ENNIS’ long-running public realm works “will be worth the inconvenience” according to the Chief Executive of Clare County Council who said the benefits will be visible “for decades to come”.
October 23rd 2023 marked the start of the €11.5m public realm works in Ennis. It has been one of the biggest infrastructure projects undertaken in the town. The main construction phase of the works will finish on November 26th 2025.
With the county town decked out with fencing and barriers over the past two years, it has become its own jungle of sorts with businesses of Ennis feeling the brunt of the drop in footfall such is the accessibility difficulties encountered by the public in navigating through the town.
When asked by The Clare Echo if Clare County Council as an organisation finds it difficult to look itself in the mirror given the length of time the public realm works have taken and the subsequent struggles faced by businesses, Chief Executive Gordon Daly acknowledged that the project has caused pain.
He stated, “It is always challenging when any local authority takes on major public realm works. t has been done in Limerick and other major cities, we acknowledge there is pain and challenges for local businesses, that occurs and we have done everything we can to mitigate that but hopefully we’re very near the finishing line.
“I think everybody will agree the quality of what has been done is top class and we will see it will be worth the inconvenience and we will see the benefits of it for decades to come, we are very much focused on trying to use the opportunity of this transformative public realm project to do a reset and really try strongly promote Ennis as a key destination when these works are completed. We are very appreciative of the patience of the local business community on this, we look forward to working in partnership with them in terms of how we can harness all the benefits of it into the future”.
