Certainty is needed for organisations such as Clare Haven Services and Rape Crisis Midwest which can be provided from the Local Property Tax, Seamus Ryan has claimed.

Seamus is Labour’s only candidate in the county for the local elections on May 24th and is running in the Ennis Municipal District. He has called on Clare County Council to assist both groups in a better way.

He told The Clare Echo, “I want to see Clare County Council help these vital services in a concrete way, the simplest way to do this would be to commit to help fund the long-term rental of the buildings they use or to find council properties that are vacant or soon to be vacant and offer them the use of them for a nominal fee in the same way that Clare Youth Service lease the Junction in Cloughleigh. We need to find ways to ease the burden on these organisations so they can focus on the vital work that they do in our community”

At the April meeting of the local authority, it was agreed to lease the Mill House Building to Haven Horizons for a period of five years, €2,800 is the current rental rate for the premises. Mayor of Ennis, Clare Colleran Molloy stated in proposing the extension of the lease, “There is a long standing relationship with Clare County Council and Clare Haven, it is wonderful that the County Council and Ennis Municipal District have close collaboration with Haven Horizons”.

However, Ryan wants stronger assurance for the groups and pointed to grant aid from the Local Property Tax as the solution. “Every year Councillor’s provide grants to projects from the Local Property Tax to deserving community organisations and I firmly believe that these organisations and those like them are entirely deserving of this kind of practical support from Clare County Council.”

Since the introduction of the Local Property Tax Clare County Council have collected over 52 Million from local property owners with current Councillor’s removing the 15% discount in 2015.