This article is from page 29 of the 2012-11-20 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 29 JPG
CLARE County Council is to write to the Minister for the Environment, Phil Hogan (FG) asking for some clarity in relation to the proposed scrapping of town councils in Kilrush, Ennis and Shannon.
This follows a motion put forward by Cllr Gerry Flynn (IND), himself a member of Shannon Town Council. Cllr Flynn said that the further centralisation of services would lead to poorer services being delivered to the people of Clare.
“It is quiet clear that the minister [Hogan] is seeking to centralise services in the county. All you have to do is look at what has happened with the centralisation of services so far and see the total disgrace which came from the centralisation of education services and the hardship which has come about to students and their family through the new system for third-level grants,” he said.
“We need to ask the minister ex- actly what his intention are and what he plans to do. There are a lot of staff working in these local offices around the country.
“Some of these people, under the Croke Park agreement, would be protected but some would not be protected.”
The motion was seconded by Cllr Patricia McCarthy (IND), also a member of Shannon Town Council.
“I think it is important that some clarity is brought to this situation sooner rather than later,” she said.