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We have a well documented shortage of over night accommodation in County Clare. No single intervention will let us catch up quickly, but there are certainly some things we can do to fill in some of the gaps. Putting in a straightforward policy pathway for farmers to get permission for a couple of glamping pods on their lands, subject to all other planning considerations, is one of those things we can do.

In order to manage the STL sector sustainably, Government needs to regulate it; every property should be required, as a minimum, to be registered, to have planning permission and pay commercial rates like every other business, to ensure it has minimal negative impact on the provision of permanent housing and long term sustainability of local communities.

Giving Local Authorities the funding for a dedicated staffing regime to tackle dereliction, along with a well thought out carrot and stick approach for property owners can reap rewards.

The importance of Clare County Council having a properly planned financial model to ensure the ongoing sustainability of our community run playgrounds.

I have huge concerns as to how the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications have drawn out the draft Broad Area of Interest for offshore renewable energy development off the West Coast of County Clare.

Where do the patients in the Emergency Dept. in UHL come from, and what percentage could be treated at our Injury Units or Medical Assessment Units.

Tourism is an industry that almost always happens to a community, and almost all tourism development is undertaken solely from an economic perspective, however, the real concerns and considerations of the community and their environment are often seen as tiresome and not worth listening to.

What are the impacts of Short Term Lets on our communities, and their sustainability, here in County Clare

What if we pivoted our taxation policy and nudged these property owners along a different pathway, not by penalising one type of behaviour, STLs, but by creating a greater reward for a different one, long term lets.

There is a crisis in the availability of affordable housing stock, for both private ownership or long term rental, for permanent residents in West Clare I requested at our September meeting that Clare County Council would undertake, as a matter of urgency, the relevant research to provide empirical evidence as to the current demand here […]

Motion to Clare County Council June 2021

The abdication of the responsibility of Irish Water to deliver critical pieces of infrastructure.

Update the Wind Energy Development guidelines so all Environmental Impact Assessment Reports and Noise Impact Studies would be designed, undertaken and commissioned by the local planning authority, instead of by the developers and that the developers would pay the local authorities to undertake these reports.

A detailed analysis is needed of the extra human resources required to provide appropriate levels of management, and enforcement of the litter, parking and beach laws, at our coastal amenities, to include projected additional costs and identifying future potential income streams.

The use of Section 254 licenses is a scurrilous abuse by multibillion euro businesses of a piece of planning legislation designed to give coffee shops a permit to put a sign outside on the footpath.

Assessing appropriate locations in public car parks for overnight camping, amending the bylaws to allow conditional, paid, overnight camping in those locations, and introducing bylaws to prevent wild camping in protected areas

It has become impossible for a community group to get an insurance quote for any new community playgrounds, and secondly, any of the existing playgrounds, whose policies have lapsed for any reason, will not be able to get insured afterwards.

Covid has fueled a massive surge in remote work, a remote revolution if you like. This means, for the first time in decades, we can now properly consider working close to where we live, instead of living close to where we work.

I am concerned the lack of ambition being shown by the state will negatively impact on our own ambitions here in Clare to ensure our rural and coastal communities can grow and thrive.

To request that the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage would re-examine the current suitability of the maximum household income thresholds in the three banded areas. We further request circulation to all other local authorities and Oireachtas Members

It is as textbook a demonstration as one will ever see about the power of lobbying by big business.

If increased ventilation and improved air quality in our schools, offices, pubs, restaurants etc is the price of some sort of normalcy, then we should be proactive in its delivery, it’s ultimately far more cost effective than paying them all to be closed, not to mention its worthwhile in its own right from a health and wellbeing perspective.