*Cllr Tony O’Brien (FF). Photograph: Eamon Ward.
A FORMER MAYOR of Clare has said he won’t sit back any longer and accept unsafe conditions on the roads of East Clare.
Frustration has reached fever pitch for Cllr Tony O’Brien (FF) who has hit out at Clare County Council for encouraging people to visit the county but not yet providing safe facilities. He claimed that responsibility has also been abdicated by the Government in failing to put in a place a replacement for the Clare Joint Policing Committee (JPC) for the past eighteen months.
Traffic speed was flagged as “a huge concern” in Killaloe by Cllr O’Brien when he tabled a motion before the Killaloe Municipal District seeking the installation of raised platforms on the pedestrian crossings at New Line Killaloe and at Abbey Street Killaloe. “Both crossings on the New Line are on a regional road and serve St. Anne’s Community College, the crossing on Abbey Street serves both primary schools and two shopping centres”.
Senior executive engineer, Declan Flanagan outlined that Clare County Council have discussed “changes in traffic flow” with An Garda Síochána following the opening of the Killaloe Bypass. This has led to reduced traffic volumes “driving directly through Killaloe but also increases on some other routes within the Town”.
Council officials are reviewing traffic flow “to assess the changes in modal traffic”, he explained. Traffic counters were in place until the middle of September at locations including Royal Parade and near Shantraud Woods. “This data will be processed and reviewed where changes of driver behaviour has occurred. We do see merit for the introduction of Raised Crossings on the L-4001 formerly the old R-463 at New Line where students frequently use the crossings to attend school, with many using the crossings at lunch time. Our Technical team will be drafting plans for these crossings later this year in conjunction with An Garda Síochána and our elected members,” Flanagan added.
Speaking at the Killaloe MD, Cllr O’Brien reminded the top table he had “an identical motion twelve months ago and nothing has happened since. We come in here every two months and one of us has a motion on speeding. There was a lady knocked down at a pedestrian crossing and a couple of weeks ago and it brought me back to the motion, we can have all the surveys and data collected but if we’re not going to do anything about it then it is worthless”.
Lack of Garda resources sees speeding go unpunished, he flagged. “We’ve a situation in towns and villages where An Garda Síochána haven’t the numbers and told us they can’t guarantee that they can police this matter”. He added, “Traffic volumes may decrease but speed increases I’ve noticed, the reduced traffic volume has increased the speeds”.
Less cars are in Newtown but “speed has increased,” Cllr O’Brien highlighted. “The area serves a secondary school, a girls primary school, boys primary school, two shopping centres, a housing estate, they are highly populated areas”.
Reflection is needed within the local authority, he said. “As a county and full Council we’re encouraging people to come and visit us, we’re investing in infrastructure, I’ve a huge problem when not providing safe facilities for people in our own communities”.
He continued, “When we canvassed at election in 2024, ever yone of us got it at the door in every community about speeding. I won’t sit back any longer and accept we need surveys and data, I can see it with my eyes, I walk the roads and the streets, I can see it, I really want this job done and the job in Bridgetown done”.
Turning his criticism towards the Government, the former Mayor of Clare commented, “I know I’m a member of Government party, I could have raised this at Joint Policing Committee which has been replaced and the replacement won’t be up and running till 2026 at the earliest, there is an abdication of responsibility to look after the vulnerable in our communities whether they be vulnerable people going to the shop, to collect pension or vulnerable road users”.
Seconding the proposal, Cllr Pat Hayes (FF) remarked, “I’d say we’re the most surveyed Municipal District”. He added, “We still aren’t getting the funding sources to go and do it, we do need to get financial supports here for our MD to be able go and do the work in the morning. We need to go and do it, at the same time while there might be hopes of funding there’s issues from Tuamgraney to Tulla and every town”.
Seeing improvements carried out on roads of East Clare is proving to be “a very slow process,” he lamented. He pointed out that it took three years for the Active Travel scheme on the Tulla Rd in Ennis to get moving. “Tony is completely correct on the community policing, this has been going on for so bloody long and Gardaí won’t attend meetings here either”.
Within Mountshannon, funding has resulted in the installation of two table tops and raised pedestrian crossings, “people initially said what the hell is going on with all the works but people have realised that the traffic is crawling through but it works,” Cllr Pat Burke (FG) noted. He said he funded a raised pedestrian crossing in Whitegate via his own General Municipal Allocation, “it is something the Council should be doing but it is done now.. Are we going to fill the Killaloe Municipal District with speed ramps, we’ve said people would be giving out but maybe it is time to dare I say to litter the Killaloe Municipal District with speed ramps”.
Responding to the concerns of elected members, Flanagan said, “I can feel the frustration on the speeding, there must be fifteen speed ramps around the Municipal District since I came to the Municipal District”. He confirmed that Ogonnelloe will have two raised tables and a zebra crossing installed. “I’ve spoken at length with An Garda Síochána, we have discretionary money that we will be prioritising”.
Plans were submitted for Newtown but were not funded, the engineer told the meeting. “We have ten schools for the safe routes to school and we have prioritised the Boys National School in Killaloe, “that is top of our priority for Killaloe, that is on the third round and we’re still on round one so it is down the road, urban areas have been prioritised for funding. We can outline as many areas as we want but we’re not getting the funding. We are fighting for as much money as we can get in the Municipal District”.
Cllr Hayes clarified that he was “not critical of the area office, we are doing everything in our power to get what we can get, the challenge is we’re not getting the national funding like Active Travel. We’d have a lot less of these issues if we were still getting Active Travel funding”.
A submission to the Local Authorities Members Association (LAMA) has been made by Cllr O’Brien, he informed colleagues. “One of the submissions I made to the forum for local government, we can all make submissions but through LAMA I asked that the Municipal Districts be funded directly from national government and that we have discretion”.
Director of Tourism Development, Siobhán McNulty told the meeting, “every Active Travel project is applied for and approved by the Department. The Department policy is around population centres which is different to when it started because larger population areas weren’t ready and they allowed local authorities to spend it in towns and villages”.
She continued, “Every year Clare County Council submit a significant amount of applications, every year we campaign on the value and benefit, the team here have been hugely innovative in trying to explore funding streams for different projects. We will continue to champion the benefit of Active Travel and to campaign for it”.
