NEARLY three quarters of homes in Kilkee are empty while more than one third of all properties in West and North Clare are unoccupied, Clare County Council heard this week. More than 36% of the houses in the West Clare Municipal District were registered as unoccupied in April 2011, according to census data outlined at Monday’s local authority meeting. According to the figures, of the 20,427 houses in the West Clare municipal district 7,426 of them were recorded as unoccupied. The information was circulated to the council members on foot of a motion submitted by Councillor Gabriel Keating. Councillor Keating called on Clare County Council to report on the number of unoccupied houses in the West Clare Municipal District as of census 2011 indicating the number per electoral district saying these unoccupied houses could be utilised to regenerate rural communities. Responding to the motion Gerard Dollard, Director of Service outlined that 36.4% of the 20,247 dwellings that formed the new …

AER Lingus Regional, operated by Stobart Air, experienced its best month on record in June since the franchise began in March 2010. The airline carried 130,098 passengers last month, a 37% increase on the same period in 2013 (95,000). Furthermore, June 2014 marked a full year of consecutive growth for the airline and the third consecutive month of growth in excess of 30%. Passenger numbers at Shannon Airport were up 29% in June while overall, across the entire network, traffic was up by 26% for the first half of 2014 when compared to the first half of 2013. Aer Lingus Regional’s services to Bristol from Shannon, Dublin and Cork experienced record growth in June, due mainly to the Glastonbury Festival. The Aer Lingus Regional Bristol services experienced passenger growth of 66% in June, compared with the same period last year. Commenting on the month’s successes, Simon Fagan, Chief Commercial Officer, Stobart Air, said: “June 2014 was a monumental month for …

ROAD deaths in Clare have seen an 83% reduction since 2007. This places Clare in the top five counties in terms of the reduction in road deaths. The first year-on-year increase in the number of fatalities since 2005 came in 2013 and has been revealed in a recently published report by the Road Safety Authority (RSA). The publication looks at the number of road deaths in each county in Ireland, from 2007 to 2013, which placed County Clare in the top five safest counties, with the fewest number of fatalities. The report, entitled 2007 To 2013 Road Traffic Deaths by User Type and County, highlights the reductions in road fatalities in Clare between 2007 and 2013. However, while this statistic is a step in the right direction, tragically, since 2007, 23 drivers, three motorcyclists, two cyclists and eight pedestrians have been killed on roads in the county. Commenting on the report, Clare’s Chief Superintendent, John Kerin, said while the statistics …

FIGURES  just released by the SIMI (Society of the Irish Motor Industry) show that so far this year, new car sales in Clare are up by 35%. Nationally, sales are up 28%. The confidence evident in January has continued into February with a 21% increase in car sales. The light commercial vehicle market, which is a good sign of activity in the SME sector, saw an increase in sales of 41% in February with sales of Heavy Goods Vehicles, often a barometer of activity in the wider Economy, seeing a 68% increase. Alan Nolan, SIMI Director General commented “The Motor Industry is often the first to be affected when there’s a downturn and one of the first to come back when the economy improves. Dealers are undoubtedly seeing a lot more confidence among consumers, many of whom have been putting off making large purchases over the last few years. Feedback from dealers confirms that footfall and sales enquiries are holding …

MICROBIOLOGICAL compliance in Clare County Council’s public water supplies was 100% for the third successive year in 2012, according to a new report by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The report, entitled “The Provision and Quality of Drinking Water in Ireland: A Report for the Year 2012”, also shows Clare’s chemical compliance levels to be amongst the highest in the country at 99.2%. The EPA also featured a summary of boil water notices and water restriction notices active or issued to consumers by Clare County Council during 2012. One water restriction notice, affecting approximately 80 customers of the Ennis Public Water Supply, remained active at the end of 2012 while no new boil water notices were issued during the year. Clare County Council is responsible for the operation of 21 Public Water Supplies serving a population of 79,913. The EPA is the supervisory authority over public drinking water supplies and provides powers of enforcement to ensure actions are taken where …

UNITED Airlines have announced they will run services between Shannon and Chicago again next year but there will be 88% more capacity on the route in 2014. They started a Shannon-Chicago service this summer, after a number of years without any link to the Windy City, and this week a spokesman said things had gone very well, leading to the decision to increase the amount of capacity next year. The majority of those using the service are Americans and the decision to renew and extend the route will provide a boost to Clare tourism interests. On Wednesday, United managing director sales for Britain and Ireland, Bob Schumacher lauded the 2013 performance. “We are not only returning but returning with a lot more seats on the market and we’re extending the season from mid-May to mid-September. That’s all systems go. We’re very pleased with how it’s performed this year and looking forward to something similar next year.” While declining to give …

Occurrences of contamination of public water supplies in Clare with the potentially dangerous E.coli bacteria is down by almost 90% since 2005, according to a report released by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). EPA regional inspector Niall Dunne pinpointed the drop in the level of E.coli contamination to “better management, processes, monitoring, treatment and disinfection by Clare County Council”.The report also shows that drinking water in Clare achieved 100% compliance in microbiological parameters, the same as it was in 2010, and 100% compliance with chemical parameters, which is also an increase in quality compared with 99.1% two years ago. However, Mr Dunne cautioned that while there have been improvements in the quality of drinking water from private supplies, “it remains inferior to that from public supplies”. Contaminated private well water, he admitted, “is a growing cause for concern”.“It is great news for people in Clare that the number of occurrences of E.coli in public supplies is down by almost 90% …

SHANNON’S passenger numbers dipped by 14% last year to just 1,394,781, most of the decline due to less use of the airport by the US military.The last time passenger numbers dipped to such a level was in 1988.