Tag Archives: Councillor Cillian Murphy

HUGE numbers of dead sea birds are washing up on Clare’s coastline due to avian flu, prompting a call for state assistance to deal with the issue. “We are seeing huge numbers of dead sea birds around our coast, in particular gannnets, due to the avian flu,” said Councillor Cillian Murphy. “I’m not a scientist but what I understand from speaking to  people who are is that normally the avian flu would die off in the summer when they’re in their colonies, but this particular variation hasn’t, and it has really impacted on seabirds really heavily.” With many of the birds washing up on beaches, he said that Clare County Council staff members have to deal with them appropriately and need protective clothing. He put forward a motion requesting the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine “allocate funding to local authorities for the additional resources required to deal with the costs of cleaning up and managing the consequences of …

MONITORING of water quality in popular bathing areas needs to be extended outside the official bathing season to protect the increasing number of people who are swimming throughout the year. That’s according to Councillor Cillian Murphy, who was informed at a recent HSE West Forum meeting that five swimming ban notices were issued in local bathing areas from June to September this year. The Kilkee Councillor expressed concern that swimmers have no idea about the standard of water quality outside the bathing season. If monitoring was extended throughout the year, the HSE West Forum member said people would have the benefit of getting a good picture of what water quality is like at different times of the year. He said that once a public notice is issued about a problem with the quality of bathing water, this should be followed up with an investigation and identification of the possible source and solutions. This is important, he stressed, in view of …

A FOOTPATH or not a footpath, that is the question in Kilmihil. A meeting of North and West Clare councillors last week heard a motion from Cillian Murphy calling for the installation of a footpath along the Main Street of the village, from the entrance to the People’s Park to beyond the HSE centre in the village In a written reply, however, senior executive engineer Alan Kennelly said that there actually is a footpath in place, though he acknowledged there were “issues” with it. “There is a footpath in place on the southern side of Main Street Kilmihil, between the People’s Park and the HSE health centre. “The footpath lacks definition in places as there are several accesses crossing, and houses / premises are of differing set back distances. “There is also an ESB pole right in the middle of one narrow section of the footpath – which impedes access.” Councillor Murphy said that the “critical words” in the reply …

ROADS in a Clare housing estate were described as “an embarrassment” at a meeting of the local authority. Asking that funds would be allocated next year to the Municipal Districts (MDs) for infrastructure in local authority estates, Councillor Cillian Murphy was scathing about the situation. “At the heart of this motion is a lived and very frustrating experience,” he told the July Council meeting. “The issue is falling between the Housing Section and the MD offices. If you take Marian Estate in Kilkee, the roads there are, quite frankly, an embarrassment and they should be to the Council. “I have asked the Housing Section and they said it’s the MD office. The MD said they had no budget, and round and round and round we go. The only solution is to have a specific item in budget for MDs to tackle estates. We are not asking for more money, but for clarity.” Co-sponsors of the motion, Councillors Pat O’Gorman, Shane …

ADVANCED paramedics should be permitted to use their clinical judgement to treat patients for non-life threatening injuries in their own homes when they deem this is safe and appropriate. That’s according to Councillor Cillian Murphy, who has claimed patients are being brought to the ED in University Hospital Limerick (UHL) for relatively minor injuries or illnesses, which could be treated elsewhere. However, the HSE West Forum member stressed because of the current HSE system ambulance personnel haven’t the authority to treat people in their own homes and must bring them to a public hospital. “If you have a patient that is transported in an ambulance for something that could be treated in a Local Minor Injury Clinic, and the ambulance is now gone from West Clare for three and a half or four hours, this could be very serious for someone with a life-threatening condition. “This also has an impact on overcrowding in ED after recent figures I obtained show …

A WEST Clare patient was directed to seek GP out-of-hours treatment outside their own catchment area, a local councillor has claimed. Speaking at a recent HSE West Forum meeting, Councillor Cillian Murphy said he was contacted by a person in West Clare who stated they were directed to other centres in Ennis, Limerick or Nenagh instead of Kilrush. “If you want to shut a service in an area, the easiest thing to do is to refer people onto another service in a different area. This reduces your client base for the service in the area.” He said it is not good enough to expect people in West Clare to drive to Miltown for an out-of-hours GP service when the Kilrush centre is not operational. He proposed there should be some way of improving this service for West Clare patients. Speaking to the Clare Champion, he said it takes longer to travel from Kildysart to Miltown than it is to go …

THE prospect that Clare may not have the infrastructure in place to take on offshore windfarm contracts was raised at the most recent West Clare Municipal District meeting. Councillor Ian Lynch proposed on May 3 that West Clare MD invite developers such as Simplify Blue Group to give a presentation to the members on the anticipated infrastructural requirements. There should, he said, be a specific focus on harbour developments, for maximisation of the project’s potential in the community. Councillor Lynch went against his own motion to illustrate that Clare is moving towards the possibility of these contracts at a far slower rate than needed, which will send investors to Kerry or Galway. He continued that he believes the starting point for moving forward with Clare’s offshore potential is to put the question out to the public, not discussing it as though the contracts are already set in stone while no preparation is done. He said: “You can see it from …

ASPECTS of the forthcoming new development plan for Clare will be revisited now that wastewater facilities are to be upgraded in the village of Kilmihil. It follows a call from Councillor Cillian Murphy who told the April meeting of the local authority that the zoning map, and population and housing allocation, for the village must now be revised. “Kilmihil is a progressive place and I would describe the People’s Park there as world class,” he said. “The area has suffered from stymied growth due to the lack of wastewater services, but now that is to change and that should be acknowledged in the plan.” The motion was seconded by Councillor Ian Lynch, who agreed that the Draft Clare County Development Plan 2023-2029 must be looked at once again for the Kilmihil area.  “This needs a lot more work and debate,” added Councillor Gerry Flynn. The Independent member paid tribute to Director of Services Liam Conneally and his team for their …