Press release from Mayo County Council was 'absolutely shocking'

A Fine Gael councillor has branded a press release that went out from Mayo County Council as ‘absolutely shocking’.

Westport-based Cllr Peter Flynn said that the press release about the commencement of the Murrisk Community Water Connection project failed to mention the work done by the local people.

The Murrisk Community Water Connection project was launched on Friday, January 26 when stakeholders from scheme including Mayo County Council, the Department Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Uisce Éireann and the Murrisk Water Committee attended a launch event in Murrisk.

The €8.24 million project which will serve over 500 households in the Murrisk, Lecanvey and Kilsallagh region with a state-of-the-art water supply through 50km of pipelines. The area was previously supplied with water from streams on Croagh Patrick and private wells.

The press release was sent out by the Council on Friday, February 2.

“The press release that went out from Mayo County Council was absolutely shocking. It was a week after the event took place, there was no mention of the work done by the local people. No mention, not one word, about the massive effort that went into it by the Murrisk Committee to deliver that water scheme,” Cllr Flynn said.

“It was a massive amount of work that went in by a huge number of volunteers to deliver it over the last number of years. There was no mention of the 500-odd people that put their faith in Mayo County Council to pay their money up front on the basis that they were going to have clean water and people did take a risk because they weren’t sure if there was going to a scheme.

“There was no mention of Michael Ring, and I’m not saying that because he’s a Fine Gael member, I’m saying it because he played a crucial role in ensuring that project was delivered.

“There was no mention of any of the seven municipal district councillors who put their shoulders to the wheel in relation to the Murrisk scheme. I’m not looking for credit just for the sake of it, but at the same time, I do think we all played our part.

“But the fact that the residents of Murrisk community were just completely ignored, is just unforgivable. It should be a good news story. It really is pathetic, we have a communications team of nine or ten people and if that’s the best we can come up with, this Council is deep, deep trouble. There should be an apology made.”