News

APPROXIMATELY €1 million in planning contributions lodged by developers to Clare County Council will have to be returned because the development will not be built, it emerged this week.Commenting on the annual financial statement for 2010, Councillor Brian Meaney asked at a local authority meeting on Monday how much the county council expected to pay back developers where planning permission for developments is no longer to be implemented.Under the terms of most planning permissions, a developer has to pay the local authority a number of different planning contributions for water and sewerage work before construction work starts on the first phase of the development. However, a developer also has the right to apply for a development contribution refund if no longer in a position to proceed with the development.Director of services, Nora Kaye, confirmed the council estimated in the region of €1m still had to be refunded to property developers.Earlier in the meeting, county manager Tom Coughlan revealed the council …

MAYOR of Clare, Councillor Christy Curtin is on a collision course with the National Roads Authority (NRA) over its failure to adequately deal with the vandalism of signs on national roads.Councillor Curtin accused the NRA of ignoring a series of letters and requests for action to be taken on the defacement of road signs in North and West Clare at a local authority meeting on Monday.“There has been defacing and vandalism of signs throughout the county. I saw a lot of it before the last General Election.“I have been continually raising the vandalism of signs with the NRA over the last 12 months and they have not got back to me once,” he said.He suggested an audit of road signs should be conducted throughout the county to facilitate an upgrading and maintenance of direction signposts on national primary and secondary roads in the county. Councillor Joe Arkins expressed concern about the misspellings on new road signs recently provided by the …

A MARCH of Warriors to the Phoenix Park on Easter Sunday, April 20, 2014, is being proposed by a new committee as one of the special events to commemorate the 1,000th anniversary of a former High King of Ireland.Organised by a nationally recognised charity, “warriors” would depart from several venues around the country and travel to the Phoenix Park, where they would spend the night with the assistance of the army and civil defence. On Easter Monday, April 21, the “warriors” will march from Phoenix Park to Clontarf under their respective banners, including members of the O’Brien clan from around the world, with the help of Machnas, live bands and bodhrans as part of a truly great spectacle, before participating in a full programme of events organised by Clontarf 2014.This is one of the plans for a major national Brian Boru festival with international tourism potential, which has been unveiled by a new committee in Killaloe/Ballina. The committee is celebrating …

SHANNON Town Councillor Sean McLoughlin will go forward to the Fine Gael county convention for co-option to the Clare County Council seat held by newly elected Senator Tony Mulcahy.Councillor McLoughlin was nominated by the Shannon branch of the party earlier this week, while Vincent Colman was nominated to go forward for selection to take over Senator Mulcahy’s seat on Shannon Town Council.“It was the overwhelming view of the meeting that Councillor McLoughlin is the best candidate to continue the work done by Senator Mulcahy. “Vincent Coleman is a young man who was reared in this town. He has been very active with his residents’ association and no doubt will be an asset to Shannon Town Council,” said Anne Curley, Fine Gael branch secretary.Senator Mulcahy said he was delighted that two strong candidates, who are both long-time colleagues and friends, are being proposed by the branch.Meanwhile, in North Clare, further names are emerging in the race to succeed Senator Martin Conway …

A radical review of the calculation of commercial rates for businesses is urgently needed to prevent further job losses in the county, local councillors have warned.Councillor Patricia McCarthy proposed that a new system of assessing commercial rates be introduced, as ratepayers couldn’t afford to keep contributing and deemed the current system to be “unfair”.She told a county council meeting on Monday that some of the commercial rates for businesses in the county were applied when property values were very high, which is no longer the case.She expressed concern about the alleged application of upward-only commercial rates reviews and the proposed introduction of the centralisation of public procurement for local authorities.In the past, she said some of the county’s ratepayers were able to tender for the supply of goods and products for the council. However, she warned that this would no longer be the case if this service is centralised as some of the contracts could be too big for local …

Calls were made at an Ennis West Electoral area meeting to issue an urgent appeal to the National Roads Authority to implement safety measures on the N85 at Kilnamona following a collison there last Thursday. Councillor James Breen told members that it was “lucky there wasn’t a loss of life” in relation to the single vehicle incident which occurred on a stretch of road by the pitch and putt course in Kilnamona. The incident saw a car leave the road and drop a number of feet into the Shallee River. The sole occupant of the car was uninjured.  On Monday, Councillor Breen asked the Ennis West Committee to issue an “urgent appeal to the NRA to come up with funding before there is a loss of life. This drop is on a busy road and it is deadly dangerous”. Eamon O’Dea, senior executive engineer, explained that funding had been allocated for another section of the same road. He said that …

ON Tuesday, Ennis Chamber launched their second annual FBD Business Excellence Awards.The objective is to highlight examples of business excellence and to acknowledge the talent, dynamism and innovation to be found across the county.The FBD Clare Business Excellence Awards provide an opportunity for the local business community to promote themselves by entering one or more or the award categories.“At a time when many businesses are trying to survive, it is important to focus on the positive stories of what businesses are doing to succeed,” Ennis Chamber president John Dillane commented. “The awards give local businesses an opportunity to showcase their strengths and successes, as well as promoting Clare as an attractive place for investment and to do business. The awards benchmark the industrial, retail and service base in the county to a standard of excellence,” he added. The launch, in the Cloister Bar and Restaurant, was attended by the awards sponsor FBD as well as the sponsors of the categories …

The effect of halving of the lower rate of employer PRSI will be “immense”, a Clare business organisation claimed this week. “The reduction in the lower rate of PRSI is welcome, particularly at entry level for employers to employ more people. The net effect of having someone in employment even at the lower rate for the local economy is immense. “You have someone who is not on the dole, who has spending power, who has security and who has confidence. The knock-on effect is that there is a feel-good factor in creating employment and announcing jobs and that has its own effect in generating consumer confidence in the economy,” Rita McInerney, CEO of Ennis Chamber, told The Clare Champion. Ms McInerney also welcomed the retention of the 12.5% corporation tax rate, saying that the impact of foreign direct investment is felt across the whole economy. “The commitment to the 12.5% corporation tax rate is to be welcomed because in order …