This article is from page 26 of the 2011-03-22 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 26 JPG
THE elected members of Clare County Council yesterday went against the expressed wishes of County Manager, Tom Coughlan, by adopting the new East Clare Local Area Plan including a resolution to zone an area for the possible future development of a marina in Killaloe.
Following more then two hours of heated debate and detailed legal advice, the elected members of the local authority voted by 19 votes to four in favour of passing the revised plan, with four councillors abstaining from the vote.
It now remains to be seen whether the county manager will decided to use his executive function to over rule the decision of the elected members.
“The overriding concern as far as I am concerned in tourism development. The history of this development and this debate is very important. This is like a test case for all of this new regulation which has been passed down to us. These issues are appropriate to everyone – a similar situation could arise down in Loop Head or up in the Burren,” said Cllr Pat Hayes (FF).
“I think that if we can develop a marina in Killaloe then I feel that that is in the overriding public interest of the people of Clare.”
The final decision was arrived at by the elected members following a series of proposals and counter proposals which led to a number of loud shouting matches across council chambers and the meeting being adjourned on two separate occasion.
The first difficulty arose when expressed some concerns about the discussion being conducted in public and asked for a legal opinion on whether some details of the plan should be discussed in camera.
This prompted angry scenes in the council chambers with Shannon cllr Gerry Flynn (IND) eventually proposing and winning a vote to have the matter discussed in from of the media and the assemble public.
However, the meeting descended into chaos when a second proposal, calling for a 10 minute recess to allow for councillors to contemplate the plan was also voted on and passed by the councilors.
The Mayor of Clare, Christy Curtin (IND) ruled that the two motions were not in conflict and councillors could both have a ten minute break to “contemplate” the motion before discussing the motion in council chambers.
This prompted an angry outburst between Cllrs Gerry Flynn and Cllr Cathal Crowe (FF) when the Shannon council alluded to the type of discussion which may have taken place during the 10 minute break.
At the request of Mayor Christy Curtin, Cllr Flynn eventually withdrew the remarks.