Tag Archives: clare county council

CLARE County Council doesn’t intend to pursue an enforcement notice issued about the alleged unauthorised development of a mobile home near Tuamgraney following legal advice, according to a complainant. Duncan Young, who lived in Ballymalone, Tuamgraney, for a few years before moving to Shinrone in County Offaly has expressed his frustration spending almost five and a half years making complaints and representations to the council about the provision of appropriate accommodation for two elderly sisters. Mr Young recalled he first alerted Clare County Council in June 2017 about the siting of a mobile home, which was approved and paid by the council’s housing section to accommodate the Moloney sisters, Breda and Margaret after their farmhouse was deemed uninhabitable. Following countless phone calls and emails to the council over the last five years Mr Young was told: “I wish to advise you that the planning authority has conducted a review of file UD17-055 and sought legal advice on same. “Please be …

An EAST Clare woman, who is living in deplorable living conditions without any central heating, electricity or running water in her mobile home, has vowed to challenge an enforcement notice about her accommodation in the “District, Circuit or High Court”. Clare County Council has been accused of breaking its own rules after the planning section confirmed it doesn’t wish to take any further action concerning an enforcement notice issued on December 11, 2017 relating to the alleged “unauthorised storage of two mobile homes, one caravan and ancillary services” by its own housing department at Ballymalone, Tuamgraney. Duncan Young, who has lived in Ballymalone for some years and complained about this planning crux, believes the council has now set a new precedent by allowing a person to live in a mobile home allegedly without any planning permission for the last five years, which could be replicated by others in Clare. A council spokesman said: “As this remains an open and ongoing …

DESPITE much speculation that there could be progress on the transfer of Shannon Heritage to Clare County Council pre-Christmas, it hasn’t happened as mid-January approaches. Clare TD Joe Carey this week said that no progress has been made as of yet. “It’s still where it was, they are trying to come up with a package to get it over the line with the Council,” . The lead department is the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, which is under the stewardship of Darragh O’Brien. It does involve other departments too, but that’s the main one. There have been efforts to get this over the line, but they have been unsuccessful.” He called for a new impetus to resolve the matter. “I have spoken to all the stakeholders in this repeatedly and we need a resolution for the tourism offering in the county. With the New Year I think there should be a new concentration of minds to get this …

NATIONAL policy is the biggest factor holding back the development of rural Clare, in the view of Council CEO, Pat Dowling.  Speaking at the January meeting of the local authority, Mr Dowling commended the work and commitment of Clare’s councillors and executive, but said rural development would remain “a lonely road” unless there is greater support from central government. Mr Dowling made his comments on foot of a motion from Councillor Joe Garrihy calling for a review of the Council’s “commitment to focus on and resourcing of Rural Development”. There was widespread support for Councillor Garrihy’s comments on rural development and his assertion that Clare’s strategy document represented “a landmark and trailblazing initiative”.  Commenting on what he said was a “very balanced” motion, Mr Dowling said Council staff were dedicated to rural development. He noted that significant government funding had been successfully drawn down and that there was a positive relationship with local communities.  “But I still look at our …

CLARE’S Dáil and Seanad members have been urged to back the re-opening of the region’s smaller Emergency Departments, even if it means going against the wishes of their parties. Normal business of this week’s meeting of Clare County Council was deferred for a time to discuss an emergency motion on the ED crisis. On behalf of Fine Gael, Councillor Joe Cooney proposed the urgent motion in light of the “ongoing crisis” at University Hospital Limerick (UHL). He called on on the HSE and the Minister for Health “to immediately open Ennis, Nenagh and St John’s as full Accident and Emergency Departments on a full-time basis, 24 hours, seven days a week”. “We call on all Oireachtas members in the Midwest region to support and work for same,” he said.  Councillor Mary Howard, a member of the HSE’s Regional Health Forum West, urged Oireachtas members to implement the motion, even if it meant losing the party whip.  “Today there are 489 …

FAKE news and rumours pose a huge threat to the stability of communities hosting those fleeing Ukraine and other war-torn regions, a number of Clare councillors have warned. The issue of far right propaganda and its impact on communities accommodating refugees and asylum seekers was raised by North Clare’s Councillor Joe Garrihy during a discussion of supports for rural Ireland. The Lisdoonvarna man described as “very worrying” the gap between communities on the ground who are the “frontline”, and the supports being provided by government. The Fine Gael member described the impact of the pandemic as “seismic” and that communities were now being called on in another crisis situation.  “Now, we’re affected and responding to the largest humanitarian response that the country has ever seen in the history of the State,” he said. He added that while all of the community development guidelines advised working from the ground up, this was a challenge in the current situation. “Through the humanitarian …

A PARENT with a sick child was asked to wait in a janitor’s cupboard when they attended Shannondoc out-of-hours GP services over the Christmas period, the January meeting of Clare County Council was told.  The claims were made by Councillor Donna McGettigan who told the meeting of a catalogue of complaints she received over the holiday period. She said that a woman who had no car to wait in until her child saw a doctor was put into the cupboard to wait with her six-year-old.   “Most people understand that when you’re busy, you’re busy,” Councillor McGettigan said, “but the reply we got from Shannondoc, there’s no apology in it. People are saying there’s no accountability there for this. They way people are being treated during this period was absolutely disgusting. They need to stop being reactionary and start forward planning. The dogs in the street knew coming into this we were going to have serious issues.” Councillor McGettigan’s motion called …

The rate of reversal of planning permission decisions by Clare County Council is far higher than the national average according to the annual report of the Office of the Planning Regulator. In its Annual Overview of the Planning System 2021 it found that 4.4% of the decisions made by the Council were appealed, and of these 46.7% were reversed; the national average was just 27.7%. Another notable figure from the report was the finding that Clare County Council had a total of 164 sites designated as vacant and/or derelict; this contrasted with a figure from the Central Statistics Office for the county of 6,104. The report also showed that in 2021, 94% of planning applications were approved by Clare County Council, with just 6% refused. Clare County Council approved 1,157 applications during the year, with just 68 refused. The Clare approval rate is considerably higher than the national one, which is 88.5%. Commenting on the findings, Planning Regulator, Niall Cussen …