Month: March 2014

PASSENGERS flying in and out of Shannon airport for St Patrick’s Day celebrations sighed with relief on Wednesday when a strike scheduled for Friday was called off, just over 36 hours before it was due to begin.

There was however some disruption to plans as Aer Lingus had cancelled 29 flights at the three airports affected and made changes to more than 40 others on Thursday and Fri- day.

Despite the upheaval however a delegation of council staff along with the mayors or deputy mayors of Clare, Kilrush, Ennis and Shannon made their flights to represent the county at parades, official functions and trade meetings in New York and New Jersey.

The Tulla Pipe Band also boarded a flight from Shannon to New York on Saturday to lead the Clare delegation down Fifth Avenue for the New York St Patrick’s Day parade.

On Wednesday the High Court granted an injunction preventing the union from staging the planned fourhour work stoppage at Dublin, Cork and Shannon airports on Wednesday.

The threatened action was part of an ongoing dispute between workers, the Dublin Airport Authority and the Shannon Airport Authority over pensions.

Mr Justice Paul Gilligan upheld the injunction sought by the DAA and urged the parties to cooperate with the expert panel to resolve the dispute.

The DAA, Ryanair, Aer Lingus and the Minister for Transport, Leo Varadkar, welcomed the move.

“I have said on a number of occasions that the strike should have been deferred given that the expert panel is currently engaging with all parties involved in the dispute,” said the Minister.

Fianna Fáil’s Transport and Tourism spokesperson Timmy Dooley said, “Around 10,000 passengers have been affected by this action on one of the busiest weekends of the year for the Irish tourism industry. The disruption has the potential to blight the good reputation that Ireland has built up over many years,” he said.

“While every worker has the right to strike to protect their interests, it should only be used a method of last resort, and not a threat issued when negotiations are still ongoing.”

The workers union SIPTU said it would be considering the judgment.

UNTREATED raw sewage is being discharged into rivers and bathing areas at five locations in Clare, including key tourist towns such as Kilkee, Ballyvaughan and Liscannor. A new report from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has revealed that the discharge of raw sewage is still a major problem in Clare, with nearly 20 percent of all offending towns – five of the 28 towns nationally – located in Clare. Five Clare towns, with a popula- tion of more than 500 people, were identified as discharging raw sewage. The report also reveals a lack of progress made in recent years in tackling the problems each of the five Clare towns – Kilrush, Clarecastle, Kilkee, Ballyvaughan and Liscannor – already identified as having on sewage infrastructure by the EPA in their 2006 report.

The Shannon town sewage system was also identified in the report as not reaching mandatory effluent quality and sampling standards. The system, which was identified as the source of a mysterious odour, late last year, will undergo a € 1.02 million upgrade of four pump stations later this year.

It is hoped that this upgrade will bring the system up to the standards set by the EPA and also rectify the ongoing odour issues in Shannon town.

A campaign to construct a sewage treatment system at Kilkee has been underway for more then a decade, with an investment promised by the Government as far back as 2005. The wait looks set to continue for the time being however as the transfer of responsibility for the project from Clare County Council to Irish Water adding an extra layer of uncertainty to the project.

The Kilkee sewage system was included in the Department of Environment, Community and Local Government’s investment programme for 2010 to 2013 but remains a number of steps away from development.

While Clare County Council will be involved in the day to day provision of water and sewage services for a number of years through a Service Level Agreement with Irish Water, all responsibility for funding new schemes now rests with Irish Water.

THE amount of funding awarded by the Irish Arts Council to local arts festivals in Clare has dropped to its lowest level in almost a decade.

Just € 20, 500 was awarded to Clare festivals under the Festival and Events Scheme (formally the Small Arts Festivals Scheme) for the first half of 2014 – a drop of more then 16 per cent [€ 4,000] on the same scheme for 2013. This is the joint lowest first round funding offered to Clare festivals in more than a decade – equalling the previous funding low which was allocated in 2012.

The Inishcealtra Arts Festival was the worst hit, with a year-on-year funding drop of 64 per cent. The festival’s 2013 Arts Council funding of € 7,000 was slashed down to just € 2, 500 for 2014.

This is the second major funding blow for the Inishcealtra festival, which saw its funding cut from € 9,000 to € 7,000 last year.

Both the Corofin Traditional Festival [€ 6, 500] and the Doran Piping Tionol [€ 3,000] maintained their funding levels this year with the Ennis Book Club Festival actually recording an increase of € 500 – to € 8, 500.

This funding also represents a de- crease of almost 65 per cent from the € 57,100 awarded to Clare festivals under the first round of the Small Arts Festivals Scheme on 2007.

There was also bad news for Glór, which saw a 7 per cent cut to it’s programme funding – down from € 86,000 to € 80,000 for 2014.

The Arts Council’s annual funding scheme saw a slight decrease for Liscannor’s Salmon Poetry, down by € 1, 250 to € 40,750 this year, while the Willie Clancy Summer School remained the same at € 80,000.

There was a slight increase under the Touring and Dissemination of Work Scheme with Padraig Rynne [€ 30,000] and the Hunka, Dunne, Robinson Trio [€ 8, 500] receiving a combined total of € 38, 500 compared to the € 37, 500 guided to Guidewires and Nicola Henley of the Wise Ways Projects last year.

CLARE gardaí will be loosing their hair on the streets of Ennis on Friday but it’s all in aid of a good cause.

Members of the force, including Clare’s most senior Garda, Chief Supt John Kerin, will participate in a ‘Shave or Dye’ event in O’Connell Square, Ennis on Friday, March 21, between 12 noon and 4pm.

A total of 18 members of Ennis Garda Station will take part in the event, which is being held to raise money for the Irish Cancer Society.

The Shave or Dye event is part of a nationwide campaign run by Today FM aimed at raising funds for the Irish Cancer Society.

Ten gardaí are expected to shave their heads on Friday. A further eight have opted to dye their hair purple – in recognition of Ennis’s bid to renew its Purple Flag status.

Last February, Ennis became the first Irish town to receive the Purple Flag. The award aims to broaden the appeal and improve the standard of nighttime destinations.

Over 35 English town and city representatives attended the workshop in Ennis on October 23. The Purple Flag award is seen as the benchmark for good evening and nighttime destinations. At present, over 40 towns and cities in UK and Ireland have been awarded Purple Flag accredita- tion.

Friday’s Shave or Dye event is supported by Roots Hair Salon, The Temple Gate Hotel and the Rowan Tree Café and Hostel.

Students from Rice College secondary school will also be giving their support on the day.

Community Garda and event organiser Deirdre O’Doherty said Gardaí are grateful for the support they have received from the business community.

“A couple of businesses have helped us out and if anymore want to come on board they are more than welcome. We’ll be at the Square up to 4pm. We’re hoping to do the shaving at around 3pm so there should be a good crowd around,” explained Garda O’Doherty.

People can contribute on the day or by logging onto the www.mycharity. ie web page.

Funds raised through the event will go towards the Irish Cancer Society.

MORE than 110 Bur ren locals, including 60 local businesses, have come together to help force the creation of better broadband services in rural Clare.

The group have formed a co-operative style organisation to bargain directly with broadband providers, and entice them to build a better broadband network in the Bur ren area.

The group will meet with representatives from Airwire today, March 18, who have al ready committed to building one new signal boosting repeater station in the Burren region. Group organiser and owner of the Bur ren yoga Centre, Dave Brocklebank, believes that if he can prove an even greater local demand he will be able to negotiate for better broadband right across the area.

“It’s not rocket science to boost these signals but the companies don’t do it because they don’t see a market for it in the more r ural areas. But if we get together and show them there is a market then we can get repeaters stations built all over the Burren,” said Mr Brocklebank.

“I am a member of the Burren Ecotourism Network and I used that as a platform to get it going. At the moment we have maybe 60 businesses signed up around 50 individuals. I think if we can get a couple of hundred people to sign up we should have proved the demand for them to build repeater stations right across the Bur ren. The more numbers we get the better chance we have of getting the service boosted.”

Airwave will conduct a technical survey in the Burren area tomorrow with a view to constructing a new repeater station. This station will receive a direct, heavy duty, internet connection, which is will then transmit to the local area.

“These stations receive a di rect connection, so the signal strength will not degrade no matter haw many people are using it. Something like this will help maybe 15 or 20 users in that area, so we need to entice the providers to build more of these in the Bur ren,” continued Mr Brocklebank.

“The aims here is to get more and more people to sign up and then we can boost the signal for the entire area. This is just the beginning; if this works for broadband and can see us getting together again to work for other services.”

To sign up to the broadband initiative visit www.bur renyoga.com/ broadband.

A TOTAL of 67 applications for repossession came before the Clare County Registrar at Ennis Courthouse on Friday.

The vast majority of the cases were adjourned to July with 23 of the 67 cases adjourned because the banks and financial institutions can’t locate the homeowners or have their registered letters returned.

In the cases before the court, the largest number of repossession applications came from Ulster Bank at 26; 17 from the EBS; and eight from the AIB; with a single application from the Bank of Ireland.

In one case, Ulster Bank was seeking to proceed with the repossession application.

That application, heard before County Registrar Pat Wallace, involved a West Clare man who owes Ulster Bank € 128,428.35. The figure includes arrears of € 26,011.

The court heard that 10 years ago, the man received a loan for € 110,000. He later got a top up loan of € 15,000.

The man, an unemployed machine operator, said that he missed a repayment in December because he had to carry out roof repairs. He said he outlined his difficulties in a letter to the bank.

The man told the County Registrar, “I am not working. I’m on so- cial welfare.” The man said that after missing the December repayment he received a letter from the bank saying his monthly payment had jumped from € 195 to € 668. He said the value of the house was now somewhere between € 65,000 and € 70,000.

The court heard the man was made redundant four years ago. He told the County Registrar that he is now considering renting out the house. Mr Wallace said that would be a good idea.

Mr Wallace told the man he was adjourning the application for two months but wanted to see some progress the next time the matter came before the court. He said the property is in negative equity. “If there is no repayments, there is no point hanging around,” he added.

Mr Wallace adjourned the case to July. He said, “I’d like you to do something concrete and increase the payments. If you got a job, you might surmount this debt.”

THE Minister for Health James Reilly has said that there will be a new Maternity Hospital on the grounds of the University Hospital Limerick, Dooradoyle, in four years.

The Minister for Health said the relocation is earmarked for completion in 2018.

The first public meeting of the new mid-west hospitals group board, outlined that one of its key objective was to secure capital for a new maternity unit on the Dooradoyle campus.

There was no confirmation as to the timing of the project forthcoming at the meeting last month.

The minister has given a four-year projection for the hospital and Clare TD Joe Carey (FG) believes that is a realistic and feasible timeline.

“The Minister for Health has confirmed the co-location plan is underway and that the hope is for it to be completed by 2018,” he said.

“It has been accepted and recognised by the HSE and Government that the University Maternity Hospital in Limerick, needs to move to a modern purpose-built unit on the grounds of the University Hospital, Limerick.

“Co-location of maternity hospitals with adult acute services is the optimal solution for the provision of hospital-based maternity services, as it can provide access to the full range of medical and surgical specialties and clinical support services in sufficient volume and complexity to provide added value,” he said.

“I am pleased that work is on-going to develop a brief for the co-location of both facilities and would hope this will progress swiftly and efficiently.”

AN ENNIS based dentist has said his safety and that of his family’s has been “diminished” since a man threatened to kill him almost two years ago.

The doctor outlined his concerns in a victim impact statement read out by Garda Michelle Holian at Ennis Circuit Criminal Court last week.

Earlier this month, Eoin Hannan (41) was found guilty by a jury of making the threat against the dentist at his practice in Merchant’s Square, Ennis on May 11, 2012.

Mr Hannan, with addresses at Kilrush Road, Ennis and Shear Street, Kilmallock, Ennis was also found guilty of two counts of engaging in threatening, abusive and or insulting behaviour with intent to provoke a breach of the peace.

The jury acquitted the accused of making a threat to burn down the dentist’s practice. Mr Hannan had denied all charges, which arose from visits he made to the surgery on May 10 and May 11, 2012.

Mr Hannan denied making the threats to the dentist. He said, “I told him ‘I am a bullet’ and I left as fast a bullet.” He also said: “I told him to take his drills and get off my island.” Mr Hannan appeared before Ennis Circuit Criminal Court on Tuesday fort sentencing. In the victim impact statement, the dentist said his general well-being and safety has been diminished and compromised since the threat.

He said he has increased security meaures as his dental practice. He said he no longer feels comfortable walking the streets of Ennis on his own because “the threat on my life still stands.” He thanked his family, friends and gardaí for the support he has received.

Defence Counsel Michael Collins told the court his client still “vigorously protests his innocence”.

The court heard Mr Hannan, who suffers from a form of bi-polar disorder, has previous convictions for robbery, public order offences and possession of knives and other articles.

“I am not a criminal. I do not regard myself as insane in any way”, he added. Judge Gerald Keys adjourned finalisation of sentencing to April 24. Mr Hannan was remanded in custody.

A JUDGE has refused jurisdiction of a case where it is alleged a man confronted another man with an iron bar on a main street in Ennis last summer. At Ennis District Court on Wednesday, Judge Patrick Durcan said it appeared to him that alleged incidents of this nature are becoming “too prevalent in Ennis”.

He was speaking after details of an alleged assault that took place on Carmody Street on July 1, 2013 were outlined in court.

James Galbraith (37), with an address at Lissanisaka, Claureen, Ennis is charged with assault causing harm to Dylan Dinan.

He is further charged with the production of an iron bar while about to commit assault.

Insp Tom Kennedy said the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) had directed summary disposal of the charges in the district court on a plea of guilty only.

Defence solicitor John Casey told the court his client would be pleading guilty.

Insp Kennedy said the alleged in- jured party was a passenger in a van when noticed the accused behind him at around 1.30pm on the day in question.

Insp Kennedy said it would be alleged that when the van stopped, Mr Galbraith came towards it with a crowbar and started to assault Mr Dinan.

Judge Durcan refused jurisdiction. “In my mind this type of stuff is becoming too prevalent in Ennis”, he said.

The case was adjourned to April to allow time for preparation of a book of evidence.

NEW charges have been brought against a Polish couple charged with offences arising from the discovery of an alleged cannabis grow-house in West Clare earlier this year.

Jagoga Gajewska (19) and her partner Adam Wrobel (22), both with a former address at Lislanahan Lower, Kilkee appeared before Ennis District Court on Wednesday.

They are both charged with offences relating to the alleged discovery at Lislanahan Lower, Kilkee on January 13. On Wednesday, the court heard that new charges have been brought against the pair. Mr Wrobel and Ms Gajewska are charged with knowingly permitting premises at Lislanahan Lower, Kilkee on January 13, to be used for the manufacture, production and preparation of a controlled drug.

Mr Wrobel is charged with possession of cannabis, which at the time had a market value of € 13,000 or more. He is charged with possession of a cannabis plan and cultivating without license, plants of the cannabis genus, contrary to the misuse of drugs act.

Garda Eoin Daly of Kilrush Garda Station gave evidence of arrest, charge and caution in respect of both accused. Counsel for both accused, Alice Harrison applied to have the legal aid certificate extended to cover the new charges.

Judge Patrick Durcan granted the application. Insp Tom Kennedy requested the matters go back to April 2 to allow time for the preparation of the book of evidence.

Counsel consented to the application and to time being extended for the service of the book of evidence.

She told Judge Durcan that Mr Wrobel has secured bail in the High Court but has been so far been unable to take it up. Ms Gajewska has taken up High Court bail, the court heard. Judge Durcan adjourned the cases to April 2.