Aontú TD Paul Lawless has thanked the people of Ballina for attending a public meeting he organised in the town last night. (Thursday 16th April). The topics of fuel costs and immigration dominated the meeting.
Speaking today, Deputy Lawless said: “If there’s a lesson that politicians need to learn from the events of the past two weeks it’s that you must listen to people, hear their concerns and engage in dialogue. Unfortunately, the government last week point blank refused to engage with the fuel protesters, instead opting to threaten the army and police against hard working farmers, hauliers, contractors, and bus drivers. Last night in Ballina I was absolutely delighted with the big crowd that turned out and we had some very good discussions”.
Deputy Lawless continued: “Traffic is and congestion is a major issue in the town of Ballina. A lot of people are disappointed that the eastern by-pass of Ballina will not be progressing until after 2027 after the western by-pass reaches the statutory consent stage of the process. TII says they cannot progress both at once because of limited engineering resources. The eastern by-pass would provide a second bridge to cross the river and significantly reduce traffic, but it is years away from even beginning. A lot of the announcements from government TDs are misleading because most of the money is going to maintenance and improvement works rather than the new developments. TII, the Department of Transport and the Council are stonewalling a lot of my questions and in some cases refusing to respond to me. The government TDs and Councillors have been quick to reveal the Mayo Roads Funding, but in many cases, there hasn’t been a shovel put in the ground which is of no use to the people in Ballina stuck in traffic day in and day out”.
“The issues we discussed at our public meeting were in relation to the recent fuel protests where the protesters were treated shockingly by the government. A refusal to engage with the protesters coupled with a threat of the army and a concerted campaign to blacken the names of the protesters has angered a lot of people. I was proud to stand with the protesters – ordinary hard-working people who are really struggling. Aontú was the only party to vote against the Climate Action Bill because we knew it would lead to carbon taxes which are currently crippling people at the pumps. The measures taken to reduce the cost of green diesel don’t go anywhere near far enough. The cost of green diesel has doubled – it has gone up in some cases by 90 cent per litre, but the government have only reduced the cost by 7.4 cents when they’ve taken 30 cent of petrol or diesel. Businesses in the region will fold and collapse if more is not done”.
“There is some extreme migrant accommodation or IPAS legislation coming down the tracks from the government which would allow the government to build seven “super-sized” migrant accommodation centres around the country and deny local people the ability to submit planning objections. As it stands migrant accommodation is the only type of residential accommodation which is exempt from planning – this is hugely unfair and creates an unequal playing field where Mayo people trying to build small homes on their own land are made jump through planning hoops. I will bring a bill to the Dáil next week to try to bring IPAS back into the regular planning system where locals would be allowed to object to the developments. As it stands the government isn’t even telling us where they propose to build these seven centres. They are detached from transparency and accountability and listening to the voices of ordinary rural people”, concluded Lawless.
