Month: January 2013

STAFF shortages and overcrowding at Ennis General Hospital was once again in the headlines in April with ongoing cuts resulting in “dangerous conditions” for patients in the hospital.

One one day in early April one nurse was left alone to care for 22 acutely ill patients in the county hospital, while care assistants replaced nurses in vital areas of care. The under pressure staff are also dealing with overcrowding at the hospital, as 12 to 15 patients are regularly cared for over-night in the medical assessment unit.

Nursing staff have to be taken from other wards to care for patients in the unit, which was added as part of the hospital reconfiguration programme and is supposed to be closed at night. The Irish Nurses and Midwives Association described the situation as unacceptable stating “this level of care is dangerous for patients”.

Sources close to staff at the hospital told The Clare People in April that they are concerned for patients and frustrated that they do not have the time to care for patients the way they should and would like to.

INMO Industrial Relations Officer, Mary Fogarty explained there is an acute shortage of nursing staff at the Ennis hospital since the moratorium was put in place. This has been exacerbated by a number of retirements.

While the staffing freeze does not allow vacant nursing posts to be replaced, the HSE is employing care assistants through an agency at € 12 per hour in an attempt to fill the wid- ening staffing gap.

“We are very concerned about the standard of care across the system,” she told The Clare People .

“While care staff have a vital role to play they cannot replace nurses. They do not have the education or experience,” she said.

Ms Fogarty was also critical of the reconfiguration process that took 25 beds out of Ennis General Hospital without having replacement infrastructure in place.

“This is a very inefficient way of managing,” she said.

THE FIRST meeting of Ireland’s newest political party, the Irish Citizens Party, took place in Ennis in April.

The party, which was founded by West Clare man, Jim Connolly, has styled itself as a humanitarian party which promises a number of “radical ideas” on how to approach the future of Ireland.

Mr Connolly, who has ran both as an Independent and Labour candidate in previous elections, says he will not be putting his name forward for election again, but says that he hopes to have a number of candidates in Clare and other counties in time for the local election in 2014.

“I will extend an open invitation to everyone who wants to attend that meeting. There will be no membership fees charged, nothing like that. The meeting will be about throwing the idea of the party around and seeing what people think of it,” he said before the April meeting.

“I need people to get involved for this to progress. This is entirely people-orientated but there are a lot of radical proposals to it that people may need time to absorb.

“In my view, there is no alternative but to go back to basic humanitarian values, and a system based on rules that the people are happy to live under. I have decided to launch this party long in advance of any election. I have declared that I will not be running again for politics. I think there is need for this party, but it is the party itself that will select the candidates and I won’t be one of them.

“What I am bringing is the drive to set it up but also I have a track record for setting up organisations that work. This is not for financial gain or any other motivation like that; this is about me trying to respond to what is going on in Ireland over the next few years, however long I am alive. I want to combat what has been hap- pened and where it is going.”

Mr Connolly, who is also the founder of the Rural Resettlement Ireland and the man behind the Open Fairs – which are designed to promote new small businesses – believes that his party can spread beyond Clare before the 2014 local election. Wed02January13

NEWS that smoking on the grounds of the Mid West Regional Hospital in Ennis was to become a thing of the past came to light in March.

At a HSE meeting in March, it was revealed that visitors and patients alike would have to have to leave the hospital campus and walk to the public roadside if they planned to light up a cigarette.

This is despite the purpose-built covered shelter which is in place for smokers on the grounds and just yards from the main entrance of the Ennis hospital, smokers will have to leave the hospital grounds to light up according to new regulations.

The new regulation raises the distinct possibility of patients in dressing gowns, pyjamas and fluffy slippers being visible to passing traffic and the elements if they decided to smoke.

From May 1, all hospitals in the mid- west, including the maternity hospital in Limerick, became smokefree, following in the footsteps of other HSE West hospitals.

But not everyone is a fan of the new regulations that must be imposed in all Irish hospitals by 2015.

Chairman of the HSE West, Pád- raig Conneely (FG) asked if the HSE had gone a step too far by banning smoking on all hospital campuses.

“How are you going to stop people outside accident and emergency in an inebriated state who are smoking, or a person dealing with a tragedy who wants to go outside to smoke?” he asked at the time.

According to figures released at the time, the annual security costs at the Ennis facility are € 34,000.

Clare representative to the HSE West Forum, Cllr Brian Meaney (GP) said he agreed with the policy, but raised concerns about hospitals like the Mid Western Regional Hospital Ennis, which has a psychiatric unit.

“It is more than a dependency for people with psychiatric problems,” he said.

He also asked if the HSE planned to extend the practice of allowing unhealthy behaviour on campus, by ceasing to sell sugary foods in its hospital shops, given the rise in typetwo diabetes.

Fellow Clare representative Cllr Tony Mulqueen (FG) asked about the size of the hospital campus and was told it was a 150-acre site.

“If there were 1, 500 acres, would you have the same rules? Where does it stop?” he asked.

A CAMPAIGN to save a number of small rural schools in Clare got underway in March, with a number of organisations mobilising to fight against government cutbacks in the education sector.

West Clare group Rural Resettlement Ireland (RRI) emerged as the organisation at the vanguard of a new campaign to help West Clare national schools in Querrin and Doonaha, Boston in North Clare and another school in Mayo.

This move comes after RRI was directly approached by the schools.

“We had four phonecalls over the past week from four different schools, looking to see if we could help them secure students to secure their future,” said Ailish Connolly of RRI in March.

“Those schools are in Doonaha, Querrin and Boston in Clare and another in Mayo. As a result, Rural Resettlement is now doing a specific, targeted campaign assisting schools looking for children. We are advertising those schools and the local communities that they are in,”

Rural Resettlement Ireland was set up by Kilbaha-based Jim Connolly, 21 years ago. In 2005, an RRI initiative to build four houses in Tullycrine helped save the national school there from closure, while the new campaign comes despite severe cut-backs in the organisation that has seen its full-time staff numbers cut from five to one in recent years.

“Our own budget has been cut and cut and cut but what we still have to do is try and get the message out there in Dublin that rural resettlement is an option for them. The need is stronger than ever,” said Ms Connolly in March.

“Schools are very much aware now that to survive they need families and therefore they need to forward plan. Thirty nine is the magic number for schools to hold onto two teachers.”

The McCarthy Report, if implemented in Clare, would see the closure of all schools in the county with under 50 pupils, a cut-off point that puts the future of many rural schools in the county, but according to RRI schools under threat are determined to fight back.

“The schools that contacted us are sourcing houses for Rural Resettlement to have a look at in the areas where the schools are located,” said Ms Connolly. “It has now become a campaign to try and save those schools. Rural Resettlement are going to do everything to try and get families to move to these areas to save the schools.”

IN Feburary, it was revealed that the population of Clare is predicted to swell to almost 150,000 people over the next 10 years, with numbers set to continue growing despite the current economic crisis and reports of mass emigration from rural area.

According to the preliminary results of the 2011 census, the population of the county actually grew by 5.3 per cent since the recession began.

Population numbers grew from 110,950 in 2006, just before the start of the recession, to 116,885 last year.

According to a new research document released by the Mid West Regional Authority in Ennistymon on February 17, the population in Clare is projected to reach 131,321 by 2016 and 141,600 by 2022.

If these projections prove to be true the population of Clare will grow to its highest level since before the Famine over the next 10 years.

The Mid West Regional Authority Factfile, which was released at the organisation annual meeting at the Falls Hotel in Ennistymon, also set out a number of short-term regional predictions with North Clare predicted to be a major growth area over the next five years.

According to the report the population of the North Clare area is set to grow by an impressive 14.36 per cent over the next five years with the local population reaching 15,675 by 2016.

West Clare has also been earmarked for major growth with the local population set to expand from 16,736 to 18,836 in 2016 – a growth of more than 12 per cent.

While the number of new people coming to live in Clare continues to more than those leaving the county, the rate of migration has slowed over the last 10 years.

Between 2002 and 2006, 4,169 more people came to live in Clare than left the county to live elsewhere. However, according to preliminary figures from the 2011 census, the number of people coming to live in the county was only 986 people more than the number who left the county to live elsewhere in the five years between 2006 and 2011.

Despite the overall growth gain in population numbers, some parts of the county have experienced a dramatic drop in numbers in recent years.

In West Clare, the Loop Head Peninsula and the area around Doonbeg suffered a decrease in population as did the a large section of North Clare between Liscannor and Fanore.

THE world of prostitution and exploitation was brought home to Ennis in February when it was revealed that the county capital of Clare had a key role in a vice ring being operated at locations around the country that involves non-nationals.

The fact that there are now working brothels in Clare was exposed in a Prime Time Special – the brothel specifically identified in the RTE programme prompted Gardai to reveal that a criminal case was immi- nent against those involved.

Clare viewers of the Prime Time Special were shocked to see footage of three young women being ferried into and out of the brothel in Clare, which was located just off the Mill Road in Ennis, less than 500 yards away from the office of The Clare People .

According to a garda spokesperson, the brothel had been under investigation at the time of the Prime Time Special, was closed down shortly after the footage was recorded and criminal prosecutions are likely in regard to activity in the building. Garda sources told The Clare People that brothel start-ups like this are not uncommon in Clare but they usually close as quickly as they open. “What happens is that girls will advertise online for a few days to gauge if there is a demand for their services. They will then arrive in Clare, set themselves up in an apartment or hotel room and see clients. “Of course, before long they will come to our attention or that of a member of the public. “When this happens, they will move on straight away,” our source said.

Internet advertising and mobile phone technology means that brothels can be set up and dismantled in a matter of hours and garda sources in Clare have identified these operations in a number of Clare towns.

“We are working all the time with the National Bureau of Criminal Investigations,” a garda spokesman told us.

“This means that very often we are aware almost immediately if these persons enter Clare, but sometimes they are here for a couple of days before we are alerted and can act.”

THE future viability of smaller nursing homes in Clare was called into question in January following the leaking of plans by the government to move a number of publiclyowned nursing homes into semi-private ownership.

Fears were raised that the Minister for Health, James Reilly (FG) planned to effectively force smaller nursing homes, with under 50 beds, into funding their own existence and not be grant aided each year by HSE funds.

This news prompted fears for homes such Ennistymon and Ra- heen, which have 22 and 33 beds respectively, that the local communities would be forced to take over the running of nursing home units from the HSE.

The news came fast after a number of drastic cuts in the number of HSE nursing home beds in the county in recent years.

St Joseph’s Hospital in Ennis has borne the brunt of these cutbacks, with bed numbers slashed from 270 down to the current number of 166 over the past three years.

And a Government commitment to close up to 900 community nursing home beds over the course of the year led to fears being expressed that a number of nursing homes in the county could be closed, forcing them down the privatisation route as the only feasible way to keep their doors open.

Regional Health Forum West member, Cllr Brian Meaney (GP) blasted any privatisation plans, saying that “the onus is on the Government to keep as many community care beds as possible”.

“A level of service has to be maintained,” he says, “and you can’t compromise on that. It will be hard for the public to support privatisation when that means beds will be about making profit.”

Speaking at the time, Tomsie O’Sullivan of the Friends of Ennistymon Hospital, said that many local community groups would not be able to cope if the proposals put forward by the health minister lead to a greater funding burden being placed on the local community.

“There is not a hope that we would be able to cope [if the recommendations from Minister O’Reilly come into force].

“We are in ongoing talks with HSE West in relation to the future of Ennistymon Community Hospital,” he said in January.

“The cutbacks will make it very difficult but we have been in very difficult situations before. And the way that we got out of those situations was through communication from all sides.”

CLARE County Council voted unanimously to place an explicit ban on hydraulic fracturing or fracking in the Clare County Development Plan at the January meeting of the local authority.

More than 50 West Clare residents and members of the Clare Fracking Concerned group packed the public gallery of Clare County Council for the meeting to express their support for moves by the elected members of the local authority to ban fracking in Clare.

Despite a number of procedural objects from the executive of Clare County Council, the councillors voted unanimously to amend the County Development Plan to specifically ban fracking – making Clare the first county in Ireland to take such a step.

Councillors also voted unanimously to write to the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Pat Rabbittee (LAB) asking that the process of fracking be banned in Clare.

This follows a motion put forward by West Clare councillor Gabriel Keating (FF) calling for a ban to fracking in Clare.

Speak on the proposal Cllr Joe Arkins (FG) said that fracking was “raping the natural environment” for the benefit of “gamblers” in the petroleum industry.

“I say this as a land owner but in reality we don’t own the land, we hold it in trust for the next generation. It is bad enough that we have managed to bankrupt the next generation never mind poisoning the land as well,” he said.

Meanwhile, in a separate motion, Cllr Brian Meaney (GP) criticised what he described as a lack of support from the executive of Clare County Council to change the County Development Plan to include a specific ban on fracking.

“We need to put into action the words that we have said today. I completely reject the directions coming from the executive of Clare County Council regarding the change of the County Development Plan – I reject this out of hand,” said .

“This actions bring Clare into the spotlight of the petroleum industry’s attempts to scrape the bottom of the barrel. Clare is the bottom of the barrel for these people. We have an opportunity to send a clear signal that we are not willing to participate and sit idly by.”

Despite the unanimous vote of Clare County Council, the County Development plan had not been altered with council official stating that to include an explicit ban on any activity in not within the scope of a development plan.

A NEW future of Shannon Airport began to emerge in January with the confirmation by the Minister for the Transport, Leo Varadkar (FG), the airport would remain in state ownership and will not be sold off as part any fire-sale of state assets.

The minister also indicated that any decision on the future of Shannon Airport would have implications for the workers at Shannon, saying that the company “should not be run in the interest of the workers”.

This ruled out the possibility of an all-out privatisation of the airport and the idea of extending a long-term lease, or between 30 and 50 years, to the property sector. Clare County Council welcomed the development saying that it opened the door for the council to have a larger role in the operation of Shannon Airport.

“It is intended that the airports will stay in public ownership but that is not to say that there cannot be private sector investment and involvement in the airports in a way that is not the case currently,” said Minister Varadkar.

“Shannon Airport has a great future as a passenger airport but also as one which is concerned with avionics and aero-industry but the status quo there is not working and the airport is in decline, which is why we need to have a change of policy in that regard.”

The minister was speaking after receiving the Booz report, the findings of which would not be made public until later in the year.

Clare County Council said the news was a step in the right direction.

“Recent comments made by Minister Varadkar concur with the council’s own views. The comments also are in line with the detailed submission made by the council to Booz & Company during 2011. We look forward to playing a key role in the progression of a new framework for Shannon Airport,” said a council spokesperson.

As the year rolled on, it became clear that a separately operated Shannon Airport, with full independence from the Dublin Airport Authority, was the government plan. Shannon Airport officially decoupled from the Dublin Airport Authority later on December 31, 2012, and a new entity, currently called NEWCO, comprising Shannon Airport and parts of Shannon Development will be created.

A SPATE of aggravated burglaries targetting elderly people living in the West Clare area is causing huge concern in the community, as gardaí believe the culprits have local knowledge of their victims.

In a latest attack, two elderly brothers were targetted in their home in Lack West Kilmihil during the weekend before Christmas.

At least two intruders, yielding iron bars, broke into the frightened men’s home between 2am and 3.25am on Saturday, December 22.

They terrorised the elderly occupants and forced them to hand over what is considered to be a sizeable amount of money. The thugs then fled in a car.

The only description available to the gardaí of the intruders was “that they were big”.

“A car with a loud exhaust was heard near the scene at the time,” a garda spokesperson said.

This crime was very similar to burglaries committed in Moyasta on December 8 and in Boolyneaska Kilmaley on December 6. Again, older people were targetted and robbed.

In the Moyasta incident, three individuals broke into the farmhouse of two elderly sisters and demanded money.

The trio broke down the door of the rural house in Kildymo, Bansha, near the seaside town of Kilkee, between 10.30pm and 11.30pm on December 8 and entered the premises where the women had lived all of their lives.

A frightening ordeal then began for the two ladies in their 80s as the robbers ripped the phone from the wall and demanded money from them.

There was very little money in the house and the thugs eventually got away with a small amount of cash from the old age pensioners’ purses.

The three who had targeted the two vulnerable older women in their own home covered their faces during the robbery. Gardaí believe there may be a connection between at least two of the three burglaries.

They are appealing for anyone with any information to contact them at Kilrush and Ennis Garda Stations.

“A substantial amount of money was taken in the latest crime. We believe the culprits in this case had local knowledge as all houses are off the main roads and in relatively isolated areas.

“These criminals are now flush with money and we are sure they are going to spend it,” said the garda spokesperson.

Meanwhile, a file has been sent to the Director of Public Prosecution in the case of an aggrivated burglary on the occupants of an isolated house between the Kilrush road and Kilmurry McMahon on September 21.

Gardaí arrested three men less than an hour after they were suspected of robbing an elderly woman and her family at knifepoint in their West Clare home. The elderly woman has since passed away.