Economic taskforce report still not published

CLARE County Council has been criticised for not ensuring that the findings of a West Clare Economic Task Force review, which was held on September 14, 2012, has not yet been made public.

At Monday’s Kilrush Electoral Area meeting, the county council said a sizeable workload had prevented the local authority from finalising and publishing the report.

Following a proposal from Councillor Pat Keane, the West Clare Economic Task Force was established in January 2008, while a sub-committee was established in October 2009.

This group was chaired by Councillor Christy Curtin and included Nora Kaye, Clare County Council; and John Keogh, Shannon Development. Subsequently, almost 100 people attended seven idea-generating sessions, before the ideas presented were eventually whittled down to six.

However, it emerged at the February electoral area meeting that the taskforce had not created a single job and is likely to be disbanded.

“We had a full day of a taskforce review on September 14, 2012. I don’t know what has happened to the report. It hasn’t been made public. We all got a copy of it but I think it should be made public and I think we should join with the community and get on with phase two of the project,” Councillor Curtin urged at the February meeting.

“I’ll undertake to look into it and we’ll see what’s the story,” Councillor Chambers said at that meeting seven weeks ago.

However, it emerged at this week’s meeting that absolutely no progress has been made on publishing the report.

“We requested at the last electoral area meeting that it be made public. It’s important because we have to help the communities to get things moving. I think it was a very simple request.

“On September 14 we engaged in a half-day review of the West Clare Taskforce. We had a simple request the last day, that the findings be made public. My understanding is that it was adopted and that was it.

“We have the findings. They’re as clear as daylight. They should be put out to the public one way or the other. We’re protracting the whole issue as far as I’m concerned,” Councillor Curtin said on Monday.
Replying to Councillor Curtin, Cyril Feeney, Clare County Council, said lack of time and resources prevented the council from publishing the report.

“We just wanted to get it into a format suitable for publication for the general public. Until it’s in some format, Councillor, I think you’ll agree that what you have there is a very loose bullet-points draft of what was agreed at that meeting. We have to get that into a presentable format for the general public.

“At the minute with Famine commemorations and lots of other things being progressed, we just haven’t had the people to do that at the moment,” he pointed out.

“It’s important that the public know what we’re doing and that we’re not wasting our time. The public then will come back to us with their view on it and give us an assessment of how we can move forward,” Councillor Pat Keane said.

“It’s my understanding that that job of work is underway. It’s just a matter of getting it completed. There’s no objection to doing it.

“We’ll revert to Ger Dollard and convey the wishes of the meeting,” Kilrush town manager and director of services, Anne Haugh stated.

The West Clare Economic Task Force is comprised of several agencies in Clare, including Clare County Council, Kilrush Town Council, Kilkee Town Council, Shannon Development, Kilrush Chamber of Commerce, Kilkee Chamber of Commerce, Clare Local Development Company, FÁS, Clare County Enterprise Board, Clare Vocational Education Committee and Enterprise Ireland.

All six West Clare county councillors are also members.