Mayo council animal welfare payments approval deferred

THE approval of payments to animal welfare organisations in Mayo has been deferred after a request to tweak the allocations suggested.

The proposed allocations of the overall €35,000 funding that came before the December meeting of Mayo County Council were: North West SPCA €13,990; MADRA €7,967; Mayo SPCA €6,600; Ainmhithe Animal Rescue €4,193; Hungry Horse Outside €2,250. A previous recipient, the Ballina-based Involve youth project, was omitted from the list.

The explanation for this was that Involve is not directly in animal welfare, but education, and funding from a different source could be found for it.

Councillor Damien Ryan said the cathaoirleach, who was absent, was asking for an amendment and €3,000 was sought for Involve - reducing the NWSPCA by €2,000 and a €500 reduction each for MADRA and Mayo SPCA.

Councillor Donna Sheridan, who sits on the committee that assessed the applications, said funding could be sought through the education and training board for Involve for their education programme. All the other groups, she stated, deal directly with animal welfare.

Involve do amazing work, she added, but there are other funding sources available to them.

It was agreed to defer the matter for further discussions with the cathaoirleach.