One motion at Kilkee Town Council meeting

ALTHOUGH Kilkee Town Councillors had just one motion between them on the agenda for the January meeting of the council, the meeting heard that restricted time in December prevented them from forwarding more motions for their first monthly gathering of 2013.
“Just for the record, in case the word goes out that we’re sitting back and doing nothing and that’s why we’ve no motions, to have a motion in for today’s meeting we would have had to have it in by December 19,” Councillor Paddy Collins explained.
“It was only a week and a half after the last meeting,” he added.
The sole motion on the agenda was brought forward from the December meeting. It pertained to The Gathering and asked that Kilkee Town Council invite members of Kilkee Chamber of Commerce to have a discussion on the Kilkee Gathering.  It was forwarded by Councillor Michael ‘Hopper’ McGrath, who admitted that he hadn’t spoken to anybody about the motion since it was first put forward in December.
The meeting heard that while it was too late to acquire two of the three strands of available funding for Gathering events, it might be possible to bring people to Kilkee, who had worked there in previous years.
“What I was hoping was that even if people weren’t coming home, we could put on something for the people that are here,” Councillor McGrath suggested.
“I remember you saying we could bring people that have worked in Kilkee over the years back,” Councillor Elaine Haugh Hayes said to Councillor McGrath, while the meeting also heard a ­suggestion that Limerick and Tipperary people, with Kilkee connections, should be targeted for a visit to Kilkee during The Gathering.
As for bringing people to Kilkee from overseas for the event, Kilkee Town Clerk John Corry said that funding options were decreasing.
“There are three separate forms of funding available but unfortunately we’re late for two elements of the funding. Clare Local Development Company (CLDC) who operate the Leader programme still, I believe, have funding for festivals and events,” he explained.
However, Councillor Lily Marrinan Sullivan criticised how difficult it was to acquire funding from the various funding bodies.
“You nearly need to hire a professional consultant to get the money. It is absolutely incredible.
It would be easier to go and pay for them yourself to bring them home,” she suggested.