Flynn's plan to move meetings out of Belmullet is heavily criticised

Councillors from Erris have criticised a proposal by a Westport councillor that all future Westport-Belmullet Municipal District take place in Westport or Castlebar.

Westport-based Fine Gael Cllr Peter Flynn told last week’s meeting, which was held at Aras Inis Gluaire in Belmullet, that the current practice of holding second meeting in Belmullet does not make sense for several reasons.

“At last month’s special meeting, we passed a motion that all future meetings should be accessible online," he said. "Eighty percent of the people in this room have travelled over one hour to get here. It is crazy to have this many meetings in Belmullet where they don’t have facilities to accommodate online meetings. It is unsustainable to come down here for every second meeting."

He said the council chamber at Aras an Chontae in Castlebar and the Civic Offices in Westport had sufficient online access and were the most suitable venues.

However, his suggestion was met with derision from the three Belmullet area councillors.

Fianna Fáil Cllr Paul McNamara, from Achill Island, said it was important to hold monthly meetings in different venues around the district to ensure the people living in those areas continue to feel heard.

“If we take meetings out of our district, it is not good for the areas being represented. It is important we take meetings to rural areas like Lecanvey and Murrisk.”

Fine Gael Cllr Gerry Coyle, from Belmullet, said he did not agree with his party colleague's comments.

“I’m shocked to hear this. The MD is from Belderrig to Leenane. We’re on the senior team here, not the junior panel and we’re representing the whole area. We should all get the same crack of the whip and I won’t be agreeing to go to Castlebar or Westport for every meeting,” he said.

“There will be a time when regional broadband comes to this area and we can hold our meetings here and facilitate them online.”

Fianna Fáil Cllr Sean Carey, from Belmullet, said local democracy should be kept local.

Cllr Flynn responded by stating that councillors had already passed a motion whereby all meetings would have to be broadcast online. However, the head of the district Padraig Walsh said this motion was passed at a special meeting regarding an issue that affected Westport and the Belmullet councillors were not present. He was under the impression the motion only referred to special meetings which may take a few sittings to resolve.