*Ennis 2040.
CLARE’s longest serving politician has hinted that “a seldom used” section within the Local Government Act may be examined to halt the Ennis 2040 strategy.
Ennis 2040 is an economic and spatial strategy with a primary purpose of guiding the long-term development of the county town and to highlight investment opportunities that will deliver competitive advantage over the short, medium and long term.
Officially launched by the then Tánaiste Leo Varadkar (FG), the strategy initially had nine transformative sites, alterations to the original concept such as tweaked plans for the Riverside project at Abbey Street car park have met strong opposition.
Speaking to The Clare Echo ahead of his forthcoming retirement from politics, Cllr PJ Kelly (FF) stated that the strategy is proving to be one of the few items that elected members in the County Council are willing to challenge in the present era,
He commented, “In recent times there is little or no legal engagement, with the exception of Ennis 2040 nobody challenges anything inside, I voted against Ennis 2040, I gave my reasons on the day, it was giving preferential treatment to one corner of the county and is taking control away from the local councillors. You had five against it at that time, if there was a vote tomorrow morning you would have four for it”.
In June 2021, councillors voted 23-5 in favour of drawing down a €10m loan for Ennis 2040 DAC. Cllr Kelly, Cllr Tony O’Brien (FF), Cllr Gerry Flynn (IND), Cllr Donna McGettigan (SF) and Cllr Susan Crawford (GP) were those to vote against the decision. “I voted against it, I was concerned about it, I note others are now concerned and there’s many people who voted for it have now changed their mind so we could end up with a situation where it is five for and the rest against”.
Lissycasey native Kelly predicted, “What is going to happen in my view is that a seldom used section within the act might be invoked”. This is in reference to a section of the Local Government whereby elected members can direct the Chief Executive of the Council not to do something.
