The Western People - 31 July 2002

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Local Papers Commentary
The Western People - 31 July 2002
By Sandra Noone
Jul 31, 2002, 20:46

Mayo population increases but Belmullet down
The preliminary report from Census 2002, published last week, revealed that the population of County Mayo rose by almost 6000 persons to 117,428. The urban areas recorded the highest increases but many rural areas, particularly in North Mayo, showed significant decreases. Belmullet is the only area to record an overall decrease, where the population dropped from 8339 in 1996 to 7932 in 2002.
The usual trend of there being more females than males in the general population is reversed in Mayo where there are 59,057 males and 58,371 females. The population of Connacht is now 464,050 compared with a low of 390,902 in 1971 and a high of 552,907 in 1926.

Thousands of Mayo fans to miss out
At least 20,000 Mayo supporters attended the Mayo and Cork match in Croke Park in the All Ireland semi-final of 1999. Unfortunately, that number will not be present next Monday. Just 10,000 tickets have been granted to Mayo County Board and it will come nowhere near satisfying the demand for tickets. The tickets could have been divided evenly among the four counties that will be present in Croke Park on Monday. If this remains the same, some of the Mayo fans will just have to watch it on the television.

Health Board under fire over home helps
The Western Health Board has come under fire for its handling of the home health cutbacks in County Mayo. Board member, Cllr Tim Quinn said "the cutbacks, and their reversal a few days later, was a fiasco". "If money was managed prudently when funds were plentiful this situation would not have arisen", he said. The Health Board called a meeting and announced that they have decided not to go ahead with the proposed solutions. They also provided an exceptional service in county Mayo with an average of 9,000 home help hours provided each year. Cllr. said the statement "was an admission of a mistake and of the fact the health board was not prudent when funds were plentiful".