Councillor disputes claims about derelict buildings in his town

An Independent councillor has rejected media reports about a problem with derelict buildings in Claremorris.

Speaking at Mayo County Council's meeting last week, Cllr Richard Finn said a number of derelict buildings have been taken over and restored, with two more completed in the last few weeks.

"Over the past year and a half, more buildings have been re-constructed than I know in any town. The only two we have left to fix are An Tintean and the bank corner, where special conditions must be adhered to in order to revive the latter as a heritage building. The costs for that, however, are too prohibitive and the council should really give funds to preserve it, if that is what they want. So I want to put to bed the idea that Claremorris is a derelict site town.” 

A general discussion ensued, prompting the council's chief executive Kevin Kelly to defend the council’s record on derelict sites.

“A derelict site is a property that has an objectionable or unsightly appearance and for lots of people you can get yourself out of it with a dry Saturday, a couple of people and a few buckets of paint. We have done a lot of work with the help of the municipal districts by putting many places on the derelict site register. Many local authorities would not have a fraction of the numbers we have on our list and we do need to step up the enforcement and I expect cases in court this autumn in regard to fees levied on derelict properties that have not been paid.” 

Mr Kelly said it was important to acknowledge a lot of work done that had not involved compulsory purchase orders, saying that property owners will often carry out works once they receive a derelict site notice. He said other funding methods were needed to tackle the dereliction issue other than CPOs and Urban and Rural Development Funds and that if the council was to put a separate fund in place this would carry risks around arbitration so ultimately it would become a budgetary matter, as would proposals to increase staff members working on dereliction in each municipal district.

Telling members that €100,000 had been set aside from the Local Property Tax in Mayo, Mr Kelly said council management had outlined to the Department of Housing the need for more staff.

“The budget for 2026 does not look like we will have a whole pile of money so staff levels will probably stay as they are," he predicted.

• Published as part of the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.