Senator Mulcahy lambasts loyalty card retraction move

FINE Gael Clare Senator, Tony Mulcahy, has branded a recent motion passed by Clare County Council to amend the county’s retail strategy to ban loyalty cards as “a publicity stunt”.
The motion tabled at a recent meeting of Clare County Council was dealt with at the end of the adjourned June meeting by Councillor Brian Meaney, which called for the banning of all loyalty cards in the county.
Speaking about the motion, which was passed with one dissenter, Senator Mulcahy said, “This was a stunt to gain publicity and was obviously not thought through when it was proposed by the Green Party councillor. Anything that puts jobs at risk in Clare has to be condemned. Councillors should be coming up with ideas that help businesses to create and maintain jobs, rather than the opposite.”
He stressed that many retail businesses in Clare depend on loyalty schemes to promote their business.
“As well as this, the county benefits from hotel visitors staying here on breaks that they purchased through loyalty schemes. Shops in Ennis, Shannon, Kilrush and other towns and villages in the county would lose customers to places like Galway and Limerick if this proposal went ahead,” he concluded.