Appeal to address 'major infrastructural deficits' undermining Mayo's future
An Oireachtas member has called on the government to take immediate and decisive action to address the major deficits in critical infrastructure across Mayo.
During a recent Dáil debate on the Critical Infrastructure Bill 2026, Deputy Conway-Walsh highlighted what she described as the government’s 'persistent underinvestment in essential services' including transport, healthcare, housing, water services and pier maintenance, warning that communities across Mayo are being left behind and forgotten.
She said: “For too long now, Mayo has been treated as an afterthought when it comes to infrastructure investment. Our communities deserve the same level of services and opportunities as anywhere else in the country.
“Without proper investment in our local and regional roads, our hospitals, adequate housing, water services and digital infrastructure, we cannot attract jobs, support local enterprise or provide the basic services our people rely on every day.
“For years now I have long been calling for the R312 – the main road linking the Erris region to Castlebar – to be designated as a strategic regional road so that vital funding could be unlocked and long overdue upgrades to the route could be carried out.
"This road is literally a lifeline for the Erris region, used by ambulances and patients travelling to Mayo University Hospital, which itself has constant capacity and overcrowding problems.
"To get the minister to understand the condition of the road I told a true story of my friend’s Fitbit going off on the journey to tell her she was doing a workout. Those of us who travel on this road will not be surprised.
“Additionally then we have major issues with water services across the county. Some communities are on long-term boil water notices and others have no water at all because Uisce Éireann has outsourced responsibility for water provision to failing private water schemes.
"Then there’s the wholly unacceptable delays with the delivery of a wastewater treatment plant in Newport, not tipped for completion until 2030s now, all the while untreated wastewater is being pumped straight into Clew Bay.
“These are all critical pieces of infrastructure vital for balanced regional development, that the government are failing to deliver on despite their repeated election commitments. Instead, their piecemeal approaches and slow delivery have deepened regional inequality further.
“We need a coordinated, critical infrastructure plan for Mayo and the west that is properly funded and delivered without delay. We also need continuous funding allocations in the maintenance of infrastructure that is already in place, to prevent our roads crumbling further and to improve public safety, particularly with regards to our piers and coastal infrastructure.
“Community and voluntary groups and business organisations in Mayo are doing really progressive work but the outcomes of this work are being constrained by the lack of basic infrastructure. The Government need to step up.
“Mayo has huge potential, but that potential will only be realised if Government steps up and delivers the infrastructure our communities deserve and urgently need.”