Changing priorities in Kilrush

THE May 2008 meeting of Kilrush Town Council discussed the then apparently achievable plan of buying the dilapidated Inis Cathaigh Hotel and refurbishing it for use as civic offices at a projected cost of €5 million. At that meeting, Bernadette Kinsella, who was then the town manager, said she was pleased the establishment of the new civic offices, under discussion for a long time, was a step closer.

The town manager advised that the site had been jointly acquired by Kilrush Town Council and Clare County Council for €1.4m and that full site development costs could be in the region of €5m. She stated the development schedule might take place over the medium term. Nothing has happened since.
Four years later, the most any elected member of Kilrush Town Council can hope for is either the National Roads Authority or Clare County Council find the money to fill in the manifold potholes on Moore Street. The unkempt state of the street, once Kilrush’s economic centre, is aired at most monthly meetings of the town council.
A number of established business have shut their doors on the street in recent years including Nolan’s newsagents, the Mace shop (formerly Dunleavy’s), Lillis Travel and Clohessy’s Electrical.
Yet Kilrush is still a town that supports approximately 100 businesses in the vicinity of the town centre. In the region of 46 of these businesses are located in Frances Street or the town square, with approximately 40 small businesses in Henry Street. Place de Plouzane houses at least 10 businesses these days, although others opened and subsequently folded. Kilrush, and Cappa, is also home to 10 public houses.
Tesco and Aldi’s arrival on the Ennis road in the town has definitely affected the turnover of some small retail outlets in the town centre, yet conversely the multinationals have attracted more consumers to Kilrush. They also provide significant employment as do Billpost, Saint Gobain Plastics and the FÁS courses in Kilrush Youth Centre and the Vandeleur Walled Gardens.
Even in the teeth of a biting recession, the small businesses dotted around the town centre, the Ennis and Kilkee roads, employ a sizeable amount of people.
Kilrush Marina also attracts hundreds of visitors to the town each year.
However, there is no escaping the fact that the majority of students who sit their Leaving Certificate next month in Kilrush Community College, will not find employment in the town.
Of the 40 students who completed their Leaving Cert in 1991 at the then Kilrush CBS, at most five currently live or work in Kilrush. This group are now in their mid to late 30s but most have not been able to settle in Kilrush, primarily due to a lack of appropriate work opportunities.
The latest CSO figures revealed that there are now 1,458 people on the Live Register in the town. Gerry O’Malley, Kilrush postmaster, chairman of Kilrush Credit Union and chairman of the FÁS scheme at the Vandeleur Walled Gardens, is in a good position to comment. He says people who were never previously unemployed are now collecting social welfare at Kilrush Post Office.
“The middle of ’09 to the middle of ’10 was the biggest increase. We would have seen a 20 % increase here anyway,” he told The Clare Champion.
“People who worked all their lives since school, hard workers and good grafters, all of a sudden the rug was pulled out from under them. That’s tough on them. A lot of people would have built houses and obviously have to pay for them. I feel sorry for people starting out now. Even if they can get the money, their prospects are bleak,” he added. In his role as Kilrush Credit Union chairman, Gerry O’Malley sees at first hand the impact the recession is having.
“People would have had several loans with us without any problem whatsoever. But in the last year, they have experienced a drop in income, whether social welfare or one person in the house losing their job or no overtime,” he said.
“We have tried to deal sympathetically with anyone that has come forward. We encourage people to come forward if they’re getting into difficulty rather than waiting and putting themselves under pressure. It’s a fact of life now and it’s nothing to be ashamed of. These are people we would have given money without any worries. But through no fault of their own, they’ve slipped into difficulty. We’ve seen members of the Credit Union running into difficulty. We’ve seen more and more of them coming forward to make new arrangements, which we’re happy to entertain,” Gerry O’Malley stressed.
When the ESB Moneypoint plant underwent a multi-million euro retrofit three years ago, employment was relatively plentiful in West Clare, while the rental market boomed in Kilrush and Cappa. Hundreds of workers from Poland, in particular, were employed in Moneypoint and lived locally. Kilrush experienced a mini boom, similar to that in the early 1980s when construction began at Moneypoint in 1979. Now, most of the Polish workers have gone home, leaving the once heaving rented houses and apartments empty.
“Generally speaking, regarding the places that have closed down here, those jobs haven’t been replaced. There are no new jobs in Kilrush. FÁS are one of the mainstays now as employers in Kilrush. I would think that if the Government doesn’t change its attitude as regards taxing people and letting the price of petrol rise, things will get worse. They’re not going to tax their way out of the recession. I’m old enough to remember the ’80s when we were paying 50 plus pence in the pound. Now you might have just one person in the house working when there were two. You have the social charge and the mortgage increase, which will tip a lot of people over the top,” Mr O’Malley predicted.
The civic offices 2008 debate is definitely well down the agenda in Kilrush these days.