Tag Archives: Department of Transport

A verdict of misadventure at the end of an inquest into the death of a North Clare Coast Guard volunteer has left her widower dissatisfied. A jury of four men and three women also issued seven recommendations concerning safety management, training and equipment used by the Irish Coast Guard before Limerick coroner John McNamara at Kilmallock Court recently. Experienced Doolin Coast Guard member, Caitríona Lucas was the first Coast Guard volunteer to lose her life following a search and rescue operation off Kilkee Bay on September 12, 2016. Her husband, Bernard Lucas confirmed he is not happy with the official inquest verdict. In his summing up for the jury, the coroner said unfortunately, I can’t give you the option of “unlawful killing”. Mr Lucas believes the final verdict should have been “unlawful killing” and felt this option should have been available for the jury as submitted by his representative Mr Kingston. Marine expert Michael Kingston, representing the Lucas family, had …

WORK on the long-awaited River Shannon Crossing is expected to start next March after the Department of Transport approved the awarding of the construction contract to John Sisk and Sons at a tender sum of €43.7 million. The contract for the Killaloe Bypass, Shannon Crossing and upgrading of the Ballina to Birdhill R494 regional road will be signed early in the Near Year, with a likely start date in March. It is anticipated the scheme will take three years to be completed. The estimated cost of the overall project totals €69 million, which includes construction, land acquisition, design, supervision, risk, contingency and archaeology. The Killaloe Bypass and Shannon River Crossing project has been mentioned in the public sphere for years, with the completion of the project expected to see a 40% reduction in congestion between the Tipperary and Clare border towns. Former Environment Minister Alan Kelly recalled he put this project into the National Development Plan when he was minister …

  THE Doolin Coast Guard Unit will be reconstituted on an interim basis to ensure rescue services return to the local community and visitors, according to Minister of State in the Department of Transport, Hildegarde Naughton . On November 2, Doolin Coast Guard Unit was controversially stood down from operations and training activities after six volunteers resigned including the officer in charge amid claims of “severe bullying and harassment” in the service. Marine cover and medical assistance to casualties that get into difficulty in inaccessible locations from South Galway to Doonbeg couldn’t be provided by very experienced highly trained members over the last six weeks. Transport Minister Eamon Ryan was warned by Senator Martin Conway that “lives were being put at risk” over the “unacceptable decision” to stand down the unit, despite the expertise and experience of 12 remaining members. The outcry over the coast guard unit’s suspension resulted in the recent appointment of independent mediator, Kieran Mulvey, who concluded …

A KILLALOE area councillor has welcomed the return to “the era of Bertie Ahern” in terms of spending on roads in Clare, following a significant increase in funds for the 2021 Schedule of Municipal District Works. At last week’s meeting of the Killaloe Municipal District, Senior Engineer John Leahy outlined how a total of €5.6m will be spent on roads in the area and noted an increase of 15% on the figure for 2020. An additional €4m will go towards the Killaloe bypass and crossing project. After Mr Leahy unveiled the total budget of €34.5m for Clare, €28m of which will go on the existing roads network, the senior engineer noted that for this was the first time the total annual allocation had significantly increased on the figure for 2008. “We had €31m at that time,” he said. “2008 was the end of the Celtic Tiger and the last time we had substantial grant funding, so we take that as …

THE time-line for awarding the contract to build the new multimillion Euro Killaloe Bridge and Bypass has slipped slightly from its original target, The Champion has learned, with the likelihood that the three-part project may not now be completed until 2024. Works to progress the project, which also includes improvements to the R494, have continued despite Covid-19 restrictions, with the Project Steering Group, lead by Clare County Council, meeting remotely in April and May. In response to a query from The Champion, the local authority has outlined a time-frame indicating it expects the contract for the main works to be awarded at the end of March next year, with construction taking a further three years to complete. The most recent update available previously was as briefing to members of the Killaloe Municipal District which indicated that contracts would be awarded before the end of 2020, with a target completion date of late 2022. “The Project Team … are close to …

ACROSS the May Bank Holiday weekend, Kilkee had no coast guard service available in the event of an emergency. A source has told The Clare Champion that the limited service the Kilkee unit of the Irish Coast Guard had been providing was further down-graded, following a recent training incident. It has also been claimed that the current coast guard crew have not recently passed an Operational Readiness Assessment (ORA) in more than two years. The Clare Champion contacted the Department of Transport on Wednesday for a comment on the claims, but it had not responded at the time of going to press. “The coast guard will say that they have a boat. We all know they have a boat but they don’t have a crew. Every time they need to go in the water, they need to bring an instructor down from Maritime SAR to even get on the water to do the training. There are about six people who …

Clare County Council has sufficient supplies of rock salt to treat the county’s regional and national roads over the winter months. The local authority’s depot/maintenance facility at Beechpark, has 1,600 tonnes of rock salt, which the council notes is sufficient to facilitate up to 30 applications on the county’s strategic road network. Salt stocks will also be drawn down by the council during the winter from Transport Infrastructure Ireland (formerly the NRA) and the Department of Transport. Further stocks will be available if required in an emergency situation from TII’s strategic salt reserve.

The Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport and An Garda Síochána have teamed up to highlight the increase in bike related crime. It’s an initiative in support of National Bike Week. Over the last 10 years, the level of bike theft has increased by 227%, with approximately 6,750 reported bicycle thefts in 2014, equating to a monetary loss in the region of €4million. To end May 2015 there have been in excess of 2,100 reported bike thefts nationally, with in excess of 1,600 (76%) reported in the Dublin Region. Only 10% of bike owners are able to provide gardaí with the bicycle frame number In 2014, 34% of all thefts were reported in Dublin City Centre, 40% in the rest of the Dublin Metropolitan Region and 26% outside of the Dublin Metropolitan Region. Twice as many bikes are stolen during the summer months, peaking in July, August and September. Two Thirds of bikes are stolen from public places; the most …