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Preliminary Outline of Disadvantage in County Clare

Through Clare County Development Board’s ‘Poverty Profile of the County’, the Clare Local Authorities are informed on the key problems of social exclusion as they apply to different groups within the various electoral areas of the county. The Corporate Plan seeks to address these needs on the basis of analysis of this data. The annual Operational Plans for each Directorate will also pursue this social inclusion objective. More detailed information and analysis will become available later in 2005 as the Affluence/Deprivation profile of the County is completed. The following summary data is presented by Electoral Area to highlight the main features.

• Population changes (1996-2002) and Age Structure Working Age Population, Labourforce Participation and Unemployment Workforce by Industry, Singles by Sex, Semi-skilled Classes (5,6) as % all Classes (1-6) One-Parent Dependent Families, Travellers, Disabled Persons
• Housing Stock as Local Authority Rented, Built pre-1919 and persons over 70 years living alone or with another person over 70 years

Table 1 Population changes (1996-2002) and Age Structure by Electoral Area

The greatest increase in population between 1996 and 2002 was experienced in Ennis Electoral area (22%) while at the same time Kilrush Electoral Area suffered a 2% population decline. More than 20 % of the population of all Electoral Areas was made up of young people (0-14 years). In fact in Killaloe almost one-in-four (24%) of the population were young people. Shannon Electoral area had the highest presence of people in the working age (15-65) at 70%. However the biggest variation across all electoral districts occurred amongst the older population. One in every six people (16%) in Kilrush electoral district were 65+ years with somewhat similar percentages in Ennistymon and Scariff Electoral Areas. The % of the working age population (15-65 years) that was actually in the labourforce ("At Work"and "Unemployed") in the different electoral areas is shown in Table 2.

Source: CSO 2002

• Measured as the % of those 15-65 yrs. Some times Participation Rate is measured as % 15 yrs+. This approach is not used here since vast majority of those 65+ are retired.

In 2002 in County Clare there was a total of 68,183 people aged 15-65 years. The labourforce participation rate is the proportion (%) of those 15-65 years who are either ‘At Work’ or ‘Unemployed’. In 2002 there were 47,291 people in the labourforce or 69% of those aged 15-65 years. The labourforce participation rate varied between 72% (Ennis Electoral Area) and 67% (Kilrush and Killaloe Electoral Areas.

The largest variation occurred in the Female labourforce participation rate. This was 32% in the Ennis Electoral Area and 23% in Kilrush Electoral Area, which also displayed the highest Male participation rate (44%). Ennis and Killaloe had the lowest Male labourforce participation rate at 40%.Ennis and Kilrush Electoral Areas displayed the highest unemployment rates at 9% which was 50% higher than those of Scariff and Shannon at 6%. Ennis and Kilrush Electoral Areas had the highest Male and Female Unemployment Rates at 9% and 8%, respectively compared with 6% for Scariff Electoral Area in both categories.

Interestingly, the high Male Labourforce participation rates of Kilrush (44%), Ennistymon (43%) and Scariff (44%) were associated with high participation in the Agriculture Industry in those electoral areas as shown in Table 3

Table 3 Workforce by Industry, Singles (40 years+) by Sex, Semi-Skilled and Unskilled Classes (5,6) as % of all Classes stated (1-6) by Electoral Area

Source: CSO 2002

Out of the total labourforce of 47,291, 43,679 were in the workforce. The remainder were unemployed. It is very noticeable that participation in the agricultural workforce accounted for almost 20% of the workforce in Kilrush, Scariff and Ennistymon Electoral areas compared to less than 5% in the other Electoral Areas.

In addition between 3-5% of the workforce in the former three Electoral Areas was involved in farms of less than 50 Acres. There were three times as many single males as females in the over 40 age bracket in Kilrush Electoral area compared with an even divide (51% male) in the Ennis Electoral Area. In terms of Class 5 and 6, namely the unskilled and semi-skilled classes (including those farming less than 30 acres) the highest concentration at 24% was in Kilrush and Shannon Electoral Areas compared with 15% and 16% in Killaloe and Ennis Electoral Areas.

Table. 4 One-Parent Dependent Families, Travellers, Disabled Persons by Electoral Area

Dependent families are families where at least one child is under 15 years of age. There is a wide divergence across the electoral areas in relation to the % of one-parent families. For example 18% of all dependent families are one-parent in Ennis and Shannon Electoral Areas which is 50% greater than Kilrush, Killaloe and Ennistymon Electoral Areas at 11-13%. It is noticeable that members of the Travelling People are concentrated in the Ennis Electoral Area where they constitute almost 2% of the population.

In the Census of 2002 people were asked to identify if they had any long lasting condition such as blindness, deafness, seeing or hearing impairment or a condition that substantially limited their physical activity of walking, climbing stairs, reaching, lifting or carrying (Q14). In addition, those over 5 years were asked whether on account of a physical, mental or emotional condition lasting 6 months or more, they had difficulty in learning, remembering, concentrating, dressing, bathing, getting around the house. People over 15 years were asked whether they had difficulties going out alone to the shop or to visit the doctor, or going out to work at a job or a business (Q15). Those that answered ‘yes’ were considered ‘disabled’. There was an even distribution across electoral areas of disabled persons under 15 years (2% of their age cohort) and between 15 and 65 years (6% of their cohort). However the rate of disabled persons in the 65+ age cohort varied from one-in-four (25%) in Ennistymon to one-in-three (32%) in Kilrush Electoral District.

Table 5 Housing Stock as Local Authority Rented, Built pre-1919 and persons over 70 years living alone or together without another person over 70 years

Source: CSO 2002

The highest concentration of Local Authority housing stock at approximately 5% was in Ennis, Shannon and Kilrush Electoral Areas compared with approximately 3% in the remaining electoral areas. Almost one-in-four (24%) of all houses in three Electoral areas (Kilrush, Ennistymon and Scariff) were built pre-1919. The second last column indicates that almost one-in-three (33%) of all people over 70 year lived alone in these same three Electoral Areas. The last column indicates that households where there were only two people living together and both were over 70 years accounted for more than 40% of all people 70+.

When the 2^nd. last column is added to the last it is obvious that in certain Electoral Areas more than 75% of those over 70 years of age live alone or with another person over 70 years (Kilrush, Scariff and Ennistymon at 78%, 76% and 74%, respectively). The lower percentage in Ennis may be partly explained by the higher concentration of communal care for the elderly in Ennis, which would raise the number of elderly in that Electoral Area and thus reduce the percentage living alone or together in private households.

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