*Cliffs of Moher Coastal Walk.
CLARE COUNTY COUNCIL’s Chief Executive has said they need to “full control” of the Cliffs of Moher coastal walk to make it safe.
Safety works commenced along sections of the 18km scenic coastal walk at the beginning of August in the wake of health and safety concerns raised following the tragic deaths of a twelve year old boy in July who went missing after being separated from his family at the Cliffs of Moher and the death of a woman in her twenties after she reportedly lost her footing when walking with friends.
Clare Local Development Company manage the walking route while the County Council is responsible for management and public safety of the 800m section of the walk at the Cliffs of Moher Experience site. Launched in 2013, the official trail heads between Doolin Community Centre and Liscannor football field with the Cliffs of Moher in between and spawns across land belonging to 37 landowners.
In a joint motion before Monday’s meeting of the Council, Cllr Shane Talty (FF), Cllr Joe Garrihy (FG), Cllr Bill Slattery (FG) and Cllr Joe Killeen (FF) “in light of recent developments” called on the Chief Executive “to urgently engage with Clare Local Development Company to discuss the future management of the walk”.
Acting Director of Tourism Development with the Council, John O’Malley said, “The opening of the coastal walk to the public by CLDC in 2013 occurred in partnership with and through the participation of landowners, Clare County Council, Cliffs of Moher Experience and relevant State agencies. It has been hugely successful in attracting visitors who stay longer and spend more in the towns and villages in Clare, thus helping to sustain local jobs and the wider economy”.
He said the Council, CLDC, Fáilte Ireland, the Department of Rural and Community Development and the Cliffs of Moher Experience are working with landowners “in a planned and managed way to pave a new sustainable future for the coastal walk”. In December, consulting engineers TOBIN were appointed to develop a management plan for the coastal walk “which will be sympathetic to the environment, meet the needs of the host community and address the issue of safety for public users of the walk”.
Addressing the meeting, Chief Executive of the Council, Pat Dowling said the “overriding issue is public welfare, nothing else. As one of the agencies involved, one of the reasons people come to enjoy our coastline is because we’ve opened up a very successful visitor centre, as a public body I’m very conscious of our duty of care, some years ago when it was growing in popularity I was conscious of the importance of safely enjoying the Cliff Walk. There are 37 landowners from Hags Head to Doolin, currently we’ve a licensing agreement with seven of them”.
Dowling believed it was “quite logical” to now look to extend their 1km stretch on either side of the walk. “I’ve sought a meeting which was to take place with CLDC this morning but was called off this morning for legitimate reasons,” he told Monday’s meeting. “People board aeroplanes from all over the world to visit the Cliffs of Moher, who owns it doesn’t matter, we are encouraging them to come here and we need to make sure it is safe, to do that we need full control”.
He told councillors, “we successfully negotiated with the first tranche of farmers and I’m confident we can do it again”.
Speaking on Monday, Cllr Talty pointed out, “the Cliff Walk and the Visitor Centre are one of the same, it cannot continue where they are marketed as two separate entities”. Landowners “won’t see a way forward” if they are told there are “five or six entities involved”, he said while stressing it must be established who the management agency is. “The walk has been a great success since it was launched in 2013, it has outgrown its model of the time. It is currently temporarily closed in sections of it, press releases have suggested it might be reopened in thirty days but I don’t believe that is possible,” he said. “If it is going to be a worldwide tourism product then it needs to be under the remit of the visitor centre,” the Lahinch man added.
Urgency and prioritisation is required, Cllr Joe Garrihy (FG) stressed, “Allowing things to trundle along and assuming everything will be okay just isn’t good enough”. He remarked, “The urgency needs to be injected, only one body has shown the capacity to be able to take over this”.
Publicity surrounding the coastal walk left Cllr Slattery “very concerned”. He outlined, “It is an integral part of the tourism product we have. There was a €30m investment into the interpretative centre in 2007, the walk didn’t start in Hags Head or Doolin, it was the investment that started it. Due to the bad puliclity and the remedial work that has to be done, the landowners don’t know who they need to be talking to”. He maintained, “The problem is there are too many bodies involved, it should only be one body, Clare County Council to be in charge to negotiate successfully and fairly with landowners”.
Success of the walk and erosion of parts have made it “unsafe,” Cllr Killeen believed. Fencing that was put in place has been removed against the advice issued, he claimed. “The landowners are stuck between a rock and a hard place right on the edge of the Cliffs of Moher,” he said. “It is getting complicated now, landowners need to be assured that there is a competent plan in place and that walk can be restored”.
Efforts need to be expedited, Cllr Tom O’Callaghan (FF) said when highlighting the importance of the walk to the county’s tourism product. He admitted, “the publicity was very nerve wracking and that doesn’t help”.
CLDC are “supposed to be managing it but they haven’t the money,” claimed Cllr Michael Begley (IND). “Sitting down with CLDC urgently is a key to get a solution to do it. I suspect it might not be opened in twelve months because the whole thing is so complicated at the moment”.
