Mayo standing on the cliff-edge of reputational damage
Boycotts, bullying and dereliction - where does it end?
By Caoimhín Rowland
If you were to be an outsider looking in on this county you’d be left scratching your head, a member of the diaspora perhaps relieved at making the right decision to explore pastures new, and eternally grateful you only get to spend a week here once a year in your plush holiday home.
Last year, ahead of the local elections, councillors took a populist step, encouraged by fear and hate of outside voices to enact a futile motion to stop communications with the Department of Integration over the use of international protection accommodation in Mayo.
The news from the council chamber became national: Mayo councillors said No to IPAS unanimously.
But, of course, it made little material difference to how the council operated or even how people ultimately voted.
Now Mayo has a new public relations issue regarding its GAA offerings.
It is an issue that regularly rears its head, most typically in the off-season, rarely this close to summer.
The majority of Mayo supporters are tired of it, and it rises its head when on the field things are going poorly, to compound stress and hassle of seeing Mayo fail to battle toward the holy grail.
But, again, the bad news has more relevance nationally, where the style of the individuals involved are perhaps less known.
The famous ‘Boycott’ email of Tom Gilligan also brought the national spotlight of ire to Mayo, a story well versed at this stage but little reason or debate was had on the topic.
Why is it more profitable for holiday home owners to use Airbnb instead of long-term lets?
Taxation and control over their property are the key takeaways, little in that sense can change if national legislation doesn’t follow suit.
Forgive us, for we’re not all like them, it’s a Mayo that regularly loses the run of itself and when we cannot compete on the national stage or excel beyond our collective powers we surge like a green and red flourish only to see the umpire wave his hands for yet another wide.
The most telling national contribution on the latest affairs in Mayo was done by RTÉ Radio One, a note of anger is palpable around Castlebar in relation to dereliction, we are told.
Indeed, walk in any of Mayo’s towns and you would think this is a forgotten miners hamlet in the north of England struggling to get to grips with a new reality as Thatcher razed the town to the ground in one fell swoop.
The reality couldn’t be further from this unfortunate interpretation, Castlebar in particular is a booming town, with job opportunities available for young people, worthy events and attractions taking place weekly.
But there is still a malaise due to the undersupply of homes, above the shop living, much discussed and heralded is still bogged down in red tape and requests for fire certs.
Yes, there are developments taking place, finally a renovation of the old post office is underway and will benefit young people here locally, the Father Peter McVerry Trust have kindly returned properties on Ellison Street and the local authority will belt ahead with plans for those, along with others on that street.
But more needs to happen at national level to make it attractive to revitalise hollowed out town centres.
The Green Party, much aligned but still not gone away, has introduced a new bill on tackling dereliction and vacancy.
It has been co-signed by Labour and the Social Democrats in a sign of left-solidarity and a commitment that it would bring 11,000 homes back into use each year.
The bill proposes that if a home is on the derelict sites register for two years, the council can CPO it, as well as make it easier for people to develop homes above retail spaces in towns.
It is argued that more people living in our towns make them safter places to live. That can hardly be argued against as Castlebar unfortunately drains all life after 6 p.m. when people return home from their day of work and few if any reside in the centre of the town compared to previous generations.
But inside the bill there is a fascinating note on an “Empty Homes Tax”, a new category under the Finance (Local Property Tax) Act of 2012 which will be set at 3% of a property’s market value, to be collected by Revenue.
The Greens argue “a similar measure introduced in Vancouver in 2017 led to a 25% reduction in vacant properties.”
The brass tacks of this tax falls short, excluding holiday homes, hardly a surprise for a middle class urban party.
But it does show that Mayo’s quest to reduce the number of short-term lets and idle vacation properties stands alone in the political world nationally.
Instead Roderic O’Gorman’s party will define empty homes as those vacant for 180 days in the preceding year, with exemptions for those in care, homes under construction, the owner living away for work purposes, and as we’ve recently learned, the hardest working in Irish society, our holiday home owners.
If fancy bills and statistics like 2,000 on the housing list, almost 500 homes needed to fulfil the backlog in the Castlebar Municipal District alone and 150 people homeless in our county does little for you to feel radical change is needed, consider the fact that the biggest outcry from the top brass in the most popular sport in this county believed it to be the most egregious act, that five of our best and brightest were robbed of an opportunity to live in a warehouse in north county Dublin.
That’s the housing crisis in a nutshell: the best young men we possess were worse off not living in an industrial estate outside the M50!