This article is from page 18 of the 2011-06-28 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 18 JPG
MOVES to name a significant piece of infrastructure after the founder of the world’s first Duty Free Zone, Dr Brendan O’Regan, was begun yesterday by Clare County Council.
The Sixmilebridge man – who died in 2008 at 90 years of age and was key to the development of industry and tourism in Clare – established Ireland’s first hotel school in Shannon in 1951 and was Chairman of the Irish Tourist Board from 1957 to 1973.
Following a motion put forward by Cllr PJ Ryan (Ind) at last night’s meeting of Clare County Council, the County Manager, Tom Coughlan, has been asked to make contact with the Shannon Airport Authority to discuss renaming a major road in the area after Dr O’Regan.
It was suggested at last night’s meeting that a section of road from Drumline to the airport would be name The O’Regan Way, while it was also suggested that an area of road between Drumgeely to the airport also be renamed.
“He seems to have been honoured in every other county and every other country except for his own county. In the airport itself there has been very little recognition for him in the place where he contributed so much to,” said PJ Ryan (Ind). “I wouldn’t have a problem with the suggestion that the council talk to the airport authority in relation to this. But I know that airport authority does not move too fast so I would hope that Tom Coughlan would move this forward sooner rather than later.”
Meanwhile, a disagreement concerning the council’s financial operations broke out last night meeting when Cllr PJ Kelly (FF) suggested that the local authority was not complying with its own rules for reporting budget deficits to the elected members. Cllr Kelly said that, while he did not entirely support the laws as they stood, the council was in breach of Section 104 of the Local Government Act.
County Manager Tom Coughlan said that the local authority had not overspent on its overall budget in the last two years and that the elected members would be advised before any over spend would take place.
Mr Coughlan did admit however, that minor over spends in some areas had taken place, but that these were balanced off with under spends in other areas. He said that if the Council was to take a very strict interpretation of Section 104, it would make the day to day running of the local authority almost impossible.
“Towards the end of last year the Council was able to get some extra funding from the NRA – between € 1 million and € 1.5 million. If I had to wait for four weeks to tell the [elected members of the] Council that we would be spending that money then there wouldn’t be a hope we could spend it in time,” he said.
“If there is going to be over expenditure I will, of course, bring that issue before the council. There is over expenditure in certain areas but then there’s under expenditure in other areas, but we balance the budget. If the council was to apply very strictly the issues outlined in 104 then we would be back before the Council every week. It would be impossible if I had to go back to the Council every single week.”