Local Notes: All the latest news from Ballyhaunis
Devils Basketball Youths from Ballyhaunis had three teams contesting the Plate finals, held in the De La Salle Hall in Castlebar recently. The Boys U-12 and Girls U-12 teams both won their matches while the Girls U-14s were runners-up. Pictured are the U-12 Girls with coach Patricia Murphy and Most Valuable Player Niamh Conlon.
Several Ballyhaunis business premises were visited on February 20th by a group of officers from multiple state agencies including the Gardai, Revenue Commissioners and welfare authorities.
A statement from the Department of Social Protection to this column noted that the Department of Social Protection took part in the multi-agency exercise which also included personnel from the Workplace Relations Commission.
“Information gathered by social welfare inspectors during the operation will be subject to review and further action as appropriate,” noted the statement.
A spokesperson for the Revenue Commissioners meanwhile stated: “I can confirm that Revenue took part in a multi-agency operation on Thursday, 20th February, as part of our ongoing work to combat and monitor shadow economy activity. However, no further information is available in respect of this operation.”
In response to a query on the precise nature of the offences detected, the Garda Press Office said: “There is no further information available for this operation at this time.”
Ballyhaunis-based Brazilians have been signing a petition for a direct flight between Ireland and their home country.
Several members of the Brazilian community said they’ve signed an online petition organised by Casa Brazil, an organisation of Irish-based Brazilians, calling for a new route that would allow a growing population to travel to and from their homeland more easily.
Ballyhaunis’ Brazilian population has increased to nearly 400 in recent years, with many working in local meat plants. There are approximately 60,000 Brazilian residents in Ireland, according to Casa Brazil.
Irish meat processors like Dawn Meats have in recent years been recruiting workers from Brazil, home to the world’s largest meat company, the JBS Group, which hopes to increase its meat exports to Europe under the recently agreed trade deal between the EU and Mercosur (a trading bloc of which Brazil is part), which has yet to be fully ratified by EU member states.
Projects in Mayo will be able to access €6.6 million in the latest round of the LEADER programme, a European Union initiative to support rural development projects initiated at the local level.
The refurbishment of the Community Hall in Ballyhaunis and local meat company Nour Foods were both backed in the previous rounds of LEADER. The total funding available from LEADER has, however, shrunk in recent years and is now eclipsed in scale by a series of government funds like the Rural Regeneration Fund.
A new development of houses to be built adjacent to an existing development in Abbeyquarter will be allotted by Mayo County Council to locals on its housing list.
Rents will be calculated based on the income of individuals and while not comparable with market rents – monthly rents for semi-detached houses in Ballyhaunis are now in excess of €1,000 – will be comparable to rents paid by those receiving a housing assistance payment (HAP), according to a Council official who spoke to this column.
“The rent varies but is not much different from someone getting a housing assistance payment and paying rent on top of that,” said the official.
The Minister for Higher Education James Lawless has told Mayo TD Rose Conway Walsh that there are no plans to develop a further education and training centre in Ballyhaunis.
In a written reply to the Mayo TD, Minister Lawess said: “SOLAS and Mayo Sligo Leitrim ETB (MSLETB) have both confirmed that no application in respect of a proposed development of this nature was submitted for consideration to my Department in 2021 or thereafter.”
Deputy Conway Walsh has been seeking the establishment of such a centre since 2021, putting numerous questions to various ministers in which she cited the needs of Ballyhaunis’ diverse and young population for a skills training centre.
Ballyhaunis is likewise not identified by Mayo Sligo Leitrim Education Training Board (MSLETB) in its recently submitted FET (Further Education Training) Estates Strategy, “either in respect of current provision or medium to long-term planning,” noted the Minister.
“ETBs were requested in the development of their estates' strategies to include any intention for new or changed location of provision. Ballyhaunis is not a location that the ETB has notified to SOLAS as being under consideration for a further education and training centre.
“My department works collaboratively with all higher education institutions and education and training boards on the development of capital projects in line with their established masterplans. In 2022, my department launched the FET College of the Future Major Projects Fund. This programme will support major investment in the Mayo region, with a FET College of the Future planned for Castlebar."
Looking ahead to its centenary in 2027, research has started into the founding of Ballyhaunis Golf Club in 1927 with a view to recording its proud history.
The club invites members and staff past and present; families of deceased members and staff; friends and the public, to share stories, memories, articles, photos or memorabilia to assist this project. All enquiries and material for consideration can be sent to bgclubhistory@gmail.com or call/message Mary H Morris at 086-9887840 or Kevin Henry at 087-2243836.
The co-founder of an organisation helping Eastern European and Irish people with housing and work issues has called for more clarity on how vulnerable foreign workers avail of emergency accommodation.
Noel Lyons recounted how his organisation, LatWest, took a Ballyhaunis-based homeless Latvian man to the Mayo County Council offices in Claremorris only to be told that it was unable to provide emergency accommodation.
LatWest eventually sourced him a bed by contacting the owner of a property in Knock, which is also used by Mayo County Council to place homeless individuals in need of emergency accommodation.
After ten nights in Knock, the Latvian man was moved to another, larger emergency accommodation property in Charlestown paid for by Mayo County Council.
“He's in Charlestown now, but why not on the first night? It’s desperate. If he didn’t have us he was on the street. We did what they [Mayo County Council] should be doing.”
A spokesperson for Mayo County Council said the local authority “cannot comment on individual cases or the circumstances surrounding them".
"There is emergency accommodation in place in the municipal district and all cases are assessed in accordance with housing guidance and legislation," the council said.
Lyons feels there’s confusion over the entitlements of Eastern European (EU) citizens - many of whom are critical for short-staffed local industries - when they are unable to work due to injury.
“For two years, there is no social welfare cover. If the person is not working there is no claim to homeless assistance. When this man left work due to injury he was relying on supplementary welfare as he’s not been here two years and can't get disability benefits.”
Lyons queries why emergency accommodation is limited to a week given that an application for a housing assistance payment can take months to process.
“That’s the threat now hanging over him again, that he’ll be on the street.”
Lyons is also calling for increased scrutiny of landlords housing migrant workers who often lack the English skills to understand their rights.
“In the case of this man, he had no contract with the landlord and had paid no deposit...”
According to homeless charity Threshold, a landlord is permitted to end a tenancy on certain grounds, e.g. if they plan to sell the home, if they require it for their own use or that of a family member, or in cases where the tenant breached the conditions, among a number of others.
“They must follow certain steps to end the tenancy, and these are set out in the Residential Tenancies Act. The landlord must provide a tenant with a written notice of termination and provide the legally prescribed notice period, which ranges from 90 days to 224 days, depending on the length of the tenancy. Notice periods for rent arrears or anti-social behaviour are shorter.”
The former courthouse in Ballyhaunis will be converted into an artist studio under a €150,000 refurbishment funded by the Community Recognition Fund.
Opened in 1874, the limestone-faced Ballyhaunis courthouse closed in 2013 as part of a package of government cutbacks. Ownership of the building was later transferred from the Office of Public Works to Mayo County Council, which will now lease the building to the local Rural Irish Artists group.
The building had earlier been offered to the local boxing club in 2021 but costly adaption works to bring the building in line with fire and building safety made the move prohibitively expensive. The council’s top official for the Claremorris Municipal District told this column at the time that “substantial funds would have to be made available before any permanent use similar to the boxing club can be carried out on a permanent basis".
Local musician Ethan Henry and his band MacHenry and The Dog Roses are hoping a concert in Tooreen Hall on Saturday last will raise the €8,000 needed to record a debut album this summer.
“Our goal this summer is to record and release a debut album, but the cost of recording it is absolutely crazy. So our idea was to hold a GoFundMe Concert in Tooreen Hall on Saturday last, which was free admission and with an area where people can donate if they wish to do so."
Other singer/songwriters who performed at the show were Liam Foody, Bandjaxed, Joanne Gallagher, Daire Caulfield and Magda.
“We made a GoFundMe Page in case there are people who can't make it on the night but would still like to donate," said Ethan.
The GoFundMe page is still live so check it out.
