Mayo row brewing over cut to councillors' discretionary funding

ELECTED members of Mayo County Council are up in arms over a decision to cut the discretionary general municipal allocation (GMA) by over 50% on last year's figure.

Documentation circulated ahead of the forthcoming budget meeting shows the amount reduced from €2.1 million to €1.05 million for 2020.

The sums set aside for each of the four districts are as follows.

Ballina €210,000.

Castlebar €245,000.

Claremorris/Swinford €350,000.

Westport €245,000.

The issue is due to be raised at meeting of the Castlebar and Claremorris municipal districts on Wednesday afternoon.

The Connaught Telegraph has learned that councillors in Castlebar will be strongly opposing the proposal.

They believe the figure has been reduced so radicially as a result of elected members failing to agree an increase to property tax back in September.

The episode led to a major fall-out within Fianna Fáil when five members indicated their willingness to seek a special meeting of the council to increase the tax despite a clear indication by the council cathaoirleach, Councillor Brendan Mulroy, that he was against any increase in tax.

But the five backed down following internal party opposition to the move.

Now it will be interesting to see how the five councillors – Al McDonnell, Martin McLoughlin, Michael Smyth, Paul McNamara and Damian Ryan – will vote when the matter of the GMA decrease comes before their respective municipal district meetings.