Month: February 2010

CLARE County Council is to take over the Cluain Donn housing de- velopment in Shannon, but does not have plans to take over responsibility for the Cluain Aoibheann estate at the moment.

Independent Councillor Gerry Flynn called on the council to take over responsibility for both estates, which, he said, have been occupied for a number of years. He said that the council needs to assess what works need to be done to have them taken in charge.

In response, he was told that the council proposed to take in charge the Cluain Donn development, once the remedial works to the road sur- face are completed.

“The vesting process is underway and the statutory process will com- mence once the areas requiring at- tention are dealt with,’ stated senior executive officer Monica Meehan, in

response.

However, a different situation ex- ists in relation to the Cluain Aoib- heann estate. Ms Meehan stated that enforcement proceedings were initi- ated against the developer, Mulling- brook Holdings Ltd, in 2008.

A warning letter was served in De- cember 2008 and this was returned. The warning letter was re-served on the site manager in March 2009. An on-site meeting took place between the enforcement officer and the site manager in May 2009.

A submission on the warning letter was received in July 2009. A further site inspection was carried out in August and found that the warning letter was not complied with.

The council says that further dis- cussions were initiated with the site manager with a view to completing the works, but the works were not Ub A (ou RAN. Cone

An enforcement notice issued in September and was returned and was

hand delivered in November.

The council says that this has not yielded a response and it is endeav- ouring to liaise with the site manager with a view to completing the works. The requirements of the enforcement relate to road works, the implemen- tation of a planting schedule and the installation of a name plate for the estate.

“It should be noted that the coun- cil has not received a valid taking in charge application in respect of this development and therefore no assessment of a cctv survey or as- constructed drawings has been un- dertaken.

“It is not proposed to take this de- velopment in charge at this time,” added the council’s response.

THE latest progressive chapter in the St Joseph’s Education Centre, Gort Road, story has been written with news that a number of new courses have been introduced, in- cluding a third Leaving Certificate group, a cookery programme (in conjunction with the HSE) and a six-month ‘Fresh Start Programme.

There are now three groups of Leaving Certificate students en- rolled in St Joseph’s Education Cen- ken

Two groups are in their second year and will be sitting their exams in June. A new group started this year and are busy with their tasks at present.

According to Mary Fitzgerald of the centre, the cookery programme, which has been offered to the men for the first time at the centre, has gone from strength to strength.

‘There has been great interest in the course, with the men really en- joying being part of it,” she said.

“The ‘Cook it Programme’ is a cookery and nutrition programme taught at the centre in partnership with the local community dieti- cian. In the centre, re-skilling and up-skilling are also seen as the way forward.

“A new six-month pilot program has been developed to help give people an opportunity for new be- ginning,’ she added.

“It gives people the chance to ex- plore vocational opportunities in or- der to progress to further education or employment.”

Modules involved in the pro- gramme include career planning, personal development, computer

skills, healty lifestlyes, CV prepara- tion and job seekers skills.

“There is a change management emphasis being adopted in the course, focusing on life manage- ment skills looking to get people take ownership of their decision making and future possibilities,” Ms Fitzgerald said.

‘The centre is working towards an integration of its services and looks forward to remaining in a position to provide a quality educational

service to the community of Clare into the future.”

St Joseph’s Education Centre is a Centre of Education and Training for Travellers and settled people aged 18 and over in the Clare area. It is based in the Gort Road Busi- ness Park, in Ennis.

The Ennis Traveller’s Training Centre was the first in the country. It started as part of a Combat Poverty Programme in 1974.

At that time, it was located in the

erounds of the Holy Family School, Ennis. In 1982 the centre moved to new building at the Gort road indus- WUD motel Kos

A CONTRACTOR has been ap- pointed to carry out works to improve pedestrian facilities at an “extremely dangerous bridge” on the Quin Road, Syne

The development was confirmed by senior engineer with Clare County Council, Tom Tiernan who also said that long-awaited improvement work at the Quin Road bridge is due to commence in the “coming months”.

In response to a letter from Depu- ty Joe Carey TD (FG), Mr Tiernan States that “significant progress” has been made on the project.

“Significant progress has been made with regards achievement of the de- sired objective in relation to this mat- ter. CIE has agreed in principle to facilitate development of a pedestrian bridge within its property.

“The bridge, complete with access ramps, is to be located in the property associated with the Ennis railway sta- tion and will be adjacent to the south side of the existing traffic bridge on the Quin Road,” states Mr Tiernan.

Mr Tiernan indicates that work on the project may not be completed un- til the latter half of the year.

“A part VIII planning approval has been secured for the development

and at present a contractor is be- ing appointed with a view to having the project proceed over the coming months. Once construction gets un- derway it is envisaged that the project will be completed within a three month timeframe,’ he states.

Commenting on the development, Deputy Carey said, “The absence of pedestrian facilities at the Quin Road railway bridge is a matter of huge concern to residents, people using the Quin Road as a walking route and lo- OPT Mees leshionmae

He added, “It’s an extremely dan- gerous bridge. Pedestrians have lim- ited visibility and little room to ma-

noeuvre. It is an accident waiting to happen. It’s especially dangerous to negotiate the bridge with a buggy or pram.”

Deputy Carey said that along with a housing estate, there are a large number of business and commer- cial enterprises located on the Quin Road.

“IT welcome the fact that contractors are presently being appointed and look forward to the project moving to construction phase in the coming months. The provision of a proper pedestrian facility at Quin Road will dramatically improve road safety on this busy route,” he said.

IT IS unlikely that Shannon Airport will be the site of a Ryanair aircraft maintenance base, controversially proposed by Michael O’Leary for Hangar six in Dublin.

Last week the Government pro- posed to Ryanair that it could estab- lish the new aircraft maintenance base at Shannon Airport after it said there was no legal mechanism by which the Government or the Dublin Aviation Authority could secure the Hangar 6 facility from Aer Lingus for Ryanair.

Shannon Development offered to accommodate the no frills airline in IMCD GLI NDOTCMO) MBO CoA LAs ee-bavex- be

In correspondence with Ryanair the state company said it could offer the airline “grant support packages” and had a number of substantial green- field landbanks with airside access available, if it would consider basing its maintenance facility at Shannon Airport.

However, Ryanair rejected this pro- posal out of hand.

It said its one condition to create the 300 jobs through a maintenance base had just one condition – that it could secure Hangar six at Dublin Airport.

“Hangar 6 fits Ryanair’s require- ments, is not currently being utilised for the purpose for which it was built, and is in close proximity to a pool of highly skilled aviation engi-

neers who formally worked for SRT. Ryanair will not be considering any other proposals,” Ryanair said.

Last night (Monday) a spokesper- son for Shannon Development said it had no formal refusal yet from Mr O’Leary or Ryanair.

Meanwhile Clare TD Joe Carey (FG) is looking to other possible services at the airport for job crea- moyen

The Fine Gael TD questioned the Government on the issues that were holding up the development of a Lynx

Cargo facility at Shannon Airport.

Deputy Carey said he believed this facility could have enormous added benefit to the mid-west region and help create and sustain jobs.

“The Lynx Cargo Facility has been several years in the pipeline. I came across a press release recently from Shannon Development in 2004 high- lighting the advantages of such a fa- cility for Shannon and the mid-west. So for Government to now suddenly realise that EU competition or other such issues need to be addressed it a

bit rich.

“It goes back to a question of po- litical will. We know that the cargo facility could have enormous benefit for the region. The Mid West Task- force chairman has identified it as a key for the area.

He said the Taoiseach said in reply to his Dail question that the Govern- ment would assess how the current pre-clearance facilities operate and aCe O Coren Oley

CLARE farmers are being encour- aged to consider selling their cattle north of the border if competitive prices cannot be found locally.

That was the message from the ICSA beef chairman Peter Fox who urged Clare farmers to get quotes from three different marts before selling cattle and to seriousely con- sider selling cattle in Northern Ire- land.

‘There are also buyers looking for bulls up to 24 months of age and 750kKgs live-weight for the Italian ex- port market. These bulls are making €180/100kgs live weight which is the equivalent to €3.28/kg to €3.33/kg

dead-weight,” he said.

“All of the above factors will put pressure on home factories to in- crease their prices.

“The first factories that will see a scarcity of stock will be the inde- pendent ones so going forward farm- ers should be able to sell their stock with confidence,’ he concluded.

There was good news however for suckler farmers with the news that quality finished suckler cows were currently making €300 plus along with the weight in many marts.

This 1s according to the ICSA suck- ler chairman Brendan McLaughlin who last week said that now is a good time to sell at the marts.

“Farmers with quality cows should

look at selling them in marts rather than bringing them to the factories,” he said.

“It costs a maximum of €10 to sell an animal through the mart where- as factories charge over €50 to kill cows when you take into account BSE testing, vet fees and insurance costs. There are no BSE testing charges in marts and levy charges are a lot less.”

McLaughlin also reminded farm- ers that the EIF levy is voluntary and they can advise mart managers not to deduct these levies from their final cheque.

He also called for supports to be put in place to protect the Suckler Discussion Groups.

“If the minister can give funds to dairy farmers to facilitate dairy discussion groups why are suckler farmers being discriminated against? Suckler farmers sharing their own experiences and best practices for the improvement of the suckler herd can only be positive for the future of the beef industry and the live export trade,” he said.

“The minister has made €18 mil- lion available over three years to the dairy sector to encourage dairy farmers to participate in discussion groups.

“This money has come from un- spent Single Payment funds that are supposed to be available to all farm- are

TV duty calls for dancer Anthony

THE only way for 11-year-old Mo- ses Moody to come in from school is for him to use his arms to drag his crippled legs across the floor on his one-room home in the township at Migombani.

He has use of a wheelchair in the parish school, built by Fr Martin Keane with donations, but the tiny door is far too small as is the room which he shares with his mother, An- gela and nine other adults and chil- dren, all family.

Angela Naliaka throws her grand- daughter, little Angela, up on her

back and wraps her Africa-style, so she can wash little Moses and mas- sage him with coconut oil to try to keep the his skin from constantly breaking out in sores.

Angela’s husband left when she be- came pregnant again after Moses. He told her it was “too much and he went to another woman”. Now Angela has to fend for herself and her children with two of her daughters and her grandchildren also living in the one Keleee mellem aoe

Angela has a job, cooking for the children at the parish school.

“T am thankful to Fr Martin — he has given me a job so I can earn money

to buy food and pay the rent.”

Baby Angela, who is less than a year old, is coughing loudly. She has had pneumonia, a condition not helped by the fact that all of the town- ship families cook on a tiny charcoal Stove, indoors.

Surgery could have helped young Moses, who was born with an open wound in his back but accessing the mostly charity run health services in Kenya is not an easy task. By the time he got into the hospital system, it was too late for surgeons to save any of the movement in his lower body.

He’s doubly incontinent and An-

gela has to buy toddler size nappies to change him four times a day, a ter- rible drain on family finances.

The disease which has twisted and crippled his body has been eliminat- ed in most of the western world.

It’s possible that proper nutrition would have saved him from being born disabled and the vaccine which would have protected him against infant Polio costs just a few pence. But there is no progamme of immu- nisation in this country. The vaccine which would have immunised his mother and saved him for the birth defects costs just a few pence.

The family home has a little fur-

niture, but the only place to store clothes is a wooden wardrobe which is falling to bits. Angela also stores clothes in an old suitcase, also crum- bling and useless. The only thing she asks of the Building of Hope is that one of the carpenters might be able to fix the wardrobe and if one of the many cases brought purely to carry clothes, toys and sweets for the children might be donated to her for storage.

The latter won’t be a problem but the former might be beyond even the skills of the amazing craftsmen who are on the site.

We promise to do our best.

Margaret thought she had seen the last of baking for the Building of Hope when she had a cake sale to raise money to come on the trip but for the penultimate week of the project her main station was the kitchen.

A personal tragedy moved Mar- garet to make the trip she had been contemplating for some time.

“My children think I’m a bit past my sell-by date for going on this

trip. But my son, Paul, was killed in a road accident last year. When that happened I thought, you only get one chance at life and you have to do something good with it,’ Margaret explained.

Margaret’s final decision to come was a late one but “people were very generous to us, they really support- ered us”.

Secondary school teacher, Joanne, was originally volunteered for the project by her mother.

“Olive Halpin asked my mother if she would come on the trip but she didn’t think she could at the time and said I would go instead. Then she decided to go as well and we’re both here,” said Joanne.

Joanne’s pupils have been follow- ing the Building of Hope website and she will be filling them in on everything that happeded on the trip when she goes back.

“T didn’t really know what to expect when I came out but the camraderie is fantatstic — it’s such a team effort and everyone is pulling together, with the locals. It’s just an amazing experience.’

KELVIN Wairimu is 18 years old and has excellent school grades. Ask him what he wants to be and he says “I want to be a doctor.”

Kelvin is a lovely, grave, respon- sible young man who has taken on the role of father-figure to his three brothers and his baby sister. His fa- ther has gone and left the family to fend as best they can.

He shares a 10 foot by 12 foot room with his family and mum, Ruth. He achieves his excellent grades study-

ing by the light of a tiny flame from an oil-burner whenever his mother takes in enough washing to pay for oil. When she doesn’t, the family have to go to bed before it gets dark in the tiny room furnished with an old bed, a side table and one broken chair.

There are five other families sharing this tiny house, one family to a room, almost 20 people in one house.

As well as taking in washing at 100 Kenyan shillings — about €1 — per bag, Ruth babysits a tiny baby and is paid the quivalent of 30 cents per day

for the service.

Ruth would like to be able to send her eldest son to seondary school but that’s impossible.

She speaks only a little English but explains that she wants to give the other children some basic education and that has to be paid for. Keep- ing her son in secondary school for a year would cost €250 a year, an ambition way out of reach for woman who earns less than than €10 per week and has to find €17 a month to pay rent for her one room.

Money is so short that the family

buy salt-water from the street hawk- ers to drink because it’s cheaper.

If Kelvin ever gets to be a doctor, he will understand what damage the family’s poverty striken lifestyle has done to their health but in a house where it’s all that Ruth can do to feed her children, health considerations take a back seat.

OF ALL the connections which have become a hallmark of the Building of Hope projects, Fr Martin Keane’s family involvement in the effort has to be the most celebratory.

For the first time in his 40 years in Africa, he is surrounded by family.

aUiXe MuHa Comm aslo] mmc) peLeleCeyer-V mmpasleyeereanls was when he was surprised with a visit from his sister, Kathy (79), who has fundraised but has never visited him before.

‘To come out here and to see what

all those years of support and fund- raising were about — that’s very spe- cial to my aunt and to Martin,” said Mary Kileen, who is volunteering on the project with her daughter and Fr Martin’s grandniece, Roisin (18).

‘When Olive (Halpin) told him two years ago that the Building of Hope would come here, it was like all his birthdays came together.”

Mary’s husband, Eugene came with an earlier group to be part of the project as did her two brothers.

John and Larry Culligan, Martin’s nephew, Pat has also been out as part

of the crew along with another niece, Marie. “His joke is that he never gets visitors and now he has them all at once,’ said Mary.

“It’s great to be here as family to support him but there are also all the people in Lissycasey who supported 30 of us to come here. In these harsh times they gave so generously. We organised a bed-push and raised €27,000. We started with a Wren and that raised €1,900 — that’s unbe- lieveable money the way things are Te) Aa

Roisin says it is “amazing to be on

Fr Martin’s patch — normally, we see him when he comes home for visits but when you see this, you really know what it’s all about.”

The NUIG student had to explain to one of her lecturers that between getting up at the crack of dawn and painting for Ireland all day, her plan to meet a essay dealine for next week had gone awry.

‘He gave me an extension for three weeks after I come back. People are being so supportive, so marvellous,” she said.

Speaking about the surprise visit

from Fr Martin’s sister, Roisin’s grandmother, she said it has “taken ten years off Nana’s age — all these years she has supported him and now she’s come to see him. It’s great.”

A delighted Fr Martin said that he is “so happy to have all this support from family and the community at home. They have been so good to travel all this way, to work on the project and for the opening. I’m so very happy and I can’t thank the peo- ple of Clare and all the other coun- ties involved enough for what they have done here.”