This article is from page 18 of the 2012-10-09 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 18 JPG
IT WAS an issue that took over the airwaves two weeks ago, and last evening it ironically became one of the talking point in the county council chamber.
The decision by Clare County Council to include a reminder about paying the household charge with third level grant application letters became an issue when it was interpreted that the council would not pay the grant if the household had not paid the controversial tax.
Cllr PJ Ryan asked that the council would inform its elective representatives of any announcements of public interest, prior to the media being informed.
“It is not nice to get a call at 7am from someone from Morning Ireland to see if you had any comment,” he said.
“Then you go to the local shop to field a barrage of abuse from local ladies who asked “what are you f-ers doing?” I don’t know how this was put into the media. Was it the Min- ister’s office or Clare County Council?”
Describing it as an embarrassment to councillors, Cllr Christy Curtin said it the letter was ill conceived and caused confusion on processing the grant.
Cllr Pascal Fitzgerald added that the issue was “all over facebook” the night before the story broke.
“I went into the shop and people were asking why are you a councillor if you don’t know what is going on.”
Co Manager Tom Coughlan said the council was not aware it was go- ing to become an issue and if he did he would have informed the councillors.
He said, “An individual who got a letter decided to publish it on the internet.
“The first I heard of it was at 11pm that night.”
“ Morning Ireland picked up the story that Clare County Council was not going to pay the grants, but that was not the story.”
It was an administrative decision to send out the letter and to return to the council chamber every time such a letter was to be issued would be unworkable micromanagement according to the manager.
He added, “You just don’t know when the next story is going to break.”
“We made it clear during the day that we were not withholding the grant, but what compounded the issue was Tipperary County Council who said it was going to follow Clare County Council and withhold the grant,” he said.
“We were never withholding the grant,” he said.