Clare says yes

IN keeping with the national trend, Clare said yes to last Saturday’s Children Referendum, giving an endorsement to the Government to substitute an existing article in the Constitution with a new one.

 

Despite huge political weight behind the yes campaign, there was a great degree of apathy at the polls, with some suggesting the court judgement the week of the election had impacted on the turnout and the final result.

What isn’t open to conjecture is the fact that less than one-third of the Clare electorate voted, with over 60% of those who cast their vote in favour of the amendment.

The eligible electorate in Clare last Saturday was 79,905. However, just 25,808 or 32.3% of those voted. There were 94 invalid papers, leaving a total valid poll of 25,714. Some 15,868 (61.71%) voted in favour, with 9,846 (38.29%) against.

The vote in Clare was proportionately lower than for the country as a whole, even though the national turnout was just 33.49%. The size of the yes vote in Clare was also higher than in most constituencies, as the national yes vote was 58%.

Naturally, Clare’s public representatives in Government have described the result as good for the welfare of children.

In the words of Deputy Joe Carey, “We now have a Constitutional framework around which we can construct a better society for our children and ensure that never again will children be systematically abused and neglected in silence. Our children should be both seen and heard and this yes vote ensures that the apparatus of the State will be compelled to do both.”

Deputy Pat Breen also welcomed the outcome and said he was pleased with the Clare vote. He remarked, “This referendum was one of the most important ever put before the people and while I am disappointed with the low turnout, the overwhelming number of voters in Clare who did come out and vote, supported the referendum.

“The yes vote in Clare was one of the highest achieved in the country and the passage of the referendum is another major step in ensuring our legislative structure supports and protects our children. It ensures a more child-centred approach is taken so the best interests of the child are taken into account when decisions are being made about their welfare.”

Driving a hard bargain

TIME was when Clare tourism interests didn’t have to drive a hard bargain.

Affluence abounded and with an international gateway at its doorstep, the Banner County, in all its lustre, had a magnetic effect. People in their droves hopped off their flights at Shannon Airport, anxious to savour the delights of Clare. They weren’t left disappointed.

The product has evolved and been greatly enhanced over the years and tourism is now the lifeline of many towns and villages. Now, however, with the economy in dire straits, those with a vested interest in the industry have been heading in a different direction, promoting their business like never before at international trade fairs and holiday shows.

Tourism, Ireland’s largest indigenous industry, has become a hard sell. People want extraordinary value for their buck, pound and euro and specific long-term marketing has become an integral part of the business. The industry has become ultra competitive, it’s everyone for themselves.

However, where the Irish Hotels Federation is united is in its demands for Government action in the forthcoming budget. They want decisive action to ensure tourism achieves a sustained recovery and lives up to its potential to act as a major engine for growth and job creation in the wider economy.

In its pre-budget submission, the IHF has called on the Minster for Finance, Michael Noonan to introduce measures to improve tourism competitiveness, enable more effective marketing of Irish tourism and restore financial stability to the hotels sector, which employs more than 50,000 people directly across every county.

With overseas visitor numbers down almost 3% this year to date, declining visitor numbers, particularly from the British market, underscores the challenges faced in promoting Ireland as an attractive tourist destination.

With its wish list, the IHF is demanding that the 9% tourism VAT rates be retained to 2014, that current levels of funding for Fáilte Ireland and Tourism Ireland are retained, that measures to improve access to equity finance in the hotels sector are introduced, that a bank for reconstruction and development directed at the SME sector is established, that the proposed statutory sick pay scheme is abandoned and that local authority rates are cut by 30% for hotels.

The latter should be a given. The IHF is seeking interim provisions in Budget 2013 for a 30% reduction in local authority rates applicable to hotels and guesthouses until such time as properties have had their rateable valuations revised as provided for in the Valuation Act 2001.

The system of local authority funding is based on an antiquated taxation system of commercial rates that sees local authorities extract taxes relative to the size of premises, without sufficient recourse to the profitability of the business operating in that property. These excessive charges are crippling hotels and guesthouses across the country.

Tourism may be Ireland’s largest indigenous industry accounting for 11% of total employment in the country, but it isn’t immune to the worsened business environment since the economic downturn. However, the reality is that what they want they may not get.