The Clare People Archive

JOE Duffy’s public phone lines were hopping last week with disgruntled citizens calling to register their disgust.

The parent conglomerate of NCT Service (NCTS) Ltd, the company which runs the Na- tional Car Test (NCT) service in the Republic, had just publicised it’s profits for the fiscal year, and the sums mentioned upset the right-think- ing members of Irish society.

They were complaining of course, because the company was returning exorbitant profits, because they regarded the test as fussy, and be- cause they were suspicious about the degree of fortune, which seemed to be required to pass the test.

Many even made the direct assumption that the entire service amounted to a scam whereby the company could extract hard cash from an unsuspecting Irish public by failing vehicles for trivialities.

No one mentioned that the cost of the Irish NCT is the second lowest in Europe, when compared to similar national testing schemes across the continent.

But aren’t these gestures a little late?

Only last May, members of the public on a national basis, were given the opportunity to suggest changes to the National Car Test (NCT) at a series of road shows held in Dublin, Sligo, Galway, Cork, Kilkenny and Longford.

Six public consultation meetings took place, and the general public were asked to give their views on the NCT and suggest how the service could be improved.

It’s strange that complaints now seem so prevalent, because the consultation process,

well publicised by PricewaterhouseCoopers on behalf of the Department of Transport, only at- tracted 250 public attendees in total. Bizarre.

If the general public were harbouring such fervent views on the matter, why didn’t they then make their feelings known? Instead they choose to air their lop-sided views on the mat- ter to anyone who will listen three months Eire

As with everything people fear that which they don’t understand. These people aren’t concerned about pesky EU directives, or about jalopy’s held together with bailing twine cruis- ing around.

A famous anecdote among NCT testers is the one about the woman who arrived at her test centre with her certificate of registration, con- firmation letter and car keys, but no car. Then there was the man from the border area who demanded that the vehicle inspector reimburse him for the petrol used by the testers driving his car from one end of the centre to the oth- er. There was another innocent who believed that a little divine intervention might help. A man in Cavan suggested that a church could be erected beside the test centre so that customers could go in and say a prayer for their car while Weloava eI Kole

Typical.

If mandatory car testing had not been made compulsory by EU directive, it would argu- ably never have been introduced here at all. As it was, we were the last EU member state to introduce it, even though it was desperately required since between 1990 and 2000 the vol- ume of cars on our roads increased by 60%.

The NCT was introduced five years ago when new EU legislation made such car testing com-

pulsory in member states.

Testing is carried out at 43 centres across the country under a ten-year contract awarded by the government to afore mentioned company.

AA Ireland independently monitor these test centres and while they suggest that some as- pects of the test could be improved, they re- gard the system as considerably better than the British MOT. According to AA Ireland, if you maintain your car reasonably well, it should sail through the test.

And so once again for anyone who wasn’t lis- tening five years ago.

The testing of privately owned vehicles be- gan in the Republic on January 4, 2000.

It was introduced to improve road safety, en- vironmental protection and to comply with the EU Directive 96/96/EC, which makes car test- ing compulsory in all EU member states.

The test fee is €49.00 and a re-test costs €27.50 (both fees are inclusive of VAT).

There are 57 elements to each test, which endeavour to assess the roadworthiness of ve- hicles and identify any defects, such as faulty brakes, unbalanced wheels and thread worn tyres. Detected defects must be repaired and the vehicle must pass a re-test before the car owner will be issued with an NCT Certificate.

Advantages?

The NCT is conducted on any given vehicle every 2 years and this regular evaluation will result in more frequent car servicing, which will provide better fuel economy, reduce over- all repair costs, increase reliability, and lower the risk of breakdowns.

The NCT will ensure that second hand cars are roadworthy. As with all eligible cars for testing, second hand cars will have to display

an NCT disc as proof that they have passed their NCT. This should improve overall indus- try standards and enhance air quality by reduc- ing emissions.

National car testing is likely to reduce the number of road accidents, which may as a con- sequence result in potentially lower insurance premiums.

LAST week proved to be a very successful one for Clare owners with winners at no fewer than four tracks, namely Galway, Limerick, Thurles and Kilcogan in Waterford.

Noel Coote and Fiachra Hennessy of En- nis set the ball rolling in Thurles on Tues- day night when Drimeen Rumble was on the mark, winning the fourth race of the card.

Clare supporters came away from Limerick in a very happy state of mind on Thursday night after no fewer than three greyhounds obliged.

First up was Rabbit’s Droopy, owned by Tony Cusack of Cooraclare. He had a narrow

win in race two in a winning time of 29.56. This was followed by another West Clare winner with Joan Taylor of Kilmihil visiting the winner’s enclosure with Priddy Boy in race three with a winning time of 29.63.

Baby Rumble made it a hat-trick of wins when owner Pat McInerney of Clarecastle collected after winning race five in a time of pA Fere

On Friday night’s card Clare’s only win- ner was Inislosky Buddy in race seven. This dog is owned by William Casey from O’Briensbridge.

At the Galway track on Thursday night there were wins for Clare owners in the Castle-

gar Hurling Club AA Stake. John Reidy and Robert Dillon of Cooraclare saw their charge Keywest advance to the next round after win- ning race five.

This was immediately followed in race six when Moloskey Classic got the verdict for owner John Donnellan of Mullagh.

Five Clare dogs went to traps in race eight at the College Road venue on Friday. This was a first round heat in the Kudos Catering A3 550 Stake that is worth €3,000 to the winner.

White Tip Dream took the honours here for Robert Longe of Ballyea. Housed in trap two, the winning time here was 30.76.

Kilrush owner TJ McMahon also collected

on Friday night when Bodyshop Supra was the winner of race five in a time of 29.85.

The second race on Friday night’s card went to Quilty Nocando, owned by Doreen Burke of Ennis. This was the dog’s first outing and recorded a winning time of 29.57.

Inagh Hero owned by Michael McGuane of Inagh also did the business at the first time of asking. He was Clare’s only winner in Galway on Saturday night. A recent winner at Limerick, Dance Mindy, owned by Janette Downes of Killaloe made the long journey to Kilcogan on Friday night worthwhile when winning race I1 in a good time of 28.99.

CLARE County Council holds one of the keys to the development of state of the art playing facilities for gaelic games in the county, delegates to the Clare County Board have been Ko) (en

County Board chairman Michael McDonagh unveiled the new blue- print for the development of facili- ties at a site on the outskirts of Ennis near Norrie Henchy’s on the Tulla Road.

The board has purchased 67 acres there and McDonagh told delegates that an application has been lodged with Clare County Council’s plan- ning department to develop 20 acres of the land.

“This is the culmination of 12 months hard work,’ said Michael McDonagh. “The plan is for three fields and if we get the go-ahead it will be the model for the rest of the country,” the chairman added.

And, the county board has pledged to embark on a consultation period with the public as part of the devel- Opment process. To this end board representatives led by the Mr. Mc- Donagh will meet with public repre- sentatives and also travel to Tulla to consult with the community there.

“A lot of work is being done in de- velopment,’ Mr. McDonagh told del- egates. “We’re developing one and a half fields in Clarecastle and also Cusack Park and the pitches in Tulla. It will cost €150,000 per pitch, while the dressing room facilities will cost €300,000.

“All the work we’re doing will cost

€3 million. The development in Tul- la will be seven minutes from the by- pass and will benefit east and west. If we don’t get planning permission it will be a grave injustice to the youth of the county,’ added McDonagh. The chairman pledged to report back to delegates in Sept on how de- velopment plans are advancing.

can exclusively reveal.

A recommendation to make employers responsible is con- tained in the report of the Expert Advisory Group on Workplace Bullying, which 1s due to be published by Clare Minister of State for Labour Affairs, Tony Kileen tomor- row (Wed).

Sources have revealed that the report will recommend that legislation be put in place, making Ireland one of the only countries in Europe to imple- ment such laws and causing a major headache for bosses.

It could pave the way for thousands of employees to take legal actions.

In the last study of bullying carried out here in 2001, it was revealed that 115,000 people in Ireland had suffered serious workplace bullying.

Deciphering the difference between bullying and legiti- mate management techniques could become a legal mine- field, with employees claiming bullying tactics and managers CP YAU OTSA Ooh Va DUcmmN LUCID AYA DOTA KO get the job done.

Ennis Chamber of Com- merce CEO, Triona MclIn- erney, said that drawing up legislation to make employers culpable will make life “very difficult for businesses. While the health and safety of em-

ployees is obviously a very important issue, legislation can be very sweeping and to what real benefit, it has to be asked.”

Ms McInerney said _ that before making anti-bullying laws, the Government should conduct a cost-benefit analy- Sk

“At the momment, industry and businesses are struggling to pay taxes, pay VAT, pay the bills, yet the increased costs on business seem to coming largely from Government im- posed measures. What needs to be asked is what would be the real cost of implementing this legislation and how could we make it work? There should be a clause which says that if employers do all they can to prevent bullying and deal with it when it happens, then they can’t be totally culpable.”

The expert advisory group on workplace bullying was established a year ago with terms of reference to advise and report to the Minister on the effectiveness of current measures to prevent work- place bullying, and to identify improved means of prevent- ing it. They were also asked to look at how to address the contribution made by bullying to the incidence of workplace stress.

The group was chaired by Mr Paul J Farrell, Partner at IBM’s Business Consulting Services.

MAURA Daffy is the third woman and the seventh per- son to be killed on the roads in Clare in 2005.

On January 30, motorcy- clist Pauline Speake from Kilkishen, died when her motorcycle was in collision with a car, near Dysart.

Mrs Speake, in her 50s, was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident, close to Ryan’s quarry on the main Ennis to Corofin road.

The second road accident in the county also involved a motorcycle. John Ryan from

O’Briensbridge lost his life in a single vehicle accident at O’Briensbridge on Sunday, May 15. Mr Ryan, in his 30s, was driving a motorcycle when the tragic accident oc- curred just after Spm.

Less than a week later tragedy struck again, when an accident in west Clare took two lives, on May 20. Father-of-three Thomas Pen- der and 18-year-old David McCarthy, both from Quilty, died in an accident a short distance from Seafield Pier in Quilty. Mr McCarthy died at the scene of the crash and Mr Pender died the follow-

ing Tuesday at University College Hospital, Cork, from serious head injuries.

The fourth life was lost on Saturday, May 28. Brendan Moloney (21) died after his car struck a wall at Kilmore, Broadford. No other vehicle was involved in the accident which occurred between the Wuthering Heights pub and Broadford village, shortly before 7pm.

Charelle Howard (17) was killed in a road accident on the outskirts of Ennis, in the early hours of Saturday, July 16. She was one of sev- en teenagers travelling in a

Volkswagen Polo car, which crashed on the Shanaway Road in Ennis. Charelle, who had just completed her Leaving Certificate, was the only child of David and Ter- esa Howard from Oakwood Drive, Watery Road, Ennis. Three people have been killed in road accidents in parts of Tipperary, which are also part of the Clare Garda division. This brings to ten the total number of people killed on roads in the divi- sion. Eleven people died in road accidents in the Clare Garda Division last year.

THE county’s roads have claimed their seventh victim this year, with the death of Maura Daffy (54), from Lis- munga, Ruan.

She lost her life after her car collided with a minibus close to Clarecastle on Saturday afternoon.

Ms Datfy’s black Hyundai Accent crashed into a Mercedes Benz minibus, which was driven by a 60-year-old man from Macroom in Cork, on the main N18, at Skehanagh, just after 4pm. She is the third person to die on that particu- lar stretch of road in as many years.

The woman was taken to the Mid Western Regional Hospital, Ennis, Where she died at 2.30am on Sunday morning. The driver of the bus was treated for minor injuries and was dis- charged from hospital some hours after

the accident.

Ms Daffy lived in Dublin for a number of years and worked, until recently, in the Sunday World newspaper. She visit- ed her family in Ruan regularly over the years and was travelling from a show- jumping event in Millstreet – where her niece was performing – to her home in Ruan, when the accident occurred.

Ruan parish priest Fr Pat O’ Neill said the deceased, who is survived by two brothers and two sisters, was a popular woman. “She was full of life and got on very well with all of her family. She had travelled the world,’ said Fr O’ Neill.

“She would always have one of her nieces in the car with her. Thankfully she didn’t have anybody with her on Saturday,” he added.

Two witnesses have been interviewed by gardai. Supt John Kerin is appealing for other witnesses to come forward

“We are happy the bus driver was travelling on his own side of the road, heading towards Limerick. There was a line of traffic behind Ms Daffy and we are appealing for those people to come forward with information,” said Supt aun

In September 2002, three-year-old Maggie Moore from Corbally near Limerick, died when the car in which she was travelling with her family, was struck by another vehicle.

Last November, John Cahill (68) from Coole Park in Gort, a former official driver to Fianna Fail TD Frank Fahy, died when his car was struck by a van driven by John Hogan from Ennis. Last month Hogan was convicted of danger- ous driving causing Mr Cahill’s death.

Both accidents occurred within 500 yards of Saturday’s collision.

speaks to Liam O’Rourke, who is just settling in to his new role as de- velopment officer for farm services in the county.

According to Mr O’Rourke farm serv- ices in Clare, and indeed in Galway, have not been developed over the last number of years. Instead there has been a greater con- centration on providing a contract fencing service in these counties. This is one of the areas where he feels that work can be done.

“My first priority is to develop a pool of FRS operators in County Clare with the possibility of de- veloping a labour pool in Galway at a later stage,” said Mr O’Rourke. “FRS has a very comprehensive operator training package available and I intend to train as many operators and potential operators in Clare.”

Mr O’Rourke has already begun to train a number of inter- ested people in manual handling, relief milking, grassland management, fertiliser spreading, grass management and a two day advanced tractor operations course.

‘“T hope to create an awareness and interest in farm services in Clare again and obviously this will help us to be in a strong

position to provide a broad range of services to farming community,’ he said.

Indeed, a new feature of farming in Ireland today is the demand for qualified farm staff to be contracted from abroad, and the FRS has put a scheme in place to accommodate this trend. Farmers can pay an annual membership fee to join the scheme and for an additional sum can avail of the farmer accident and sickness scheme which pays 75 per cent of the cost of relief while a farmer is incapacitated due to an accident or sickness.

“We have established contacts in countries like Poland, Latvia and Hungary where highly qualified farm staff can be sourced,’ said Mr O’Rourke. “The FRS can give additional in- duction and skills training to these Eastern Eu-

ropean workers while they are placed full time on a farm with no additional cost to the farmer.”

The FRS also hosted a one-day safe tractor driving skills course for 14 – 16 year olds and a one-day pre-silage season machinery safety course earlier this year and a wide range of other courses are now available. The reorganised FRS has four distinct divisions namely: farm services, fencing systems, re- cruitment and training.

There are also a number of full and part-time positions avail- able in FRS at the moment. For more information check out www.irsnetwork.com or call 063 90666.

THE president of the IFA John Dillon has pledged to continue the campaign to pre- vent factory owners from importing low cost beef from South America.

Mr Dillon’s pledge came after what he described as a ‘useful’ meeting with the directors of the Queally Meat Group last week. The meeting took place following an IFA protest by some 300 farmers at the plant in Naas, Co Kildare. More than 50 farmers occupied the offices of the Queally Group during the 10 hour long protest.

The IFA head claimed that there had been a full and frank exchange of views at the meeting on the issue of beef imports from South America.

“I conveyed to Peter Queally and Dan Browne the depth of anger among beef producers in this country who have seen prices collapse in the last six weeks,” said Mr Dillon. “Meat factories have cut cattle prices by €150 per head since June, leav- ing over 50,000 beef farmers in a loss- making situation.”

“The IFA is demanding that Agriculture Minister Mary Coughlan introduce proper labelling at all hotels, restaurants and ca- tering outlets,” he continued.

Earlier in the week Mr Dillon accused meat factories of “stabbing Irish farmers in the back” over the slaughter of beef, be- lieved to originate in Brazil, in the Kildare factory.

Indeed, questions have also been raised

from many sectors of the farming com- munity about the proper labelling of beef imported from South America and the pos- sibility of placing a quota on the amount of beef that can be imported.

Meanwhile, the president of the Irish Cattle and Sheep Association, Malcolm Thompson, has also joined the fight against beef imports from South America. Mr Thompson travelled to Derry last night to join a protest against the sale of Brazilian beef in supermarkets in Northern Ireland.

“We need to send a clear message to our World ‘Trade Organisations negotiators that Irish farmers will not tolerate the deci- mation of our industry any longer and beef needs to be treated as a nationally sensitive product,” said Mr Thompson.

CLARE people got a chance to sample what life is like behind the scenes at Lough Derg’s RNLI Lifeboat Station’s first Open Day last week.

The day was a huge success, with many local people visiting the station for the first time. Volunteer crew and committee mem- bers gave guided tours and answered ques- tions about the work of the RNLI and about their local lifeboat.

There were videos of the Atlantic Class lifeboat in action on the sea and slideshows on the development and progress of the Lough Derg Station.

The Irish Coast Guard’s Search and Res-

cue helicopter did a fly by, much to the delight of the young children visiting the station.

August 7 was also the first day of the Lough Derg Yacht Club annual regatta and many sailors visited the station. It is tra- ditionally a day in which the Yacht Club makes a collection for the RNLI.

‘All volunteers at the station would like to extend a warm thank you to everyone who made the journey to visit the lifeboat sta- tion; for their enthusiasm, support and gen- erosity” said Lifeboat PRO Eleanor Hogan. “The Open Day was a tremendous success and helped to raise funds to continue the valuable work of the RNLI and our local lifeboat station.”

A KILKISHEN leaving cert student, his brother and sister could be stranded without school transport when school opens after summer.

The three Stewart-Dunne children may have to switch school following a Vocational Education Committee warn- ing that they may not have places on the

school bus in the new term – if they can get a place in a new school.

Anne Stewart, mother of Michael (16), John (14) and Emer (12) says she is “at a loss” to know what to do about her chil- dren’s education after receiving a letter from the VEC last week warning that there may not be any space for her chil- dren on the bus to their secondary school in Shannon come September.

“Michael is about to start in to his Leaving Certificate cycle, John has set- tled into school at Shannon and loves it there and Emer wants to go to school where her brothers and cousins go. For them to change and go to Tulla, which is the nearest school, would be a major disruption. We don’t know if the school in Tulla has places for them – I don’t even know if we should be applying there or getting ready for Shannnon,” said Anne.

A major consideration for Anne – who is a lone parent and works part-time – would be the cost of changing schools.

“It will set me back about €300 for uniforms alone and there is a free book scheme in Shannon. I don’t know if that applies in Tulla. I only work part-time and I don’t have that kind of money,’ the mother of three said.

The letter which Anne Stewart received a few days ago is one of thousands sent out to families nation-wide.

The letters were sent to parents who have opted to send their children to a secondary school other than the one Aeterna com nelsn0

Before now, children who travelled to school outside their catchment areas were classified as “boundary catchment pupils” and were allocated seats on the basis of availability but in practice, al- most every child got a place on the bus.

The letters are a result of the Govern- ment decision to end a “three for two” seating arrangement on school buses.

The Stewart children were enrolled ins school at Shannon so they could be educated with their extended family and be close to their grandad, who provides them with a hot lunch while their mum is working.

“I know that the Department of Educa- tion is trying to improve safety standards on school buses and that’s all to the good but instead of doing the decent thing and putting on more buses, they want children uprooted and taken away from school where they are doing well, “ said Anne.