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FIGURES released last week show that 2,452 Personal Public Services Numbers (PPSN) have been issued to Ukrainians in Clare, but the numbe of arrivals here may actually be much higher. Orla Ní Éilí of the Clare Immigrant Support Centre said, “We’re a bit confused by the numbers, they’re based on PPS numbers, which people have to have. “But we can tell you in the hotels there are around 2,500 people at this stage and out in the community there are a lot more. We would say that Clare has had 10% of arrivals from the word go.” Should that be the case, then there would be approximately 3,500 Ukrainian refugees in the county. Ms Ní Éilí said that many people are still coming, with around 26 arriving on one day last week alone. Clare Immigrant Support Centre has never had to deal with a situation like this, with so many people arriving at one time, she said, while noting that …

A FORMER Bus Eireann inspector from Killaloe has driven to the top of Clare County Council. Councillor Tony O’Brien was elected unopposed as Clare’s next first citizen without a vote as part of the power-sharing arrangement that was first brokered in 2004 at the annual general meeting in Ennis on Friday. The former Smith O’Brien GAA club secretary replaced Councillor PJ Ryan, who was lauded for being a great ambassador for the county over the past year. Councillor O’Brien was proposed by his Fianna Fáil colleague, Councillor Pat Hayes and seconded by Joe Cooney, Fine Gael, while Councillor Gerry Flynn, Independent also expressed his support. Councillor Hayes said his close friend Councillor O’Brien’s years working as a union official for the National Bus and Rail Union (NBRU) has left him very grounded in reality of how things worked. Since his retirement from Bus Eireann, the new first citizen is challenging planning, housing and budgets in the council, Councillor Hayes said. …

All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship Semi Final Clare 0-20 Kilkenny 2-26 A disappointing opening half display saw Clare bow out of the All-Ireland Championship as a ravenous Kilkenny proved too much to handle, reports Ivan Smyth. In a first half where little went as planned for Clare, they gave themselves a proverbial mountain to climb when trailing 1-17 to 0-6 at half time. With John Conlon missing out through injury, the Clonlara’s man experience was sorely missed. The Clare defence held up reasonably well but the Clare attack misfired during the damaging opening half as they struck 11 wides and only six points. In what was only his fifth game in Croke Park with the Clare senior team, Tony Kelly was expertly marshalled by the tigerish Mikey Butler. Kelly was kept scoreless from play while Peter Duggan also held to just a solitary point from a free. With Banner hopes high after the rousing come from behind win over Wexford plus …

CLARE County Council passed a motion calling for a change in national aviation policy at its June meeting. It was proposed by Fine Gael’s John Crowe who said that Dublin’s dominance needs to be lessened. “As it stands Dublin can’t cope with the volume of passengers that it has.” With Dublin having almost 33 million passengers in the year before the pandemic began, Councillor Crowe said there is plenty of scope for growth at Shannon. “What would 10% extra do for Shannon? Balanced regional development, that’s what it’s all about.” In recent years he said that 24 out of every 25 extra passengers to Ireland have come through Dublin, which he said is not sustainable, while the Sixmilebridge man said other countries have dealt with similar problems. “In other EU countries where there was an overconcentration on one airport, steps were taken by Government to push connectivity at the regional airports, which has worked in many countries. This is our …

A WARNING has been issued by the founder of the Clare Pyrite Action Group (CPAG) that defective blocks may be present in every county in Ireland. Addressing the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing last week, Dr Martina Cleary urged members to address the possibility that problems may come to light in many other counties. “I will tell the eminent members of the committee that this problem may not yet be in their counties but it is coming,” she said. “We currently know of defective concrete blocks, or suspicions of same, in 12 counties along the western and eastern seaboards. It is likely a problem in every county. “The decisions the committee comes to and the recommendations it makes will be instrumental in influencing how this crisis plays out among members’ constituents, neighbours, friends and family. “They may have defective concrete blocks in their homes and do not realise it. Do not let the situation play out elsewhere as it did …

CLARE County Council is coming under pressure to lead a multi-agency approach to tackle persistent anti-social behaviour after Ennis residents outlined their experiences of “neighbours from hell” for almost seven years. Councillor Johnny Flynn, Ennis Mayor, Clare Colleran-Molloy and Councillor Mary Howard have called for a multi-agency approach involving the council, Tusla, Clare Gardai, councillors, and residents to evict local authority tenants who are causing havoc in estates. Their call came after hearing a litany of complaints from frustrated residents who claimed they were “living in fear” and were “prisoners in their own homes” at a residents’ meeting on Monday night, which was also attended by Councillor Paul Murphy and Councillor Mark Nestor. One resident in the affected Ennis estate described Family A as the “neighbours from hell”. She has asked to remain anonymous and for the estate to remain unnamed due to residents’ fear of a reprisal. “We are living in fear. There is intimidation, verbal abuse and physical …

AT the monthly meeting of Clare County Council the local authority endorsed proposals from the Independent Post Masters Group, which would see community banking rolled out across the An Post network of post offices. Fianna Fáil’s PJ Kelly sought the backing of the members, saying that community banking in post offices has already been rolled out in other countries. “I’m not saying that the post office of yesterday or the post office of today should be the post office of tomorrow. No. The future post office will have to be a totally different item. It will have to be a community post office integrated with other services. “In recent times we’ve seen post offices in big shops and so on and so forth, a wonderful solution, but this goes further. It references something that is a success in other countries, community banking, in Germany and in New Zealand.” He said that under the community banking model in other countries, people …

THE population of Clare has increased by 40% in a generation, preliminary figures from Census 2022 have revealed. Figures published from this year’s census found that Clare’s 2022 population is 127,419, up by 7.2% on 2016. It is slightly less than the 7.6% increase in population for the Republic as a whole, but represents a substantial increase from the census of 1991, one generation ago. That year, Clare’s population was just 90,918, which was a slight drop from the previous census, but every one held since has seen an increase. Clare now has an extra 36,517 living within its borders than it did then, an increase of 40%.  The increased population has been reflected in a number of capacity issues seen in the county in recent years, with health services, schools and housing struggling to keep up with the pressure from the rise in residents. Since the last census in the 2016 the population has gone up by 8,602. There …