COMMUNITY

Chairperson of the Local Community Development Committee (LCDC) on Sligo County Council.

During that period our committee has assigned €5.2 million LEADER funding has been awarded throughout the county under a range of categories: –

• New enterprises
• Community and voluntary groups
• Education and Lifelong learning
• Rural Economic Development/Enterprise Development and Job Creation
• Social inclusion through building community capacity, training and animation
• Rural Environment

In addition, the LCDC managed the Social Inclusion and Community Activation Programme (SICAP), Healthy Ireland fund, Community enhancement programme funding which assisted a wide range of community led projects throughout County Sligo including provision of defibrillators, Sports and IT equipment, Energy Efficiency Upgrading, Town Parks/City Gardens improvements.

Chairperson of PEACE IV – a cross-border Community and Economic Development Initiative which provided funding for a range of projects including:

• Stephen Street Shared Spaces (Cultural Plaza) – this €3m project will create a centrally located cantilever space in Stephen Street car park, thus creating an exciting out-door venue for events and recreation in the town centre
• Lest Sligo Forgets – to commemorate Sligo’s World War 1 dead
• Sligo Rovers Outdoor Museum – this will depict he Rovers 90-year history, highlighting the inclusive ethos of the Club and its connections with people of Sligo
• The Heritage Programme – an outreach programme comprising talks, lectures and workshops on cross-border issues

Member of the Maritime Board:

Through my membership of the Maritime Board, I helped to secure over €1.3 million in Fáilte Ireland and RRF funding for a new National Surf Centre of Excellence in Strandhill.

Member of the Board of the Hawk’s Well Theatre:

I helped to secure €500,000 in government funding to renovate the theatre in 2018 which will improve accessibility for all patrons.

Campaigner for a permanent Catheterisation Lab for Sligo University Hospital (SUH)

I, alongside senior medical staff in SUH have lobbied and continue to be a strong voice for the establishment of this important medical coronary laboratory in Sligo.

Traffic Management in Strandhill:

I have secured the following through my motions to Sligo County Council: –

• Traffic management in Strandhill:
  • A traffic Calming report for the village, which will inform further traffic calming plans for the village
  • Pedestrian controlled lights at the church, for the road to the school
  • Speed bumps and slow down signage in estates
  • Children at play signs
  • Footpath on part of the Top Road
  • Electronic speeding signs entering and leaving Strandhill and Ransboro
  • Traffic calming at the Rugby Club/Queen Maebh Trail entrance
  • Bollards at the sea front
  • Bus parking at the main carpark in Strandhill
  • Speed reduction signs
  • Lights at seafront replaced
  • Traffic island at the rugby cluc
• Delivered funding for Landscaping in the village

Working Groups and Committees:

I have worked on a range of other working groups and committees in her five years on Sligo County Council including:

• 1916 Commemoration Committee
• Disability Consultative Committee
• Arts Assessment Committee
• Sligo Gaol Steering Group
• Hawkswell Governance Sub Committee

National Campaigns:

I led on and participated in campaigns such as Marriage Equality, Repealing the 8^th Amendment, coastal erosion, reducing dog fouling, making Sligo a Breastfeeding Friendly town, Sick of Plastic and 50/50 Women for Election.

ECONOMY

As Chairperson of the LCDC and Strategic Policy 3 Committee, on Sligo Co. Co. I have been involved in delivering significant road improvement plans which are now underway:

• N4 Collooney to Castlebaldwin upgrade – €100m project
• Western Distributor Road linking Caltragh to Ballydoogan, thus opening up      nearby additional industrial areas
• €4.3m has been secured for the long-awaited Eastern Garavogue Bridge which will reduce traffic congestion and improve access to Sligo University Hospital, IT Sligo and the N15 and N16
• €2.4m funding has been allocated for the improvement of O’Connell Street and the streetscape of the town centre as part of a wider Public Realm Strategy

First female Chairperson of Irish Central Border Area Network (ICBAN) – A cross border party group progressing common interests, North and South of the border

• In my year as Chair, the committee lobbied governments North and South on the provision of rural broadband, and we commissioned the Fibre at the Crossroads
  http://icban.com/site/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Fibre-at-a-Crossroads-Part-I-Jun-16.pdf
  http://icban.com/site/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Fibre-at-a-Crossroads-Part-II-Jun-17.pdf
• We secured Intereg funding for the new Queen Maeve walking trail on Knocknarea as part of the border uplands project.
  http://gostrandhill.com/explore/hikes-walks/queen-maeve-trail/

Member of Sligo Economic Forum – responsible for driving economic development in Sligo.

This group sees local government, education and business working together to attract business and jobs to Sligo. Fine Gael in government launched its national development plan for the country, Project 2040 in Sligo in 2018 and has identified Sligo as a key regional growth centre. More than 1,400 high quality jobs have been announced in the past 12 months for Sligo.

Chair of the Town Village Renewal Fund Committee (Strandhill) – which oversaw the following work:

• commissioned two widely-viewed tourism promotion videos for Strandhill which are now played at Knock airport. (Tourist Information Office)
• funded the redevelopment of the GoStrandhill website as the local portal facilitating all community groups and businesses to have their pages on it. http://gostrandhill.com/
• I am now working on creating the Coolera cultural trail which focuses on the development of sustainable tourism, benefitting both community and business.
• hosted 2 tourism training days for local businesses and provided 1-1 mentoring for businesses
• provided funding for landscaping at Dolly’s Cottage and around the village
• established a professional photobank for business to promote their businesses and other areas in Strandhill.
• establishing two electronic information points in the village.
• set up the first ever dedicated Strandhill marketing budget which funded journalists’ trips and resulted in increased promotional efforts for Sligo and Strandhill.
• #strandhill moment campaign http://gostrandhill.com/strandhill-moments-campaign-launch/

ENVIRONMENT

Environment and Climate Change Activist and advocate –

Work on the protecting our environment locally as well as the global challenge of climate change has been a top priority for me.

• I have put motions before the county council seeking that works to protect against coastal erosion be carried out both at Strandhill and Rosses Point.
• I have sought dune protection works in the form of protective fencing which was delivered by Sligo County Council.
• I promoted and participated in marram grass planting training with Clean Coasts.
• I am a member of the sub-committee coastal erosion of the Strandhill Community Development Committee (SCDA).
• – I sought and gained on-going funding for an anti-dog fouling campaign in Strandhill in terms of signage and poopbags/bins for dog owners which was rolled out subsequently in Rosses Point and in Sligo town.
• – I am a member of Strandhill Biodiversity Group which has created an action plan, which includes actionsto promote tree planting and bee friendly mowing regimes among the schools and community. This supports bees as pollinators which are critical to our food crops and our green island image.
• I continue to lobby the Minister for the Environment and Climate Action to commit the Government to meet and exceed its current carbon reduction targets.
• I have sought and hope to get electric car charging points in Strandhill.

Waste Reduction and Plastics

• Over a year ago I raised a motion in Sligo County Council seeking a campaign of plastic waste reduction in businesses to be initiated by the County Council.
• I am a member of the Sick of Plastics campaign which aims to cut the over use of packaging and in particular, single use plastics.
• I have engaged with businesses in Strandhill and Sligo to encourage and aid them in their transition away from single use plastics.
• I supported Strandhill People’s Market in their aim to phase out single use plastics at the market by the end of 2019.
• I have actively lobbied in the Council for a centralised composting facility for domestic waste in Sligo.

Coastline and Water Quality:

• I actively promote the work of Clean Coasts in Strandhill and I organised a Fine Gael funded video which promotes the principles of communities working to protect Ireland’s waterways. http://cleancoasts.org/
• I have worked actively to improve water quality at Strandhill beach. I caused water quality sampling to start at Strandhill beach by Sligo County Council for the past two years (under the bathing water beaches sampling programme).
• I have repeatedly raised motions in the county council regarding the slow progress of the upgrade to the Strandhill Waste Water treatment Plant. I have engaged directly with Irish Water about the progress of the upgrade project.
• 3 for the Sea initiative motion to Sligo Co. Co. to erect signs at beaches to encourage people to remove 3 pieces of plastic when out on our beaches.