Month: November 2011

A YOUNG Kilmihil footballer is continuing to recover in hospital in Portugal having been involved in a serious accident while on holidays.

35-year-old Declan O’Shea remains in a serious condition in hospital after the accident more than a fortnight ago. He fell from a third-storey balcony at an apartment last month and was taken to hospital in Faro. He was later airlifted to a hospital in Lisbon, where his family has travelled from Kilmihil to be by his bedside.

Mr O’Shea, who is married, was attending a rally with two friends in Portugal when the freak accident occurred. He remains in hospital and his condition has not changed, according to sources.

The local community in Kilmihil is rallying around the O’Shea family, as they pray for Declan’s recovery.

“His progress is being monitored by the hospital,” said a source, who added that the support of the people of Kilmihil has been huge.

In the immediate aftermath of the accident, a huge crowd attended Mass for him in Kilmihil, which was celebrated by local parish priest Fr Peter O’Loughlin.

Declan is a full-back on the Kilmihil senior football team. He won a Senior ‘B’ county championship medal with his club two years ago. He has represented Clare in football at minor and under-21 levels. He has worked as a mechanic in Kilrush in recent times, having spent some time living in Australia a number of years ago.

He is a son of Oliver and Doris O’Shea, from Lack West, Kilmihil.

A 51-YEAR-OLD man who lost his life while fishing off Donegal Point in Kilkee on Saturday had received several warnings from locals saying it was too dangerous to fish, according to local rescue services.

The man, who has been identified as Armands Silins from Nagles Terrace in Kilrush, lost his life after being swept from his nine-foot dinghy into rough waters just before 2pm on Saturday. The incident was reported immediately by a local fisherman, who was watching from the shore, and the Kilkee Marine Rescue recovered the man from the sea within 15 minutes.

The man was unconscious and hypothermic when recovered and the rescue service performed first aid and gave the man oxygen. The Shannon-based Irish Coast Guard helicopter airlifted the man from Kilkee to the Limerick Regional Hospital where, despite continued efforts to resuscitate him, he was pronounced dead a short time after his arrival.

Founder of Kilkee Marine Rescue, Manuel DiLucia, said that the man was not wearing a life jacket and had been warned by a number of people not to take his light craft into the dangerous waters.

“He was in a small and light dinghy and he had to carry that dinghy down a cliff to even get to the water. It was white water with swells of around two or three metres so it was not suitable at all for a boat of that size to be out fishing. It was totally unsafe.

“The location where he was is a very dangerous location, even if the sea had been calm. The man had been warned several times about going out fishing there and he ignored the advice that he was given. He wasn’t even wearing a life jacket, just a high visibility jacket which did help us to locate him.

“We are fed up of telling people where is safe to fish and where is dangerous. People are just ignoring us, especially foreign nationals. This happens quite a lot and is a big problem.”

More than 10 Eastern European men have died while fishing off the coast of west Clare over the past five years. The 51-year-old Latvian man had been living locally for a number of years and worked in Kilrush.

CLARE turf-cutters have vowed to take their fight to be allowed to continue the centuries-old practice of cutting turf to the corridors of Dáil Éireann, following the huge attendance at a public meeting that was staged in Moyasta last Thursday night.

The meeting in Garrihy’s Bar attracted nearly 250 turf-cutters from around the county, who stepped up their campaign by establishing a Clare branch of the Turf Cutters and Contractors Association.

Padraig Haugh has been elected chairman of the new group, while the national spokesperson for turfcutters in Dáil Éireann, Deputy Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan, has told The Clare People that the new Clare committee is the first step towards Clare turfcutters fighting for their rights.

“We left Moyasta with a committee – a chairman, and treasurer and a secretary, ready to take up the baton in the Clare area when it comes to fighting this issue,” said Deputy Flanagan, who attended Thursday night’s meeting in Moyasta.

“It was the biggest turnout I’ve ever seen at a meeting in Clare,” said chairman Padraig Haugh. “The crowd turned out in such numbers because this is a big issue, a very big issue and it’s not just in west Clare.

“I am secretary of the Creamery Milk Suppliers Association and I was speaking to colleagues over in east Clare and they are very worried about this too.

“Turf-cutting is vital to us, because it was always with us. I started farming in 1948 and I have been cutting turf for as long as that. It goes back centuries. We cannot be stopped cutting turf. We have to defeat this,” added Mr Haugh.

“The purpose of setting up the committee is that everyone in Clare who is involved in turf-cutting can feed into this group and deal with the issues as they come along. Tullaher Lough Bog is the one that’s most important at the moment as the ban has come in on that the end of this year,” contined Deputy Flanagan.

“We want to make sure that people in Clare can continue to cut turf. We have a report from the EPA which has a peatlands plan, which means people will need permits and will need to do studies in their area before they cut turf.

“We need to be ready for this battle down the line. Unless there is someone in Clare to represent turf-cutters, we are facing the distinct possibilty that there will be no turf cut in Clare in the near future,” Deputy Flanagan added.

MORE THE € 60,000 has been allocated to two separate eco-tourism projects in north Clare. It is hoped that the announcement, which was made by the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Leo Varadkar (FG), in Clare on Friday, could have a large impact in helping to improve the Burren’s status as Ireland home for eco-tourism.

Funding of € 51,315 has been approved for a series of heritage walking trails in the Burren area. It is hoped that this funding will help to improve the existing walking and cycling infrastructure in the area. A further € 10,000 has also been allocated towards the further development of the existing cycle route in Doolin.

The € 60,000 was announced alongside seven other tourism projects for outside Clare whose combined budgets reach almost € 6.6 million. While the allocation for eco-tourism projects in Clare in comparatively small, locals hope that it can have a big impact.

“This is a great announcement and a huge benefit for north Clare. Walking tourism is getting bigger and bigger all the time – it is an area that is on the up and something that we can capatalise on up here in north Clare,” said Tony Kirby, owner of Heart of the Burren Walks and member of the Burren Eco-tourism Network.

“Walking tourism fits in very well with the idea of eco-tourism. It is about people coming and spending a real amount of time getting to know Clare and the people here. It is about giving them a fuller experience of the county and benefiting the local economy by having them stay here for a longer period.”

Earlier this years the Burren was officially designated as Ireland second certified eco-tourism destinations. A host of representatives from the local tourism industry have been working for more than three years to be trained and certified to take part in the Burren Eco-tourism Network.

The network has been going from strength to strength since it’s inception and more than 40 new members are currently being trained to become members of the Burren Ecotourism Network.

GOVERNMENT TDs in the midwest region have been accused of standing idly by as transport minister Leo Varadkar prepares the way for Shannon Airport to be handed over to private operators.

Fianna Fáil Transport spokesperson and the county’s lone Dáil Éireann representative, Deputy Timmy Dooley, rounded on comments attributed to Minister Varadkar after his visit to Clare on Friday last, while at the same time hitting out at “the lack of comments” from local TDs from the Fine Gael and Labour benches over Shannon’s future.

“To hear that Minister Varadkar is considering handing over the run- ning of Shannon Airport to a private operator is disturbing,” said Deputy Dooley, “considering that the minister has just appointed a team of international consultants to advise on the ownership and management structures at Shannon Airport.

“It would seem to me that the Government should first wait for the conclusion of that process before considering any proposals. The minister’s comments are clearly aimed at leading the consultation towards a predetermined conclusion,” he added.

Since the proposal to semi-privatise Shannon through a lease agreement for between 15 and 35 years – contained in a submission to Government by SAA chairman, Brian O’Connell – first emerged in Sep- tember, Deputy Dooley has been the harshest critic of the plan.

“Operational losses at Shannon Airport are currently significant but it must be understood that we’re in the middle of the deepest global recession since 1929,” he said this week.

“While the problems at the respective airports must be addressed for sustainable regional development in the south and the mid -west regions, handing over the airport to private, profit-driven operators would not be in the region’s best interests.

“I am amazed at the lack of comments from Government representatives in the south and mid-west regions. They produced many fanciful proposals while in opposition but have remained surprisingly silent at a time when very serious decisions about the future of Cork and Shannon airports are being made,” he added.

COMBINED losses of over € 24 million in Shannon Airport over the past three years means that Clare’s international airport has now reached a defining point in its 75-year history – the point from which it has to start paying for itself if it wants to retain its status as a key piece of infrastructure for the mid-west region.

This stark verdict was handed down by the Minister for Transport, Leo Varadkar, on Friday when visiting the county to lend his support for the Cliffs of Moher campaign to become one of the Seven Wonders of World Nature.

“The way things are going, Shannon will not be important anymore because there will be so few people going through it and I want it to be a strategic asset for the region,” Minister Varadkar said.

“There is a difficulty with Shannon. It is losing money. It is losing over € 8 million a year and in the past that was okay, because the profits in Dublin were enough to cover it, but Dublin isn’t making money any more either, largely as a consequence of T2, so we need to make sure that Shannon is sustainable in its own right.

“I would like to see Shannon operate as an autonomous entity running its own affairs, but that can only be done if it’s financially sustainable because there isn’t subsidies available for the airport. There wasn’t during the boom, there certainty isn’t now. We are certainly in a difficult position in terms of the budget,” Minister Varadkar added.

He made his comments while in Bunratty where he announced € 6.6m in tourism products around the country.

Charting a new future for Shannon has been farmed out by Minister Varadkar to a team of consultants – Booz & Company, to undertake a consultation process will all interested parties as to the best way forward for the former hub of the aviation world.

A key proposal being teased out by the consultants is a proposal submitted by Shannon Airport Authority director, Brian O’Connell, for the airport to be leased to private business for a period of between 15 to 35 years.

“The airport assets would remain in state ownership, but the operator would be private,” Mr Varadkar said of this proposal. “There are other options as well, for example making it a state company off its own bat. I am not convinced of any of them yet and that is the purpose of the process we are doing now.

“We are not in a position to write off any debts. A lot of State compa- nies have debts and in many cases they are self-inflicted. If we were writing off debts for one State asset, we would have to do it for others and that is not something we are in a position to do.”

“Shannon is a loss-making airport and the only sustainable future for an airport like Shannon is one where it is busy and you have a lot of people flying in and out. What we had over the last number of years is the airport been neglected by policymakers and the previous government and it can’t go on the way it is.”

“In the past that was OK as the profits at Dublin (airport) would cover them. Dublin is not making any money either, so we do need to ensure that Shannon is sustainable in its own right and turn it from what it is now, a liability for the DAA, into an asset for the country and the region,” Minister Varadkar added.

A SITE off the coast of north Clare has been identified by the WestWave wave energy company as a likely site for Ireland’s first ever commercial wave energy field.

The north Clare site is one of four locations identified by WestWave which is an alternative energy company owned by ESB International – for the development of the revolutionary offshore energy resource, along with two sites in Mayo and one in Galway.

It is as yet unclear which site will be used for the first WestWave energy field but it is likely that if the first site is deemed a success, the production will spread to the other three sites.

While the exact location of the proposed site in north Clare has not been confirmed, The Clare People understand that the site is located in the Ballyvaughan area.

According to ESB International Ocean Energy Project Manager, James Tedd, the target date for electricity generation to begin at the chosen site is 2015. If that target date is to be met, the planning process for the proposed development will have to begin next year, with construction to start in 2013 at the latest.

A number of government energy agencies, semi-state organisations and private companies have examined a number of locations off the Clare coast with a view to producing wave energy.

Wave energy can be produced in a number of different ways, meaning that some forms of generators may be more suitable to some locations rather than others. A number of Irish-based companies currently have working prototypes but no company is yet to produce a full-sized wave electricity generator for use in the field.

The ESB is committed to reducing its own carbon emissions by 50 per cent by 2030 and to be ‘net-zero’ in carbon emissions by 2050. According to Mr Tedd, the company hoped to derive at least one-third of its electricity generation from renewable sources by 2020 – and ocean energy would provide a major segment of that.

WestWave is working with four key technology partners towards the selection of the optimal device. These are Wavebob, Ocean Energy, Pelamis and Aquamarine Power, which is testing off Scotland’s Orkney Islands.

WestWave has been approved by the Government as one of two Irish bids for the € 4.5 billion in funding set aside by the European Union under the New Entrants Reserve (NER) 300 programme for low carbon technologies.

PRELIMINARY work has started on a new local area plan for Shannon town and surrounding areas.

This emerged at a meeting of Shannon Town Council last week, after Labour Councillor Greg Duff asked for the town council to call on the county council to exclude from any plans to revoke sections of the South Clare Local Area Plan areas that have been identified as amenity, parkland or wetland.

He asked that the council consult with local residents, Dúchas na Sionna and other interested groups to maintain and develop these sites.

In a response from the council, he was told that preliminary work has commenced on a new local area plan for Shannon town and environs.

“The plan-making process will involve a wide ranging review of all its constituent parts including the town area as it presently exists in the South Clare Local Area Plan 2009-2015. New planning and environmental legislation requires such a review,” stated the council’s response.

It added that there are “no definite proposals at this time in respect of changing zoning status on said lands. It is proposed to consult with the elected members and public shortly on this and other matters”.

Cllr Duff told the meeting he would like to see an attitude whereby green areas are saved and not be replaced by “commercial or retail development”.

He said that 47 submissions have been made, one of which he was involved in with heritage group Dúchas na Sionna.

THE PRESENCE of mould in several homes in a housing estate in Shannon is a major concern for locals, a meeting heard last week.

The matter was raised by Fine Gael Councillor Vincent Coleman, who said that it had been highlighted as a “major concern” at a recent residents’ meeting.

In a written response to his query at Shannon Town Council, it was stated by the council that the housing scheme was built to a high standard less than 10 years ago.

“In the past year, complaints have been received in respect of no more than five houses regarding mould. Staff of the housing maintenance team have met with the residents in each case and have advised them regarding ventilation. Where this advice has been followed, the issue has been resolved,” stated the response.

“If the problem persists following the appropriate action as advised, the staff of the maintenance team will review the matter,” added the response.

Cllr Coleman said the issue is regarded as “an extreme, extreme worry” and added, “The reply in saying that there is only five people is wrong.”

“One house is after losing their entire wardrobe with mould. The bathroom ceiling has been painted three times,” he said.

“There are a lot of concerned residents in the area,” he said.

Councillors agreed that the issue should be sorted out. Labour Councillor Tony McMahon said, “If there is a problem of this nature it needs to certainly be addressed.”

Fine Gael Councillor Seán McLoughlin said the mould is connected to poor ventilation. “I am surprised that this is still knocking around because when the estate was built it was knocking around,” he said.

Independent Councillor Gerry Flynn said that BER ratings have been obtained in respect of houses in that estate. “It would be very important to see what rating would come out of that. I do think that the issues in Cúl na Gréine are fixable,” he said.

Shannon Town Manager Bernadette Kinsella said that the BER assessments “are actually achieving a very high rating”. She said that if the situation does not improve, council staff will sit down with residents to discuss it.

A 22-UNIT affordable housing development in Shannon has encountered “slippage” in terms of its completion, a meeting heard last week.

The scheme development at Cluain Airne got underway in June 2009 and it was initially envisaged that it would be completed within a year. However, the Glaise na Rinne scheme – which consists of 16 affordable and six step-down units – was subsequently halted and the initial contractor’s contract was terminated.

The scheme got underway despite concerns from local residents, who objected to the project. They stated that they did not want the houses built in the area and argued that there was inadequate infrastructure to cope with the new houses.

A new contractor was appointed in July of this year and the council expressed hope at the time that the project would be completed within 16 weeks of its restart.

At a meeting of Shannon Town Council last week, the issue was raised by Sinn Féin Councillor Cathy McCafferty.

In a written response from the council, it was stated that Atlantic Developments took possession of the development on July 18 under contract which provides for completion on December 9. Expenditure to date on the contract is € 2,830,967, excluding design team fees and legal and supervision costs.

“The selling price for the affordable houses will reflect local market values and the standard of the houses,” stated the reply, which added that the houses are to be advertised over the coming weeks. “The contractors are progressing the works satisfactorily on site. There has been some slip- page in the contract completion date resulting from some unforeseen issues on site coupled with a sustained period of wet weather,” stated the response, which added that the delay should be “a matter of weeks”.

Councillors were told that kitchens have been installed in 30 percent of the houses, with half of the tiling complete. Landscaping has been ongoing, while interface works are “now practically complete”.

Cllr McCafferty told the meeting that she was “shocked” to hear recently that more than 10 percent of the population of Shannon is in need of social housing.

“The council does not appear to know what the eventual asking prices of these houses are going to be,” she said.

Councillor Gerry Flynn (Independent) expressed hope that the scheme is “finished, done and dusted, by De- cember 9”.

Independent Councillor Patricia McCarthy asked would the “slippage” amount to a delay of two or three weeks or would it stretch into the New Year.

In response to the councillors’ queries, the town manager Bernadette Kinsella said, “I think there has been a reasonable level of progress since the last meeting.”

“The team is satisfied that works are being completed on the site. . . Obviously we are not going to take possession in Christmas week so we are probably talking about January,” she said.

Ms Kinsella said that councillors would be informed of the overall cost of the project “in due course”.

She said there are 156 people on the list for affordable houses, adding, “Until we go back with prices, we don’t know how many will hold.”