This article is from page 16 of the 2013-06-04 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 16 JPG
WITH the other three constituencies built up around an urban centre or identity, at first sight it would appear the Killaloe Electoral Area is an amalgamation of everything else that is left over when Ennis, Shannon and West Clare were constructed.
The Boundary Committee Report refers only to this electoral area as “A fourth local electoral area is recommended for the eastern side of the county, to be titled Killaloe.”
It has been given its name from the area’s largest town, Killaloe, on the Tipperary border, but spans an area that borders County Galway at the north.
The new Killaloe Electoral Area will cover most of the current Killaloe electoral area, but will also include parts of North Clare traditionally in the Ennistymon Electoral Area.
Questions remain as to what commonality lies between East Clare areas such as Clonlara and Killaloe and the traditionally North Clare areas of Tubber and Boston.
If the guidelines set out by the boundary committee in drawing up these new local electoral area boundaries hadn’t stipulated that no area could be smaller than six councillors with an average of 4,830 people per councillor, then this area could have been very different.
Putting areas like Cappavilla and Kiltenanlea in the south of this constituency into Shannon or part of the north into the West Clare constituency would probably make more sense locally, but this would also result in a five seater Killaloe Electoral Area, which is not allowed under the guidelines. As a result, the six councillors elected to this are next summer will cover an area spanning from O’Briensbridge to Tubber and beyond.
Six county councillors will cover this expansive area that extends from Cappavilla in the south to Abbey in the north, and they will represent 22,940 people or 3,823 people per local representative. KILLALOE