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Gardaí are investigating a fatal road traffic collision that occurred this morning, Sunday 22nd October 2023 in Knockaveen, Clare. The collision occurred at approximately 8:55am and involved a car and a pedestrian. The pedestrian, a female in her 80s, was fatally injured. Her body has since been removed to the morgue at University Hospital Limerick where a post mortem examination is due to take place. There were no other injuries reported. The L8050 road at Knockaveen remains closed and local diversions are in place. A technical examination is being conducted by Forensic Collision Investigators. A Family Liaison Officer has been appointed to provide support to the family of the deceased. Gardaí in Scarriff are appealing to anyone who may have witnessed this collision to contact them. Any road users who were travelling in this area between 8:45am and 9:15am and may have camera footage (including dash-cam), are asked to make this available to Gardaí. Anyone with any information is asked to contact …

Small childcare providers are operating at a loss and are worse off under the new Government scheme, Deputy Violet Anne-Wynne (Ind) has warned. Sinn Féin Deputy Kathleen Funchion tabled a motion in the Dáil recently calling on the Government to cut childcare fees for families by two thirds from 2022 levels, to make them affordable for parents by further increasing public investment; and allocate additional funding to provide fair pay for professionals working in the childcare sector. Deputy Wynne welcomed a statement from Minister for Children, Roderick O’Gorman (GP) that more work needs to be done to improve childcare services, which she said couldn’t be overstated. Stating the investment in childcare is coming from a very low base, the Independent Deputy stressed the reform required is far bigger than last year’s expenditure. “Inflation has increased exponentially in the three-year period from May 2020 to May 2023 while the core funding has risen only by 6% in that period,” she said. …

A number of members of Clare County Council raised concerns about difficulties small local businesses may have in tendering for contracts to Designated Activity Companies run by the council. In a joint motion they called on the council’s chief executive Pat Dowling “to examine the impact on local businesses and suppliers of services who make rate contributions to the County budget and now find that the creation of Designated Activity Companies is having a negative impact on their business and placing them at a disadvantage in regards to the tendering regime for goods and services”. They also warned that the new situation “has the potential to impact on employment and the loss of jobs in County Clare and the possibility of companies going out of business.” Councillor Gerry Flynn (Ind) warned that “the small suppliers of services to Clare County Council for many years are now on the hind foot”. He said these businesses, rate payers in Clare, are at …

CLARE County Council have called on the Shannon Estuary Economic Taskforce to put the development of a deep sea port at Moneypoint at the top of its list of priorities. At a recent meeting of Clare County Council, Lissycasey’s PJ Ryan (Ind) criticised a recent report from the Taskforce. “The most important asset of the Shannon, Moneypoint as a future port, is not mentioned,” he said. He said that across Europe there is congestion at major ports such as Rotterdam and developing Moneypoint could be a huge success. “Moneypoint is the deepest potential port. It should be developed and stop the Mickey Mouse projects at the other side of the river,” he said. He said that Foynes would be “an irrelevance” to future shipping needs and he said Clare County Council has to “go back and insist that Moneypoint is top of the list.” He was supported by Fine Gael’s Johnny Flynn, who said that Moneypoint would have huge advantages …

The long running boil water notice for O’Brien’s Bridge has been removed this afternoon by Uisce Éireann. Uisce Éireann have confirmed that, following consultation with the Health Service Executive, customers can now resume normal use of the public water supply. The notice, which was issued eight weeks ago on August 25, was put in place to protect the health of customers due to an issue with disinfection at the water treatment plant. “Uisce Éireann’s primary focus remains the protection of public health and we worked with our stakeholders to lift the notice as quickly as possible. We are grateful to customers, elected representatives and the media for their assistance in sharing information on the boil water notice in recent weeks,” said Darragh Conneely of Uisce Éireann. Uisce Éireann is responsible for delivering public drinking water and wastewater services for the people of Ireland. We are committed to enabling communities to thrive by continuously upgrading and developing critical infrastructure to support …

Uisce Éireann is still unable to give a projected timeframe for when boil notices affecting the public water supply in Killaloe and O’Brien’s Bridge will be lifted. Frustration is growing in O’Brien’s Bridge where a boil notice was announced on August 25 and in Killaloe where it was applied on September 17. Local residents are still being advised to boil before preparing food, baby formula, drinking water or brushing their teeth. “We would like to assure customers supplied by the Killaloe Public Water Supply that we are working to lift the notice as quickly as possible,” said Darragh Conneely, Uisce Éireann’s Drinking Water Assets lead for Clare. “We are upgrading our chlorine systems and alarms at the water treatment plant. This will provide the plant with greater robustness and safeguard supply. We are also carrying water sample analysis in the network. “We appreciate the impact this is having on the community and we thank them for their patience as we …

Traffic will once again flow down O’Connell Street in Ennis later this month as Clare County Council ends the temporary pedestrianisation of the street. In a statement issued this afternoon, Friday, October 13, the local authority said the period of pedestrianisation will come to an end on October 22. Earlier this year, the council announced its intention to extend the action until January 7, 2024. Following this announcement, Clare County Council received more than 100 letters of objection from local business people and residents. “Temporary pedestrianisation measures currently in place for O’Connell Street, Ennis, will end on Sunday, October 22, at 4:30pm,” said a council spokesperson. “This is in line with the road closure notice advertised in February 2023. As outlined in this notice, these measures were intended to be in place until January 7, 2024, or until the O’Connell Street Public Realm works commenced, whichever date would fall first.”

All eyes will be on the Burren this Saturday evening as North Clare features on a new travel programme on Channel 4. Millions of viewers across Britain and Ireland are expected to tune in as Irish born presenter, Julia Bradbury, visits the farm of Cathal and Bronagh O’Rourke, owners of the Burren Farm Experience. Cathal’s family have farmed the land for generations and they explain why the rocky landscape of the Burren is so good for rearing cattle. Julia also goes foraging for berries in a little forest on the Boston farm and she sits down for a meal of Bronagh and Cathal’s beef and other local produce in the middle of the forest. The programme, which is called Julia Bradbury’s Irish Journey, is supported by Tourism Ireland. As part of the series Julia will explore Ireland’s spectacular landscape, rich culture and history and will try her hand at surfing, kayaking and traditional Irish cooking. “With a wide audience across …