On Monday’s Morning Focus John Cooke spoke with Brian Hayes TD – Junior Minister at the Department of Finance, with responsibility for the Office of Public Works, who was in Clare on Friday to survey the damage done by the recent storm Christine. It’s hoped this will aid the county’s effort of securing relief funding from government. Minister Hayes travelled to some of the worst-effected areas including farmland adjacent to the Fergus estuary, Carrigaholt, Quilty and Lahinch. Clare County Council’s preliminary storm report stated the damages caused by the weather amounts to 23.7 million euro, however government decided not to release funds until a full assessment of the damage is being carried out. Tom Tiernan, Senior Engineer at Clare County Council also joined the show as funding for Clare’s local and regional roads in 2014 has taken a multi-million euro hit. Over 12.5 million euro has been earmarked for the county this year, but the county’s opposition TD says this isn’t enough. Of the government’s 332 million euro package for local and regional roads, Clare is to receive just under 12.6 million with the majority of this going to Clare County Council. Nationally and locally, this marks a reduction of around 17% Clarecastle Fine Gael Joe Carey TD also joined John in studio to defend the roads allocation and also commented on Minister Hayes’ visit to the county. Sergeant Joe Downey is the Crime Prevention Officer with Clare Garda Division and was in studio for our weekly Garda Focus feature. To contact Ennis Garda Station please call 065 6848100 Dr Keir McNamara is the Chairperson of the Clare Peace Park Initiative, he and Brian Honan,PRO of the initiative were in studio today as the group have plans to erect a permanent memorial to the estimated 7000 Clare soldiers who served in World War 1, of whom approximately 700 lost their lives. A committee to remember these men and women was formed a few years ago by Peadar McNamara (RIP), Cannon Bob Hanna and Fr. Tom Hogan and there’s been a Remembrance Service around the 11th November each year. It has long been on the agenda of the committee to erect a memorial to Clare’s war dead. While WW1 took the lives of the vast majority of Clare men and women who have died in international conflicts, 45 Clare men died in WW2, two in The Spanish Civil war and two in Korea. With that in mind, they are hoping to erect a Peace Park/Remembrance garden honouring all Clare people who have died in war. See www.clarepeaceparkinitiative.com or view their facebook page. We also heard from Antoine O’Looney from O’Looney’s Bar and Restaurant on the Prom in Lahinch. Antoine hosted a government delegation, including Brian Hayes TD, the Minister responsible for the OPW, on Friday last. They surveyed the damage caused to local businesses in the seaside town following Storm Christine and met with retailers and business owners. Antoin is still busy cleaning up his badly flooded property in the hope of re-opening for the tourist season. John Murphy from the Clare branch of Birdwatch Ireland was also on hand to answer your bird and wildlife queries. To contact Morning Focus please email [email protected]
advertisement
advertisement
