This article is from page 14 of the 2012-02-14 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 14 JPG
CLARE County Council has been urged to press for changes to electoral boundaries after the current arrangement in Ennis was labelled a “disgrace”.
Independent councillor Tommy Brennan made the call at yesterday’s meeting of Clare County Council’s Community and Enterprise, Tourism and Emergency Services Strategic Policy Committee (SPC).
He said that the council should seek to have boundaries re-drawn now rather than leaving any proposal too late. Cllr Brennan criticized the boundaries in place in Ennis for the 2009 local election, which saw the county town divided into Ennis east and west.
He said, “Ennis should have one constituency not two. It’s a farce to put a boundary down O’Connell Street.” Cllr Brennan added, “It was a downright disgrace to have O’Connell Street split down the middle in the last local election.”
SPC members were speaking fol- lowing the release of preliminary data for Clare from the 2011 census.
Commenting on the high population concentration that exists in the ‘golden triangle’ from Ennis to Shannon, SPC chairman Richard Nagle said he found it difficult to agree with some of the statistics.
He said that if the census were carried out now, it would paint an even more “depressing picture” of the number of people living in rural parts of the county.
He said that recently 20 people, all aged in their twenties, had left two parishes in North Clare, to seek work abroad. He said rural areas that had been dependent on construction and tourism had been hardest hit by the economic downturn. “A generation is disappearing,” he warned.
Cllr Brennan said emigration is also a major feature of life in Ennis. He told the meeting that 14 members of an underage hurling team have now moved to Australia. Cllr Gabriel Keating (FG) said that 16 people had recently returned from Australia to a part of West Clare to attend a funeral.