An aerial shot of The Market, Carmody St and Kilrush Rd.
ONE THIRD of Ennis is hindered from future housing and commercial development due to capacity issues at the Clareabbey wastewater treatment plant.
Describing the matter as “a very serious situation for this town,” Cllr Pat Daly (FF) called on the Ennis Municipal District to seek funding from the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, James Browne TD (FF) to upgrade the Clareabbey wastewater treatment plant.
He flagged, “there isn’t sufficient capacity of water and sewerage to cater for future residential and commercial developments in Ennis and its surrounds”.
Ennis Chamber in recent weeks together with the Local Property Development Group arranged for Director of ‘People & Place’, Justin Gleeson to brief elected members and staff of the Ennis MD on the ‘Ennis Residential Zone Profile’ where the potential impacts were underlined.
Acting senior engineer in the Ennis MD, Paddy Tiernan stated, “It was a very productive meeting with Developers outlining the major obstacles and making recommendations to Councillors on what needs to happen for the situation to improve. Following this meeting an invitation was extended to the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, James Browne to meet with the group. Ennis MD subsequently received a response which stated ‘Our office has made note of this invite for when the Minister visits Clare in the future. I will liaise with your office once a date is set for this visit’,”.
For Ennis to have “an insufficient supply of water for future housing and commercial development” is very worrying, Cllr Daly commented. “This is affecting a third of the town of Ennis,” he said. “This is very serious for Ennis, we’re talking about shortage of housing and we can’t build in a third of Ennis”.
Mayor of the Ennis MD, Cllr Mary Howard (FG) confirmed both she and Cllr Paul Murphy (FG) spoke with Clare TD, Joe Cooney (FG) on the matter and suggested Fianna Fáil representatives do likewise with their Oireachtas members.
Clarecastle is also impacted, Cllr Tom O’Callaghan (FF) flagged, “We are all trying to develop Clarecastle with the Roche site, the Kildysart Rd and behind Maxol wherever possible”. He informed the meeting he had spoken with Supermac’s Managing Director, Pat McDonagh on their difficulties connecting to the plant. Cllr O’Callaghan said he has lodged a formal complaint with Uisce Éireann over the smell emanating from the treatment plant.
Minister Browne was criticised by his party colleague, Cllr Clare Colleran Molloy (FF). “The response from Minister is not good enough, we’re not saying we want this issue to be tagged on to some other reason for why he is visiting Ennis, we want this to be a reason for him to come and visit Co Clare, that is not good enough, we’re not happy with this, it is conditional on another reason for visiting, we’re saying it is of primary importance for the biggest town in Munster not being able to grow”. She said Cllr Daly needed to “double down on this request”.
Action is needed, Cllr Paul Murphy (FG) stressed. “It is beyond belief that we’ve come to the stage where we can’t develop the southern side of Ennis or Clarecastle, it is critical but the reality is if there was a land check in the morning this won’t happen overnight. It is beyond belief but it is critical that something happens now”.
Infrastructure development from Government must allow for improvement in the future, Cllr Tommy Guilfoyle (SF) maintained. “The fact we’re building facilities that aren’t adequate when they were built, we didn’t allow for further development of one of the largest towns in the country”.
Cllr Daly said he agreed with the views of Colleran Molloy, “it is not good enough but it is important he comes fairly urgently”. He added, “It is stopping the upgrade of so many houses in this town and Clarecastle”.
