Uh, it's very welcome news, Dara, because, you know, people were traveling to Limerick and Galway for the last probably 20, 30 years, and it was very inconvenient.

You know, some of them were leaving at 7:00 in the morning, didn't get home till 6:00 in the evening.

Whereas now it'll be in Ennis there, and all of County Clare will be able to attend the back of Our Lady's Hospital.

It's absolutely great news.

It was, uh, hugely in-inconvenienced to even get there in the first place.

Oh, absolutely, yeah.

Because, you know, they were coming from West Clare, North Clare.

Traditionally, North Clare went to Galway, and West Clare and around Ennis went to Limerick, you know.

NS Fianna Fáil councillor Pat Daly a motion down there from yourself at this week's NSMD meeting for the MD to have a look at a site along by the motorway for a potential model 2 or model 3 hospital or model 3 or model 4 hospital I should say going into the future

That's correct you know and it's important to keep it on the table because down the road the health board or the HSE and the Department of Health in a couple of years time they look for guidance on how to improve the health service in the midwest i think and you know if we had a site there a service site it was talked about a variation at the meeting today that we could zone it but the hse have to acquire a site first and very similar to what pet mcdonough did down there with great success and um i think that you know the hse i've called on the hse to do that you know i mean because you know we have a new hospital going ahead in raheem and we welcome that but i mean this you know, the Clare people need their own hospital.

We have 130,000 people in this county and we, you know, we deserve at least a Model 3, if not Model 4 hospital so that they need me there to service the people of Clare.

So if this site was purchased, it'd be kind of a sign that Clare was going to be brought forward in line and given its own Model 3 hospital to prevent, as you mentioned, people coming from the likes of Gilbaha as far as Stuart Doyle or Raheem.

Absolutely, and I answer highlighters from Derrick Hall down to Sligo, Mayo, Galbraith, Clare, Kerry and Cork.

They all have either a Model 3 or 4 hospital.

Innes has a Model 2.

The only county on the western seaboard.

I suppose, what was the, the, the decision that prompted this?

Well, we discussed the, the Ennis South Flood Relief Scheme, like, because of a motion by, uh, Councillor Callahan.

And, you know, the, it's a vital cog in, in Ennis and the hinterland, you know, avoiding flooding and promoting and developing the town.

And, um, there's great support for this motion, but when you look at the Clare Castle treatment plant, you know, this, this is a very serious urgent matter.

No capacity at the moment for water or sewage.

So that means that south of Ennis, Clare Castle, that area there, you cannot go ahead with development at the moment because of the, that sewage scheme.

It's not water and sewage scheme.

And I suppose with the max capacity being reached, a, at a situation such as it is now, it's really preventing further investment in, in Ennis and its environs.

Yeah, a bunch of engineers have been appointed and, you know, it's funding from the Department of Local Government.

It requires a road to go into the land, the Spire Road they call it, and it'll open up the land.

It's up around the National School there.

There'll be a huge amount of houses there going ahead, I think approximately around 200 houses.

And as well as that, I think it'll alleviate a lot of the traffic problems.

that in this national school have to, you know, because they're experiencing it.

It's an important start, but it could sprout greater connectivity throughout the town in the long run.

So from the Kilrish Road, you could see down the road a connection from as far as the Kilmaley Roundabout.

website says there was a new route introduced between Waterford and Carlow in May of this year following the withdrawal of the Expressway commercial service route.

Yeah, to compensate for that.

But the Taoiseach said that they need to expand new services.

And if you look at the Bus Connects, funding fell sharply in the last two years.

And that was, he saw the results of that in the reduced amount of services.

Connecting Ireland, their rural mobility plan, there were 65 new services in 24, 26 and 25, and only four were proposed for this year.

And Sean mentioned the town services.

Where do you get the money for

Go ahead and tell us what you've been up to.

All right.

Well, wrapped up, or at least temporarily wrapped up, the Spark Chronicles series with the book Embers.

That came out late last year, and now I've pivoted.

I've got a new project I'm working on that's nonfiction.

But listen to BJ and Charles.

i'm wondering if they felt the same concerns i felt when i was writing spark and writing about some uh some terrorist attacks some assassinations some stuff like that because as i dreamt up things i thought oh, should I even publish this? Because the last thing I want to do is give good ideas to bad people.

Go ahead.

Do you fear that?

Not at all.

Look, One Nation has mainstream policies that many people agree with.

but now people are prepared to join the party.

There's a lot of anxiety out there, particularly in the area of immigration and cost of living.

We've heard all of that before, but people are now mobilising to do something about it.

And One Nation... is certainly the fair dinkum party to join, that people feel they can make a contribution and get some things going.

Is there the capacity in that area for the same to happen with One Nation? For instance, would One Nation run candidates against the likes of Sophie Scombs or Zali Stegall?

[music] This broadcast package on Clare FM is funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.

It's disappointing to hear that the Minister has said that he has nothing to do with it, but, but at the same time, you know, it's, it's, it's holding back the south of Ennis around the Clare Road and all of Clarecastle and down by St. Brendan's College in that area.

And, you know, it's a very serious situation because, you know, we need to go forward building houses and so forth.

And at the moment, the capacity isn't there in, in this treatment plant in Clare Abbey.

So Irish Water are the people that are being told, we're being told are the people that can do it.

And I today am calling on Irish Water to do something about it.

We ran about this for the last couple of years.

Do you accept that the Minister doesn't have a role in this?

What do you do when you, that magic leaves your life?

It was, it was a gut punch.

It was, um, and I, I think this is true.

Well, I know it's true of me.

I think it's true of a lot of men and maybe a lot of, uh, women as well, but I tended to, I was what I did.

And so I was a pilot.

That was my identity.

Talk about them a little bit.

What are...

She began backing away, staring wide-eyed at the nine-inch butcher knife in his hand.

No, it's okay.

It's not what it seems.

Bert! Bert! She screamed for her husband.

Will turned and bolted down the hall, not even stopping to pick up his shoes.

He spun the deadbolt on the front door and was sprinting down the sidewalk as lights came on and raised voices trailed after him.

Go.

What does this mean to our topic? Go.

Well, well, Just a little background.

The distance between the Earth and the moon is enough to put every other planet in our solar system lined up edge to edge and still have space.

So, you know, we think about how big Jupiter is and all this stuff.

Well...

Still, the space between us and our nearest neighbor is bigger than that.

So I think when we think about AI, we tend to think small, and that scares us.

Pat, you want to literally unpack it for me, please? Yeah,

Pat Daly, a sad day for politics and life in general, in Clare, with the news of James's sad passing.

Ah, yes.

Very sad, Alan.

You know, he was a real character, you know what I mean? If James walked into a pub, everyone would know he was there.

He was a political animal.

He was unbelievable.

I mean, look at the record he had.

And given his length of public service, is that part of what made him such a successful and enduring politician and perhaps enabled him to connect so strongly with ordinary voters that they knew he would represent them and challenge people and issues that needed to be challenged or highlighted? Yeah.

The update was very positive anyway.

It's going to construction, pending on funding, of course.

But it's an eyesore there for a long time, you know what I mean, Sean? And, you know, a lot of people are asking, what's happening in Francis Street? And with the shortage of houses in this town, and there's a serious shortage of houses, it's important that this goes ahead, whether it's going to be affordable housing, social housing or private housing, whatever it is, it's important it goes ahead as soon as possible.

Would you be confident that funding will be secured?

I would.

I think funding will be.

That's a priority.

And it is in a prime location in the largest town in Munster.