This article is from page 17 of the 2006-10-24 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 17 JPG
PROBLEMS with planning are one of the main factors which make people in Clare less happy than those in neighbouring counties, according to a new survey produced by UCD.
The survey, which was presented at the “Towards Sustainability in the National Development Plan 20072013” earlier this month, rated each county and region of Dublin on a five point happiness scale.
People in Clare were rated as the fourth most unhappy in the country with only Dublin City, Dublin South and Waterford receiving a worse rating. Clare was grouped in the second tier on the unhappiness scale along with eight other counties. Galway and South Tipperary were group among the most happy counties while Tipperary North, Limerick and Kerry were group in the second most happy category.
Dr Mary Kelly, director of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) called for a strategic environmental assessment to be carried out before the introduction of the National Development Plan 2007 to 2013.
“It will be too late in 2013 to look at it and say ‘I wish we had done this some other way’ so the time to try to determine the impact is before the plan gets underway,” said Dr Kelly. The survey was conducted by Professor Peter Clinch and Dr Susana Ferreira of UCD.