Moore Street party delayed

A street party to mark the culmination of road works on Moore Street has been postponed until Saturday, December 17. It had been planned to hold the party this Saturday but delays in completing the work has put the party on hold. However, Kilrush town councillor and Moore Street businessperson Marian McMahon Jones has told The Clare Champion that business people understand the firm working on the road are doing their utmost to get the job done as soon as possible.
“They have run into one or two unforeseen delays but they have overcome them as quickly as possible. Business people do appreciate the fact they are working as quickly as they can. Come hail, rain or snow they are continuing to work. On a daily basis you can see huge progress being made,” the Fine Gael town councillor commented.
“The street party is going ahead on Saturday week so we’re hopeful the road will be completed by then,” she added. 
The maintenance and upgrade of Moore Street has been an issue in Kilrush for several years. Originally, work to repair the street had been due to start on Monday, October 10 and was to be completed by Friday, November 11. However, the work was delayed in starting and has since run beyond the new deadline, which was this Saturday. 
The street has been closed to traffic but open to pedestrians for the past number of weeks.
The June meeting of Kilrush Town Council heard that the work would cost up to €140,000 but the October meeting was told that figure had increased to more than the €250,000 figure approved by the National Roads Authority.
“It’s costing much more than we thought originally,” town manager Nora Kaye commented.
The meeting was also told the NRA had agreed to add a “significant” figure to the money they had already agreed to spend on the long-awaited maintenance of Moore Street.
In February 2010, Councillor Tom Prendeville likened Moore Street to The Deserted Village as depicted by Oliver Goldsmith.
Describing it as “desolate and deserted” Councillor Prendeville claimed 20 private houses in the street were empty, as were 20 commercial premises. He also said just two houses on the street have children under the age of 12 living in them and that the population has fallen from 500 people in the 1960s to just 95 at present.