*Cllr Tony O’Brien (FF) once again flagged the lack of Council staff in East Clare. Photograph: Eamon Ward
EAST CLARE is “seriously depleted” of maintenance staff working for Clare County Council.
Too much of a reliance has been put on community groups across East Clare to carry the burden left by the shortage of local authority maintenance staff, Cllr Tony O’Brien (FF) has said.
He proposed that a programme of works be drawn up “for the enhancement of our towns and villages with a view to getting extra staff for work programmes. We have a serious problem with maintenance and upkeep and are overly reliant on the voluntary groups within the Killaloe Municipal District”.
Acting senior executive engineer in the Killaloe MD, Declan Flanagan outlined that there is a planned scheduled for the roadsweeper to keep towns and villages clean across the Municipal District. “Additional assistance is also carried out at weekends when festivals or other such events take place. It is generally acknowledged that this appears to be working quite well”.
Flanagan detailed that weed spraying is no longer carried out in compliance with “various environmental requirements”. He acknowledged there are some issues with weeds in some of the towns and villages. “As our outdoor staff number has been depleting over the last number of years, the labourism task of removing weeds manually is becoming a challenge. By way of a response, Killaloe MD will soon take delivery of a battery self-propelled weed remover which will assist our outdoor workers and reduce the workload also on our community groups”.
Clare County Council is currently recruiting to provide an additional foreman and general operatives for the Killaloe MD, he confirmed. This followed a similar proposal from Cllr O’Brien. Flanagan told the meeting that there are “a number of bodies” within the MD out on sick leave with long-term posts and transfers to be filled. For the past two years, they have been without six to eight members of staff.
Speaking at the September meeting of the Killaloe MD, Cllr O’Brien stressed that his motion was no reflection on the current Council staff. “We’re seriously depleted on this side of the county, we are totally reliant on voluntary groups in towns and villages, while we are assisting and our rural development officers do tremendous work, I believe we need to have a practical solution”.
Weeds are coming up through footpaths in some East Clare villages, O’Brien flagged. “We need to help the community and voluntary groups in a practical way”.
There is not just a reduction in the amount of volunteering but also the amount of people looking to work on community employment schemes, Cllr Pat Burke (FG) remarked when seconding the proposal.
25 general operatives have been hired across the county, Cllr Alan O’Callaghan (FF) told the meeting. “Hopefully we’ll get our slice and get a few more bodies on the ground”.
Moves are afoot for funds relating to playgrounds and burial grounds, Cllr Pat Hayes (FF) said. He believed the numbers of people applying to become general operatives were “depleting”. He added, “normally around 200 people would apply and we only had 60 apply in the last round. People are not applying for Council jobs anymore”.
Cathaoirleach of the Killaloe MD, Cllr Joe Cooney (FG) stressed the importance of East Clare getting its “fair share” of the new employees. “We have a massive Municipal District, a lot of it is rural”.
