Tag Archives: funding

NINE different agricultural shows in Clare will receive grants of €5,000 each next year as part of nationwide move that aims to offer financial help to organising committees of agricultural shows. Grants were approved for agricultural shows in Bridgetown, Clarecastle, Corofin, Ennistymon, Kildysart, Kilrush, Mullagh, Newmarket-on-Fergus and Scariff. Clare Fine Gael TD Joe Carey has welcomed the €45,000 allocation to the nine Clare Agricultural Show Societies from the Department of Rural and Community Development to help with the financial cost of organising their shows in 2020. Deputy Carey, is the Chairman of the Oireachtas Committee on Rural and Community Affairs. He said that the money was part of a €600,000 fund being allocated to help 120 local committees meet the financial challenges associated with organising 120 shows around the country during 2020. The investment is being administered through the Irish Shows Association (ISA) and the recipients are all members of that association. “Agricultural shows are a great celebration of all …

THIRTY years after Lissycasey native, Sr Ethel Normoyle established the Missionvale Care Centre in South Africa, volunteers who have worked on the project, which helps the destitute, are to come together for a special fundraising initiative. On Saturday, volunteers, the majority of whom are from Clare, will gather in the Old Ground Hotel in Ennis to launch the fundraiser ‘30k for 30 Years’, a campaign in which they have set themselves a target of raising €30,000. Missionvale Care Centre, which was founded by Sr Ethel in 1988, is a non-profit organisation operating in the township of Missionvale in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Since its origin, operating from under a tree, Sr Ethel has grown the care centre into a facility that provides love and care for the poor and destitute. The care centre offers basic necessities to the estimated 25,000 residents of the Missionvale Township, including food, clothing, heathcare and education. The Missionvale Ireland charity was subsequently established in 2008 …

CONCERN is growing over the lack of a definitive date for the opening of the new Emergency Department (ED) at University Hospital Limerick (UHL). UL Hospitals’ Group chief executive officer Colette Cowan told a recent HSE West Forum meeting that she hoped the new ED would open at the end of May, subject to funding and the recruitment of new nurses. Ms Cowan stated that about 20 of the 30 nurses required for the new ED have already been hired and the group confirmed this week that a few more have been employed since that meeting. However, Councillor Tom McNamara has expressed concern about the lack of a definite date for the opening of the new department. Councillor McNamara has called for an initiative to incentivise the retention of nurses in acute hospitals, such as providing free training to those studying nursing provided they stay for five years in the public system after they graduate. The Fianna Fáil councillor said …

THE CEO of Clare County Council has vowed to “pursue with venom” funding needed for a number of key roads projects in the county with Transport Infrastructure Ireland [TII], including improving the road to Shannon Airport and Blake’s Corner. Pat Dowling has confirmed that there are ongoing discussions between Clare County Council and TII in relation to “a small number of key critical projects”, saying that the council will continue to pursue these projects with the national roads authority. He was speaking at the monthly meeting of Clare County Council where the importance of funding to extend and upgrade the N19 road to Shannon Airport was highlighted. Councillor John Crowe, who raised the issue, insisted, “By extending this small section of road, access to the airport would be enhanced and it would make easier access for traffic and pedestrians”. He stressed the importance of improving the route. “For people travelling from the south or west, they are driving on first-class …

Some €380,000 has been earmarked for local improvement schemes in Clarecastle, Kilkee, Scariff and Shannon from the €10 million national kitty. Each of the four Clare projects will receive €95,000 to finance a wide range improvements that have been put forward by local community groups to make their towns and villages more attractive places in which to live and work. In Clarecastle, the funding will be used to put electric and phone cables underground, replace lighting columns, provide lighting for public spaces, redesign traffic dominated spaces, upgrade footpaths and crossings, as well as planting and painting throughout the village. The €95,000 allocated to Kilkee will be used for landscaping and to provide public art at Percy French Green and the Carrigaholt roundabout. Scariff will benefit from work on safety and access to the access to public areas while the allocation to Shannon will go towards delivering the Shannon Town Green Infrastructure Plan. “We are determined to get this funding delivered …

Clare County Council has been requested by the Office of Public Works (OPW) to provide additional information, including photographic evidence of flooding in Springfield. The request was made in respect of the OPW’s ongoing review of the council’s request for funding approval. This development emerged in a week when the council was notified by the OPW of its decision to allocate €49,500 to undertake remediation  works on a 250m section of river embankment (Blackwater River). The council expects remediation works to commence during November. Weather permitting, it is hoped the works will be completed by the end of the year. The council has completed a procurement process and has identified a consultant who would carry out a focused feasibility study with a view to identifying a sustainable solution to the historic flooding issues at Springfield, Clonlara. As of June last, the council has been seeking funding approval from the OPW to appoint a consultant. It envisages that any flood prevention works approved ancillary …

Clare County Council has been approved €659,554 to bring local authority houses back into use throughout the county. The money will be used to renovate 30 houses for re-letting. The council applied for funding to renovate 87 derelict houses.However, three applications were rejected and a further 56 are in the process of being assessed. Clare Deputy Joe Carey said, “There are two programmes that enable local authorities to refurbish vacant social housing requiring more significant works than the normal level of pre-letting repairs. The Voids programme provides funding of up to €30,000 per unit while the Derelicts programme is aimed at more seriously derelict social houses,” Deputy Carey explained. “The Housing Agency is being provided with €70 million to engage with lending institutions to acquire properties for social housing and this is expected to deliver 1,600 units over the period to 2020. Other measures include a ‘Repair and Leasing’ initiative to allow property owners bring vacant properties up to standard …

Some €39,000 has been allocated by the Minister of State for Regional Economic Development Michael Ring to Coillte for the development of new recreational facilities and the maintenance and promotion of existing recreational infrastructures in Clare. The money is to be spent on the maintenance of current walks and trails and is Clare’s allocation from a national fund of €1.3million. The works will facilitate the repair to signage and the barrier at Cahermurphy; the upgrade of the trails, maintenance of seats, new signage and vegetation control in Cratloe and general vegetation control in Doon. Funding will also go towards the general control of vegetation at the access of the East Clare Way at Knocknageeha, general vegetation control around the picnic area and the replacement of the barrier at Gragans Wood; the upgrade of the trails and vegetation control in Kilrush; and the upkeep of trails, new signage and general vegetation control at Moylussa, Ballycuggaran plus the general maintenance of trails …