Month: February 2008

A MAJOR jobs announcement for Shannon is expected today (Tuesday) with Enterprise Minister Micheal Martin (right) arriving in town.

The minister is to announce an in- vestment by an international player in the medical device manufacturing arena at 3pm today at the Park Inn Hotel at Shannon Airport.

The jobs announcement is being described as “significant” according to sources close to the free zone but both the department and Shannon Development have remained tight- lipped on details in advance of to- day’s announcement.

The good news on the Shannon jobs front comes at a time when work- ers at two Shannon manufacturing companies have expressed concerns about the future of their jobs.

Staff at Unbrako Europe S.P.S. International Limited voted in fa- vour of industrial action last week. Members of the SIPTU and TWU unions, are angry at what they say is the company’s continued failure to inform them about widely rumoured but unconfirmed moves to sell the company. SPS is a subsidiary of US based Precision Castparts Corp (PCC) which according to sources is involved in negotiations to sell the Shannon operation. The company

produces socket screws and other fasteners for industrial machinery and equipment.

A former PCC subsidiary, Mohawk Europa, also based in Shannon but sold off by PCC some years ago, closed last August with the loss of 90 jobs. Meanwhile, workers at another PCC company in Shannon, Highlife Tools, are also concerned about their future and are monitoring the SPS situation closely.

A SIPTU spokesperson said yester- day, “With all the rumours and sto- ries going around and in the absence of any information from the compa- ny, our members are understandably concerned for the future.”

It’s believed that the €40 million price tag was put on the hotel last week in a deal which sees Brian Brennan of Brennan Hotels become the new owner of the Dublin Hotel.

Brennan Hotels has four properties in Tipperary, Kilkenny, Meath and Wicklow.

The Lynch family bought the land- mark property in 2003 for €11 mil- lion. They went ahead with a mas-

sive redevelopment which saw room numbers almost double to 270, with the addition of a swimming pool and spa facilities. The redevelopment is believed to have cost €30 million.

In a statement, Lynch Hotels said that it will now focus on operating its properties in the west of Ireland. These include the upmarket Breaffy House hotel near Castlebar in Mayo and the West County Hotel in Ennis.

After the deal, Brian Brennan said “our business focus is commercial and leisure and the Green Isle is ide- ally suited to our expanding needs and requirements and is an ideal ac- companiment to our business mod- el.”

AN EAST Clare-based multina- tional firm is to put in place a series of measures to ensure the continued conservation of a local bat commu- nity living near a wind turbine to be erected on its property.

Last year, Clare Coun- ty Council deferred planning approval to Ol- ympus Diagnostica for a wind turbine due in part to the need for a device to keep bats away from the structure.

The company, which is based between O’Callaghan’s Mills and ‘Tulla, lodged the plans for the turbine to source 40 to 50 per cent of its electricity needs from alterna- tive energy.

The turbine will be 200 feet high, which is half the size of the industry norm. As the company will consume all the energy from the wind-turbine, there is no need for a grid connec- tion. The company pointed out that the site for the turbine was not with- in any recognised flight path of the Whooper Swan and the Greenland White Fronted Goose.

As part of the project, Olympus Diagnostica is planning to place an ultrasonic “scarer” that will provide

a signal to all bat species likely to encounter the motors.

A comprehensive bat survey of the area has found a “significant” number of Lesser Horsehoe Bats who use a local stables as a night roost. Accord- ing to the survey, between five and

20 Lesser Horseshoe bats use this roost each night before returning to the main roost.

The company is pro- posing to provide 20 bat boxes to provide roosts away from the Zone of potential im- pact and to use the ul- trasconic “‘scarer”’ on a trial basis. With these elements in place, the wind-turbine should have no impact on the

local bat population.

The bat survey found that the area around the turbine site was “the only location where no bat activity was recorded”.

The turbine is facing opposition from a local family. In their objec- tion, Mr and Mrs JP Murphy and family state that the proposal is “in- considerate to the local landscape and setting of Rosslara Lake and its woodland surroundings.”

learned yesterday that Mr Daffy’s generosity helped prevent two of Clare’s most illustrious soccer clubs from going out of business.

“But for Gerry, both Lifford and Avenue would have found it very hard to keep going. We had nowhere else to go and without him helping us out with a venue we probably would have hit the wall. Lifford owes him a big debth of gratitude,” said John O’ Neill of Lifford FC.

At his funeral on Sunday a horse- back guard of honour was formed by the Turkey Trotters, the Clare Hounds and fellow volunteers from

Hope Project. The last post on bugle was sounded by James Carmody.

A churchgate collection which Gerry had arranged before his death went ahead on Sunday and raised more than €4,000.

Meanwhile on Saturday, Clonlara

native William Quane was one of four people killed in a road traffic ac- cident on the N7 between Borris-in- Ossory and Roscrea. Mr Quane was on his way to the Ireland-Italy rugby match when the accident took place. His friend Séan O’ Donoghue from

Limerick was also killed in the ac- cident as was Polish man David Dziemianowicz and Italian woman Marika Rossi.