Tipperary council slammed for ‘discriminatory’ graveyard policies
Tipperary County Council has been slammed for its “discriminatory” policy around accessing land for extensions of graveyards.
Councillor Willie Kennedy hit out at the local authority at the June full meeting of Tipperary County Council, saying that the council’s policy of identifying land for some graveyard extensions and not others is affecting local communities across the county.
Speaking to the Irish Independent, Cllr Kennedy said that in urban areas, extra land for graveyards was being provided by the council, but that out in the countryside, it was a different story.
"The one I’m mostly interested is Templeree, which caters for the parish of Castleiney and Templetuohy and to some extent, Clonmore, now Killea had to provide their own, with some assistance from the council, Two-Mile Borris had to do the same, again with some assistance from the council, but they had to do it themselves,” Cllr Kennedy explained.
"But in the urban areas, the council will do it all, and we all pay our property tax, any business in the area would pay their rates, so we should all be entitled to the same service,” he added.
"It’s not easy for volunteers to go and try and organise and provide their own cemetery because there’s a whole lot of things involved, there’s land purchase, there’s a lot of hoops to go through in planning, and none of that is easy, and then there’s money, we could be taking about €100,000 at least, if not more” the Fine Gael councillor said.
This system is having a significant impact on local graveyard committees, Cllr Kennedy said, most of which are run by a few core people, with others who help out also.
“Why do we have different policies for different areas? That is the question I’ve been asking,” Cllr Kennedy said.
"The attitude for the Templeree cemetery, which is actually in the parish of Castleiney, is that there’s plenty of space in Loughmore, but Castleiney people don’t want to be buried in Loughmore and nor do Templetuohy people, and they would say to people that our graveyard in Templetouhy is probably full too.
“There has been a graveyard in Templeree for about 150 years, we’re not looking for a new graveyard or a second one in the parish,” Cllr Fitzgerald explained.
Efforts are underway to find and identify land that would be suitable for an extension of Templeree Cemetery.
"We’re looking at a site at the moment and there’s one identified, and we’re hoping that the council will very fast do testing on it to see is it suitable, because on the grave there’s a few things you need to watch out for,” Cllr Kennedy said.
"We did look at one site to one side of it [Templeree Cemetery] and it wasn’t suitable because there was rock and you couldn’t dig down only for one coffin and that’s not suitable.”
“It’s discriminatory that some areas have to go and provide their own and put in the effort and the work and frustration,” the Thurles councillor added.