Taskforce 'will not be advocating' for town council return

A local government taskforce “will not be advocating" for the return of town councils, according to a Mayo councillor who is one of its members.

Fianna Fáil Cllr Damien Ryan was speaking at last week's meeting of Claremorris-Swinford Municipal District where councillors unanimously approved their district's submission to the Mayo County Council Annual Report 2025, which outlines details of the council’s activities and achievements last year.

Responding to comments regarding the ongoing work of the local government taskforce, Cllr Ryan said its report will go before Cabinet in the next month and it will not recommend that town councils are re-established.

“We decided that a return of town councils will be a retrograde step,” he said. “It was a two-tier system that will not be advocated for. I can’t pre-empt the next stages of the report and say if the hierarchy will agree with it but we don’t want to see a return to that system.” 

Cllr Ryan is one of five local elected representatives who make up the 14-person taskforce.

Fine Gael Cllr Neil Cruise criticised calls to restore the previous town council model and said the municipal district model should be strengthened instead. He said there were a lot of positives coming from the municipal district and these were reflected in the submission to the annual report.

“I am still hearing ploys to bring back town councils. They would add nothing and would not deliver for the predominantly rural municipal districts such as the Claremorris-Swinford Municipal District,” he said.

Independent Cllr Richard Finn said there was no need for “Mayors of big towns” in Mayo.

“There has been a serious equalisation of funding spread around the municipal districts since the town councils were abolished,” he said. “If they ever did come back, they would have to be made stand on their own two feet. Municipal districts have had an ongoing positive development in all parts of the county.” 

Fine Gael Cllr Michael Burke said if those calling for the return of the town councils ran their municipal districts as efficiently as Claremorris-Swinford, they would get a lot more work done.

“I get a pain in my head hearing about town councils. We should never see another town council in Mayo. Let them run their municipal district like we run ours and they would get a lot more work done.” 

Cllr Cruise added a “word of caution” to the positive comments surrounding the annual report, noting that staff changes in the district over the past year and a half had created challenges.

“We have a great spirit of working together but that was really tested in the last 18 months by staff movements in our district and I hope that calms down,” he said. “People have a right to look for promotions and opportunities but there was a lot of movement.”

• Published as part of the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.