OPW urged to communicate more with Mayo councillors
Cllr Damien Ryan
A Mayo councillor has called for the Office of Public Works (OPW) to more accountable to local representatives.
Cllr Damien Ryan made the comments at a meeting of Claremorris Municipal District.
“We are to the forefront of everything that goes on in the community. We are somewhat removed as public representatives when it comes to the programme with OPW. I think that any public body being funded by the public purse should have an arm of that organisation that deals with local representatives issues,” said Cllr Ryan.
He called on the OPW to put people and structures in place that will allow better communication with councillors.
“I think there needs to a go to person in each local authority and that needs to be identified to us. There is a lot of criticism of Irish Water but at least with Irish Water there is a local representatives help desk and I think that it’s important that this would become the norm with OPW,” he added.
Cllr Ryan said local councillors are the “first point of contact on the ground” for the community.
“I am not criticising their work, but I think the lack of information and the ability to feed in as programmes are being prepared needs to be updated and needs to be upgraded.” Cllr Ryan’s proposal to extend an invitation to an OPW representative to attend the next meeting of the District was supported by his fellow councillors.
“There are flooding issues that are on the agenda for a long time, there are problematic areas. They might be complex but I think we need an update on them. There is drainage issues, there is issues with cutback and water flow being impeded in certain rivers. It’s having a big impact on farmland and land upstream from those rivers,” he remarked.
