Tag Archives: Councillor Donna McGettigan

QUARRIES who supplied the defective concrete products that have devastated homes across the county came in for severe criticism, when members of the Clare Pyrite Action Group (CPAG) met on a thundery Friday night last (June 16).  After outlining that it would be another five weeks before homeowners here could apply for the new grant scheme, Deputy Cathal Crowe gave an assurance over the government’s commitment. He accepted people’s reservations about the terms of the grant, but said that further amendments to the underpinning legislation, which was debated last summer, could have jeopardised the funding. “There was a state of economic flux and I think it was right to ring fence the money, and drive on to some degree for better or worse,” he said. “I accept you’re not all happy.”  Responding, Séamus Hanley of Drumline, whose home was visited by Minister Darragh O’Brien in 2021, said the solution to funding concerns was to pursue those responsible for the defective …

SERIOUS mental and physical health impacts for people living in homes where the concrete blocks are defective were outlined at a meeting in Ennis last Friday night (June 16).  As members of the Clare Pyrite Action Group (CPAG) sought an update on the new grant scheme, frustration boiled over they were told they would not be able to make applications for another five weeks.  One emotional homeowner told the meeting that she was recovering after recently suffering a stroke. “My husband now has long Covid and is unable to work,” she said. “How will we manage? What supports will there be to navigate this grant process? I feel like we’re being set up to fail.” Deputy Violet Anne Wynne said the woman was the second person in a fortnight to say they had suffered a stroke as a result of dealing with the stress of pyrite. “While politicians can certainly empathise with the issues constituents are experiencing, you can only …

PYRITE homeowners in Clare will have to wait another five weeks before they can apply for grant support, according to the county’s Fianna Fáil TD.  Tempers flared at meeting in Ennis on Friday evening (June 16) and that update met with both scepticism and anger. Several homeowners challenged Deputy Cathal Crowe over what they see as previous broken promises and missed deadlines in their three-year campaign. While deadlines for ministerial sign-off  on the new grant, slipped on June 1 and 14, several homeowners angrily recalled Minister Darragh O’Brien’s visit to Clare in August 2021, and the promise of support “within a matter of weeks”.  Deputy Crowe assured homeowners that despite a last-minute delay, over concerns in Donegal – one of the three other counties covered by the grant – they would be able to make applications “five weeks from now”.  Deputy Violet Anne Wynne, who was the only other Oireachtas member present, was sharply critical of the delay saying that …

A PARENT with a sick child was asked to wait in a janitor’s cupboard when they attended Shannondoc out-of-hours GP services over the Christmas period, the January meeting of Clare County Council was told.  The claims were made by Councillor Donna McGettigan who told the meeting of a catalogue of complaints she received over the holiday period. She said that a woman who had no car to wait in until her child saw a doctor was put into the cupboard to wait with her six-year-old.   “Most people understand that when you’re busy, you’re busy,” Councillor McGettigan said, “but the reply we got from Shannondoc, there’s no apology in it. People are saying there’s no accountability there for this. They way people are being treated during this period was absolutely disgusting. They need to stop being reactionary and start forward planning. The dogs in the street knew coming into this we were going to have serious issues.” Councillor McGettigan’s motion called …

REPRESSION of protests in China made headlines across the world in the last week, but weren’t even mentioned when the Chinese ambassador met with Clare County Council on Monday. The local authority hosted China’s Ambassador to Ireland, He Xiangdong, to mark Clare’s twinning relationship with Yunnan Province in China. Yunnan Province, which has a population of more than 46 million, is in the far southwest of China and borders Vietnam, Laos, and Burma. In a statement issued through Clare County Council, Cathaoirleach of Clare County Council Tony O’Brien said he had been honoured to host the ambassador. “A lot of work and time has been invested in nurturing the relationship between Clare and Yunnan Province and it was an honour to welcome the Ambassador to County Clare. “Though separated by thousands of miles, the twinning relationship has already made significant strides towards bridging this gap through a shared spirit of cooperation, mutual understanding, exchange of knowledge and more importantly, friendship.” …

BUS services in Shannon are currently very unreliable, and make things very difficult for local people using public transport, according to a local councillor. “There are people being left on the side of the road. We were told they were going to bring in a double decker bus to alleviate this, but it hasn’t happened yet,” Councillor Donna McGettigan complained. She cited an example of a bus running 35 minutes late, with people being left at the side of the road again and pointed out also there are no bus stops by the Radisson. The Sinn Féin representative said that she tries to use public transport, but that the state of it locally makes it very hard to encourage anyone else to do so. “It’s crazy, and it’s a time when there is a move to try and encourage people to use public transport. I love public transport, I try to use it as much as possible and you can …

HEATED exchanges characterised the first stage of a private members Dáil motion last night (October 4), urging government to scrap the proposed 10% levy on concrete products. The charge was outlined in Budget 2023 as a means of raising funds to support the revised scheme for homeowners, including those in Clare, with defective concrete blocks.  The proposal has been widely criticised by sectors including construction and farming, as well as action groups for pyrite and mica homeowners. In Clare, Dr Martina Cleary, founder of the local action group slammed the levy, saying it was letting the real culprits in the pyrite scandal off the hook.  This week Sinn Féin tabled a motion aiming to have the levy scrapped. Tuesday night’s debate was chaired by Deputy Joe Carey, in his capacity as Acting Chairperson.  Ahead of the vote on Wednesday night, Sinn Féin Councillor Donna McGettigan urged all Clare TDs to back the motion.  The Shannon representative described the plans as …

FRIDAY, September 16, will see the Clare launch of former IRA prisoner Jim (Jaz) McCann’s memoir 6,000 Days at the Oakwood Hotel. On the night the author will be in conversation with Donna McGettigan. Arrested at the age of 20 after attempting to kill a police officer, McCann was sentenced to life imprisonment and he remained in custody from 1976 until 1994. He was one of hundreds of Republican prisoners who refused to wear a prison uniform, claiming they were political prionsers, which led to them being locked in their cells, wearing only a blanket, for more than four years, in grim conditions. The death of the hunger strikers in 1981 was a huge historical moment, and he knew several of them. In the book he also recalls life in the IRA, the deprivation of the years spent in prison, the relationships with friends and comrades including the hunger strikers, his role in the prison breakout of 1983 which saw …