A LISSYCASEY COUNCILLOR has revealed he is considering writing to the Taoiseach to ascertain what contingency plans are in place should there be “an outbreak of common sense” in the country.
Speaking at the May meeting of the West Clare Municipal District, Cllr PJ Kelly (FF) admitted that he was debating contacting his party leader, Micheál Martin (FF) amid ongoing frustration with the actions of civil servants in the country.
Senior executive officer with corporate services in Clare County Council, Ann Reynolds confirmed a cross-directorate team has been established to examine a previous motion from Cllr Liam Grant (GP) and identify the scope of work involved in changing the spelling of road signs to their preferred spelling in areas such as Lahinch, Ennistymon, Corofin and Clonlara.
Reynolds explained that the cross-directorate input involves general design looking at the final mapping of electoral areas to define boundaries and settlement areas, roads department consulting with TII to review costings of signage replacement and corporate services who will compile the list of qualified electors and arrange the plebiscite which has to occur before the spellings can be amended. Only the general design team have commenced work at this stage, she said.
Cllr Grant sought an update at Tuesday’s meeting, “I would like to know what has been done to organise a plebiscite and what information has been gathered from TII,” he questioned. “It is not the first time and won’t be the last time I’ve brought this up. I know other councillors have brought it up in the past and haven’t gone anywhere, this is definitely something I won’t stop pursuing”.
His contribution stoked intrigue among the county’s longest serving councillor. He pointed out that Clarecastle and Newmarket-on-Fergus were two examples of parts of Clare where the English name is not a direct translation of its English equivalent.
“We have Lahinch, it should be Lahinch not Lehinch. I’m just wondering has common sense any role in this country, it has become an endangered faculty or are we trying to prove to ourselves we can be Irish by doing silly things. I felt like writing a note to the Taoiseach to ask him has he a contingency plan if we have an outbreak of common sense because it could be a crisis,” he quipped.
