Mayo Sinn Féin Sinn Féin -- Building an Ireland of Equals

Time to Address the Neglect of Mayo - Murray

Published: 23 October, 2006

Sinn Féin General Election candidate in Mayo, Councillor Gerry Murray has hit out at Fianna Fáil and the PDs for what he describes as "years of deliberate Government neglect of Mayo."

Speaking in Belmullet at the launch of his party's campaign - Addressing the Neglect - Councillor Murray said, "The fact of the matter is that Mayo does not feature in the plans of the coalition parties because they see no electoral gains to be made in the county. The FF/PD approach to spending taxpayer's money in Mayo is based on what they can get out of it. This neglect of the West is not new and blame must also lie at the doors of Fine Gael and the Labour Party. Since the 1980s, FG has been in government three times and Labour, four times yet Mayo remains underdeveloped.

"The East and South coast of Ireland are fed a seemingly endless amount of exchequer funding while the Border, Midlands and Western (BMW) Region is shamefully under resourced. There has been a staggering €3.65billion underspend in the BMW region under the current FF/PD government despite numerous urgent infrastructure projects being identified. The West coast and Mayo in particular is not receiving its fair share. The €250m needed for the reopening of the entire Western Rail Corridor that runs through Mayo would only pay for 5 miles of the LUAS, just 2.5 miles of the Metro or half the cost of the works at the Red Cow Roundabout in Dublin yet Mayo must produce the begging bowl when seeking funding. Sinn Féin has committed itself to ending this regional discrimination."

Councillor Murray announced details of his party's campaign, which includes a series of public meetings across the county that will be chaired by Mr. Pat Doherty MP, Sinn Féin Vice-President and head of the party's Agriculture and Rural Development Department. The first such public meeting takes place in Ballina on 1st November at 8pm in the Downhill Hotel. All members of the public are invited to attend.