Improved safety measures around schools in County Limerick

Improved safety measures will be installed near eight primary schools across County Limerick following a funding announcement under the CLÁR programme.

Grants totalling €161,730 have been allocated to communities in CLÁR – designated areas of County Limerick as part of a €5 million investment by the government.

The safety measures included the erection of digital speed safety signs, upgraded road markings and child safety signs, construction of footpaths and pedestrian crossings and upgrade of the public lighting.

Mayor of the City and County of Limerick Cllr Stephen Keary welcomed the grants: “The eight communities across rural County Limerick will benefit enormously from this investment.”

“By improving safety measures around primary schools we will hopefully cut the number of accidents or even near-misses that are occurring. Initiatives such as digital speed signs or a new footpath could help save the life of a person.”

Minister Michael Ring said: “A diverse range of projects will benefit from this funding and will see improvements being made in small towns and villages in and around their schools and community facilities.”

“The initiatives under these measures have come from the communities themselves in co-operation with their local authorities and are a great example of the work that can be done when communities and local authorities work together. Many of the schools and communities have been working and fundraising for a long time to support these projects and I am delighted to be able to provide CLÁR funding in order to facilitate the completion of these very worthwhile works. The finished projects will support parents, teachers and their communities to ensure that they have safe and secure environments for their children to learn and play.”

The CLÁR programme is funded by the Department of Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs and forms part of the Government’s Action Plan for Rural Development.

The funding announced for these CLÁR projects follows on recent announcements of funding totalling almost €2 million under separate measures of the CLÁR programme which support targeted community infrastructure and voluntary emergency first responders.

The 2017 CLÁR programme will provide funding under four Measures:

Measure 1: Support for Schools/ Community Safety Measures

Measure 2: Play Areas

Measure 3: Targeted Community Infrastructure Needs

Measure 4: First Response Support Measure

Funding totalling almost €2 million was previously announced for Measures 3 and 4. The €5 million funding being announced covers Measures 1 and 2 (Support for Schools/Community Safety Measures, and Play Areas).

The CLÁR programme (Ceantair Laga Árd-Riachtanais) is a targeted capital investment programme for rural areas which have experienced significant levels of depopulation.  The programme was originally launched in October 2001 but was closed for applications in 2010.

The scheme was re-opened by Minister Ring in 2016 to support the development of remote rural areas through small-scale capital projects involving collaboration between Local Authorities and communities.

Areas targeted under the CLÁR Programme are parts of counties: Carlow, Cavan, Clare, Cork, Donegal, Galway, Kerry, Kilkenny, Laois, Limerick, Longford, Louth, Mayo, Meath, Monaghan, Offaly, Roscommon, Sligo, Tipperary, Waterford, Westmeath, Wicklow and all of County Leitrim. ​