Tag Archives: Kilrush Town Council

WARM tributes were paid at the June meeting of the West Clare Municipal District to long-serving official John Corry, who is to move to the Roads Section of Clare County Council. A presentation was made to Mr Corry, former Town Clerk for Kilrush, after more than a decade’s service to West Clare. “If you could have picked your dream team, John would be top of the list,” Councillor Ian Lynch said. “He is a phenomenal servant to Clare.” Councillor Joe Killeen backed up those views and wished Mr Corry well in his new role. “It can be difficult for new councillors to find their feet,” he said. “As Administrative Officer, John has always been very patient and helpful and a great support.” In the opinion of Councillor Róisín Garvey, “Everybody needs a John Corry in their lives”. “If I could keep you and have you run my life, I would,” she said. “Newbies could sometimes be called scatty.” Director of …

THE abolishment of Kilrush Town Council will result in a €1m revenue loss to the West Clare capital over five years, outgoing member, Councillor Ian Lynch, has claimed. Town councils are to be abolished after the May 23 Local Elections and, in fact, the last Kilrush Town Council meeting will be held next Thursday. The town council was established in 1885. “Six people will no longer be working in the Kilrush office because of the local government reform,” said Councillor Lynch, who is an independent candidate. “The Government’s plan to reform local government, which they call Putting People First, will have a detrimental effect on the town of Kilrush. The implementation of the plan by Clare County Council, will see a reduction of council employees working in Kilrush and a loss of up to €1m, which will no longer be spent in the West Clare economy.” Councillor Lynch claimed the average weekly spend of a family with two children reaches …

By Peter O’Connell TIMBER has been stolen by the lorryload from Kilrush Wood over the past few months, it has emerged. Kilrush gardaí are investigating the theft of tonnes of timber from the 420-acre wood, where up to 50 acres of trees were knocked, or partially knocked, during the February storms. Concerns over security in Kilrush Wood were raised at the November 2013 meeting of Kilrush Town Council by Councillor Tom Prendeville. The theft of trees was raised at the April meeting of Kilrush Town Council, where town mayor Paul Moroney requested an update from Coillte on the extent of the damage done during the storms. The meeting also heard that people illegally cutting the wood were doing so with chainsaws they are not qualified to handle. While Coillte is responsible for the majority of the wood, where the Vandeleur Walled Garden is located, Kilrush Town Council has leased a section until the end of 2015. In a statement, Coillte …

COUNCILLOR Tom Prendeville put forward the last ever motion, in the 129 year history of Kilrush Town Council, at last Thursday’s April monthly meeting. In his speech he accused the West Clare Task Force of talking about but not delivering any jobs in the region. While the final town council meeting will be held in May, councillors have said that the meeting will be a reflection on the history of local government in Kilrush and will not include motions pertaining to current issues. In the final motion, which was supported by his eight council colleagues, Councillor Prendeville said that the West Clare Economic Task Force had delivered nothing in terms of job creation. “The only thing we learned from the West Clare Task Force was that it spent over one hundred hours as a talking shop and yet failed to create even a single job. When was the last time a decent industrial job was created in west Clare by …

 By Peter O’Connell KILRUSH town councillor Ian Lynch is to switch his political allegiance from Fine Gael and stand in the West Clare area as an Independent candidate in the May election. He will join the battle for votes in the West Clare capital with his town council party colleague Marian McMahon Jones, who was added to the Fine Gael ticket after the November  convention. Sitting county councillors Gabriel Keating and Oliver Garry were selected at the Fine Gael convention to represent the party in the expanded west Clare constituency. Currently Kilrush is without a representative on Clare County Council for the first time in the local authority’s history. Councillor Lynch was elected to Kilrush Town Council, on the first count, in 2009 and says that he regrets not running for the county council five years ago. “Looking back this may have been a mistake because since the local elections in 2009 Kilrush town and the greater hinterland have been …

CLARE County Council has written to Kilrush Town Councillor Tom Prendeville on six occasions in an effort to elicit an apology for a comment passed to a member of their staff at a traffic management meeting in Kilrush in February. However, Councillor Prendeville insists that he did apologise in February and claims his apology is written into the minutes of that meeting. While he described the apology as “contrite and sincere”, Councillor Prendeville claims he was contacted six weeks later and told that the apology wasn’t sufficient. The comment was made during a debate on the placement of double yellow lines on both sides of the Back Road, outside St Senan’s National School in Kilrush. Councillor Prendeville opposed this development, which has led to parents having to park illegally when dropping and collecting their children from school. RIMS meetings are believed to be unique to Kilrush Town Council. They are held in camera, deal with traffic management issues in Kilrush …

THE December meeting of Kilrush Town Council was abandoned in chaos on Thursday night following a heated row between town manager Anne Haugh and Councillor Tom Prendeville, who claimed he was more qualified than the town manager. During the row, it emerged that the town council executive had wanted Councillor Prendeville to apologise for a comment made to a council official earlier this year at a meeting discussing the placement of double yellow lines on both sides of the Back Road, outside St Senan’s National School. At this week’s meeting, Councillor Liam O’Looney asked the manager to report on any progress on the proposed layby on the road. The motion, inadvertently, led to the row igniting between Councillor Prendeville and Ms Haugh. “I have studied. I’ve a lot more qualifications than you have,” Councillor Prendeville told MsHaugh. “Could you withdraw that? Withdraw that comment. What qualifications have I got? How dare you,” the town manager replied. “I won’t be attending …