THE indefinite closure of Shannon Town Hall has been criticised by a local county councillor.
The building had to be closed to members of the public after a bizarre incident last Wednesday, when a car struck the building, causing a significant amount of damage.
While no-one was seriously injured in the crash, it was a huge shock, given that it is so far back from the road.
In the aftermath a local authority statement said, “‘Clare County Council wishes to notify the public that the offices of Shannon Municipal District, Town Hall, Shannon, are temporarily closed until further notice following damage to the building.
“While our teams continue to deliver services, our front counter ‘walk-in’ services are closed. Members of the public who need to access Shannon Municipal District services can do so by phone on 061-362319 by email to shannonmunicipaldistrict@clarecoco.ie or online at www.clarecoco.ie.
“Full service will resume as soon as possible. We apologise for any inconvenience and thank you for your cooperation.”
Speaking afterwards, local councillor Gerry Flynn said he was surprised with the indefinite closure.
“I didn’t get any report to say what damage was done, other than that it was a vehicle, but it seems a bit over the top, you’d imagine they’d have been able to temporarily support it.”
He added, “The Council is full of engineers, full of engineers. Surely if a building is hit, you go down and make an observation and put in props.
“I don’t know, it seems a big to-do about very little and every effort should have been made to keep it open.”
Councillor Flynn said that since Covid opportunities for members of the public to attend State offices and receive services have declined, and this should be rectified.
“The level of service that the public gets needs to be greater than what it is. Covid has been used as an excuse for a lot of things and I think the Government should have been more forceful in making sure that public services were delivered. Closed offices are a convenience for a lot of people.”
He said that employees in public sector organisations need to provide an opportunity to the public to engage, while he said this is being allowed to disappear from society.
“When I was self employed you could go into the Revenue offices in Limerick, do your business in there and you could meet officials, that’s all gone now.
“It has put huge costs on the public, they have to do things through accountants, it has made life very difficult and very costly.
“This is a similar thing, the Revenue offices were public offices as well and now the service is not there. The same with the Social Welfare offices in Ennis, they were walk in, now it’s all appointment basis.”
“There’s an agenda there to close down public services and get people to go online, similar to what the banks have done.”
He said that people frequently can’t even buy tickets for GAA games without going online now, which results in inconvenience at best, or exclusion at worst, of some people.
Owen Ryan has been a journalist with the Clare Champion since 2007, having previously worked with a number of other publications in Limerick, Cork and Galway. His first book will be published in December 2024.