MEMBERS OF Clare County Council last night took the first moves in putting in place a de facto ban on headshops across the county.
At the council’s adjourned April meeting last night, councillors from all sides of the chamber voiced their support for a motion from Cllr Brian Meaney (Green) that the council confine the location of headshops to a minimum 10km from schools across Clare.
Mr Meaney’s motion is similar to one he brought before Ennis Town Council earlier this month where it was unanimously endorsed by councillors.
There is now only one head shop in Ennis after local businessman and retired solicitor Desmond Houlihan succeeded in securing a court injunction to shut down the “Laughing Buddha”.
In a sworn affidavit, Mr Houlihan said that he was shocked to learn that his premises was being used as a headshop as the operator of the outlet had told him that it would be used as a shop to sell charity items to support Nepalese orphans.
At last night’s meeting, Mr Meaney said: “We need to be creative in how we deal with this problem. I have received correspondence from a Dublin-based doctor on this matter who told me that in the past two weeks, three young men have been admitted to hospital in Dublin with inflammation of the heart after they took mephedrone.”
Cllr Johnny Flynn (FG) seconded the motion, saying it was “innovative”. He said: “The response to this issue needs to be multilayered, and as a parent I would like to thank the local businessman who closed down one of Ennis’s headshops at huge financial cost to himself. He was caught unawares as to what was being sold in the shop.”
However, Cllr Michael Begley objected to the phrasing of the motion, stating that it could be interpreted that headshops are acceptable more than 10km from schools.
Speaking after last night’s meeting, Mr Meaney said he welcomed the support for his motion by the council.
He said: “It is necessary for co-operation between the Ennis Town Council and Clare County Council for any proposal confining where these shops can trade to be effective. As councillors we do not have the power to ban, but we do have a function in directing where trade can take place.”
In her formal response to Mr Meaney’s motion, acting director of service Nora Kaye said a manager’s report on the new draft Clare County Development Plan will shortly come before the council and it would be appropriate to address the motion when the report comes before the planning authority.
Mr Meaney said: “I am confident that this will be included in Clare County Council’s development plan. There is a need to introduce some control on these outlets.”
The move to put in place the ban on headshops in Ennis is to be achieved through a variation of the Ennis and Environs Development Plan.
