Photograph: Paschal Brooks
AN END IS IN SIGHT for the transfer of Shannon Heritage sites to Clare County Council.
Negotiations have been ongoing since June 2021 with a multitude of false dawns, setbacks and broken promises in the last 22 months.
Assurances have always been issued to staff on the security of their jobs at the four sites in Clare, namely Bunratty Castle & Folk Park, Craggaunowen, Knappogue and the Cliffs of Moher gift shop.
A deal was said to be imminent before Christmas but this never materialised. White smoke is understood to be in the air with Cabinet approval all that is needed to sign off on the transfer with negotiations concluded between the County Council and the Department of Transport.
Clare TD, Michael McNamara (IND) had given his view to The Clare Echo on why the pace of the transfer was so slow. “I think there’s nobody at Cabinet seized of it, there’s nobody at Cabinet hugely exercised by this, I think that is a large part of it and as I’ve always said there’s too many agencies and departments involved, you’ve Shannon Airport Group, Clare County Council, Fáilte Ireland because they were talking of a €5m capital development before COVID, then you have the parent department of Fáilte Ireland which is Arts, Tourism, Culture, Media and Sports, the parent department of Shannon Group is Eamon Ryan’s Department of Transport and the parent group of Clare County Council is the Department of Housing, Heritage and Local Government, ultimately it is going to cost money, it’s easy to bounce something around between departments forever when nobody particularly wants a solution.
He added, “I think Clare County Council want a solution to it because they recognise how important tourism is to Clare, that goes back to our other point, to be very clear I’m not trying to create an us and them with regards to the people in the hotels but it is also damaging for them in the long-term, we need to get these people integrated, get them working, with the best will in the world jobs are not as concentrated as a map of Ireland if you look at where various people are concentrated there isn’t a massive amount of jobs in those areas but we need to get them integrated. Tourism is hugely important to Clare that’s why Clare County Council are interested in it, Shannon Airport want rid of it but don’t want it seems to part with the landbank around it, they are unwilling to part with the amount of money that they initially planned to invest in it as part of the capital development programme that had been tentatively agreed with Fáilte Ireland prior to COVID. I keep saying that somebody needs to knock heads”.
“It has been knocked about for a very long time, obviously we were told an offer was made before Christmas but it was far short of what Clare County Council felt was needed. Arguably Clare County Council, everybody needs to give a bit and Clare County Council will perhaps have to accept less than they want to but my understanding is Clare County Council are being practical about it and they will accept less than they would like but equally they are keenly aware they can’t bankrupt the Council for this, they know how important tourism is to Clare, whether the Government is going to come up with more money or Shannon Airport is coming up with more money or more capital,” Deputy McNamara stated.
