Tag Archives: Michael McNamara

Deputy Michael McNamara (Ind) has rejected claims that he “latched on to the immigration issue now to gain traction in the European elections”. In a statement issued to The Clare Champion, Irish Freedom Party Ireland South candidate, Micheal Leahy IFP claimed Sinn Féin and Michael McNamara have recently latched on to the immigration issue to gain traction in the European election, but neither of them will be effective on this issue. Mr Leahy stated the IFP’s stance on immigration has been consistent since the party’s registration in 2020 as it believes immigration should be controlled effectively to suit the interests of ordinary Irish people. “Sinn Féin and Michael McNamara have both finally come round to mentioning the immigration issue now that they are in an election,” he said. “Sinn Féin have, until literally the last few weeks, been a strongly pro-immigration party and they are allied with the Left groups in the parliament. It is very difficult to see how …

A Government review is to be carried out to determine if a second Emergency Department (ED) is required for the Mid-West region, a facility that will most likely be located in Ennis, if created. Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly (FF), this morning announced the review in the wake of a number of serious incidents at UHL, including the death of Clare teenage Aoife Johnston, and ongoing pressures at the ED at University Hospital Limerick (UHL). In a statement, Minister Donnelly said that the decision to close emergency departments in Ennis and other areas 15 years ago was “based on the very clear clinical advice at the time”. “The aim was to minimise the risk of a patient presenting at the Emergency Department whose time critical needs exceeded the capacity of the hospital, and specialties needed, to treat them. We also know that important services, including intensive care units, require a certain throughput so that clinicians can maintain their skills,” he …

CLARE TD Michael McNamara has announced he will be contesting the European election in the Ireland South constituency as an Independent candidate.  “When the Irish people voted for greater integration of the European Union, they voted to opt out of justice / immigration measures for reasons as valid now as then. This government is intent on ceding these key areas of national sovereignty to Brussels. That’s why, more than ever, we will need representation in Europe asking the difficult questions,” he said. “Over the past few years, many people have felt unrepresented in the making of decisions that affect their lives. I have questioned the Government and tried to make them explain the decisions they make, and I will be asking people for their support to do the same in Europe where more and more of the decisions that affect us in Ireland are made,” he added. The Independent candidate cited agriculture and renewable energy as key issues for him …

WHILE the State won’t make the information public, the Concerned Shannon Residents Group have received details from other sources about the development of Unit 153 at the Shannon Business Park for the accomodation of International Protection Applicants. Even local TDs are struggling to get information from the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, but the group have received a diagram showing that there are plans for 70 bedrooms on the ground floor of the building. It is unclear if there will be further bedrooms on other floors at the site. This week several members of Concerned Shannon Residents said they have serious concerns that very little planning has been done for the hundreds of people set to be housed in the new Direct Provision Centre. They also say the level of secrecy around the proposal is unhelpful, something that Clare TD Michael McNamara has also slammed, while he accused the Government of a contempt from the democratic process. …

ENNIS town centre has been suggested as the focus of a government pilot project aimed at bringing buildings back into residential use. Clare Independent TD Michael McNamara, who presented the proposal to the Taoiseach Leo Varadkar in Dáil Éireann this week, said that many business premises which once had families living over them now lie empty over ground level for a variety of reasons including particularly building regulations and insurance costs. Addressing the Taoiseach in the Dáil, Deputy McNamara said, “Ennis, like other market towns in Clare and like market towns all over the country, has streets full of fine old buildings where there is a retail unit at ground level and in many but not all cases, they are vacant over ground level. A century ago, there were families living in them.” “I don’t underestimate the difficulty of converting those back into residential use. There are regulations, there are issues around financing, but it would offer many benefits not …

CLARE TD Cathal Crowe has made an official complaint to the Ceann Comhairle, alleging the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth failed to provide him with information about the provision of a new emergency accommodation facility in Shannon. He appeared on RTE current affairs show Drive Time last week and said that only while on the show he found out that the Department had provided a reporter with information that Deputy Crowe himself had sought, but been refused. “I was flabbergasted because there was information on the airwaves that I wasn’t aware of, and when I tried to get information via the most official route of all, a Parliamentary Question, I was told it was commercially sensitive and they couldn’t tell me.” He said he has been left completely in the dark about the details of plans to place refugees in the Shannon Free Zone. “It’s been a week since I lodged it to the office of the …

IF a commercial deal was handled as badly as the transfer of the Shannon Heritage sites to the County Council, those in charge would probably be looking for new employment, said Clare TD Michael McNamara this week. It should be far easier to establish if Clare County Council can get the finance it says it needs, he feels. “If money isn’t available, money isn’t available. I’ve never been one to make little of money or to say that €15 million, which is reputedly what’s being asked, is a small amount of money, it’s not. “On the one hand you have Government representatives saying that it’s a small amount of money, which I don’t agree with, and on the other hand they’re saying that every effort is being made. “It seems to me that the dispute isn’t even about money, there seems to have been a lack of interaction between the Government and its various departments, Shannon Airport which is a …

TWO Clare TDs argued in the Dail last week for a change in Ireland’s approach to illegal drugs with one advocating their legalisation. While praising the excellent gardai successes against major criminal gangs, he argued that current legislation is not fit for purpose, and claimed that drugs are now everywhere in a way that wasn’t the case when he was a student. Listing high profile wins against organised criminal gangs such as the Collopys, the McCarthy Dundons, George Mitchell and John Gilligan he asked, “Has all of this led to the war on drugs being won? “Are there no more drugs on our streets? No, there are far more drugs on our streets, and they are in every community in Ireland. They are in every village in Ireland now – Bodyke, Scariff – every town and village in Ireland now has a thriving drugs trade. “I question the waste of Garda resources chasing these people. They are evil and the …