Tag Archives: clare county council

An ENNIS-based Councillor Mary Howard has called for stricter penalties for those who vandalise defibrillators. At a recent meeting of Clare County Council, she also requested that the Minister for Health ensure that all future publicly-accessible defibrillators be fitted with a sensor that would notify emergency services once it has been removed from its holder. Speaking about the vandalism of the items, Councillor Howard said, “Last December, we saw CCTV footage of a group of 16-year-olds in Arklow in County Wicklow pull a defibrillator off a wall and proceed to kick it back and forth, destroying the unit. “In January, a defibrillator was destroyed in Cork for the fourth time. The list goes on. These life-saving devices cost in the region of €2,500 to be replaced.” She said it would be important to have defibrillators fitted with devices that would discourage vandals. “In the future, I would like to see these units fitted with a SIM module and internal camera, …

Clare County Council is seeking out local communities, projects and housing estates interested in representing Clare in the 2017 IPB Pride of Place competition. The annual all-island competition, which is run in association with Co-operation Ireland and local authorities North and South, aims to recognise and celebrate the vital contributions that communities make to society along with generating awareness, respect and inclusion for every facet of society. Clare County Council Rural Development Directorate may nominate one group per category, providing the total number nominated does not exceed five. Judging for Pride of Place 2017 takes place between June and August, with winners, runners up and special award recipients receiving a trophy and a small monetary prize at November’s awards ceremony. There are 11 categories under which communities can enter. They include three themes: Community based Youth Initiative, Creative Place Initiative, Communities Reaching Out Initiative and five population categories for locations with less than 300 people; 300-1000 people; 1,000-2,000 people; 2,000-5,000 …

A Rural Development Strategy for County Clare will be launched in early summer, it was confirmed at the inaugural meeting of the newly formed Clare Rural Development Forum in Ennis this week. Local community, business and farming groups, as well as Clare County Council, elected members and State and development agencies attended the meeting in the Ennis Civic Room at Waterpark. Sinead Copeland, principal officer, Department of Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, also attended the event during which she outlined the Government’s recently launched Action Plan for Rural Irelan”. One of the primary objectives of the Clare Rural Development Forum, which was announced by Clare County Council chief executive Pat Dowling last month, is to develop a Rural Development Strategy. It was confirmed in Ennis that in addition to key stakeholder organisations working in the rural development area, the public will have opportunity to make observations and submissions in the course of the development of the strategy during the …

Construction will commence next week on the construction of a new footpath/cycle path on the N68 Kilrush Road in Ennis. Designed by Clare County Council and funded by Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII), the works will take place from the Kilrush Road Roundabout southwards as far as the junction of the N68 and L 4176 at Rockmount Cross. When complete, the works being carried out by Ward and Burke Construction, will deliver improved facilities for pedestrians and cyclists accessing Ennis National School from residential areas around the N68 and Ballybeg and provide a continuous footpath connection to Ennis Town Centre. Motorists are advised that temporary traffic lights will be in place on occasion during the six-week project, which begins next week with site clearance, tree cutting and vegetation removal. Traffic restrictions will be eased during school drop-off and pick-up times. Clare County Council confirmed that the new 3 metre-wide shared use bi-directional footpath/cyclepath will be constructed along the east side of …

ENNIS will soon be switching on to free public wi-fi. Clare County Council has commenced the rollout of free public wi-fi to Ennis town centre as part of a wider plan to introduce open internet access to several other Clare towns. Open wi-fi access was recently introduced to the Upper Market area of Ennis with plans to extend the free service to Parnell Street and Carpark, Abbey Street and carpark, O’Connell Street and O’Connell Square during the coming weeks. Clare County Council, which is funding the initiative, is working with local businesses to install the wi-fi hotspots in an effort to draw shoppers and business people to the town.

The role played by three local authorities, including Clare County Council, in developing and promoting tourism in the Lough Derg region has received official recognition at the 2017 Irish Tourism Industry Awards. The Lough Derg Marketing Group (LDMG) was named Best Local Authority Tourism Initiative at an event in Dublin on Friday night attended by Minister for Tourism Shane Ross. The Lough Derg Marketing Group was set up to develop Lough Derg as a key visitor destination. Its membership includes Clare County Council, Tipperary County Council, Galway County Council, Waterways Ireland, Inland Fisheries Ireland, community development organisations, and business and trade representatives. The Irish Tourist Industry Confederation (ITIC), the umbrella group for the tourism industry in Ireland, organises the Irish Tourism Industry Awards in conjunction with Failte Ireland and Tourism Ireland. Designed with the intention of rewarding innovation and excellence in tourism, 14 winners were selected from approximately 250 entries.

Applications are being sought by Clare County Council under two conservation grants schemes announced by Government this week. The local authority has been allocated €50,000 under the Built Heritage Investment Scheme 2017, which is aimed at the repair and conservation of protected structures and generating employment in the local construction sector. Eligible structures include those listed in Clare County Council’s Record of Protected Structures (RPS), and those within Architectural Conservation Areas (ACAs). Funding awards made under the Scheme will range from a minimum of €2,500 to a maximum of €10,000 per application. Successful applicants will be required to fully match the funding awarded. Meanwhile, €824,000 is being allocated nationally under the 2017 Structures at Risk Fund (SRF),which supports conservation works on a number of protected buildings in private and civic ownership. The Department of Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs says it will consider no more than two applications from any local authority, only one of which may be …

CLARE County Council’s decision last Friday to grant planning permission to Brookfield Renewable Ireland Ltd for 11 wind turbines, will mean that a total of 98 turbines will be located within a 10km radius in Connolly, Kilmurry-Ibrickane, Lissycasey and Kilmihil. Up to 131m in height, permission was given subject to 27 conditions. Fifty six separate submissions were received by the council, with 53 of them listed as objections from local residents and community groups. In a detailed submission, the Conserve Kilmaley Group outlined its concerns with the latest windfarm, noting that almost 100 wind turbines would be located in the area, if granted permission. “This combined development is a very substantial windfarm in terms of site area, scale and height of turbines, capacity of output, noise emissions and enormous local disturbance to the environment – peat disposal, tree felling, loss of moorland and bog habitat, impact on all species and impacts on residents and their dwellings,” were amongst some of …