Tag Archives: clare county council

SOROPTIMIST International have been described as “incredible ambassadors for women and girls in Ennis, Ireland, and around the world,” as a memorial honouring 100 years since the foundation of the organisation was unveiled in Ennis. Cathaoirleach of Clare County Council, Councillor PJ Ryan recently unveiled a monument at the Memorial Peace Park in Ennis. Also at the ceremony an Irish oak tree donated by the Tree Council of Ireland to mark the centenary was planted and a time capsule has been buried underneath. Rosalie Byrne-Muir, President, Ennis and District Soroptimist Club, thanked the Cathaoirleach and Ennis Municipal District for providing the location for the memorial plaque and oak tree. “Buried beneath the plaque is a time capsule. This was the idea of our member, Sarah Malone. Sarah researched the time capsule, and encouraged members and clubs from all over the country to contribute items. It contains profiles of local and national Soroptimists, historical documents and memorabilia so that the work of …

“PHENOMENAL effort” on the part of Clare’s fire service was hailed this week, as the Chief Fire Officer revealed that it has significantly cut its average response times to incidents across the county. At a meeting of the council’s Physical Development Strategic Policy Committee, Adrian Kelly outlined how a new operational plan is being drawn up for the service which also has responsibility for building control. The existing Fire and Emergency Operations Plan is to be reviewed, taking account of any legislative changes, and will be presented to the SPC before it goes forward for discussion before the full council. The service which operates out of seven stations, has 75 retained staff in addition to nine senior fire officers, four administrators, two fitters and one station officer. Chief Fire Officer Kelly outlined how response times have improved over the last five years. The average time required to mobilise to fires has failed down to 5.28 minutes. In 2016, it had …

PLANS for the development of Holy Island have received a major boost after Clare County Council confirmed the purchase, in recent days, of the Old Rectory in Mounthshannon for an undisclosed sum. Welcoming the local authority purchase, Killaloe Municipal District Cathaoirleach Councillor Joe Cooney said this deal will facilitate the provision of a new visitor and interpretative centre for Inis Cealtra and the wider region. “This is the first critical step on the way towards delivering on the financial potential of this large scale tourism project, which in time will generate employment as well as a wide range of local and regional economic benefits,” he said. “This is a big step forward for the development of Holy Island. To renovate this building for the purpose that is required will need funding,” the cathaoirleach noted. “It is hoped that finance for the upgrading of this building be obtained from the national Rural Regeneration Programme. It is a massive boost for tourism …

Minister awaiting clarification around Council application before confirming access to defective blocks scheme THE Housing Minister has said he expects the scheme for homes with defective blocks to be extended to Clare, once queries over a county council application are dealt with. Responding to a query from Deputy Joe Carey, Minister Darragh O’Brien outlined the communications between his department and the local authority on the matter. “We received a submission from the local authority in July requesting an extension of the defective block grant scheme to County Clare,” he outlined. “We issued a response on August 3 indicating we would review the submission and we did so. We saw details of a breakdown of costs associated with the report on September 28. “A number of issues arose, none of them insurmountable. It is standard that clarification is needed. “I have been directly involved with regard to the submission on Clare. In this regard, I asked my officials to deal with …

CLARE’S libraries are to introduce a twice weekly ‘accessible hour’ from next month. The slots on Tuesdays and Thursdays will be from 11.30am to 12.30pm with Helen Walsh, County Librarian, explaining, “These times have been chosen as they are quieter times for library usage. “During this time children/adults with additional individual needs are encouraged to visit the library to avail of library services.” Details of the new service were unveiled at the monthly meeting of Clare County Council where Councillor Ian Lynch requested that banded times be allocated in the library for users with additional sensory and communication needs. He said this would be in keeping “with the council’s excellent work providing inclusive services for all”. As well as outlining details of the new ‘accessible hour’ Ms Walsh added in her reply that parents with children on the autism spectrum and those children who require introductory information on what a visit to the library consists can view social stories on …

THE Minister for Health is being called on to intervene to save public dentistry in county Clare. A county councillor called on Minister Donnelly to engage with dentists in Clare “to prevent a total collapse” of the Dental Treatment Services Scheme (DTSS) and to ensure funding is available to boost public dentistry in the county in the coming year. Councillor Donna McGettigan raised the issue at the monthly meeting of the County Council. The Shannon councillor outlined, “In Clare there has been a reduction of 46% investment in the DTSS between 2017 and 2021 according to the Irish Dentistry Association.” She continued, “We are also seeing a reduction of dentists signed up to the DTSS scheme resulting in only 16 dentists enrolled in Clare, leaving many Clare patients unable to access dentist care within this county. “Lack of access to timely dental care and delaying necessary treatment is economically unviable as what begins as a routine procedure can lead to …

SINN Féin TD Violet Anne Wynne has raised, at national level, a number of questions over Clare County Council’s track record on providing accommodation for Travellers, writes Fiona McGarry. In a Dáil debate on a report by the Irish Human Rights and Equality Committee (IHREC), she said more must be done for those struggling to secure appropriate housing. “In Clare, based on information compiled by the council, members of the Traveller community accounted for a stark 52% of the homeless figures last year, although they comprise less than 1% of the overall population,” Deputy Wynne told the chamber. “They represent more than half of the total number of people affected by homelessness in Clare. The report flags that only 2% of those on the summary of social housing assessments for 2020, which catalogues the level of unmet need for social housing, are categorised as Travellers. “These numbers just do not add up. It is concerning because without proper disaggregated data, …

Councillors want legal advice on means to challenge NDP projections A COUNCILLOR has blasted proposed population allocations for the county saying it “effectively will be the end of rural Clare”. Legal advice is to be sought by Clare councillors on the constitutionality of proposed population allocations for the county set out in the National Planning Framework. Councillor PJ Kelly at the monthly meeting of Clare County Council insisted the population targets in the framework, which has to be adhered to in drawing up the County Development Plan, are “discriminatory” and “effectively will be the end of rural Clare”. He was backed by Councillor Joe Killeen who, while welcoming projected population growth in Ennis and the Limerick / Shannon Metropolitan area, said “the difficulty is for the remainder of the county the population projections are very low for Clare”. He said this puts services for communities in rural Clare “in jeopardy” with “a further diminishing of what is there already”. In …