The concentration of industries in Ennis and Shannon is having a detrimental effect on small towns in Clare.
Patrick McMahon is a chemist from Kildysart (Killadysert), a small town in County Clare. He is critical of the development of industries in Ennis and Shannon.
This is draining people from the rural areas and draining them permanently.
This issue is not just limited to Kildysart.
Miltown Malbay, Kilrush, Kilkee all could eventually feel the effects of an overgrowth of the big industrial giants around the Shannon complex.
Patrick McMahon thinks Kildysart needs to create several small industries to keep the young people in the area. He suggests that industries based on agriculture in every area of west Clare would maintain communities and attract people to them.
In his opinion, industrialists are not interested in towns like Kildysart because the executives of the Shannon Development Company are not fully showing them what west Clare, north Tipperary and Limerick can offer.
County Clare development officer Kevin Vaughan agrees that industry should be brought to people rather than people brought to industry. But if towns in County Clare are being neglected, it is because there are not enough industries to go round. In Clare, industry must be brought to the major centres first and then eventually brought to the smaller centres.
Industry has been brought to the smaller parts of the county due to the strength of the advocacy and organisation of the communities involved.
This is what basically makes the difference between one community and another, as the community that gets industry and the community that doesn't get industry.
Such local effort led to the establishment of the chipboard industry in Scarriff, County Clare.
There is no reason why a local organisation, local development association wouldn't go after these people and make it easier for them to get sites and build houses in their own villages.
This episode of 'Newsbeat' was broadcast on 11 February 1971. The reporter is Cathal O'Shannon.
