Depositing the ballot papers down at Castlebar Courthouse with Party Supporters,
Its showtime!!!!

Action needed on planning to stop population decline

The planning regulations that are stopping young couples building in rural areas, combined with the failure to provide proper road infrastructure and job opportunities is causing the decline in population in North Mayo.

I am responding to census data published by the C.S.O. that showed a declining population in large areas of North Mayo and other rural areas in the county.

We have had a situation in this county, whereby the Planning Office, in Mayo County Council, has acted like God in the way it has shaped the living patterns in this county. Today’s CSO figures have shown us the shape of what it has achieved-a drop in population in large sections of rural Mayo-, especially in North Mayo.

The Planning Office has adopted a policy of stopping young couples building in rural areas, forcing them into larger towns where developers can charge what they like for a home. This ridiculous policy, combined with a total lack of any initiatives to provide real employment outside of our major towns and an appalling rural road network, has lead to this serious decline in our rural population.

A new government must overhaul this ridiculous policy of closing up rural Ireland, by actively encouraging, rather than hindering, the settlement of young families in our rural villages. This will take serious investment in roads, broadband and incentives to attract local businesses to expand so that viable employment opportunities become available to rural families.

“I will be calling for a review of current planning regulations if elected and I will insist that state monies be made available to assist in the regeneration of all areas affected by poor planning policies by our local authority, poor road investment and a total failure of our government representatives to fight for investment in areas like North Mayo

ends: Harry Barrett 087 9713268….see CSO figures in Irish Times

Barrett dedicates campaign to family issues

I have officially booked my spot on the ballot paper for the Mayo constituency by handing in my nomination papers at 12 o'clock today at the Courthouse in Castlebar. I was accompanied by Labour Cllr. Johnny Mee, my director of elections, William Walshe and many party supporters.

I intend to focus on the issues that affect hard working families in the county, especilly in relation to health. He singled out the promise to provide Health insurance to all under 16's and free GP. Cards to all under 5's as a very progressive one.

I am angered at Fianna Fáils recent conversion to childcare issues and the plight of young couples trying to afford a home after ten years of total inaction. I am going to campaign vigorously, as a government T.D., for the Mayo's fair share of exchequer funding for the appalling state of the road network after ten years of east coast boom.

I welcome Pat Rabbittes 5 Commitments for Change and I have particular praise for Labours promise to help families where one parent stays at home to care for children or dependents by increasing the home carers credit from 770 euro to1760 euro the same level as the PAYE tax credit Barrett stated that Labour woud also increase by 5,000 euro the level at which one income families hit the higher tax rate.

ends Harry Barrett 087 9713268

ENJOY THE BANK HOLIDAY WEEKEND! IT’S ON US - BARRETT

Enjoy your Bank Holiday Weekend with Labour. I am distributing fliers houses in Castlebar, Westport and Ballina, reminding them that it was the Labour Party, who in 1993, declared the first Monday in May as a public holiday.

May Day is a commemoration of the historic role played by workers in shaping the more democratic and inclusive societies we live in now compared to those of a hundred years ago.

Yet despite this, Ireland still has one of the lowest number of public holidays in the EU

Labour knows that we all benefit when we have time to be with our families and loved ones, time to contribute to our communities, time to enjoy the fruits of our hard work.

That is why Labour, if elected to government, wants to introduce two additional annual public holidays to bring us into line with the rest of Europe. Happy May Day and looking forward to more!

ENDS Harry Barrett 087 9713268

MABS sees increase in Mayo people accessing service: Barrett

The Money Advice and Budgeting Service, (MABS) has seen an increase of between 5 and 10% in the level of middle income earners accessing the service in Mayo. Labour candidate, Harry Barrett, has attributed the increase to higher mortgage increases as a result of rampant house inflation and reckless credit card and personal loan lending by banking institutions.

Barrett explains, “ This is a valuable service that helps people manage debt and a spokesperson has confirmed to me that they are seeing an increase in families in the middle income bracket in Mayo, using the service mainly due to credit card problems.

This issue is backed up by young parents who tell me that higher mortgage costs and rising childcare bills are forcing them into credit card debt to make up the shortfall. House prices have continued to rocket in this county, pushing many people into huge mortgages. Little has been done to make house buying more affordable. Put the added cost of having children into the equation and you have thousands of hard working families in Mayo struggling to make ends meet.

“Enter your friendly banking institution, that is willing to allow you to spend thousands on your credit card for making up the shortfall, and you now have a recipe for disaster. Banks are recklessly lending to both young and old in this county. Only a number of years ago, you had to have serious proof on hand to show that a loan could be repaid. Now, banks are increasing credit limits without permission and are pushing loan money at people with the aid of clever advertising and marketing. There is also no doulbe checking to see if clients have taken out multiple loans.

“This government has failed to act on housing, on childcare, on stealth taxes. It has also to deal with an unregulated banking sector that locks thousands of people up in a prison of debt for years.

“New Government action will be needed after this election to deal with the issue of uncontrolled debt. Legislation must be enacted to force the Financial Regulator to tighten up on the criteria used to decide loan applications and the network of Credit Unions must be advertised and utilised to full effect. People need to see other ways of making up the shortfall in the high cost economy we have inherited from the government,” concluded Barrett .

SEE PHOTO!!!!!

Ends: Harry Barrett…087 9713268.….rang the MABS office in Ballina for this info. Lots of anecdotal evidence to back it up.

Erris still without Recycling: Barrett

I have recently written to Mayo Co. Council to force the private bin collector to provide recycling facilities in the Erris area. Barrett is angered that, 3 months after the privatisation of the bin service, the private operator has failed to provide a bin for recycling.

I am contacted on a weekly basis about this issue. Erris, the size of Co. Louth, has no recycling facility, 3 months on after privatisation. All rubbish in Erris currently goes into landfill despite the calls by the people for recycling facilities. This is a disgrace and goes to show how little is thought of the needs of the people of the Erris area.

“I am informed that this company has a waste licence that is up for renewal shortly. I am also informed that they are still using the Council bins. How has this been allowed to continue? I have written to the Environmental section of Mayo Co. Council to investigate the matter.

I want the company to roll out its recycling bins immediately. I also want a proper recycling facility placed in the Belmullet to cater for the needs of residents. At the moment the only facility is a grubby, filthy, bottle bank located in a totally inaccessible area in Belmullet town. The attitude seems to be, “ah sure it’s good enough, it’ll do.” Under EU environmental law, it’s not good enough and I will pursue this issue until these laws are upheld

Ends: Harry Barrett 087 9713268

Anger at lack of water plan

I am calling on Mayo Co. Council to act immediately to prevent the movement of boats and pleasure craft from areas affected by the cryptosporidium parasite to Mayo’s main source of drinking water, Lough Mask.

Council sources have confirmed that cross comtamination in this way is a possibility. However, the local authority is relying solely on the goodwill of boat owners in this regard. I think this is unacceptable.

I have consistently argued that the protection of our water supply is just as important as the building of roads and other infrastructure. The reality is that Mayo Co. Council still does not have a plan in place to protect our waterways. Its approach in terms of the prevention of a water crisis is slipshod and dangerous.

At a recent meeting of the Council, it was confirmed that the cryptosporidium parasite could, in theory, be transported to our main source of drinking water via fishing boats and pleasure craft. Unbelievably, nothing is being done to prevent this. I want boats from areas affected by the cryptosporidium parasite to be prevented from entering Lough Mask until Mayo Co. Council or the HSE can be certain that they have been cleaned thoroughly.

We cannot afford to have the drinking water that supplies Castlebar and a large section of the county contaminated with this bug. The farming community dealt with the Foot and Mouth crisis in a very effective manner. The same diligence must be seen in action in this case.


The government itself has delayed implementing the EU Water Framework Directive. The Water Services Bill, which is required to implement the directive, was published over four years ago, but has not yet been enacted. I also believe that the long term objective of Fianna Fail and the PDs is to see the privatisation of water supplies in this country and this is part of the reason why crucial investment was not made. This is why we still have 13,000 families in Mayo without a clean source of drinking water. This is why we have many of these families living with the fear of the deadly ecoli parasite contained within many of our group water schemes.

Ends: Harry Barrett 087 9713268……see minutes of most recent council meet re water monitoring and the movement of boats etc.

Labour wants new government to deal with N.R.A.

Having a National Roads Authority announcing its road projects for 2007, in Claremorris recently, without any delivery for Mayo is wrong and will be changed under a new government. And, it shows, yet again, that our FF elected representatives have no clout at Cabinet level. Mayo will need the intervention of Mayo based cabinet ministers and government T.D.’s, in a new administration to change the way in which road monies are distributed nationally.l

The N.R.A., had a party in Claremorris but the people of Mayo weren’t invited. It distributed the goodies again to major motorway projects in the east and in the south of the country especially in key ministerial constituencies. Minister Cullen’s has had nearly every boreen upgraded to dual carriageway status in Waterford. The Minister has delivered to his constituents

“As ever, we here in this constituency were asked to wait. We were asked to wait until 2010 for a commencement of any application for funding for the N5 between Castlebar and Westport. We were asked to wait for more funding for the N26 and N59, sometime in the next decade. Meanwhile, one of our FF candidates feels free to sing “The Wests Awake,” on the Vincent Browne radio show. I feel he should now change the words to the official FF version of the song,- “The West will Wait”

This farce must come to an end. A new government with Mayo based Ministers and government T.D.’s will direct the N.R.A., to invest in our constituency to a level that will ensure that Mayo will no longer play second fiddle to other constituencies when it comes to roads. Mayo is suffering lost job opportunities because of poor road networks. Local businesses are suffering as they try to move goods around on inferior roads and our people are expected to accept this fate.

The N.R.A., has failed Mayo abysmally. I have called for the appointment of a minister of cabinet rank to be given the role of Minister of regional development and have had meetings with former Finance minister, Ruairi Quinn T.D in this regard. This Minister would have responsibility not only for ensuring that monies earmarked for disadvantaged areas were actually spent in these areas, but would also take responsibility for upgrading all road, rail, power and broadband networks to a level consistent with what prevails on the east coast. When this is achieved we can sing!

Ends: Harry Barrett…..087 9713268

Barrett sets out Labour Commitments

Hi folks...this is an excerpt from our commitments for change. Please read. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

For this election, Labour Party Candidate, Harry Barrett has made it clear what Labour's top five priorities will be. These are five Commitments for Change which he and the Labour Party are promising to deliver in government. Barrett maintains that these five key areas will address some of the pressing concerns facing thousands of people, both young and old throughout the county.

Barrett explains, "After ten years of FF/PD government, we have a crisis in health, housing, childcare, public order and they way in which we treat our carers. These five commitments are not the only things that Pat Rabbitte and the Labour Party will achieve in government, but are five Commitments that Pat Rabbitte promises to deliver in office. The actual commitments are: 1.More beds in clean hospitals. 2.Pre-school education for all our children. 3.More community Gardaí on the beat in Mayo towns and villages. 4. Abolish the means test for carers in Mayo . 5.Enable more people to begin to buy a home. These are key concern to many, young and old all over the county. In particular, our joint policy on health, with Fine Gael, contains solid proposals to address the bed shortage in our acute hospitals and the pressures facing young couples to pay for access to a proper health system.

Speaking about his Commitments for Change, Cllr. Johnnie Mee said, "The Labour Party is going to bring about change in this election. People have rightly been asking me what difference change will make- these 5 commitments for change will make that clear. I want to impress upon voters, that if the Labour Party is elected to government, we will introduce these set of changes that will have a positive impact on their quality of life. A vote for our Labour candidate, Harry Barrett will assist in bringing this about.

"This election is going to be about the quality of life of hard working families in communities all over Mayo. The Labour party is committed to a strong economy which continues to generate prosperity for the people. It is time now to deliver on a better quality of life that this prosperity provides us with- and to do that we need to make a change."

ends: Harry Barrett 087 9713268

My anger at lack of service for eating disorders in Mayo

The health and recovery of a person in Mayo, with an eating disorder is solely a matter of whether they can afford to pay the astronomical cost of a private bed in a Dublin hospital.

While canvassing, I was asked at one door in Castlebar to find out about the services for sufferers of eating disorders in the county. I was shocked at the results. No specialised beds. No specialised treatment. No public or private beds and worst of all, there is no presence of the support group Bodywhys in the county. The only real option for a child or adult with this serious complaint is to travel to Dublin and buy a private bed in either St. Patrick’s Hospital or St. John of Gods, both in Dublin.

To make matters worse, I read that there are only 3 public beds in the country for adults with eating disorders. I find it astounding that the Health Service Executive has not contracted beds in our regional hospitals to deal with this growing issue. This is a prime example of the way the public patients is treated as a second class citizen. If you have the money to pay you get treated: if not, you suffer on a waiting list which currently stands at an 18 month wait time.

This is unacceptable and wrong. Eating disorders are on the increase, they can cause long term damage if not treated quickly and they can be fatal. Sufferers need very specialised help to overcome the disorder and as of March, 2007, in Co. Mayo, there is no help from our Health service for the public patient. Indeed, the private patient must travel to Dublin to access the luxury of immediate care in a private bed.

Martin Rogan, assistant national director with the HSE admitted the current level of service provision “struggles” to provide an adequate response. He also accepted there was a lack of inpatient beds for children and adolescents with mental health problems, but said there were plans for 80 more beds at four centres around the state.

Can I concluded by saying that mental health was the Cinderella of the Irish Health Service and that it would take a new government to take on the challenge of investing in bed capacity to deal with such serious conditions so that sufferers could be gaurenteed a bed regardless of their financial status.

Harry Barrett…..087 9713268.…..see Irish Times, Friday, March 16^th an article entitled, JUST THREE PUBLIC BEDS FOR ADULTS WITH EATING DISORDERS.