Tag Archives: Rita McInerney

EMIGRATION is one of the most regrettable effects of the recession but with masses returning from countries like Australia and Canada, Clare businesses are getting a Christmas lift. Patrick Bourke has men’s clothes shops in Kilrush and Ennis and he says that the ‘Australia effect’ is obvious at the moment. “There are an awful lot of people buying clothing when they come home. They’re travelling light on the way home because of carriage and it’s so hot over there, but when they come home they’re frozen.” One visitor to his shop had little option but to go shopping quickly. “A fella came home with one pair of jeans on him, his mother asked him to bring in coal and he dirtied his only jeans! He was going buying more, but that forced his hand to do it a bit earlier.” He says that pubs will probably get more business from people back home for short visits. “There was a fella …

ECONOMIC data has been less grim than usual lately, and when the CSO revealed on Tuesday that 58,000 more people were at work in the third quarter of 2013 compared to the third quarter of last year, there was more cause for optimism. The CSO figures also showed a decline of over 41,000 in the number unemployed, a decrease of 12.8% in the overall figure. In Clare the third quarter of the year matched the national picture, with 9,849 people signing on in July but the figure was 8,943 in September, a decrease of 906. Rita McInerney of Ennis Chamber said she was pleased things are going in the right direction, and said that the increase in the numbers at work is the most significant number, giving that factors other than an economic improvement can make a hole in the numbers on the live register. “I think that looking at employment growth is a much more realistic example or indication …