*Shannon Banks. 

A “BRAIN DRAIN” is impacting on the South Clare region falling under the auspices of the Shannon Municipal District.

Following the recent appointment of Clonlara based Jason Murphy as Acting Director of Services within Clare County Council to co-ordinate the response to the ongoing crisis in Ukraine, the Shannon MD is now without a senior executive officer.

Prior to this, environmental warden Norah Murphy and rural development officer Jennifer O’Brien recently vacated their roles in the Shannon MD.

Too much change has been occurring among staff in the area over the past decade, Cllr Gerry Flynn (IND) lamented. “Over the past ten years or so, the Shannon MD has been stripped of a lot of people who had the knowledge and expertise be they engineers or administrative staff. Officials are barely touching down in the Shannon MD before they are pulled out again, it is a brain drain and a work-force drain and the Shannon MD is suffering the most, more than West Clare, Ennis or Killaloe”.

Speaking at Tuesday’s meeting of the Shannon MD, Cllr PJ Ryan (IND) commented, “the brain drain in the Shannon MD is terrible”. He felt officials needed time to become acquainted with areas like Shannon Banks and called for senior management of the local authority to be pressed on the matter with Cllr Flynn then proposing a meeting be held with management.

“We’re losing good people,” Cllr Pat McMahon (FF) acknowledged. “There is this continuation of getting to know someone, them becoming familiar with the areas and the buzzwords and then the new people don’t know them and we have to start from scratch,” Cllr Donna McGettigan (SF) explained.

Cllr John Crowe (FG) stated, “it is unbelievable the talent we are losing, the calibre of people we had in our Municipal District”. It is causing unnecessary pressure for councillors, he believed, “there is a pressure on us as elected members to deliver for the people, without the team behind us we won’t be able to do that”.