Junkets, debts and rate increases - Clare County Council is being talkedabout for all the wrong reasons, reports Gordon Deegan
It was April 1942 when Clare County Council was done away with by government after running up a debt of £52,176, through having the worst record in Ireland for collecting rates. In a scene that would not have been out of place in a banana republic, Eamon de Valera's government sent a commissioner to administer the county for three years for fear that the locals would continue to mismanage their affairs.
P.J. Burke was a councillor when the axe fell and, giving an inkling of what life was like without Clare County Council, he says: "It was a dark period in Clare's history. The county suffered and little work was done. The government realised its mistake because it solved nothing by getting rid of the council. I was very upset because I thought that Clare County Council would not be heard of again."
The former councillor need not have worried as council officials and members have ensured in recent times that the local authority is the most talked-about in the country.
First came those junkets. In October, delegation number one, involving members of the council's Special Policy Committee on Economic Development, went on a five-day research trip to Portugal's Algarve, aimed at improving the proposed Cliffs of Moher visitor centre. However, little was learned, they say, as the Sagres cliffs were just 130 feet high (In fact they are just over 200 feet). And the only visitor facility available to inspect was a small, modern building housing a café and shop inside a fort originally built in the 15th century. The official report into the trip said that the site "was a good example of what one should not do rather than what one should do".
Delegation number two, involving Mayor Pat O'Gorman (Fianna Fáil), county manager Alec Fleming and their wives, departed for Australia in November on a €10,000 promotional trip aimed at fostering further links between Clare and the Clare Valley, one of Australia's best-known wine regions. Not missing an opportunity to promote Clare, the county's two ambassadors trooped off to the Tourism Ireland and IDA offices in Sydney en route to Clare Valley to drop off brochures and videos promoting Clare.
Against this background of junketing, the council had run up debts of €10 million. It is currently in the process of raising rates on businesses by 7 per cent to finance pay awards and is also imposing levies of up to €12,000 on new homes.
This week's further revelations show that the beleaguered council is not much nearer realising its ambition of transforming a dilapidated 19th-century psychiatric hospital into a new €32 million headquarters despite already paying €1.6 million to consultants and security firms (the property itself was bought for €1.1 million in 1999).
Staff working in Portakabins at the council's overcrowded offices can only look on with envy at their Limerick colleagues as they settle into their impressive, newly opened headquarters.
All of this makes former Labour TD, Dr Moosajee Bhamjee, remark: "Wherever Clare County Council go, trouble is never far behind." Bhamjee says that "abolishing the council outright would be a severe step to take, but there should be greater accountability. The council seemed to run up their €10 million debt with no one shouting stop".
The editor of the Clare Champion, Gerry Collison, observes that the council's trips to Portugal and Australia "have been a PR [public relations] disaster for the council". "It has been handled abysmally by the council and is symptomatic of the council having no PR system in place. They would take an old-world view of PR and have to yet grasp what it involves."
Collison says the "ordinary taxpayer in Clare can only shake their head at the trips abroad, the amounts paid to consultants and the lack of consistency shown by the council in the planning process".
The unfavourable comments about the junkets have caused one councillor to call on the council "to take stock and review its policy of trips abroad".
Independent councillor Christy Curtin adds: "The trips have impinged adversely on the image of the council and future trips should be measured on how they can directly benefit the county. But I would not like to see the council cut off its links with Europe."
However, Councillor P.J. Kelly, who went to the Algarve, stoutly defends the trip. He says: "I regard these trips as a penalty. It was not a junket, it was a hard fact-finding mission and is fully justified. It was a useful trip and we learnt what you shouldn't do, and it is far better to learn from other people's mistakes than your own."
Even though they received daily allowances, Kelly says that councillors were substantially out of pocket as a result of the trip. "Some people have the perception that you make money on these trips. You don't," he says.
The history of the council has been characterised since its inception by Fianna Fáil dominance and Green Party spokesman Brian Meaney claims this has led to "stagnation".
However, Kelly, who is leader of the Fianna Fáil group, says his party's dominance "has given stability to the council, which has allowed the council make positive decisions it would not have taken".
Defending the council's overall record, Curtin says it is a force for good in Clare, especially in the peripheral parts of the county. This is echoed by Mayor O'Gorman, who says: "Everything about Clare County Council is good."
O'Gorman stresses that the council "has a great image with the public in Clare. I work with 160 people in Shannon and they have the greatest admiration for the council and the people that work for it".
It is a long time now from the dark days of 1942 when Clare County Council became but a memory. Today the local authority is the biggest employer in Clare, employing 1,045 people. It has a budget next year of €86 million to improve the road, water, sewage and housing infrastructure throughout Clare.
Kelly describes the cost of providing services as "astronomical" but adds that the council's finances are now under control - most of the €10 million debt is to be paid off through a 20-year loan.
County manager Alec Fleming says he feels "the media focus generally is on the negative and I certainly would welcome a positive focus, which will help to portray the wonderful traditions of Clare and all the positive things it has to offer".
Stating that he takes great pride in serving Clare, Fleming adds: "We do believe we are doing a good job and the council's customer survey bears this out. All of the services provided help improve the quality of life in Clare."