Mayo political row simmering over Údarás elections 'injustice'
A political row is simmering in Mayo over the next elections to appoint a new board of Údarás na Gaeltachta.
Erris-based Sinn Féin TD Rose Conway has expressed her disappointment over the new approach to the election and selection process from her own county's perspective.
She elaborated: "Since the last elections in 2005, Fianna Fáil postponed the elections and Fine Gael and Labour got rid of them completely, replacing them with ministerial and county council appointments.
"Thanks to community action, and an effective Sinn Féin opposition promoting Bills in the Dáil and Senate to restore democratic elections, the government relented.
"But the proposed model is a step backwards compared to the elections as they were.
"They intend to reduce the number of Mayo seats from the two elected representatives the county had in 2005 to one in next year's elections, while ministerial appointments will double from three in 2005 to six now,
"My question is this: will the new board represent the Gaeltacht communities or the minister?
"Despite the fact that Mayo has 10% of the total population of the Gaeltacht, it will only have 6% of the seats to create space for the minister's appointments.
"The injustice is clear to all, especially in the case of the western Mayo Gaeltacht, around Achill Island, a place that is completely separated from the rest of the Mayo Gaeltacht geographically.
"The north of Mayo, which includes Iorras and Ceathrú Taidhg, has a much larger population - 7,199 - and will have the upper hand in elections for Mayo's only seat.
"The west of Mayo may be left without any representation even though it has a population of 2,141, a population that is larger than the Gaeltacht communities of the Déise with 1,816 people, or Meath with 1,857 people."
She stated her party's Irish and Gaeltacht spokesperson, Deputy Aengus Ó Snodaigh, had developed an alternative plan in collaboration with our local representatives throughout the areas Gaeltacht, a plan that would allocate seats to constituencies according to population and ensure a separate representative for each geographically separate Gaeltacht area in itself, while neighbouring areas such as Corr na Móna and Tuar Mhic Éadaigh are kept together in the same constituency.
"There would also be a top-up seat for all counties except Galway to cope with the population.
"Mayo would therefore have a total of three seats, one more than it had in 2005, and two more than the poor model of Fianna Fáil-Fine Gael-na n'Glasach.
"They would be distributed with two seats for north Mayo, and one separate seat for west Mayo, ensuring that both regions would have a voice, while south Mayo would vote as part of the six-seat Connemara constituency."
Deputy Aengus Ó Snodaigh's proposal has not, up to this point, being embraced by government.