A Mayo County Council housing official has apologised for “any concern or distress” caused by his proposal to boycott holiday homeowners.
In a statement released by the council on Thursday, Tom Gilligan, director of services with responsibility for housing, said he is “deeply committed to addressing the complex housing challenges facing Mayo and to working collaboratively with councillors, stakeholders, and the community in doing so”.
He said he circulated an email to “prompt internal discussion on a sensitive but relevant issue” and he did not anticipate it would be released publicly before members of the council’s strategic policy committee had a chance to consider it.
His proposal for a community-led boycott of holiday home owners was circulated to the committee after it met last week and its members asked the council to examine ways to activate vacant homes for use.
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Mayo County Council provided a statement on the issue on Wednesday. However, it released an updated statement on Thursday saying it wanted to highlight its “sincere regret” for “upset” caused to local elected members, the public and, “in particular, owners of second homes in Co Mayo”.
A council spokeswoman said the proposals were not intended for publication but were “exclusively intended as an internal discussion document”.
Despite the council’s earlier statement seeking to clarify the issue, she said, “a lot of confusion and disquiet remains evident”.
She said the local authority is “not aware how this email found its way to the media”.
“Had the correspondence not been released to the media prematurely, the matter would have been considered by the members of the [strategic policy committee] in the normal way and evidently would not have progressed any further,” she said.
