Local notes: Grants could help local dereliction issues
Pupils from Knock National School with Daragh McDaid, Director of Sligo Ed Centre, Jess Kelly, presenter of Tech Talk on Newstalk as well as staff from Harvey Norman and Make a Wish. The students were in the studio as winners of the Big Quiz organised by Sligo Ed Centre in conjunction with Newstalk.
The number of properties in Ballyhaunis listed as derelict has stayed static in the past ten months. Eleven properties are now listed as derelict in the register of such properties maintained by Mayo County Council which was updated recently.
That’s the same as the figure published in late July 2025 when there were also eleven houses listed on the Council’s Derelict Sites Register. In December 2023 there were 14 local properties on the register of derelict properties kept by the Council while in late January 2022 there were 17 Ballyhaunis properties on the register.
There are now eight derelict properties in Kilkelly and four in Knock, also unchanged on July 2025, according to the register.
However, it should be noted that one of the structures listed in Ballyhaunis, the former Dillon’s commercial premises, which was added to the register in 2021, has been redeveloped as an apartment complex and is no longer derelict. The old Larganboy schoolhouse has been on the register since 2019.
Properties on the dereliction register are subject to a levy which must be paid before the property can be sold. However, the values of some of the properties listed appear out of date given the sharp increase in property values in recent years: a property on Bridge Street is valued at €40,000 though similar properties in the vicinity have sold at twice that price in the past 12 months.
In terms of the number of derelict addresses in the town, Ballyhaunis compares favourably with Claremorris (23 properties) but has more derelict properties than Charlestown which has only four properties listed on the Council’s register.
Mayo ranked as the most derelict county in the country in a survey conducted by GeoDirectory, a data collection consultancy, in the second quarter of 2025, with 14.1 percent of the 19,281 derelict properties in the country located in Mayo.
A new grant to turn empty spaces above shops into homes has been welcomed by local real estate agent Kevin Kirrane. The new Vacant Above the Shop Grant, available from last week, will provide funding of up to €135,000 to support the conversion of vacant space above commercial premises into residential units, while retaining the commercial use at ground floor level.
“It’s all good news from my point of view,” said Kirrane. “I just feel sorry for people who have gone ahead doing their project and missed out on this opportunity. It doesn’t say the commercial unit must be in use so it still might be left vacant, that’s not good for the town. Anything that helps to get vacant property back into use gets the thumbs up from me.”
Kirrane added: “We now need to find a way of making owners of poor-quality buildings fix them or sell them. Anything not being worked on by mid-summer should be subject to compulsory purchase order by the council.”
Mayo TD and junior minister Alan Dillon described the new payment as “a game-changer for housing supply and revitalising town centres".
Under the new scheme a grant of up to €95,000 will be available where one unit is created, up to €115,000 will be available where two units are created and up to €135,000 will be available where three or more residential units are created ‘above the shop’. An expert advice grant with funding up to €5,000 towards professional advice on conversion of above the shop space will also be made available.
Government is also increasing the support for the successful Vacant Property Refurbishment Grant (VPRG) where former commercial properties in their entirety are being converted into more than one residential unit. In addition to receiving the current VPRG of €50,000 or €70,000, an additional €20,000 for a second residential unit created and a further €20,000 where three or more units are created will be payable under the changes.
The space above the shop must be vacant for two years but it is not required that the commercial ground floor of the premises be vacant. Dillon explained that nationally 12,000 Vacant Property Refurbishment Grant have been approved and 4,400 payments worth €250 million made.
The number of passengers using Ballyhaunis train station has increased to pre-Covid levels, data from an Irish Rail survey shows. 238 train passengers used the station according to the National Rail Census Report which was undertaken on a Thursday in November 2025.
122 passengers boarded trains that day while 116 alighted at Ballyhaunis, according to data from the census released to this column under a freedom of information request. Curiously, the number boarding in 2025 is the same as the figure for 2019, despite extra services being added in 2023 and 2024.
Overall passenger numbers for Ballyhaunis have recovered after dropping significantly during the pandemic. According to the National Rail Census Report 2022, 57 people boarded in Ballyhaunis on the day of the census – higher than the number (42) in the 2021 survey but well below the 122 passengers boarding at the station on the day of the survey in 2019 and in 2018 (69 passengers) and 2017 (106 passengers).
Rail passenger numbers appear to be on a long-term growth trend in line with growth in the country’s population. Nationally the period 2014-18 saw a 43 percent growth in passenger rail numbers on Irish Rail’s services.
Ballyhaunis passenger numbers have been increased by a new Westport bound morning service and a 7.35pm service from Dublin Heuston which gets into Ballyhaunis just before 10pm.
Growth in passenger numbers at Ballyhaunis due to increased services has caused significant issues with parking at the station with cars parked on footpaths on the approach road to the station now a source of annoyance to local residents.
A long-awaited review of its car park at Ballyhaunis by Irish Rail has yet to be published though the company told this column in November the review was being finalised for publication before the end of the year.
Government has sought to get more people onto trains in order to reduce carbon emissions from the transport sector which remain among the highest in Europe on a per capita basis.
A service every two hours on the Dublin-Westport line is one of the recommendations in the Draft All Island Strategic Rail Review (AISRR) published in 2024. Significant work will be required to track networks in order to increase scheduling.
An Post is “pressing ahead as per schedule” with the amalgamation of Ballyhaunis postal sorting office into its counterpart in Castlerea, a spokesperson for the company told this column. That’s despite meetings organised by local politicians including TD and minister of state Alan Dillon with the company. The amalgamation is due to be completed by June, according to the company’s original plan. It will bring to an end over a century’s direct presence in Ballyhaunis by the company which last year sold the building on Bridge Street which formerly housed its post office. The current post office will continue to be operated by SuperValu.
Farm features in film shown at Los Angeles festival
A short film about a farm near Ballinlough was shown at the recent Irish Film Festival Los Angeles. was made by film-maker Kathy Raftery on her family’s farm and screened as part of The Futures short film strand at the annual festival.
“As my 87-year-old father steps away from the land he has tended for decades, captures the quiet end of an era for a family farm steeped in history and memory,” wrote Kathy. Narrated by writer Michael Harding and inspired by his essay, the film reflects on “legacy, change, and letting go.”
The film will next month be coming to the Community Hall in Ballyhaunis, the location in 2023 for a screening of another short film by Raftery, on a trip by Corporal Patrick 'Bob' Gallagher from the U.S to visit his family one last time before he departed to fight with US troops in the Vietnam War.
Former TD, Senator and MEP Jim Higgins will speak on Mayo elections at the Genealogy and Heritage Club run by Ballyhaunis Community Council. During his talk on April 21, Jim will talk about the electoral landscape of the county since the founding of the state. His talk will encompass often forgotten aspects of local political history, including the dominance of the farmer-backed Clann na Talmhan party in the 1950s. The talk starts at 7.30pm and is part of a series of talks, films and seminars on local history and genealogy run at the Community Hall over the past year.
