Mayo must demand more from government
MAYO needs positive discrimination to address imbalance and local elected representatives have to demand it from government.
That was the view expressed by Independent Councillor Harry Barrett after a presentation on the Mayo Economic Development Strategy 2025-2030.
The report calls for 'a bit of reality', Councillor Barrett told the monthly meeting of Mayo County Council, in that there are 'two Mayos' - one centred around the major towns, just holding their own in terms of population and access to infrastructure and hitting median income, and a second Mayo with the lowest population growth in Ireland, with acute decline in ageing in north and west, threatening the viability of certain communities, the Irish language and local economy.
It has a low labour force participation rate and the fourth lowest median household income in the state at just over €37,000. There's poor public transport and connectivity, holding back economic development.
Housing is more affordable than the cities but the county has seen an 84% increase in the last number of years.
People in this 'other Mayo' are struggling, said Councillor Barrett, at a time when we are told by the EU that we are an area in transition, which means we are 'lagging behind'.
“We have some serious problems and we better get our act together on this other Mayo because it's suffering.”
Many of the solutions were outlined in the document before them but key to this was them demanding more input from government.
Mayo needs positive discrimination to do the things we need to do, he continued. Successive governments have negatively discriminated in the county and we need to see positive discrimination to fast-track our infrastructure - road, rail and electricity.
We have regional bodies and he asked if they were holding government to account on what the EU are asking us to do.
Councillor Barrett said we have a policy of energy extraction, which is driving the east coast, with no benefit locally. It's important this 'other Mayo' gets the benefit from it.
And there has to be accountability from government for their actions with regards semi-state bodies. For example, he said, Mayo only saw two visits by the IDA last year compared to 35 in Galway.
“We have a lot more demanding to do to get to where we need to be.”