Review of the Year: February

€1.5M bill to revamp multi-storey carpark

It was revealed that CAVAN County Council was facing a bill of up to €1.5 million for essential “significant structural renovations” to modernise the multi-storey carpark in Cavan Town, half of which had been closed to the public for the best part of 18 months.

An appraisal in 2021 advised “the precautionary closure” of levels 7 to 15 of the facility, as well as other maintenance actions.

The multi-storey carpark has been repeatedly branded a “white elephant” by elected representatives given low occupancy levels.

The local authority was legally forced to buy the loss-making facility eight years ago under the terms of a historic deal.

Details of the hefty bill at hand were first revealed in a disclosure shared with sitting Cathaoirleach, Fianna Fáil’s John Paul Feeley.

‘Suicide and cocaine are the white elephants in the room’

A woman from Kingscourt spoke out about the lack of mental health services in Ireland and support for those bereaved by suicide. Ruth Sheenan McCabe’s husband Sean died by suicide in 2013, aged 44 years, and her son Tomás took his own life in December 2022, aged 21.

The grieving mum was among many who shared their stories from the floor of a public meeting in Virginia last Thursday night, organised in association with Pieta House.

- See www.yourmentalhealth.ie to access supports -

New Tesco supermarket plans lodged

Tesco Ireland remained in “advanced negotiations” regarding the purchase of a site in Cavan Town for its proposed new superstore, despite planning permission first granted more than a decade previous.

The supermarket giant lodged a fresh planning application with Cavan County Council for a replacement store at the 3.86 hectare Cockhill site overlooking Cavan Town.

The site in question was still under the ownership of the local authority.

Concerns raised over influx of refugees to county

“There will be trouble. It wouldn’t be me. But I’d be afraid of what will be brought up,” voiced a fearful Aiden Fitzpatrick on speculation that the landmark White Horse Hotel in Cootehill might soon be used to house refugees.

The unconfirmed rumour circulating locally at the time suggested that up to “100 Syrian men” were set to arrive by bus at a moment’s notice.

A ‘Cavan Says No’ protest followed in the Cootehill town.

The owners of the property later dismissed the content of the report; while the Department of Integration said the property had not been offered to them.

Cavan receives €17.5M for local roads

Cavan County Council was awarded €17.5M for its non national roads programme. It included €400,000 for realignment works at Assan Bridge and the L3201 road in Lavey, as well as €250,000 for the R118 Rathkenny Cavan to Cootehill Road, which forms part of the East-West route.

The largest chunk of money - €9.1M – was earmarked for restoration works on roads across the county with a further €1.3M allocated for restoration maintenance.

Milk price cut

Lakeland Dairies announced a cut in the co-op’s milk price for January by 6 cent/litre.

It was the first time in over a year the price offered by the Cavan-based co-op had fallen. The rate was 52.85c/l inclusive of VAT, for milk at 3.6% fat and 3.3% protein.

Three-year wait for adult Speech & Language Therapy

The wait for an adult with an intellectual disability to see a speech and language therapist in Cavan-Monaghan was reported at more than three years and growing by the day, The Anglo-Celt revealed.

The HSE was set to launch a “bespoke campaign” to hire someone for a key post, which had remained vacant since 2020, in an attempt to address the backlog.

NUMBER OF THE MONTH

5

The number of millions Breffni Air was set to reinvest in a new project, which has the potential to create more jobs in the local community

QUOTE OF THE MONTH

“Many people have real and legitimate concerns in how the government is handling the refugee and international protection process... Calling people names for articulating real concerns, you simply push these concerns underground where they will be capitalised on by actual racist”

- Cllr Sarah O’Reilly, Aontú

GOOD MONTH

• Cavan Fine Gael Senator Joe O’Reilly was appointed as Seanad Whip by An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar

• The supremely talented singer-songwriter Lisa O’Neill officially launched her fourth album ‘All Of This Is Chance’

• Lucky punters at Cavan’s Townhall enjoyed a sell-out gig by the Housemartins and Beautiful South star, Paul Heaton

• Killeshandra native Superintendent Gavin O’Reilly was appointed to oversee the implementation the new garda policing model in the South Dublin Metropolitan Region (DMR) making him the youngest Superintendent within An Garda Síochána

BAD MONTH

• Cavan residents were growing increasingly irate at the lingering stench of sewage from Cavan Town’s Wastewater Treatment Plant, while Irish Water crews on the ground were working to resolve the issue

• The Ulster Bank branch in Cavan Town confirmed it would close on April 21

• The Department of Agriculture was investigating a number of salmonella infections on several broiler farms around the country, some of which were in the Cavan/Monaghan area

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REVIEW OF THE YEAR: MARCH