*The Cloister. Photograph: Páraic McMahon.
THERE WILL BE no budgetary headaches for the finance department of Clare County Council following the allocation of close to €7m to redevelop the Cloister in Ennis.
As first reported by The Clare Echo, a total of €6,997,047 has been allocated to Clare County Council under the THRIVE Town Centre First Heritage Revival Scheme to refurbish the 17th century Cloister building on Abbey Street.
Officials in the local authority have confirmed that no match funding is required by the Council to fund this development. Sources including elected members had expected that close to €1m would need to be pumped out by the Council to make the project a reality. “There is no match funding required from Clare County Council as the Thrive funding is 100%,” a Council spokesperson stated.
Mayor of Clare, Cllr Paul Murphy (FG) welcomed the funding as “transformative”, Director of Economic Development Carmel Kirby said she was “delighted” and stated, “the knock on economic, social and community benefits promise to be significant”.
Clare TD, Cathal Crowe (FF) was also “delighted” with the funding. “The iconic building, which looks into the grounds of the Friary in Ennis, is at the heart of Ennis and it has been an awful shame to see it lying dormant for the past year. It is great to see that the building will be brought back to life by the Council and will be available to all those in the community”.
Not everyone in the local authority was pleased with the announcement with many of the view that such a volume of money could be better spent and others were fearful it would lead to a drain on resources in other sections of the Council.
As part of the redevelopment, the project titled ‘Teach an Phobail’ will provide six artist studios, two classrooms, conference, exhibition, and heritage spaces, while retaining the existing café and kitchen, creating a dynamic hub for culture, learning, and community engagement supporting the values of the New European Bauhaus.
Raising the matter at a meeting of the Killaloe MD, Cllr Tony O’Brien (FF) stated, “we have an announcement for €7m for arts and culture, we already have a building with glór, I’m thinking with the bones of €7m and I’m not criticising it coming into the place but I am criticising senior management who see fit to divert all Active Travel funding to Ennis and Shannon, we haven’t had an Active Travel scheme for many years, we’re precluded from this fund on population but we are entitled to some money. We’re not the poor relations in this county but sometimes we feel we are”.
Cathaoirleach of the Killaloe MD, Cllr Pat Burke (FG) clarified that he was referring to the €7m allocation for the Cloister to which Director of Tourism Development, Siobhán McNulty remarked “despite the fact it was under embargo until 11am” prompting Cllr Alan O’Callaghan to pipe up, “The Clare Echo had it for the last two days”.
McNulty stated, “it is a very welcome investment for our town, it has to be welcomed”. She was confident the project “will lead to a lot of improvements, my directorate is tourism, there is a lot of the promotion of the Abbey and a lot of positives to be gained from it, Ennis is the only town in the county which benefitted from it, you might say it is pitting Ennis against the rest of the county but that is not the case because if Ennis is successful then the rest of the county is successful. We will take investment with both hands and deliver on it for the benefit of the county, it will yield benefits”.
“We’re always looking for more,” Cllr Burke told McNulty who from next month becomes the Director of Service responsible for the Killaloe MD. Cllr O’Brien said, “I’m not against €7m coming into the town, it is great to see any investment coming into the county”.
