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LOCALS IN COUNTY Clare have hit out at their council over a range of new measures which they say are prioritising profit over community welfare.
The complaints come after heightened efforts by Clare County Council to charge people for using the Cliffs of Moher walk and a bid to ban swimming and water activities in the bay off nearby Doolin.
The council is hoping to develop the pier for commercial activity as part of a masterplan for the area, which relies on a successful tourism industry.
The chairwoman of Doolin Community Council, a local representative group, said the situation has caused “huge frustration” for locals who accuse the council of putting “commercial activities ahead of improving the quality of life” for people living in the area.
Locals angered by the move to end swimming in the bay told The Journal the area off the Atlantic coast has been used for bathing, sailing and surfing for generations.
Green Party councillor Liam Grant, a veteran surfer and former lifeguard, said the move has caused “outrage” in some circles in the region.
Grant said there has been further frustration over plans for the nearby Cliffs of Moher, where the council has stepped up efforts to charge people who take in the sights of the Cliffs of Moher by walking along the coast.
This has been done by hiring ‘wardens’ to check the incoming road for people dropping off visitors instead of using the onsite car park.
There is a charge of €12.50 for anyone using the car park or entering the council’s visitors centre – but this charge is now being applied to people who are dropped off by car outside the site.
The charge has long been a source of displeasure for locals – owing to the cliffs technically being a public right-of-way – and the development has added to tensions.
“It just feels very unclear what the council are legally allowed to do at the cliffs. They’re charging people who are dropped off outside the cliffs, but how about people who are dropped half a kilometre down the road?,” Grand told The Journal.
Hikers and people who arrive at the site by bus continue to be allowed in without charge but the council has sought to tighten this for others, Grant said.
The thing is, it’s a public right-of-way and I don’t think this would happen in any other public right-of-way in the country.
“There are cases where someone who has dropped off a group of four people near the site are being told you have to pay for the full five people. That’s over €12 a head so it’s going to cost you,” Grant added.
Grant said there were recently two ‘car parks’ opened in fields by local farmers who undercut the council by charging €2 for entry. This was done without planning and they have since closed.
The chairwoman of Doolin Community Council, Sarah Daly McTiernan, told The Journal that the council’s plans for the pier see it “entirely taken away from the public”.
She said there are numerous problems affecting the area, from “rotting” ladders on the pier, to little in the way of public bins, causing “huge amounts of frustration” for the group.
A new pier was built a decade ago for ferry operators, who also use a separate pier around a kilometre outside the village for travelling to the Aran Islands.
In response to The Journal, the council said it is running a public participation process to identify bathing waters in the county, which closes on 28th September.
It said it is asking swimmers to tell them if “they think they should maintain existing designated bathing waters designations or give a new official bathing area designation to areas that are commonly used for swimming, but not identified at the moment”.
Daly McTiernan claimed there is a risk of contravening directives in the government’s Rural Development Policy that state bodies should deliver key projects that will improve the quality of life, social and economic wellbeing of people in local communites.
“Commercial development can benefit everyone but we want to do it mindfully and sustainably, but keeping in mind all people living in the area and of course the visitors to the area,” she said.
Daly said a prime example of the council pushing ahead with its development of the area without consultation was in a risk assessment document for swimming at the pier.
She said a risk assessment of the old pier “wrongly contained information” that any swimming in the area was “prohibited” and locals are now contesting the document.
The publication, recently released to the community council and seen by The Journal, was commissioned by Clare County Council in 2021. It noted that upwards of 50 people use the pier daily in good weather and that it’s “extremely busy” at the height of the tourist season.
A petition has been launched by locals seeking the correction of aspects of the report. To date it has 800 signatures online as well as dozens more from a door-to-door campaign conducted by the community council, Daly-McTiernan said.
“The inaccuracies present in the published risk assessment undermine the efforts to ensure the safety and wellbeing of all individuals using Doolin Pier. This group has also applied for designated bathing waters and this is not referenced in the report,” the petition reads.
Clare County Council told The Journal it attempting to work with local councillors and the Doolin community to ensure that there is “clarity around the works” in the area and to ensure that the “best service is delivered for all”.
“Additional resources have been delivered to the Doolin pier area in recent years to help to deliver an improved service and there are plans currently to increase these resources to expand the services to the wider Doolin area shortly,” the council said.
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Ya right
@Ole dan tucker: Whatever about him the Garda and police have allowed this get to where it is. They allowed signs be posted that defame and send threatening messages to staff, was any poster dusted for Fingerprints or DNA, no because nobody wanted to move them. 70 incidents in the last few years and no arrests. Quinn is a gambler that’s problem caught up with him.
@Ole dan tucker: He’s getting a bit of heat from his actions and is trying to tone it down temporarily. He hasn’t gone away, you know.
@The long walk home☘️: ye it’s the Gardas fault. Border area has always been peaceful and law abiding. Police need evidence and witnesses, the local community know who these criminals are and are the only ones who can provide the Garda with the information needed to lock them up.
Ye Sean, we believe ya
@Kyle: I notice there has been no statement from or interview with his son on this, Sean Jnr
@Mark Johnson: or his wife or sisters. Or the postman, or the priest
@Mark Johnson: I’d say you love Cluedo, Mark?
@James Douglas: just stating the obvious: Interview the young son, not the father pensioner. @Levante Dublin what has the postman and priest got to do with this?
@Mark Johnson: the one who ran away?
If he really was contrite he would stop blaming banks, regulators and everyone else and apologize to his staff for his gambling that almost led to the loss of their jobs, to the taxpayers that had to bail out his underfunded insurance company and thank the management of his former companies that got the finance together to save local jobs, and be grateful he still lives in a mansion and still has a sh*t load of money for a man that was bankrupt.
@The long walk home☘️: he still has an awful lot for a man who ‘lost everything’ CAB should be on his case.
Any chance of an apology to all the people in Ireland who have to pay a levy on insurance to pay off his gambling debts?
It’s inconceivable that these threats and attacks could take place in that part of the country without the direct involvement of or consent from paramilitaries.
The question is who is the ‘paymaster’ the QIH directors keep referring to?
An ‘ordinary decent criminal’ can’t even sneeze there without permission from paramilitaries.
@The Great Unwashed: that would be some other lad, like.
Sorry, Sean. Don’t believe you.
Perhaps the directors are standing up to racketeering. I’d say Quinn paid a hefty amount to gangsters in his day and nurtured a nice easy income for some nasty people. These directors are brave men and should be protected at all costs.
@2thFairy :Maybe the nub of the problem!
Interesting that when Quinn Holdings rehired SQ for a year all the intimidation stopped .We saw what happened in Cherry Orchard recently where CAB went after 2 goughers who had a protection racket going on against a construction company I wonder was something similar going on here.
Ahh the Badlands again. The narrative has been written in such a way that these areas feel they have been completely neglected and must look after their own. The criminals can act with impunity flying under the flag of convenience of “republicanism” etc. This is just a magnifying glass on the vagaries of life from which those living in cities have been protected. Instead we are worried about same sex marriage…
Pull the other one!
Two faces ?
Godfather – Mafia – Omertà
Sounds familiar! These instigators go around pretending to be pillars of society. Misguided people look up to them.
Big mansions no mortgages – send in CAB to flush out the person(s) behind the attacks on the Directors.
Sure cause you’re a stand up guy! As transparent as my window so he is.
If it’s this bad now I wonder how many small businesses got strong armed and intimidated by certain big businesses over the years
It would be great if these people rang joe Duffy and put an end to this fraud pretending to be an angel
A boycott of businesses and services in these areas should begin.
@Noel O Sullivan: why?
He was abducted the 17th September, not 23rd.
@Olive Whyte: irrelevant. He was abducted
@Elizabeth Sheehan O’Reilly: it’s not irrelevant. If you write a news article you have to have your facts correct. Basic rules of journalism, that I’m not sure those who write for the Journal understand.
Golden Rule: Follow the Money
Criminals won’t work without reward. Risk is so big, the Reward must be BIG. Who has pockets deep enough. Who has grievance big enough. Clearly, only ONE answer
Sean Fitzpatrick and David drum are the root cause of this. They are the ones that manipulated the Anglo share price by there unlawful activity.Sean Quinn along with many others were buying shares in a bank that had false accounts.
The Irish state should also hang there head in shame for having him put in prison for something that was not his fault.
@Jp Murray:
Quinn bankrupted himself with Contracts for Difference, not Anglo shares. I’m certainly no great supporter of Sean Fitz or Drumm, but they were horrified when they learned what he had done.
@Jp Murray: you’re speaking rubbish.. Seán Quinn gambled with people’s insurance premiums and lost. Now we’re all paying for his gambling. He belongs behind bars. You sound like a sneaking regarded for these murderous thugs. You should be ashamed of yourself
@Jp Murray: he should still be in prison for gambling with the insurance premiums. You sound like a sneaking regarder of these murderous thugs.
This is too little to late front the head honcho. People are so involved in this now they will not have the desire to pull back .
Not before time ,too little too late for Mr Lummey and his family.
have your say