*The Cliffs of Moher Coastal Walk.
DELAYS have been encountered in circulating the new management plan for the Cliffs of Moher Coastal Walk as senior officials in Clare County Council have been unable to send a digital copy of the report due to its size.
Consultant engineers, Tobin have been tasked with developing a management plan for the 18km coastal walk. The Tobin Report was commissioned by Clare County Council, Clare Local Development Company (CLDC), Fáilte Ireland and the Department of Rural and Community Development to create a management plan for the coastal walk. Sections of the walk have been closed since August of last year.
Repeated setbacks have been experienced since November regarding the publication of the Tobin Report when landowners were initially told they would have the report. Director of Service for Tourism in Clare County Council, Siobhán McNulty had stated in the middle of February that the Tobin Report would be complete in “two weeks”.
Addressing Thursday’s meeting of the West Clare Municipal District, the Director confirmed that the report was indeed complete and within her possession. However, she revealed that an IT issue had left the local authority in a pickle when it came to distributing the keenly-awaited report.
“I have a 25MB document which is the Cliffs of Moher coastal walk management plan which is to be circulated as soon I have a mechanism for doing so,” she outlined. CLDC, Fáilte Ireland and the Department of Rural and Community Development will be the first to receive the report once technical issues have been tackled. Landowners will then receive the report followed by elected members, Ms McNulty advised.
She said the “mechanics of circulating the document via IT” were the last remaining barrier. “You can expect to have it in the next number of days, I have the draft, we are looking at an IT solution, I am mindful of printing a 252 page document”.
Progress on plans to reopen the walk for the 2025 summer season had been requested by Cllr Joe Killeen (FF), “We call for appropriate signage forewarning visitors in the event of portions of the walk not being traversable as public walkways on the approach roads as well as in the vicinity of the walk itself”.
In a written reply, the Director outlined that the Council was working with the Department, Fáilte Ireland and the CLDC “to secure its future in consultation with stakeholders with landowners as the key stakeholder. A management plan is being prepared by Tobin Consultants, the availability of a draft is imminent”.
CLDC manage the route under a contract from the Department, she noted. “The Grade 5 high difficulty Coastal Walk in southern section is closed to the public in the interest of public safety and will not open in 2025. The northern section from Doolin to Surfers Path is currently open to the public,” Siobhán stated. “Clare County Council owns, operates and manages the Cliffs of Moher Experience site. This length of pathway under the control of Clare County Council is 1,000m. This safe pathway which is part of the Cliffs of Moher Coastal Walk is open to the public, the boundary entry points to the Coastal Walk north and south are closed with signage and inaccessible barriers. The digital assets owned and managed by Clare County Council are updated with current information on open and closures including website, app and social media pages. All booked customers are made aware of accessible areas. There is signage in place at closure points and on the main approach roads put in place by CLDC. We will correspond with CLDC to request additional signage advising the closure of the Coastal Walk”.
Speaking at the meeting, Cllr Killeen said councillors “were waiting for the Tobin Report” and acknowledged that one kilometre either side of the Cliffs of Moher centre was “has been vetted and is safe, it is open for tourists to use”. He added, “We were told the Tobin Report would shed some light on the development of the Cliff Walk, it hasn’t been released yet, we are still waiting for that”.
Senior officials could do with acquiring a dictionary, Cllr Shane Talty (FF) remarked, “the definition of imminent is about to happen, what I can assure you is imminent is the tourist season, indeed it is happening presently”. He said at a briefing on March 4th where the takeaway message was that the report “was imminent”, he asked for a further definition from the top table on their meaning of imminent.
After hearing the contribution from the Director regarding the ‘IT solution,’ Cllr Talty quipped that its distribution “sounds very imminent”.
Noting that the meeting was taking place on International Happiness Day, Cllr Killeen asked was the report “positive or negative”.
“It will make some people very happy and some people very unhappy but that is the reality of all reports,” McNulty replied. “It is a 252 page document, there is quite a body of reading in it with the objectives and setting out the stall, there is a lot of discussions and feedback”. She said it was “a good job that Cllr Talty went to Google” for his definition.
