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Tag Archives: Councillor Ian Lynch

Council seek go-ahead for pyrite grant facilitator 

A FACILITATOR to help Clare homeowners applying for grant support to treat the damage caused by pyrite, is being sought.  Councillor Ian Lynch confirmed that Clare County Council has written to the Department of Housing in relation to the recruitment of a local facilitator. Two staff were hired in Donegal – one of the four counties covered by the new grant – in March. Their role is to support those applying for the new scheme, which is expected to open imminently, though one-to-one clinics and public information sessions. “The Council has officially applied to the Department to appoint a facilitator,” the Independent councillor said. “The ball has started to roll on that matter. Any time there is a resource being provided and paid for by the Department, we need to grab it with both hands. It’s good to be able to reassure homeowners and CPAG after the questions that were raised at the meeting in Ennis. Homeowners will need someone …

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Crowe insists pyrite quarries will be pursued

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 …

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‘If you don’t live in a house with pyrite, you don’t understand’

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 …

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Pyrite grant for Clare ‘in five weeks’

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 …

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Call for grant support to tackle pyrite in home foundations

A CALL has been made for measures to support homeowners who have pyrite in their foundations, as well as in their blocks.  While Clare is to be included, in the coming months, in a grant scheme to remediate block work, this does not cover foundations. At the January meeting of the local authority, Councillor Ian Lynch called for the inclusion of Clare in the Pyrite Remediation Scheme, set up ten years ago to address pyrite in under-floors and foundations. The West Clare member also called for the removal of the controversial ‘damage threshold’ that homes will be required to meet before being able to access grant funding.  “I think that any house that has been identified as having pyrite and defective concrete blocks shouldn’t be subject to a damage threshold,” Councillor Lynch told the meeting. “What’s the point trying to fix the concrete blocks and the outside, and then waiting three or four years and finding that the household has …

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Lynch seeks slice of tax windfall for West Clare roads

A WEST Clare councillor has made a passionate plea for the region’s roads to receive a slice of the exchequer surplus of €5 billion.  Strong growth in tax revenue and an end to many Covid supports resulted in an exchequer swing of €12.4 billion at the end of last year from the €7.4 billion deficit recorded in 2021. Given the windfall, Councillor Ian Lynch has written to Ministers Eamon Ryan and Micheál McGrath highlighting the dire state of roads in the West Clare Municipal District. The Independent member made the case for an injection of €50 million for Clare County Council for road improvements, focusing on vital surface dressing and strengthening improvements.  In correspondence seen by The Champion, the Kilrush man told the Ministers for Transport and Public Expenditure said: “Decades of underinvestment in rural roads no longer allows for these finances to be tucked away for a rainy day the investment in rural roads must be made now. I …

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Call made to restore Kilrush’s French connection

CALLS are being made to revitalise the inks between West Clare and North Western France, on the 40th anniversary of the Kilrush-Plouzané twinning initiative.  Councillor Ian Lynch proposed that the local authority would reinvigorate the long-standing connection with the Britanny town, which shares historical links to St Senan. The Independent member outlined to the recent meeting of the West Clare Municipal District (WCMD) that the twinning had been established in 1982, under Kilrush Town Council’s auspices. Links between the two towns had been unearthed in the late 1970s by a Breton historian who was looking into the history of Plouzané. The settlement, close to the major French city of Brest, looked at the origin of the name ‘Plouzané’, which means ‘church of Zane’. He then established that Zane was the Irish monk, Senan, whose home was Scattery Island. St Senan established churches in Cornwall and Brittany  “As this would be the 40-year anniversary, now is the right time to reinvigorate the twinning,” …

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Show us the money to deal with ’embarrassing’ roads

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 …

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