This article is from page 14 of the 2009-05-26 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 14 JPG
that the last five he spent in the council were the tough- est yet.
“There is a big load after being taken off my shoulders. I never put down such a fives years as I did in the last five especially. If you knew the things that were going on under- neath,” he said.
So with the support and encourage- ment of his family, Jack has bowed out of local politics, which has changed significantly over five dec- AYalehe
“When I started first we had the town clerk James Clancy, we had Michael Harney – his assistant, we had Michael Miniter, rent and rate collector and we had Paddy Tubridy the engineer and that was the total staff in that Town Hall when I went 10
“They did everything and much more. There were house rates at the time and the rate collector had to collect all that in every house in the town.
‘There are 23 down there now – not saying that I have anything against anyone that has a job, that has noth- ing to do with it – the only differ- ence I see down there is what I got, is the tax office. But only a couple came over for that, I don’t know what the rest of them are doing in Clare County Council. I mean if there is that many of them here how many of them are in Ennis. Well anyway that is just a comparison of then and now,’ he said.
“And another big difference I no- ticed, is that when the manager of the day Joe Boland attended every meet- ing for every month for the five years we were there.
“And the comparison with the last manager when he was here, not say- ing anything against him now, three times I saw him – when he was elect- ed, he came to a function and when he resigned. Three times in the five years, Joe Boland, 55 times,” said the outgoing councillor.
“Oh this is a hot one for me, I hate this one – the executive function in
planning,’ he added, visibly an- noyed.
“Tt (planning) drives me mad that it goes out in our name, the result comes back in our name and it is not discussed with us. We don’t discuss it, at that time we use to get a note every month of all applications for planning. I haven’t seen one, I don’t know, in five years or so. My point here is we have more local knowl- edge.”
Jack Fennell followed his father into Kilrush Town Council, but not in party politics.
“My father was a Fianna Fail councillor before me, and they were saying go for Fianna Fail but they wouldn’t take us (Jack and William O’Looney). We knocked two of their fellas out,’ he recalled with a smile.
Cllr Fennell also joined the Pro- gressive Democrats for a short time, as the party tried to convince him to run for the county council election.
“The PDs wanted me to go with them. I joined them for a while, and I didn’t like it. They steered away from what Mr O’Malley intended them to looms Imo elem BDO tlomee
Among his many achievements Jack lists the work on the 150th cel- ebrations for St Senan’s Church, the twinning with Plouzane, and his chairmanship of the Shannon Har- bour Authority.
“IT was chairman of the harbour authority here for 12 years and they have let that slide away because no one seems to have interest in it any- more.
“Limerick authorities are claiming jurisdiction over the whole thing.
“When Moneypoint came I kicked up a row and asked Clare County Council or someone to back us here. Limerick came down and claimed the dues and they are getting millions out of our side of the county. And our roads are being torn asunder with the lorries taking the ash away from it, and all that money is going down to Limerick that should be coming into County Clare. The only one of the county councillors that backed me at the time was Christy Curtin – he was an Independent above in Miltown.
“The rest of them never thought about what was happening except around their own thing, they never looked down the River Shannon to see and we lost it. I had no one to back me at the time,’ he added.
Cllr Fennell also feels strongly about the expenses paid to council- Kevase
“I cannot see any reason why any- one should get a bonus. It is a vol- untary job for the good of the area you live in, and I cannot see why rate
payers money is used to pay bonuses for the mayor and deputy mayor,” he said.
“It is very easy spending somebody else’s money.”
“Then this travelling to conferenc- es – I proposed to suspend it for two
years while times are bad, but I got no backing,” he said.