*Photograph: John Mangan
AN ADDITIONAL €2.5M funding boost has been secured for Clare’s roads.
Speaking at Monday’s adjourned meeting of Clare County Council, Director of Service, Leonard Cleary revealed that the local authority had been informed an “additional €2.5m in funds of a capital nature” will be made available for the county’s road network.
He told councillors, “it will not impact on the revenue budget for 2024, this is funding of a capital nature, of course we would like it to be much larger and the proposal is that it be divided into the five local electoral areas. This is an investment of the development contributions collected in the county and re-invested in the county”.
Cllr Gerry Flynn (IND) reminded the Director that the Local Government Act states there are only four Municipal Districts under the Council’s umbrella and he questioned if he had “rewritten the policy”.
Cleary acknowledged that Cllr Flynn was correct on the amount of MDs in the county. “The proposal is looking at the scale and size of the county”.
Each of the electoral areas of Kilrush, Ennistymon, Shannon, Ennis and Killaloe will now receive an additional €500,000 for road resurfacing and strengthening for the year ahead.
Funding for the county’s road network was also brought to the attention of the Minister for Transport, Eamon Ryan (GP) when he visited Clare last Thursday. He held a meeting with a delegation on behalf of Clare’s twenty eight councillors, this included the Cathaoirleach of each Municipal District, Mayor of Clare, Cllr Joe Cooney (FG) plus Cllr Liam Grant (GP) and Senator Roisin Garvey (GP).
