Tag Archives: Bill Slattery

A Lahinch councillor has said he wants the Council to power hose, clean and repair the railings on both the old and new promenade in Lahinch. He has also requested they paint the walls leading from a local hotel over to the promenade. Cllr Bill Slattery (FG) has claimed “everything is lacking” at the popular seaside resort. Putting forward his motion at the July meeting of the West Clare Municipal District (MD) Cllr Slattery said there is no spring maintenance programme going on at the promenade in Lahinch which is especially required, and he stressed that big improvement is required in the town. Noting the council operatives started painting on the bars, Cllr Slattery said, “There is no spring maintenance going on at the promenade in Lahinch because of the colour of the bars on the whole promenade, the painting on the promenade, the bins on the promenade; everything seems to be lacking for such a popular seaside resort of …

The continued closure of long-stay beds and some respite beds at Ennistymon Community Hospital has been condemned as “totally unacceptable” by former Clare County Councillor and local election candidate, Bill Slattery (FG). In a statement issued to The Clare Champion, he said that serious questions need to be answered by the HSE and hospital management as to why vitally important and much needed services are being denied to the community. “A huge amount of money and time has been invested by the people of North Clare in this facility and they deserve a return on that investment,” he said. Mr Slattery recently wrote to HSE CEO Bernard Gloster to highlight concerns about the continued closure of 12 beds at Ennistymon Community Hospital. He pointed out that six respite beds have remained unused in the old wing of the hospital since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. Also, an additional six beds in the newly developed long-term ward – which is …

Senator calls on committee to explain its rationale in selecting controversial sculpture THE committee who chose a controversial public sculpture for Ennistymon have been called on to come forward and make a statement on the row that has erupted over the plan. Senator Martin Conway, a native of the town, insisted the proposed Púca of Ennistymon, a mythical half-man, half horse, must be “consigned to history”. The two-metre high sculpture was chosen for a site at the bottom of Church Hill, after an open competition, as part of a significant upgrade to the streetscape of the town. The artist who won the commission, Aidan Harte, told The Champion he believes the piece meets the brief of creating an “out-of-the-ordinary” piece that will entice visitors to stop and spend time in Ennistymon. However, anger at a perceived lack of public consultation and objections to the design, prompted Clare County Council to announce the pausing of the project. Senator Conway has now …

FORTUNE tellers were on the receiving end of councillors’ wrath this week, for parking their camper vans in Lisdoonvarna for the months of August and September. Parking problems in the North Clare town were raised at Tuesday’s meeting of the West Clare Municipal District in Kilkee, when councillors Bill Slattery and Richard Nagle outlined their concerns. “You have traders and you have fortune tellers who take up their positions in the square, along the bog road and remain there for the whole month of September, taking up prime parking spaces,” Councillor Nagle claimed. The Clare Champion contacted a number of fortune tellers for their take on the suggestion that they park up for weeks on end in Lisdoonvarna. However, just one, on the understanding that she remained anonymous, was prepared to comment. “I predict that there will be no issue this year, if we are provided with somewhere to park. However, I also predict bad tidings for anyone who makes …

Councillor Bill Slattery has upped the ante considerably with regard to his opposition to the traffic issues at Blake’s Corner, Ennistymon. While the January meeting of the West Clare Municipal District heard suggestions that the controversial bridge should be blown up, on Tuesday Councillor Slattery told The Clare Champion that he would act decisively at the busiest time of the year in Ennistymon and Lahinch, if an upcoming consultant’s report on the issue is not to his liking. Councillor Slattery believes the only option left to progress the issue is for him to spend time on the bridge during the upcoming visitor season. “I will protest on the bridge during busy weekends for the 2015 season. I want this brought to the attention of the people of Ireland and not only the people of North Clare. I’m getting complaints from Dublin about this. This is an absolute disgrace,” he thundered angrily. “The vast majority of people in Clare want this …

Clare County Council is currently preparing a programme of repair works to infrastructure damaged by the storms from December 13, 2013 to January 6, 2014. When completed, the programme will be submitted to the Central Emergency Response Unit of the Department of the Environment for approval. This news emerged following a motion from Councillor Bill Slattery asking for an update on planned remedial works for Lahinch promenade and a timescale for when the work is expected to be completed. He said he appreciated the work carried out in 2014 by the council but said more is needed. “Lahinch is one of the major seaside resorts in Munster,” he pointed out. Councillor Slattery also questioned the masterplan, which he said he has not seen. The plan was referred to by senior executive engineer, Steve Lahiffe, in his written reply to the motion. Councillor Slattery said, “This masterplan is a joke. Councillor Nagle was involved in a masterplan before I became a councillor …

A Lahinch county councillor has claimed that Clare County Council employees are “roaming” around North Clare, checking if graves are the required depth, which Councillor Bill Slattery has heard should now be eight-foot deep. Councillor Slattery has challenged the local authority to dig 10 eight-foot graves in Lahinch, where he says the rock formation mitigate against deep graves. “In recent times, a person was being buried and somebody came out and told them the coffin wasn’t down far enough,” Councillor Slattery claimed. “Was it someone from the council?” director of services, Ann Haugh asked. “I believe so. They couldn’t go down any further because they had met rock. They were down five-foot-nine and he said ‘ye better go down to eight foot. Those are the new guidelines.’ This was the morning of the funeral. The graveyards around here are all rock. Are there new EU guidelines or guidelines from the Department of Environment, as regards new requirements for burial grounds, …

A clearly emotional Bill Slattery hugged an even more emotional Senator Martin Conway at the count centre in Ennis after the former was deemed elected shortly after 6pm on Sunday. Councillor Slattery was co-opted to a seat in North Clare electoral area after Conway, then a county councillor, was elected to the Seánad in 2011. Councillor Slattery ran in the local elections in 1999. “I went with Martin Conway and geographically we weren’t situated that well, I being from Lahinch and he being from Ennistymon…I didn’t get elected and I haven’t been involved in politics until I was asked to go for co-option in 2011, after the election of Martin to the senate. I was very reluctant that time because I had left politics but since I was co-opted I put my head down and worked very hard for the last three years to get where I am today and it has paid off with the work I have done …