LACK of toilet facilities and appropriate lifeguards during the recent heatwave were highlighted at the June meeting of Clare County Council.
Elected representatives from North and West Clare discussed a number of faults exposed in the county’s tourist regions that were caused by the unexpected spell of fine weather.
Although he quipped that the three days of sunshine enjoyed by the Banner county might be the full extent of our summer, Cllr. Shane Talty (FF) put forward a motion calling for “Clare County Council to put in place contingency plans to open toilets and have seven-day lifeguard cover at coastal locations in the event of fine weather”.
The Ennistymon native highlighted that “Our short heat wave highlighted whether can we have flexibility and the ability to react. We have to have some kind of a system in place or some way of building in flexibility that when we see weather events, we know what we’re going to bring. We were a day late before we were up and running and able to react”.
“Lifeguards were putting their hands up and not being taken up on it. Fantastic facilities are available but if they’re not open it makes for a really, really poor visitor experience when these rare and rather wonderful weather events occur”, he continued.
Unsurprisingly, the motion proved popular with elected representatives from the county’s main tourist areas, such as the Ennistymon and Kilrush municipal districts. Cllr. Joe Garrihy (FG) spoke in support of the motion, recognising the need for a timely response by the local authority in the event of unexpected warm weather.
The Lisdoonvarna man stated that there was “great work being done by our teams across coastal communities” during the heatwave but stressed that the council must have “the capacity to respond to these kinds of events, no matter what they are. That will require a variety of skill sets”.
“During fine weather there’s going to be a desire for people to go to the beaches and it’s about keeping them safe. We have a dedicated surfing community and a lifeguard can’t be everywhere at once even if he is there. It’s a recognition of the changing times”, the cllr added, in relation to the latter half of the motion.
Corofin representative cllr. Joe Kileen (FF) discussed the high level of correspondence received by cllrs last month, saying “We got burned with emails from people at White Strand and Fanore to open facilities. That weather came as a great surprise. Flexibility needs to be built in with a number of people being taken on for a temporary basis for the summer”, the North Clare native added.
Cllr. Michael Shannon (FF) also stressed the importance of flexibility and readiness to adapt to demanding weather conditions. “It’s very important when we have such beautiful beaches in West Clare. We had similar motions back in Liscannor. You spoke about facilities earlier it’s just about trying to be adaptable and have as many facilities as possible open for people and making sure that services that should be there are there”, the Quilty man outlined.
Concluding, cllr Talty stated that he wished to thank “local experts” throughout the county who stepped in when lifeguards could not be found to protect increased numbers of beach-goers. “Thankfully, a lot of their actions have been useful in recent times”, the Fianna Fáil representative added.
