Failte Ireland ‘need to get off their a***’ for Mayo, blasts Loftus
Cllr Michael Loftus has aired his frustration at the lack of progress on the coastal walk in Ballycastle.
A local councillor is calling on Failte Ireland to be proactive and finalise a long-promised tourism strategy for North Mayo. In relation to the body’s North Mayo Destination Experience Development Plan (DEDP), Cllr Michael Loftus told a meeting of Mayo County Council’s Tourism SPC last week: “Tourism is so important to the local economy and if you build, they will come.”
Cllr Loftus added that: “In North Mayo we are still waiting since 2025, even 2024, for Failte Ireland’s DEDP strategy. I am not holding my breath and am not a great supporter of Failte Ireland because when I look at their regional strategy document, they didn’t even mention Knock Airport and are not giving us what we should be getting.”
He added that at this stage the Coastal Walk in Ballycastle was being worked on for so long by the tourism group, since 2022 when 28 of farmers came on board and a plan was put in place, “But all we hear now is that Failte Ireland is funding it and that their capital money in 2025 will pay for it, yet it is now March 2026 and it is still not started.
“It is very frustrating with all the work done in the community to get this up and running, so Failte Ireland need to get off their a*** and do something for Mayo in relation to it.”
Failte Ireland states that Destination and Experience Development Plans (DEDPs) are destination targeted five-year sustainable tourism development plans, that bring public and private sector organisations together to prioritise tourism development projects to maximise success. A number of DEDPs have been promised for Mayo, namely the Clew Bay DEDP, launched in November 2021, the Inland Mayo DEDP, due to be published this year, and the North Mayo DEDP, which Minister Dara Calleary announced was being finalised in July last year.
