Mayo graveyards suffering from a lack of funding

A Fianna Fáil councillor has called on Mayo County Council to ringfence funding in its annual budget for the county's graveyards.

Achill-based  Paul McNamara told last week's meeting of Westport-Belmullet Municipal District that graveyards are currently being maintained by voluntary groups who rely solely on General Municipal Allocation (GMA) funds, which is a discretionary amount provided by councillors. He believes the GMA contribution of €1,000 to €2,000 per elected member is nowhere near enough with the rising price of materials and called on the council to “step up to the mark”.

“I’ve had numerous calls that footpaths and walls need to be replaced, and the [committees] have absolutely no funding whatsoever. The graveyards are run by voluntary groups in the community, who have a committee, and they give up their time to tidy and look after it,” Cllr McNamara said. “I think it’s of the utmost importance, that going forward, money is ringfenced.” 

He said it is €800 per plot in most graveyards and the majority of that fee should go back into the cemetery. He added that if ten people were buried in a cemetery in one year, it would total €8,000, which would be more than enough money.

Westport-based Independent Cllr John O’Malley agreed saying he hates bringing people to some graveyards in his community because they are in such a bad state, citing Fahy as one such cemetery.

“There’s been nothing done in that graveyard [Fahy] for so long, the entrance into it is a disgrace. As councillors, we allocated GMA money to make it more presentable from the community centre up to the graveyard, but if you have to go in the other way, it’s just full of weeds and potholes,” Cllr O’Malley said. 

“The Kilmeena graveyard is almost full and we’re going to have to get more land. We have allocated money and if we didn’t, there’d be no work done at all."

Head of the district, Padraic Walsh, said that in order to ringfence funding for graveyards, there would need to be a policy change within the council. He said the council's Head of Environment, Ann Moore, is currently looking at plans for burial grounds in Mayo and told councillors to raise their concerns with her office.

Mr Walsh said the councillors’ points are well made, but he has to work with the money he is given.