Regional

CLARE County Council are set to spend more than €7 million (before VAT) on building affordable housing in Cluain Airne and, despite the ongoing correction in the property market, they expect the scheme to sell out.At this week’s meeting of Shannon Town Council, Councillor Cathy McCafferty put forward a motion asking for the unit cost of an affordable home at the site. In response, town manager Bernadette Kinsella said, “The contract construction prices is €7,005,236.59, exclusive of VAT, for the total scheme of 60 houses. This figure will be adjusted to reflect the type of house and to include consultants’ fees, legal fees and any other associated costs to arrive at a final unit cost.”She said that 135 applicants have sought affordable housing in the scheme. “Having regard to the existing database and current enquiries, it is expected that the number of qualifying applicants will exceed the number of units available.”Councillor McCafferty said that there is already “an abundance of …

THE introduction of water charges should be strongly resisted, possibly through civil disobedience, according to Councillor Gerry Flynn.The Independent TD said that the Irish people are too compliant and that it may be a legacy of centuries of oppression. “Maybe it comes from hundreds of years of British rule, that we go along with whatever our lords and masters in Dublin tell us.”He said that John Gormley should be told to “shove it where he likes to shove it” and to “go off in his green machine somewhere else”.Councillor Michael Fleming also voiced his opposition to water charges. “I think it’s ridiculous, a lot of senior citizens will be affected,” he said.While Councillor Tony McMahon said that he agreed with the concept of metered charging, it couldn’t possibly be introduced, given the amount of water that is lost. “Forty to 50% of water is being lost and it’s ridiculous to impose charges on the public.”He said that the public already …

CLARE County Council has described the planned development of the Sweeney Memorial Library in Kilkee as at the “brief development stage”.The long-term plan is to redevelop the library into an enhanced library and theatre. “This stage is about formulating requirements, objectives and accommodation and working with ideas ahead of the formal appointment of a design team,” county librarian Helen Walsh explained in a written reply to Councillor Gabriel Keating at the January meeting of Kilrush area county councillors in Labasheeda. The completed building will consist of two floors, accessible through lifts. The theatre will incorporate proposed seating for 100 people and it will include a facility for showing films. Further consultations are to be sought from the public through the arts forum, arts@clarelibrary.ie, while postal submissions will also be accepted by the County Arts Office in Ennis. However the reply didn’t contain any information with regard to when the redevelopment work is likely to take place.

BUS Éireann will halve its service between Miltown Malbay and Ennis from Sunday, February 28.Currently, Bus Éireann operates two departures a day in each direction with an extra departure from Ennis on Fridays only. The change will result in one less departure each way.In a statement, Bus Éireann said that the implementation of changes to services with low customer support, under its cost recovery plan as recommended by the Labour Court, will start at the end of this month. Changes to conditions of employment and other cost reduction measures under the cost recovery plan have already begun.Fine Gael TD Pat Breen has warned that other Clare rural bus services could face the axe.“This news does not bode well for other towns and villages in County Clare. The reality is that while Bus Éireann passenger numbers have fallen by 10%, the first services to fall victim to the company’s cost-cutting measures are rural services,” he pointed out.

APPROXIMATELY 800 walkers and runners made the eight-mile journey, from Kilrush to Kilkee, last Sunday. The 12th annual West Clare Mini Marathon, which has raised more than €1 million towards cancer care since 1998, also attracted sizeable crowds on the route and a huge crowd at Kilkee, where the event culminated. The walkers left Regina House on the Cooraclare Road in Kilrush at 1pm, while the runners departed at 2pm. While the weather was excellent, the biting easterly breeze kept all participants fairly cool as they made their way west. All of the money raised will be put towards cancer care in the county, with significant funding again due to be made available to the palliative care units in Regina House and Ennistymon Community Hospital. Counselling, a taxi service for treatment to anywhere in the country and an office in Kilkee will also be funded from the proceeds. Some of the services will be available from the office, which is …

A group of Kinvara musicians will bring a taste of the Americas to the South Galway village on St Valentine’s weekend.Kinvara Area Music Collective is holding this year’s Mardi Gras at the Kinvara Community Centre on Saturday, February 13.Every year, KAM throws a Mardi Gras party to celebrate its birthday, as a community event with music, dancing, food, drink and optional fancy dress to raise funds for a local cause. This year’s party is again a charity event, featuring three live bands and all proceeds will go to South Galway Flood Relief and the Gort Family Resource Centre.While the traditional Mardi Gras originated in New Orleans, KAM are finding ways to make it their own. The event starts at 8pm.“Last year’s event was a great success with five bands, Louisiana chicken gumbo, face painting, a licensed bar and lots of dancing. “This year we aim to carry on that good-time carnival tradition, with three live bands, with the emphasis firmly …

Roads in South Galway are in an “atrocious condition” according to a local Fianna Fáil councillor and while he welcomed the funding allocated by the Department of Transport for the county’s roads earlier this week, Councillor Gerry Finnerty felt it could have been approved sooner.The department announced on Monday that the funding allocated to Galway County Council for road improvement and repair exceeded that of any other local authority.It allocated nearly €179 million to road improvement and repair in the county for the year 2010.“In all of South Galway the roads are in an atrocious condition. You are driving along and you can see where the roads are boiled up and on that boil you can see clay, muck, gravel, sand and stone,” Councillor Finnerty explained.“In this day and age when you have NCT tests and car tax and people are having to pay for all that, they deserve roads in good condition. The amount of damage done to cars …

North Clare county councillors have asked officials to look into stockpiling grit at various public locations and compiling a database of volunteers ready to help out in a crisis in an effort to stop the area being crippled by extreme weather.Of the 15 motions proposed by councillor at the recent North Clare Area meeting, 11 related to the conditions of roads. The majority of the motions arose from three weeks of freezing conditions in late December and early January following on from severe flooding in many places beginning in late November.The acting senior executive engineer at the Ennistymon Area Office, Stephen Lahiffe, in a written response to one motion, acknowledged “all minor roads in the North Clare area were affected, to some extent, by the severe weather over the December, January period”.Fine Gael Councillor Joe Arkins and Fianna Fáil’s Richard Nagle were both eager to see small grit dumps at critical locations to facilitate access in any further freeze up.Councillor …