This article is from page 39 of the 2008-09-02 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 39 JPG
A SHANNON town councillor has come under fire for suggesting that the council should refuse to co-oper- ate with a directive which could see local authority tenants from Limer- ick being re-housed in the area.
Cllr Geraldine Lambert warned that the councillors would be branded as bigots if they pass a motion from Cllr Tony Mulcahy that the council “have no hand, act or part in any Regional Housing Policy that would include
the re-location of people from the Limerick City Regeneration Project on OE Kome
“Just think about it – if the words ‘people from Limerick city’ were re- placed with the words “Polish peo- ple” or “Nigerians” there would be uproar’, said Cllr Lambert.
The Fianna Fail councillor said that she is “totally opposed” to opening the door to any of the city’s feuding or criminal element “but you can’t put a blanket ban on an entire geo- graphical area. There are plenty of
decent, honest, hard-working people living in that area. What should be happening is that the three councils should sit down together to discuss housing policy”.
ClUlr Mulcahy will propose at to- night’s meeting “that this Council would ignore the Ministerial Direc- tive from Minister Gormley and have no hand, act or part in any Regional Housing Policy that would include the re-location of people from the Limerick City Regeneration Project to Clare and in particular to Shannon
Region. I would also request that this be communicated to Minister Gorm- ley in the strongest possible terms.”
And he said he is not deterred from speaking on the motion.
“This is a way of allowing Limer- ick to export a problem to Clare. If this goes ahead, it won’t just be a concern for Shannon. There will be people moving into all parts of Clare. We have enough people on our own housing lists and we have our own problems. I don’t see why we should be solving Limerick city’s problem.”