Craic On

I see, in an article by Katie Barr in todays Inishowen Independent that Donegal Councillors are calling for Moville’s sewage to be pumped out north of Greencastle where it won’t spoil the environment. That sounds eminently sensible. It is also what the Carnagarve Group are fighting about. They think it should come out there too.

It seems that Councillors Bernard McGuinness, Mickey Doherty, Jack Murray and Martin Farren are calling for it to be shifted past Greencastle.

So, if the people of the area want it there and the local Councillors want it there then why is it not going there.

It seems it is the head of the Council Water Department that wants it at Carnagarve.

Funding Available

According to Councillor Doherty in the Independent “With the amount of money this is going to cost I don’t see what difference it will make. We are lead to believe that funding for this project is available and I have had several meetings with Paul Kilcoyle (Senior Engineer in the Council Water Department) but he seems to turn his head away whenever it was mentioned moving the pipe to Greencastle”.

So, who is Donegal Council? Who is in charge and taking the decisions? Is it the elected representatives of the people or is it unelected council workers instead?

Tail Waggers

It seems to me that the tail is wagging the dog here. One would think that the Councillors would sit above the Department Managers as the Executive Branch of local Government instructing the Department Managers what they should do.

The original reason that Carnagarve was to be chosen instead of Greencastle was because of cost. However, this could have been done 20 years ago and it would have been cheaper to build it past Greencastle. The difference in cost was €400,000 but with all the legal bills and surveys etc. over the past 21 years it has turned out to be more expensive – and not one spade has gone into the ground yet.

Build It Past Greencastle

So, if Councillor Doherty is correct and that funding is available for it then why not build it at Greencastle? After all the original decision was based on cost.

So, if it is not cost that is the major factor now what is the real reason that the Council Water Department are insisting that it be built at Carnagarve – and why are they spending vast sums of money to stick it in a place that local people don’t want and local Councillors don’t want?

I feel we should be told!

And who really runs the Council anyway?