a shame that the only missing link was Holy Trinity NS not happening at the same time. But they would keep the pressure on to get that moving.

Councillor Brendan Mulroy asked if the Quay Road in Newport would be brought up to standard to allow traffic flow around the town when the public realm works are underway.

On the Westport schools situation, he said it was a tragedy in many ways how Holy Trinity has been disenfranchised.

However, the Sacred Heart School also deserved a school on a greenfield site of their own right. And if they refused the offer of the Holy Trinity site, that is what would happen and they would all fight for it.