Tag Archives: PJ Kelly

A Lisseycasey councillor is pressing Clare County Council to offer a solution to the Lough Donnell sluice problem at Clohaninchy saying it is “unfair” to the 30 or more local landowners who are affected. Local landowners are fearful that their properties could be flooded by seawater, which could cause significant damage to farm land. Clare County Council said it continues to work to address concerns at Lough Donnell, and a consultant representing the Council met the contractor on site in late February to inspect the culvert. The local authority said a report looking at the options to provide an engineering solution will be prepared, and the preferred option it decides upon will first have to be agreed with National Parks and Wildlife Service and Inland Fisheries Ireland. Councillor PJ Kelly (FF) told Wednesday’s meeting of the West Clare municipal district that no progress has been made on the matter since he last raised it at December’s Clare County Council meeting. …

A CLARE councillor has railed against what he calls discrimination against small farmers and their families. Councillor PJ Kelly said that new regulations which he said are being introduced because members of the Oireachtas “who were asleep or half asleep and let through legislation that they didn’t understand” have the potential to be very harmful for small farmers. “Under the new regulations, up to 90% of the farmers in West Clare, if we adopt the County Development Plan, will not be recognised as farmers, because they are under the limit of 20 hectares, which is 49.42 acres, say 50 acres,” Councillor Kelly pointed out. “In other words the priviliged will have 50 acres, their sons and daughters will be recognised as the sons and daughters of farmers and get the benefits accordingly. “Those who have less than 50 acres will not be recognised as the progeny of farmers anymore,” said Councillor Kelly. He said there had been a “stealth move” …

CONTROVERSY around the issue of so-called ‘in-fill sites’ has led to an application by a young couple for a house in Kilkishen being rejected, twice over.  The application to build a one-off house at Teeronea was turned down by county planners last year. Following an inspection of the site, and consideration of national and local guidelines, An Bord Pleanála has now copperfastened that decision.  Both the Council and the appeals board found that the creation of an in-fill, or what the local authority described as “gap sites”, would be contrary to the County Development Plan 2017-2023.  An Bord Pleanála also stated that the couple had failed to satisfy the requirement to prove a local housing need. That was despite the fact that one of the applicants attended national school in Kilkishen.  Commenting on the general principle of in-fill sites, Councillor PJ Kelly, who highlighted the issue earlier this year, described the situation as “crazy and vexatious”. “An in-fill site is …

AT the monthly meeting of Clare County Council the local authority endorsed proposals from the Independent Post Masters Group, which would see community banking rolled out across the An Post network of post offices. Fianna Fáil’s PJ Kelly sought the backing of the members, saying that community banking in post offices has already been rolled out in other countries. “I’m not saying that the post office of yesterday or the post office of today should be the post office of tomorrow. No. The future post office will have to be a totally different item. It will have to be a community post office integrated with other services. “In recent times we’ve seen post offices in big shops and so on and so forth, a wonderful solution, but this goes further. It references something that is a success in other countries, community banking, in Germany and in New Zealand.” He said that under the community banking model in other countries, people …

A SERIOUS issue for a number of members of Clare County Council regarding the upcoming county development plan is the fact it contains allocations for growth. There are concerns that these are going to stymie development in rural Clare, just as remote working becomes commonplace, and this week Councillor PJ Kelly said that certain areas could be totally left behind. “I asked could we get specific about what will Kilrush get, what will Kilkee get and I was told no, it’ll be the total area. That means if you have a big demand in one corner the whole quota of the allocation could be used up in a term much shorter than the six years. “Suppose we allocate X to west Clare over six years, but there’s a big demand and it’s used up in three years. That means we can’t grant any further planning permissions,” he said. The veteran Fianna Fáil councillor said that he had listened to some …

THE proposed development of training facilities at Cahercon proved not to be economically viable, the Dáil heard recently and the matter was again raised by Councillor PJ Kelly at a meeting of Clare County Council.  He requested a report outlining the employment related projects now being pursued in the Shannon Estuary. The report subsequently received from Director of Service Liam Conneally said, “There are very real opportunities for both Moneypoint and Cahercon and all of Clare to play a key leading role in the establishment of a hub for offshore wind energy together with the route to market and supply chain associated with the Offshore Renewable Energy industry. “In this regard Clare County Council have been actively supporting and liaising with the key Offshore Renewable Energy companies seeking to build Offshore Floating Wind farms off the Clare Coast. “These companies will utilise the Shannon Estuary, for manufacturing, assembly, servicing, and associated supply chain requirements of the large-scale turbines and critically …

DERELICT buildings in rural towns and villages could be adapted to provide public toilet facilities, according to a local councillor. Councillor P J Kelly called on Clare County Council to provide grant aid to community groups who wish to enhance existing leisure facilities by providing low-cost toilet facilities. Speaking at a recent local authority meeting, Councillor Kelly outlined community facilities could be refurbished to include public toilets at a low cost compared with providing new standalone public conveniences. The long-serving Fianna Fáil Councillor thanked the council for maintaining the public toilets in Lissycasey, which are widely used by locals and visitors. He was supported by Councillor Cillian Murphy who stressed people were looking for facilities to help them access walking routes and mountains. Instead of building new facilities, he proposed that the council should look at existing facilities in local communities such as GAA clubs that already have car parks, changing rooms, toilets and showers. Last year, Councillor Murphy recalled …

WELL over €10.6 million was spent on professional consultancy fees on Clare County Council projects in 2019 and 2020. At the February meeting of the local authority, Councillor PJ Kelly sought information on professional consultancy fees in 2019 and 2020, and a subsequent report from the Council’s Director of Finance Noeleen Fitzgerald showed that €5.21 million had been spent on such fees in 2019 and €5.48 million the following year. However, she said the 2020 figure might yet rise further, as it only reflects costs processed so far. “It is important to note that approximately 85% of the overall costs for both years relate to capital projects that are fully funded and primarily recouped from grant income as part of our capital works programme. These costs do not therefore form part of our Revenue operational budget. “25% of the overall costs in both years relate to the SHIP Social Housing Investment Programme where we have a number of local authority …