Retailers, residents, councillors and local businesses in County Clare who have formed a “Save Ennis Town” campaign group in response to the Ennis 2040 plans to develop the town, say the proposals amount to a “desecration” of a “medieval town” – which say will “suffocate local businesses”.
John O’Connor, owner of the renowned trad music hub, Custy’s Music Shop, said that the plan will “vomit cement on a small medieval town”. He said that the view of many local businesses and small retailers regarding Ennis 2040 was that “their vision for our riverside civic spaces is our nightmare”.
Public regeneration works are currently underway in Munster’s largest town, with O’Connell Street, High Street and Parnell Street among streets closed off to traffic since January when construction started on the works that are not scheduled to finish until late 2025.
“Their vision is our nightmare,” Mr O’Connor, who is chair of Retailers of Ennis, told Gript, as he pointed to the existing difficulties for many retailers facing high costs, rising rates, and rents.
The Save Ennis Town campaign says that the Ennis 2040 plan will make already limited parking even more restrictive by building on a major town centre car park in Abbey Street. This, they argue, will be a severe blow to footfall and expenditure in the town.
“Shoppers and visitors to Ennis need car parking spaces,” Mr O’Connor said. “If we lose these car parks people will choose to go elsewhere such as Limerick and Gort where there are plenty of free car parking spaces.”
“Yet, the council are now basically saying, sorry that’s irrelevant. We are going to build a massive shopping centre type place, get an anchor tenant and have office space upstairs. Everyone in the town and the county knows this is insanity but because they’re answerable to nobody, they go ahead irrespective of the carnage that will ensue.”
“If you pedestrianise a country town that serves a hinterland, you suffocate the ability of people to do business,” he added.
“They say these plans will have a positive impact long term, but Ennis is a medieval town with a beautiful and unique appeal. In my view, this is an attempt to homogenise it and the result will be making it into a lesser town. There is an effort to make Ennis into an ordinary town, forgetting that it is a jewel.”
“There is an appeal – Ennis is unique and what they want to do is scrub the uniqueness off it.”
“Why is there no incentive given to artisan or family-run businesses to come into town?” he asked. “The people were given no choice – like it or lump it! We want a plebiscite on this – its a huge issue for the people and the hinterlands,” he said.
2040 PLAN
In 2021, Ennis 2040 Designated Activity Company (DAC) was established by Clare County Council to deliver a programme of targeted investment and property development. The aim of the company, which is 100% owned by Clare County Council, is to develop key sites in Ennis – an undertaking they describe as ‘transformational’.
One of the key objectives of the contentious plan is to make Ennis “Ireland’s first climate adaptive town.” Another key aim outlined is to make Ennis a “10 minute town,” a concept which seeks to ensure all community facilities and services are accessible within a ten minute walk or cycle from homes.
The €11.5 million upgrade to the streetscape of the historic town will create a bigger plaza, with seating and planting at O’Connell Square, High Street and O’Connell Street to attract pedestrians, Clare County Council say. A cafe quarter will be developed at Barrack Square and Old Barrack Street to entice people to socialise, relax, and shop.
Yet, traders such as Mr O’Connor fear that by the time the works are completed, many retailers in the area will have closed up shop as street closures will divert shoppers to Limerick and Galway. Mr O’Connor says businesses are already suffering the fallout of the plans – with one business near him recently shutting down.
While Clare County Council says the initiative will increase Ennis’s appeal as a location for investment, and will pave the way for a “world class” town centre, locals including Clare TD Michael McNamara have voiced opposition to aspects of the plan, including the demolition of houses in the Francis Street area of the town.
Deputy McNamara has previously said he voiced concerns about how plans by Ennis 2040 DAC for the town are structured. The TD said in February that he was “struck by” the level of opposition to the strategy, while Clare Senator Martin Conway also referred to there being “a lot of concern” in his constituency regarding Ennis 2040 DAC.
The Save Ennis Town Campaign previously delivered a 3,700-strong petition to Ennis County Council calling for the reversal of the controversial Ennis 2040 plans which would see car parks in the town – seen by local businesses as crucial to bringing footfall – being redeveloped for mixed use.
A ‘Save Ennis Town’ rally will be held in the town on May 18th, with the group calling on the public to “help stop the destruction of our riverside car parks”. They say that the group, which includes local councillors, supports “positive progress” but that the Ennis 2040 plans would mean “destruction” for the town, with global brands benefitting while small local businesses face closure.
Campaigners say that the Ennis 2040 Designated Activity Company had “public space gifted to them”, and that the company were acting “as if they were not answerable to anyone but themselves.”
‘A SUBVERSION OF DEMOCRACY’
Central to the objections of campaigners is the proposed redevelopment of the Abbey Street Car Park. Under the Ennis 2040 Economic and Social Spatial Strategy, there are plans to build over the car park with a mixed use development. The proposed building is set to consist of a large retail space at ground and first floor levels, and office accommodation on the upper floors.
As previously reported by Clare FM, a raised river walkway is also proposed along the northern edge of the building for recreation and leisure.
But John O’Connor told Gript he believes the Ennis 2040 DAC is “answerable to nobody” but the objective given it by the council executive.
“We say it’s a subversion of democracy because you have unelected officials – two people, who form the executive – who basically say, ‘This is it’.’ They have organised this 2040 DAC as a vehicle to orchestrate their objectives. It’s not accountable, and it’s not transparent. It’s a very opaque organisation.
“Their master is the executive and they answer to no electorate, so that makes it doubly non-elected. However, the most insidious aspect of this denial of democracy is compliant councillors. For example, you have four councillors who voted to gift land to the 2040 DAC (the Abbey Street car park).
“Three of those female councillors are sitting members of Ennis 2040 DAC, which I think is a hugely important point. This is the subversion of democracy; that you have people who supposedly represent us, but they are hunting with the hounds. That is a total subversion of democracy, because these people were elected by the people to serve the people. They have failed abjectly in that, and they’re pretty brazen about it.
“I think these councillors treat the electorate with a certain amount of derision and contempt. It’s basically as if they are saying, “We have a vision, and because you don’t share that vision, you don’t count.” It’s as if they’re questioning the intelligence of the electorate. But they have been elected to serve the electorate, not the chosen few. That’s how we’ve seen democracy treated with contempt.”
“The [DAC] have come in here and they reckon they have vision and will transform the town into something it isn’t. They are going to take away car parking space, Riverside Car park in the town, which is multi-functional in the sense that it facilitates those who come in to park, and to do their business and get out, but it’s also a social thing. It’s a civic space, it alleviates the effort for older people – especially as Ennis is an age-friendly town – so it allows them to come in and park, and socialise”.
“We’re a bustling town with all kinds of events, from Christmas Markets to the Saint Patrick’s Day parade, so it’s a place where the community comes together to express themselves as a community”.
“Shoppers and visitors to Ennis need car parking spaces,” he said. “If we lose these car parks people will choose to go elsewhere such as Limerick and Gort where there are plenty of free car parking spaces.”
“Yet, the council are now basically saying, sorry that’s irrelevant. We are going to build a massive shopping centre type place, get an anchor tenant and have office space upstairs. Everyone in the town and the county knows this is insanity but because they’re answerable to nobody, they go ahead.”
“It is a total perversion and subversion of democracy, and it’s happening all over the country,” he says. “People’s apathy has led to the formation of a bureaucratic frankenstein.”
“In a town like Ennis, these works will be the death knell for businesses. It will be the death knell for an important aspect of societal interaction and the community – for those who come to share experiences in that area. So it’s pretty horrendous what they have in mind.”
‘SUFFOCATE BUSINESS’
He said that current parking restrictions have so far dealt a big hit for footfall for businesses impacted by the streets revamp.
“They have been trying to pedestrianise this town and that’s grand at certain times. But if you pedestrianise a country town that serves a hinterland, you suffocate the ability of people to do business. Customers just get deflected away and go elsewhere.
“And that’s happening here, it’s happening to a great extent. Businesses have gone. The most recent one was a cake business near me who operated here for 16 years. The owner told me that with all the digging and the work on the street, she said, there’s no future there and just said I’m gone. That is happening, and we know that for a fact.”
‘SCRAP THE PLAN’
Mr O’Connor and colleagues in Save Ennis Town will be taking to the streets later this month in a monster protest to highlight their plight.
“We are organising a monster protest for May 18th. We are just trying to fight this but you can’t fight unelected officials, and you especially cannot fight them if you have compliant councillors who are just giving and saying we have visions. They are basically saying the electorate are idiots. It’s no different than anywhere else in the country,” he said.
“If this plan goes ahead it will be to the detriment of the town. Building offices and apartments in these car parks makes no sense. We are calling on the council to listen to the wishes of the people of Ennis and scrap this plan,” Mr O’Connor said.
Concerns have previously been raised by local politicians about the development plans. Last October, North Clare Senator Martin Conway told the Seanad that the Ennis 2040 plan had a commercial remit and was potentially likely to displace businesses.
“There is a lot of concern in my constituency about the Ennis 2040 DAC, which is developing a retail offering in the centre of town. In essence, the State is going into the retail business and, by extension, displacing, or at least potentially displacing, other businesses that are ratepayers. We need a debate on the whole principle of DACs, including their role and how they potentially could end up putting others out of business, thereby creating insolvency and job losses,” he said.
“While we all have a common goal, which is to develop tourism and develop Ireland, we cannot do that in a sneaky way through activity companies that could end up putting other companies out of business,” the Fine Gael senator added.
Raising further concerns in February, Mr McNamara called for a detailed breakdown to be made available on the €2.2 million spent by Ennis 2040 DAC to date.
It followed the director of Service and Economic Development with Clare County Council, Carmel Kirby, confirming in response to a motion by Cllr Tom O’Callaghan of Fianna Fail that as of December €2.2m from the €10m loan approved for Ennis 2040 DAC had been spent.
He stated, “They may have carried a lot of studies and there may be more detailed plans, we saw a mock-up that one might not expect from a €2m spend to date. It was computer generated images on display and that shouldn’t cost more than a few hundred euros to put together. I’d like to see a detailed breakdown of the spend to date, it is a lot of money to have spent to have produced something very scant other than we’re going to develop Abbey Street whether you like it or not and we’ll demolish the Francis St cottages whether you like it or not”.
TD TAKEN ABACK BY OPPOSITION
The TD also told the local paper that he was taken aback by the public opposition to the plans after attending a public consultation meeting at the Temple Gate Hotel.
“I was struck by the opposition to the plans that were there. Ennis 2040 will have a better overview of the overall sense of it but when I was there it was very negative to it. It is not too late to listen to the people of Ennis if Ennis 2040 wants to save this,” he said.
Mr O’Connor, who has been the owner of Custy’s Traditional Music Shop for the past 32 years, says there will be “serious attrition” in the long-run if the plan runs to completion. He pointed to Limerick, where similar regeneration works are underway.
“Their sole aim is to advance themselves and to leave a legacy,” Mr O’Connor says.
“People will suffer years of attrition because of this. The executive get money from Europe, they get money from central government, and they’re answerable to nobody. That’s the big problem, we’re talking about a really dysfunctional democracy here where the will of the people is defecated on with a cynicism I’ve not seen before. This has transferred into councillors who hunt with the hounds because it’s in their interests,” Mr O’Connor said.
The shop owner said he, along with other retailers, recently sought a reduction in rates, but their request was turned down.
“We looked for a reduction in rates, but the Council told us that was not happening. I sat down with retailers in Ennis and I said things have been so hard with Covid, the two years post Covid, and then with everything that\’s happening now
“I appealed to the Council to look at what’s happening and have some kind of a cessation of rate paying, but they refused this request point blanketly. They told me ‘If we give way to you, we open Pandora’s box.’ But the pandora’s box has been opened a long time ago, by their actions which are just crucifying everything here in town.”
In a statement, Clare County Council said: “The Ennis 2040 Economic and Spatial Strategy was completed in 2021 by international experts on behalf of Clare County Council after two years of study, analysis and extensive stakeholder consultations with local representatives, communities and businesses.
“In early April 2023, the proposed transformational sites were included in the Clare County Development Plan 2023 – 2029 (6-year plan) which was agreed and adopted unanimously by members of Clare County Council. This strategy is not an isolated endeavour but a part of a broader vision, aligned with national and regional policies. Piecemeal approaches falter where integrated strategies prevail.
“The Ennis 2040 Economic and Spatial Strategy seeks to safeguard, invest in and maximise Ennis’ strategic assets that are critical to its future growth.
“An independent report by AECOM shed light on the tangible economic benefits of phase one delivery. The construction phase is projected to create 526 short-term jobs, providing a substantial and immediate boost to the local job market. Beyond construction, the completed projects are expected to generate over 200 long-term jobs, contributing an additional €3.5 million annually to the Clare economy.
“Furthermore, the proposed developments have the potential to deliver 79 homes catering for almost 300 people, addressing critical housing need and promoting town centre living, thereby increasing the footfall in Ennis town centre.
“In addition to economic benefits, the report recognised the wide-ranging benefits of creating attractive public realm and amenities that will enhance the well-being of the community and the environment. This strategy is not an isolated endeavour but part of a broader vision, aligned with national and regional policies. Piecemeal approaches falter where integrated strategies prevail.
“The Ennis 2040 DAC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Clare County Council, was set up to assist Clare County Council in the long-term development of Ennis in line with the 2040 Economic and Spatial Strategy.”