One-fifth of drivers have points

More than one-fifth of all drivers in Clare had penalty points last year, a new report has shown.

The percentage of people living here with penalty points on their driving license is third highest in the country after Kildare and Wicklow, according to the Regional Quality of Life in Ireland Report, published by the CSO.
Of drivers in Clare, 20.9% had current penalty points last year, the same percentage as Meath. In Kildare, the percentage was 23.1% and in Wicklow it was 23%. This means that more than 15,500 drivers in Clare had current penalty points in 2012.

One of the most striking statistics in the report relates to disposable income of people living in the county, lagging more than €3,600 below the amount of disposable income enjoyed by people in Dublin. It shows Clare’s disposable income per person at €18,111, more than 16% behind the Dublin figure of €21,575.

According to MEP for Ireland North West, Marian Harkin, the report “underlines the failure of the spatial strategy policies of successive governments”.
Ms Harkin described the CSO income and vacant housing statistics as particularly indicative of the failure to close the economic and social gap between regions.
“The BMW region, as a whole, has continued to lag behind other regions in relation to disposable income per head, which sees the Dublin figure at €21,575, the Border at €17,374, Midlands €17,133 and West at €18,495,” she said.

“County Clare, at a disposable income per person of €18,111, is 2.6% down on the previous index and is at index 93.8 compared with the state average of 100 and a Dublin figure of 111.4. An indication of the continued economic gap between regions is also a reflected in the vacant houses index.  This shows the BMW region at 21%, the Midlands at 14% and the West at 20.3%.”

In Clare, one in five homes is empty, resulting in a housing vacancy rate of 21.2%.
“In many comparisons, there is evidence that current Government policies are not closing the economic gap between regions and, despite current national economic problems, the Government has a duty to significantly reduce the current disparity, which discriminates substantially between  the different parts of our country,” Ms Harkin concluded.