Today John Cooke spoke with Tom Coughlan, Clare County Manager in relation to the cost of repairs to our damaged coast line. The cabinet is being asked to approve a bill of 36.8 million euro for repairs to the storm damaged Clare Coast today. Last evening's meeting of Clare County Council was told that the county's second round of severe storms on February first, added around 13 million euro to the bill submitted to government in January. Some of the biggest increases were seen in New Quay where a previous bill of 1.8 million euro has almost doubled to 3.5 million, in Doonbeg, the damage has gone from a quarter of a million to 1.5 million and in Kilkee the cost has gone up 800,000 euro after the effects of Storm Brigid.
Ailish Connolly, a concerned Kilbaha Resident and Mother and Liz Greehy, also a resident and start up business owner joined the show. Liz has just received planning permission for a gallery and craft shop focussing on heritage in Kilbaha and due to the impact of the floods is fearful her start up won’t have a chance. Clare County Council has vowed to continue work in Kilbaha despite the lack of government funding. It comes after a stand-off in the village yesterday, between locals who had carried out works to re-open the storm-damaged Main Road, and the Council who decided to close it once more on health and Safety grounds.
Brian Sheehan, a Kilrush Native from Glen – The Gay and Lesbian Equality Network was also a guest of the show. The Gay and Lesbian Equality Network said they are disappointed by the comments made by the Archbishop of Dublin regarding same sex marriage and homophobia. GLEN’s Brian Sheehan described it as “a missed opportunity” to tackle the role of the church and church teachings in creating what it said were “some of the difficult realities for lesbian and gay people in Ireland today”. However, he welcomed Dr Martin’s acknowledgement of the impact that a culture, which still has homophobia as part of it, has on those who are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender.
John Lowe – The Money Doctor answered your personal finance queries and also looked at current financial news and how it affects consumers. For more info see www.moneydoctor.ie
Eoin O’Mahony from Clare Suicide Bereavement Support in Ennis was also in studio as the group will hold a healing programme for family members, relatives and friends whose lives have been affected by Suicide in the coming days. The introductory night is Monday – February 17th at their premises in Roslevan, Ennis from 8pm, and the programme will continue for 8 weeks after that. For more details see www.claresuicidebereavementsupport.com
Moira Horgan is the Communications Manager with the Community Foundation for Ireland. She spoke to John about how grants up to €5,000 are available immediately to local communities devastated by flooding. Today the Community Foundation for Ireland, one of the country’s leading philanthropic organisations, is responding to the flooding that is devastating communities across Ireland by launching an Emergency Flood Relief Fund of €100,000. The fund has been established to relieve the hardship being experienced by local communities following widespread flooding from high tides and gale force winds in recent weeks. The priority of the funding is to support community and voluntary groups assisting in the relief effort in easing the immediate difficulties communities are facing and to support their recovery over the coming weeks and months. Applications are invited to the Fund from community and voluntary groups from February 10th. The average grant being made available is €1,000. Grants of up to €5,000 may be awarded to those who are experiencing exceptional circumstances. For details see www.foundation.ie
Frankie Coote, Clare’s ISPCA Warden gave us advice on the proper care of animals and discussed the issue of dead horses and abandoned animals. Contact Clare ISPCA Shelter on 065 6820393
To contact the show please email [email protected]
