While efforts to re-open Mountrath Mart are set to continue, support is proving hard to come by for the committee heading these efforts.
Mountrath Co-Op Livestock Sales Ltd., in Co. Laois has been closed since January 2019, but recently there has been a movement towards re-opening the mart and resuming livestock sales.
However, the annual general meeting (AGM) held earlier this week on Tuesday, September 10 was described as “disappointing” due to the “small crowd in attendance”.
This is according to the acting chair of Mountrath Mart, Ken Holmes, who is now one of just seven members of the committee.
“There was a yes/no vote to re-open the mart, and that went to a yes,” he said.
While the vote was passed at the AGM for the mart to go ahead with re-opening, the meeting was adjourned due to a lack of support in filling places on the committee from those in attendance.
Holmes explained that the committee must be filled to a minimum of 16 people.
“Unless the committee is filled up to a minimum of 16, we wont be going ahead with it any further. There’s only seven of us, and there’s no way we can do it on our own,” he said.
“We said that the seven people on the committee are not going to take on the job of collecting money, and getting all the work that needs to be done.”
Holmes explained that many have retired, resigned, or stepped away from the committee due to family and work commitments.
An appeal was then made to those attending the AGM on Tuesday to volunteer or to nominate persons to join the committee to help out.
“No one came forward to go onto the committee to help out. It was silence from the floor.”
The committee revealed the business plan for the re-opening in a presentation delivered by the committee secretary, Michael Scully that showed the estimated costs, and Holmes said this was again met with silence from those in attendance.
“Not one question came from the floor” after the presentation, Holmes said.
“It was surprising because we thought we would have a lot of questions,” he added.
The attendance at the meeting was much lower than anticipated, and with 375 invites sent out, just 50 showed up.
Holmes said: “It was heartbreaking to see such a bad attendance for the amount of shareholders that are out there.”
The decision was then made to adjourn the AGM until 7:30p.m at Bloom HQ in Mountrath on Tuesday, September 24 as a result.
The number present at the AGM was in stark contrast to the public meeting held in February to see what support was out there to get the mart re-opened.
Over 200 attended that meeting, at a time when the committee comprised 14 members, which has since halved.
Planning to re-open Mountrath Mart
Holmes reflected on the outcome of the AGM and said that while “it was a bad attendance” the decision to re-open the mart was “voted through” which he said was step one.
Step two, he said, is filling the committee up to a minimum of 16, while step three will be talks to secure funding to aid in re-opening the mart.
It was previously hoped that Mountrath Mart could re-open for weanling sales in the August/September period of 2024, but this is no longer possible.
Holmes said: “We hope to try and pull even in the first couple of years. If not, it could be the possibility of a loss in the first few years until we try and build everything back up.
“It is a three-four-year plan that we have ahead of us, and we hope that in the fourth year we will be making a profit.
“That’s four years from the opening, which we don’t have a date on board yet because unless we have a full committee, it won’t be going forward.
“We are looking for volunteers to come on to the committee now, whether shareholders or non-shareholders, to contact myself or any other committee member if you’re willing to put your name forward, he said.
He explained that the future of the mart depends on shareholders and non-shareholders, and local business in the area to support it.
“We’re not back to square one, we have a lot of progress done,” Holmes said.