Publicly funded groups must be compelled to meet with councillors in Mayo
BODIES paid for by the public purse must be compelled to meet with councillors.
Elected representatives in the Claremorris-Swin ford Municipal District are not taking no for an answer as they seek to have the OPW attend a meeting with them.
They're not on a witch hunt, they stressed when the matter was raised for the second month in a row at the district meeting. But they do want to hear from the OPW - and other organisations going forward - about their work and to feed their local knowledge into that.
A letter is to be sent to Minister Kevin 'Boxer' Moran, who has responsibility for the OPW, to direct that officials meet with councillors in the area.
And Councillor Damien Ryan, a member of the local government reform taskforce, said he would be advocating strongly that all those bodies paid for by the public purse should be compelled to attend municipal district meetings quarterly or bi-annually at minimum.
“It's about sorting the issues,” he said, and feeding their knowledge into works.
Generally, members cited matters around communication and replying to calls and how different groups work with each other.
Councillor Michael Burke called out Bus Éireann, who failed to return his call about a young girl 'left abandoned' in Cong earlier this year.
He also heard complaints from parents trying to get bus passes for the return to school.
It's a 'broken system' they're operating in at the moment, said Councillor Burke.
Councillor Adrian Forkan recalled contacting the OPW about a tree fallen across at a bridge, holding up debris. They brought out a machine, but the fisheries wouldn't allow them to remove it.
The machine sat there for a month.
Then, under environment, he continued, once they took the tree out they had to put it in the other side of the bridge to let it find its natural way down 'until it got stuck on the next bridge'.
The OPW, said Councillor Forkan, should come in and explain that and call them out. They can't clean a drain or river as the fisheries and environment won't let them, he commented.
A flooding issue in Charlestown where a wall fell during Storm Éowyn was highlighted by Councillor Gerry Murray.
Residual vegetation has to be left in place and it's possible a house will flood again as their engineers are not able to do the job they would like to do to ensure there isn't a repeat, he stated.
Councillor Murray said when summonsed to a meeting, these bodies should respect their democratic mandate and explain themselves to the public in the presence of the press.
* Funded under the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme