*More holiday homes in Kilkee are now occupied earlier in the year.
HOLIDAY SEASON in Co Clare is now beginning much earlier than in the past, a Kilkee councillor has said.
Issuing the call for more resources across coastal parts of the county, Cllr Cillian Murphy (FF) told Tuesday’s meeting of the Rural Development Strategic Policy Committee (SPC) that there has been a ‘complete change’ in what happens “from a coastal and tourism perspective” since the pandemic.
He stated, “the Bank Holiday at February has kickstarted everything, I’ve never seen Kilkee as busy so early in the year. We now need to look at that from a resourcing point of view, it is not good enough to be just hiring summer staff”.
Director of Service, Leonard Cleary was nodding in agreement as the West Clare representative made his point. “From February on is now the season,” he acknowledged.
Increased resources for front line operations, roads, beaches and town and village maintenance was sought by Cllr Joe Garrihy (FG) at the most recent sitting of the West Clare Municipal District.
Here it emerged that a business case was submitted to senior management of the Council to seek additional staffing onto current resources due to the demands encountered with the popularity of beach destinations in North and West Clare.
Lisdoonvarna based Garrihy commented, “It seems to be too easily being pushed aside year on year, our crews are pushed to the pin of their collar every year. We really need to redouble our efforts, it can’t be getting pushed aside, too much is dependent on too few”.
Efforts to increase resources act as “a perennial request,” Cllr Murphy observed. “Every year we come along well ahead of the summer season and say we need to be planning for the summer time and then there’s no support for the extra resources required. I hate to harp on about parking by-laws, that revenue would be derived from the people visiting the county and would be then put into resources. I’m sick in the face of asking for that management tool to be amended so a potential revenue stream can be allocated towards the communities. There is no chance that will be looked at for this year, we’ll be told at budget time we want all these resources and then at the other side told we don’t have the resources. This is not pitched at screwing the visitor, I pay for parking in Ennis, Limerick and Dublin. Of all the things that frustrate me as a councillor, this frustrates me the most”.
He added, “there was a serious incident in Kilkee two years ago where an ambulance struggled to get access because of parking. That was maybe three years ago. To be sitting here three years later making the same comments is just risable.
On top of the influx for the summer, towns and villages are not adequately resourced for the rest of the year, Cllr Ian Lynch (IND) argued. “We’ve broken most of our Tidy Towns to the point that they are almost gone, it is not their function to maintain our areas, they have to put the cherry on the top”. He added, “We’re killing communities by not having the resources, we need to get back to the basics. The tradition of local authorities is maintaining the roads and the streets. People want to raise their families here”.
On the issue of parking by-laws, Cleary said they must be brought before elected members. “We have proposals so that we know how to staff the by-laws and acquired parking. I don’t think there’s any reluctance from West Clare Municipal District but we need to engage with all Municipal Districts, all four Municipal Districts need to move together. We have a little bit of work to get that unity. I am hugely frustrated that we haven’t the resources”
