This article is from page 2 of the 2008-09-09 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 2 JPG
LIMERICK ‘scumbags’ are not wel- come in Shannon – that is the stark warning delivered by local town councillors. Members of Shannon Town Council have opposed plans for a Regional Housing Strategy between Clare and Limerick, amid concerns it would result in undesir- able people from troubled areas such as Moyross and Southill moving to the town.
During a debate on the issue last week, Councillor Mike McKee (Ind) said, “We have had scumbags out from these areas, very nasty scum- bags that come out here because they see this as an open market.”
He said that a member of his fam- ily – and stressed it was not his son – was recently knocked unconscious, having been assaulted by “a member
involved in the feuding gangs”.
Councillors agreed that they would not oppose people moving to the town from Limerick, but would not accept criminal elements moving to SJetveveleee
Councillor Patricia McCarthy (Ind) said she was shocked and horrified to receive the circular about the strat- egy. Councillor Tony Mulcahy (FG) said that the regional housing policy proposal “struck me as a bit like the Heathrow bank holiday situation” last year.
“They are being housed by the health board and they have rent sub- sidy. I say ‘No, no and no again.’ This is the greatest con job I’ve seen in my life. We cannot accept this and we are not accepting this,” said Cllr YIU er Teh
Labour councillor Tony McMahon said the proposal was an attempt to
“bring in a extension of the Limerick city borders by stealth. These people are going to corrupt where they go and need to be dealt with. We haven’t houses for our own.”
Labour’s Greg Duff said that while Limerick’s problem had to be solved, it was not acceptable that this would be achieved by moving it to Clare. “The people coming in have been creating mayhem. If it continues, it will break down local communities,” he said.
Fianna Fail’s Sean Hillery said it took a long time to solve issues with the travelling community in Shannon and likewise the problem in Limerick would take a considerable period of time to address. “It’s going to take a long number of years to resettle that and the only place that is going to be solved is in Limerick. Any other so- lution is going to fail. Bringing them
out here is not going to solve it,” he Cr HOe
However, the wording of the mo- tion, brought by Cllr Mulcahy – that the council have “no hand, act or part in any regional housing policy that would include the relocation of peo- ple from the Limerick city Regenera- tion project and in particular to Shan- non region – was “discriminatory”, according to Fianna Fail’s Geraldine Lambert. She said the motion should be re-worded to make reference to families causing trouble.
“I have a difficulty with the per- ception going out of here that we wouldn’t want ordinary decent peo- ple moving here,” she said.
The motion was carried after it was supported by six councillors, with three opposing it – Cllrs Duff, Hillery and Lambert – on the grounds of its Oy KON De