This article is from page 18 of the 2014-07-22 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 18 JPG
THE new West Clare Municipal District has been described as unmanageable and a thinly cloaked attempt to downgrade Clare County Council.
Councillors at last Friday’s meeting voted to write to the Department of the Environment and insists that the old electoral boundaries be restored.
In terms of geographical size, the West Clare Municipal Area is now the largest electoral area in the country, taking up just under half of County Clare. In a joint motion put forward by three councillors from the area, it was claimed that the council will not have the resources to meet the needs of such a large area.
“I think the boundaries as set out are wrong and I cannot see them working on the ground. The overall size of the area is unmanageable, there is just one senior engineer in Kilrush now, we lost one in Ennistymon. The idea behind this is to downgrade local government as was done with the NRA and Irish water. We should go back to the old system.
According to Ennistymon Cllr Richard Nagle (FF), the council will face major budgetary difficulty in the years ahead.
“What we are facing as we go about preparing a budget for 2015, is that we are now totally dependent on the Department of the Environment to provide the finances that the people of this county have rightly come to expect,” he said.
“When the property tax was first introduced we were told we would get 100 per cent of the money. This year we are getting none, next year we are getting 80 per cent. We need to make sure that we don’t end up getting 80 per cent of the property tax but with the ministers from various departments taking back the funding we recieve – leaving us with the same level of funding or less.
“My fear is that we won’t be left with the money to live up to the promises that were made. These promises were made by the Department of the Environment and not Clare County Council.”
Independent Cllr Christy Curtin said the situation wasn’t ideal, but councillors had to work with law.
“I share the frustrations but the law is in place. There is now a challenge on us to use this as best we can to serve the people,” he said.