Mayo councillors divided on Mary Robinson Centre

North Mayo councillors have defended the Mary Robinson Centre after its finances came under scrutiny at a meeting of Mayo County Council.

The local authority is owed €800,000 by the Victoria House Foundation with Cllr Peter Flynn raising the issue at the monthly meeting of the council.

The overall cost of the project is expected to amount to approximately €5.4m, excluding fit-out costs.

The committed income sources to date include funding from the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht (DCHG) for €2m, of which €1.74m has been received, towards the construction phase and €1.1m from the Mary Robinson Foundation/Community Group of which €300,000 has been received to date by Mayo County Council.

The centre was included in an audit report on the council’s finances. Quoting from Victoria House Foundation accounts published at the end of October, Cllr Flynn said there is no mention of the €800,000 owed to Mayo County Council in the financial statement. 

“That’s a huge anomaly,” said the Westport councillor.

The Fine Gael councillor said he is yet to be convinced of the benefits of the centre for Mayo.  

Ballina Cllr Mark Duffy said the project has brought to life a historic building. He said the centre will celebrate women in politics and have an educational and climate change focus.

“To continuously try and spotlight a project in a negative light is not helpful to anybody regardless of what corner in the county it is in," he remarked.

Fine Gael Cllr John O’Hara said he was disappointed by his party colleague Cllr Flynn’s comments.

“My county council colleagues should support it. Most of the country has got a lot of stuff that we never asked for and we didn’t run it down,” said Cllr O’Hara. “We have often been a few pounds short and we got it,” he added.

Cllr Seamus Weir said there appears to be a lack of support for Ballina projects.

“Westport was never neglected. We backed whatever ye did…..When it comes to Ballina it’s a different story.”  

Fine Gael’s Donna Sheridan said it is not ‘anti-Ballina’ to query where the outstanding €800,000 is going to come from.

Chief Executive Kevin Kelly said little has changed on the money owed to the council.

“The issue around the Mary Robinson Centre was in the audit as well last year and things unfortunately have not moved on too much since then. There is an amount of money owed to Mayo County Council for the construction part of the project. I have been following up with the Foundation with regards to that, and despite what their accounts might show, they have given me assurances in respect of work that they are undertaking with a view to getting some funding into that.”