Flynn seeks answers over delay in filling senior posts in council

A Mayo county councillor has claimed that the failure to fill two senior roles in the local authority means there is nobody to take accountability to the public.

Cllr Peter Flynn told management at the November meeting of the council that there is no longer a Head of Roads in the local authority following the retirement of Paul Dolan over a year ago, while only very recently, councillors discovered, purely by accident, that the Head of Marine Michael O'Boyle had left his role and moved to the waste section of the local authority, with nobody appointed to replace him either.

Cllr Flynn stated: “It is not great to have a scenario for one of the most critical functions (Head of Roads) to still have no permanent staff member in place and it is unfair on other staff who are left to take on extra representation to cover their role. 

"The other major vacancy is the Head of Marine, and at our recent Westport-Belmullet Municipal District meeting, concerns were raised about the state of piers and harbours at Roonagh, Lecanvey, Murrisk, Roscahill, all the way down to those in Achill and over to North Mayo, but there was no response on these, as no one is even even acting in the role. 

"We are given no information and only found out by accident that the Head of Marine had left the position, so there was no handover either. 

"It really is unacceptable. The least we deserve is an email with this information. These are critical roles for our county, and we should know at any point of time who is in charge.” 

The Westport councillor noted a recent European Union report in which Mayo has been ranked in the highest category of risk in terms of coastal erosion, adding: “This is something we need to deal with now. The world is changing, the climate is changing, we are the single biggest county at risk of coastal flooding, there is immediate risk, yet we don’t know who is Head of Marine or who is Head of Roads.” 

Westport-based Cllr John O’Malley said a whole lot of work on piers and harbours had been promised by the previous Head of Marine role and asked: “Will it be done at all now? There are piers in a very dangerous condition, such as down in Roscahill and Kilmeena, where people and children are using them and there are holes and steel sticking out. It’s been like that now for a number of years and we were told by Michael O’Boyle it was definitely being done this year, but now he is gone, so who can we contact so that we don’t have to go back and start the whole process again?” 

Cllr O’Malley said he was also still waiting for a council official and someone from Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) to accompany him on a walk along the Mayour River in Carrowholly to show them the flooding issues arising from mounting debris. 

“I wanted to point out the problems being caused upstream to lands, homes and septic tanks due to the river not being cleaned. We were to do this months ago and I am beginning to wonder, the Head of Marine wasn’t moved from his position to avoid all this, was he?” 

He continued: “What is happening is councillors are promised things and then there’s nothing done. We are told we will meet with somebody and then nothing happens.” 

Cllr Chris Maxwell said works had also been promised for Lecanvey pier which suffered a structural collapse a year ago and while the council chief executive had said that works to repair the damage would hopefully happen in the new year, still nothing at all has been done. He warned that “the whole rock armour will be stripped if this is left as it is over the winter".

"This is a massive amenity for Lecanvey community and it could end up costing millions.” 

Cllr Maxwell said the situation was so serious that the procurement process operated by the council for contractor works “should be overridden in this emergency situation and just get contractors in".

"Secondly, set up an emergency fund of €5 million for the county, to be dispersed at the discretion of the chief executive and local councillors in areas where an emergency arises.” 

Responding to the points raised, chief executive Kevin Kelly told Cllr Flynn that he “accepted the premise of a methodology to inform members of any senior staff changes".

He added: “We have a significant number of positions which we expect should be processed before the end of the year and that will help fill those positions on a permanent basis.” 

In the meantime, he said he understood that Director of Services David Mellett is taking on some of the marine issues while outgoing Head of Marine is still in charge of piers and harbours. 

“There is a lot of work to be done on them, and you need to understand that each job is subject to an application for funding from the department and we must go through that process," said Mr Kelly, adding that he would also have to look at “how realistic it is to have our own marine section contractor”, as Cllr Maxwell had suggested in relation to Lecanvey Pier, and said he will review the overall situation.

Director of Services Joanne Grehan added that in relation to Cllr O’Malley’s query regarding the Mayour River, she would be in touch shortly in terms of fixing a date to walk the route with the IFI officer.

• Published as part of the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.