New director outlines priorities for Claremorris-Swinford districts

The new Director of Services for the Claremorris-Swinford Municipal District wants to see the south and east of the county become the best place to live and work.

Tom Gilligan attended his first area meeting in his new role last Wednesday, after moving from Ballina as part of a reshuffle, where he was welcomed by councillors and outlined his vision for the area.

Mr Gilligan thanked everyone for the warm welcome and outlined his vision as Director of Services for the area.

“My focus will be on a number of issues, particularly around housing, the development of social and affordable housing.”

“Also in relation to roads, particularly the N17 and road safety measures. Vacancy and dereliction is a passion of mine and unfortunately in this MD there is a lot of dereliction in the town and I want to address that. The Knock Airport Strategic Development Zone is a huge priority as well.”

He said they are ideally located to be a link between Mayo and the rest of the western region.

“I want to work with yourselves to give the towns and villages a new function going forward. The Claremorris-Swinford MD is a prime location between Sligo and Galway and we want to move forward and make it the best place for people to live and work."