Councillor's concern over vacant key role in South Mayo

Concerns that the Claremorris-Swinford Municipal District would be left without a senior executive engineer following staff changes at Mayo County Council were allayed at a meeting last week.

Director of Services Tom Gilligan told councillors that a temporary senior engineer would be in position from May 16 to replace Conrad Harley, who has taken over as Deputy Head of Roads in Castlebar following the retirement of Paul Dolan last month.

However, the meeting also heard that there is no dedicated senior engineer in the Swinford area in 2025 following an unsuccessful recruitment campaign to cover a period of maternity leave.

Cllr Damien Ryan had expressed concern about Mr Harley's move to the roads office and the implications it would have for Claremorris. Cllr Ryan said the budget for 2025 “gave real certainty” about certain projects and a senior engineer would need to be in place in advance of the commencement of the 2025 Roadworks Programme.

“It is critical that this important vacancy is filled on a permanent basis. Forty percent of the roads in the county are within this [municipal district] and we need assurances that this vacancy is filled."

Mr Gilligan said he had brought the issue to the council's Human Resources department and was told that a replacement would be starting work on May 16. He added, however, that staffing was a matter for the council executive and not a reserve function of elected members and it should stay that way.

Welcoming the news, Cllr Ryan said it was not his intention to undermine the executive or “cross the line” in terms of reserve functions.

“There is an obligation on us as public representatives to ensure a continuation of services in our area and ensure it doesn’t drift,” he said. “You might get away with not filling this role in winter but it is busy this time of the year.”

Cllr John Caulfield also welcomed Mr Gilligan’s update.

“There has to be a captain on the ship,” he remarked.

Cllr Michael Burke said there should be plans in place when the council is aware that a staff member will be retiring so the void is filled quickly.

“The council knows when people are stepping down. You can’t plan for people being sick but the executive should know and have a plan for when someone is retiring,” he said. “We are without an engineer now for five weeks at the busiest time of the year and we only really get five months to do this work and then it is on again, off again with weather.”

Head of the district Padraig Flanagan later added that there is no engineer in place with responsibility for the Swinford part of the district.

“For 2025, there is no area engineer in Swinford so one person is doing two jobs and that is having a significant effect on the provision of services,” he said.