Month: June 2012

A NIGHT-TIME taxi rank could be put in place at the Abbey Street carpark under new proposals put forward by Ennis Town Council.

Council officials met gardaí and members of the Ennis Taxi Federation in April after taxi drivers outlined a number of concerns and proposals about taxi services in Ennis.

A new night-time taxi rank has been proposed for the Abbey Street car park, which would operate between 8pm and 7am.

The proposed layout was presented at last month’s meeting of Ennis Town Council.

According to the report, the rank could run alongside the roadway close to the river Fergus and would not interfere with parking spaces. “The edges of this road could be painted with a blue line and signs erected advising the public of the night-time rank.”

Town Clerk Leonard Cleary told the meeting that a technical assessment would first have to be carried out at the site.

He said the extra taxi rank had been requested to cope with the outflow of people from nightclubs at the weekends.

He said the cost and the potential loss of revenue from lost parking spaces would also have to be considered.

Mr Cleary said further consultations would take place with taxi drivers groups and gardaí before any decision is taken.

Cllr Frankie Neylon (Ind) said drivers rated the existing rank in the Parnell Street car park as one of the best in the country.

He said it is important that people can get off the streets as quickly and safely as possible during busy peri ods.

Cllr Tommy Brennan (Ind) suggested that a rank could be set up in an area of the car park close to Dan O’Connell’s pub.

Meanwhile, councillors in Ennis meet today to rubberstamp the adoption of a new coach-parking plan for the town.

In recent weeks, Ennis Town Council has extended the coach parking facilities available in the Friar’s Walk car park, providing two additional bays for large coaches and one additional bay for a smaller coach. The council has also been looking at a more long-term arrangement to create a first class coach parking facility in the town so as to attract additional coach business to the town.

THE Shannon region is ideally placed to cash in on a new tourism boom coming all the way from China, provided the proper marketing structures can be put in place to attract visitors from the world’s fastest growing economy.

This potential for the region to place itself in the shop window for Chinese tourist traffic was showcased at a Shannon Chamber of Commerce seminar last week that brought together leading Chinese academics and Tourism Ireland’s head of developing markets.

The seminar – entitled ‘Chinese Tourism on the Move: Targeting the Affluent Chinese Consumer’ – was hosted by the Shannon College of Hotel Management and supported by Shannon Development, Shannon Airport Authority and Tourism Ireland.

“Ireland has Approved Designated Status with China, which means that groups such as summer/winter schools, business tourism and spe- cial interest groups can be targeted,” Tourism Ireland’s Jim Paul told the gathering.

“A starting point for the Shannon region would be to build visits around the Cliffs of Moher, which gained a lot of air time during the Chinese vice premier’s visit to Shannon earlier this year. Ireland is often confused with Iceland, but once ‘Riverdance’ and the Cliffs of Moher are mentioned, there is an instant association,” he added.

A post-seminar workshop, facilitated by Kevin Thompstone, of the Thompstone Group, and former chief executive of Shannon Development, selected a number of areas for follow up as a first-stage attempt to position Ireland and the Shannon region as a preferred destination for Chinese tourism.

A less-restrictive visa process, direct access to Ireland, a Chinesefriendly standard for hotels, and group membership of Tourism Ireland’s Country Club to facilitate inmarket visits are listed as tier-one action items.

“Described by Emeritus Professor, Management School of Asian Studies, UCC, Deirdre Hunt, as ‘pioneering in many ways for the fifty-fifty Irish Chinese contributions and the increased depth and richness of material presented’, the seminar is but a first-step by Shannon Chamber to tackle the issues which hinder positioning the Shannon region as an attractor of a new influx of visitors to the region, from a vast country with a kindred love of family, place and space,” said Helen Downes, chief executive of Shannon Chamber of Commerce.

CLARE’S vast Diaspora is to be tapped in an effort to create new jobs in the county, with the Clare County Development Board throw ing its weight behind the project being promoted by the Connect Organisation.

“We will succeed. We can deliver jobs in Clare by using our contacts abroad,” Connect Ireland’s Alan Gallagher said when address a meeting of County Development Board.

In backing this drive at stimulating jobs growth in the county, Clare County Council enterprise officer, Majella McNamara revealed that “many leading companies have already chosen Clare as a location for investment.

“The purpose of this new initiative is to attract smaller, more mobile companies to locate here too. The smaller companies can set up operations more quickly with the result that new jobs can be created a lot faster in smaller locations, such as Ennis and other parts of the county.

“What we need is to have suitable, attractive business space and to showcase and sell all the attractive aspects of the county,” she added.

Connect Ireland is the company appointed by the government and the IDA to deliver the Succeed in Ireland initiative with the aim of creating 5,000 jobs in Ireland within five years as part of the Government’s 2012 Action Plan for Jobs.

The initiative works by encouraging ordinary people and businesses to use their international connections to encourage companies to set up in Ireland.

An individual who introduces a company that subsequently invests in Ireland and creates new jobs will receive a financial reward of € 4, 500 if three jobs are created up to a max- imum of € 150,000.

“We would urge the people of Clare to think about the people you know all over the world: friends, family, old school friends and teammates, neighbours and business contacts.

“Just check in with them, you might be surprised at where they work, who they know and just what that quick email or phone call could result in in terms of job creation in Clare,” added Ms McNamara.

HUNDREDS of pilgrims from Clare are set to attend the Eucharistic Congress that is expected to attract over 40,000 people to the RDS in Dublin between June 10 to 17 next.

The Clare contingent will be led by Bishop of Killaloe, Kieran O’Reilly, while a spokesperson for the diocese has revealed that busloads of pilgrims from all parts of the country will attend the weeklong event.

“This is the 50th Congress and it is a very big event,” said Killaloe Diocesan secretary Brendan Quinlivan. “There is a very big ecumenical theme to this year’s Congress and the dialogue between the different churches.

“There are people coming from all over the world to this Congress – from eastern Europe, from Africa and Clare will be very well represented with people from all parishes attending,” added Fr Quinlivan.

“Next Monday is the big ecumenical day of the Congress,” revealed Fr Jerry Carey, “and young people from around the country will be gathering in the RDS on that day for special prayer services. There are young people from all over Clare who will be attending,” he added.

Eucharistic Congress organiser in the Diocese of Killaloe, Essie Hayes, revealed that many volunteers from the county will play their part transforming the RDS centre in Ballsbridge into a Eucharistic Village.

“It’s all about volunteerism,” she said, “and a big part of the village will be an exhibition that will remember when the last Eucharistic Congress came to Ireland in 1932,” he added.

Over 1,000 people from Clare attended the 1932 gathering, the 31st Congress since it was established in 1881 the Vatican as a gathering of clergy and laity to bear witness to the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist.

ENNIS General Hospital has under gone significant changes in the services it offers patients in the last three years. While the County Clare hospital has lost its 24-hour accident and emergency service along with its acute services, the number of day surgeries and non-acute procedures it is undertaking has grown significantly.

In 2008 there were no cardiac day procedures carried out at the hospital. In 2011 however there were 72 such procedures undertaken by specialised staff.

Similarly in 2008 there were no gastroenterology, geriatrics, maxillo-facial surgery or plastic surgery day procedures carried out at the hospital.

Three years later, 228 plastic surgeries, 143 gastroenterology procedures, 119 maxillo-facial surgeries, and three geriatric procedures were completed in one year on the hospital campus.

The most significant increase was in vascular surgery, where the number of procedures in a year increased by 400 per cent from 28 in 2008 to 140 in 2011.

There was also a significant increase in work carried out in the urology department from 69 procedures in 2008 to 342 procedures in 2011 – a jump of 395.65 per cent.

Gynaecology procedures increased by 43.75 per cent in that time period, while dentistry increased by 27.79 per cent.

With the change in the hospital’s status within the Mid Western Hospitals Group medical procedures and surgical procedures had dropped by 35.64 per cent and 12.59 per cent respectively.

CEO of the Mid Western Hospitals Group, Ann Doherty has previously explained, “We are engaged in build- ing a single hospital system. If that sounds radical let me assure you that the Trust will not be an exercise in centralisation of services at the expense of the smaller hospitals. It is significant that changes in medicine and technology are leading to the establishment of region-wide specialist departments in fields such as radiology and cardiology. This had led to dramatic improvements such as in Ennis where tele-radiology was introduced in April 2011 as the main method of reporting X-rays and the development of outreach cardiology services such as the heart watch programme.”

A new 50-bed unit at Ennis General Hospital is scheduled to open at the end of the month, which will provide new facilities to go with the procedure including two new wards with 50 new beds and en-suites, and facilities for CT scanning, operating theatres, endoscope facilities and day surgery.

MOVES are being made at Ennis Town Council level to mark the historic 1828 election of Daniel O’Connell in Clare by staging an annual event in honour of the ‘Liberator’ in the county capital.

The cause of O’Connell in Clare, which has been championed by a number of local historians in the county, will be taken to the floor of Ennis Town Council this week, with a motion being tabled by Cllr Johnny Flynn (FG) expected to receive the unanimous backing of the ninemember local authority.

O’Connell was elected as a Member of Parliament for Ennis on July 5, 1828. Having been proposed as a candidate by The O’Gorman Mahon and seconded by Tom Steele, he beat Vesey Fitzgerald in the election.

It was this victory that sparked the granting of Catholic Emancipation the following year, while Cllr Flynn’s motion to honour one of the most famous campaigns in Clare electoral history is being timed to coincide with the 185th anniversary of the election in 2013.

“We want O’Connell recognised in Clare by having a special day annually in his honour,” said local historian Declan Barron. “By having a Daniel O’Connell Day in Ennis and having that day set as July 5 every year, a whole new industry and interest can be cultivated.

“Daniel O’Connell’s election wasn’t only a turning point in Irish history, but it was a turning point in world history. That’s because it was the world’s first democratic revolution. Are we just the fighting Irish, who remember patriots because they were involved in wars or were killed?

“It is the first time that democracy was used to rebel against the status quo and the ruling powers. It was on July 5 that he was elected and it should probably be called Democracy Day, after Independence Day the day before. 2013 would be an ideal year to start this, on the 185th anniversary but also because it could become part of the ‘Gathering’ project,” added Mr Barron.

GAY and bisexual young people living in Clare are more likely to contemplate and attempt suicide than their heterosexual piers.

That is the opinion of openly gay Ennis priest Fr Bernard Lynch and consultant psychiatrist Dr Moosajee Bhamjee, who believe that the lack of positive, openly-gay role models in the county can leave young Clare people feeling isolated and possibly suicidal.

Following the closure of the volunteer group Gay Clare nearly two years ago, there is no longer any Clare-based organisation to cater for the needs of rural gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered people.

According to Dr Bhamjee, many young gay people can find themselves completely isolated and in a very desperate position.

“People in rural Ireland can find it much more difficult to deal with their gayness – that is the case in many parts of Ireland and in rural areas abroad as well,” said Dr Bhamjee. “The problem is that they don’t have anywhere to express their sexuality and this can be very, very isolating for a person. In some ways, younger people are more open and more understanding, but there is still a huge stigma.” For a full inter view with

Fr Ber na rd Lynch, tur n to page 19.