This article is from page 10 of the 2008-06-10 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 10 JPG
AN ENNISTYMON- man has claimed that he has been unfairly labelled “‘anti-traveller’” following a public meeting in the town last week.
The meeting, which was held in the Falls Hotel in Ennistymon on Thurs- day night, was called to discuss prob- lems relation to a development in the reyyaee
“The Traveller family that will be going into that development used to
use my house as a postal address for their correspondence. We were help- ing this family long before Clare County Council had any interest in it,’ said Philip Fahy from the Ennis Road in Ennistymon.
‘How could I have anything against that family’? This is an issue between myself and Clare County Council and they way they have handled this issue. We feel that we have been de- ceived.”
“IT live across the road from this development. We have just bought a
new house on a thirty year mortgage. We feel that we were robbed of our chance to have a say about how this development is being put together.”
The meeting was addressed by a number of county councillors in- cluding Martin Conway (FG), who claimed that the meeting was very productive.
“I feel that the councillor answered very comprehensively any issues that were raised on the matter of Traveller accommodation.”
“It is an executive function and ac-
cording to the 1998 Traveller Accom- modation Act means that the county manager has the power to introduce traveller accommodation unilater- ally,” he said.
“If the councilor doesn’t agree he can introduce the measures himself as he did with the emergency halting site just outside Ennistymon.”
‘People are not aware that the local councillors are tied when it comes to this issue.”
“The meeting gave us a great chance to clear the air. I would appeal to
people to embrace this change. If we were to oppose everything then we would not have a role in the manage- ment and development of things go- ing forward.”
“People were satisfied going away from this. It’s a difficult issue and the best thing that we can do is to man- age it going forward rather than op- posing it for the sake of opposing it.”
A number of other issues were raised at the meeting including pub- lic toilets in Ennistymon, sewage and car parking spaces.