A NEW CONTRACT is to be signed for the construction of the €14m County Library this Friday.
Chief Executive of Clare County Council, Pat Dowling confirmed a new contractor will be officially announced by the end of this week, ending an eighteen month wait for an appointment. “There has been a lot of work done. I’m sure and confident it will be a success this time. We will see work back on site as soon as possible,” he stated.
Speaking to The Clare Echo, Cllr Johnny Flynn (FG) expressed his hope that the development would strengthen the county’s cultural reputation. “It is going to be a huge cultural asset to the county, it will compliment glór and we will hopefully get forty to fifty good years out of it like the past library”.
He referenced a previous notice of motion before the local authority whereby he asked that Clare declare itself as a county of culture and creativity, while the cultural aspect was taken on board, the creativity side was not. “The Library and Arts Centre will embrace creativity, it so important for artists to have a sense of wellbeing within the county”.
Keating Construction had initially won the tender to carry out the construction works but the marine and engineering firm entered liquidation in February of last year. An examinership process led by KPMG failed to yield any potential saviours for the company after it unearthed debts of €30m.
Prior to the discovery of financial woes of the company in July 2020, Keating had up to 200 employees, between 20 to 25 of which were located at its Co Clare offices. Louis Keating founded the Clare company and established a very successful operation. He sold L&M Keating in 2018 at a time when it had a turnover of €60m.
Late 2021 was the original target for completion of the construction of the library building on Causeway Link in Ennis. A revised timeline is expected to be outlined with the signing of the new contract.
