"A broken system": meeting hears €4m investment delivered under 1KM in Active Travel

A report into Mayo County Council’s performance on Climate Action is positive but shows shortfalls in progress on Active Travel and retrofitting its housing stocks, according to elected members.

The Local Government Management Agency (LGMA) conducted a report into each local authority’s Climate Action Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for 2024.

Laura Dixon, Climate Action Coordinator with Mayo Co Co, said that Mayo led the way in sub-group meetings with its climate action teams, holding 21 meetings in 2024 which was seven more than the next local authority.

Mayo also performed well in staff and elected members accessing climate action training with 1,217 such events recorded from 2021-2024.

However, the report showed that the Council drew down around €4 million in funding to deliver just 0.9km of Active Travel projects.

Cllr Peter Flynn said this was indicative of a “broken system”.

“This is such a waste of money, to deliver 900 metres over three years for with over €4 million spent. This is beyond the beyond,” he said.

Cllr Donna Sheridan said she has lost a lot of faith in Active Travel because of how it has been rolled out.

“In my area, a project was announced three different times. Then Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan said over a billion had been spent on Active Travel. It is easy to spend a billion when you announce something so many times and don’t do it,” she said.

The LGMA report also showed Mayo as one of the lowest ranking counties in terms of social housing retrofits with just 42 houses retrofitted in 2024. 523 had been retrofitted in county Donegal, the second highest behind Dublin City.

Cllr Gerry Murray said the county’s social housing tenants deserve better.

“We get €7 million in income from our tenants and only a third of that goes towards retrofitting their houses,” he said.

“These tenants deserve better and deserve something back.” 

Cllr Sheridan said she had recently gone through the process of retrofitting herself and found the process “difficult.” She added that she had lost all faith in the Council’s Housing office and called for a report into the delays into getting these projects turned around.

Head of Housing with the Council Olivia Gallagher said the LGMA report was reflective of just one retrofitting scheme and did not reflect the breadth of work done by the local authority in this regard.

Cllr Flynn added that Mayo Co Co need to play a more proactive role in their response to severe weather events. The LGMA report showed that Mayo Co Co activated severe weather emergency response plans on six occasions in 2024.

“Storm Eowyn showed how we are late to the table in terms of severe weather,” he said.

“Mayo County Council needs to be part of the severe weather response and not leaving the work to other agencies.”