Mayo must be ready to fight for coastal project funding

The Head of Marine with Mayo County Council has said the county must have capital projects lined up to make the most of funding opportunities that could emerge in the future.

Michael O’Boyle told last week’s meeting of the Ballina Municipal District that the council has a number of projects in mind. However, local authority officials are aware that the demand from coastal counties for marine projects is going to be extremely high should funding streams open in the near future.

Mr O'Boyle said there were "filing cabinets full" of reports on proposed marine works in the mid-2000s but most fell by the wayside due to the financial crash in 2008 and there have been no significant pathways to deliver big marine projects for local authorities since. The council has, however, delivered several smaller projects on a somewhat limited budget.

“If the purse strings open at a national level, the demand is going to be huge in all coastal counties. We need key projects ready to go,” he said.

Among the projects the council has in mind is the development of Kilcummin Pier, dredging works to ensure the future of Killala Harbour, a terminus at Ballina Harbour and many more smaller projects throughout the Ballina Municipal District.

“The demand is huge at the minute,” the Head of Marine said.

Mr O’Boyle said the council is also mapping out a ‘blueway’ of locations for water activities such as canoeing and kayaking across the municipal district and officials are also considering renewable energy projects.

Fine Gael Cllr Jarlath Munnelly welcomed the presentation and said the onus was on the council to have a comprehensive strategy for when funding became available.

“We have to be strategic as a council with what we’re doing with harbours. For 15 to 20 years, there was nothing happening but we had good people in place who brought projects along,” he said.

“We need to build on that now and develop a strategy around where we’re going.”