This article is from page 3 of the 2006-02-21 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 3 JPG
COUNTY Clare must live with any decision made by Minister for the Environment and Local Government Dick Roche on the proposed controversial boundary extension.
The Minister this week confirmed that there would be no appeals system to his ministerial decision on the possible extension of Limerick city into counties Clare and Limerick, expected to be made in the next number of weeks.
Although the discussion rests solely with the Minister, he indicated it would have been more successful had the issue been dealt with at local level.
“It is so much more sensible for people at local level to sit down and resolve the issues than it is for people at central level to do it.
“Listening to the Mayor of Limerick, who was giving me a very strong lecture on this recently — and I was listening to him very carefully and precisely — what he actually said was that if Cork, the second city, was at stake there is no doubt in his mind the councillors of Cork and the councillors of County Cork could resolve the issue.
“And I was thinking to myself when he said that, what good solid advice, and maybe he would actually talk to his fellow councillors on both councils and see could they do what he was admonishing me to do in the context of Cork.”
The minister vowed, however, to protect the heritage of the Banner County in any decision he makes.
“Any decisions I make, I will be absolutely anxious to protect what I regard as the heritage and interests of individual counties,” he added.
“I have been doing some thinking about it over the weeks, but as soon as the decision is made I will announce it,” he said.
Speaking at the Ógra Fianna Fáil Conference in Ennis, Minister Roche said he had travelled to the annual event with Clare junior minister Tony Killeen.
“Tony has been telling me that there are tanks ready to roll on me from Clare if I dare make that declaration (extending the boundary into Clare).”
Meanwhile, the three main business organisations in the greater Limerick area, Limerick Chamber of Commerce, IBEC Mid-West and the Limerick City Business Association (LCBA), called on the minister to refer the recommendation to extend the Limerick City boundary to an independent Boundary Commission. All three organisations unanimously agreed that the issue was too politically sensitive to remain in the political arena and requires the objective consideration of an independent commission. The Minister has always maintained that to send it to the boundary commission would have been the “easy way out”.