Month: April 2006

AFTER years of work behind the scenes, Ennistymon has moved one giant step closer to having its own Enterprise Centre.

A Project Ennistymon-backed proposal was granted planning permission by Clare County Council late last month.

The €1 million development had looked to be terminally stalled last December, following a disagreement between Project Ennistymon and Clare County Council over the upgrading of the access road to the site.

While this disagreement has not been completely resolved, moves have been made by both sides, which look likely to lead to a compromise. If the situation is not resolved, Project Ennistymon stands to loose more than €350,000 in grants obtained from Shannon Development and the County Enterprise Board.

“The planning is a major step, but we are still working against the clock,” said Robert Crosbie of Project Ennistymon.

“A contractor is on board and we are hoping to begin construction after Easter. We would then hope to have it completed around November and open it before the end of the year”.

The granting of planning permission has been welcomed by local councillor and businessman Martin Conway (FG).

“The enterprise centre will offer existing businesses the chance to locate outside Shannon and Ennis. It will give local people who have ideas for businesses, a means of getting started and it will also create much needed employment in the area,” said Cllr Conway (FG).

The enterprise centre was made possible through a donation of land by the Sisters of Mercy.

“I would like to make a special thanks to the Sisters of Mercy without whom this project would never have gotten off the ground,” said Mr Crosbie.

CLARE County Council is to spend in the region of €250,000 demolishing a €1.5 million emergency traveller accommodation unit it built only four years ago to ease Ennis’s traveller accommodation crisis.

Already, the estimated costs for providing 24 hour security at the site in Gleninagh have been put at €378,000, or €9,000 a month since it opened in March 2002.

The security bill arose from a High Court challenge, which brought the council head-to-head with residents, in 2001.

The agreement reached after that challenge to ensure the site opened, saw the council agreeing to implement a report by consultants CAAS.

That report, focussing on a 17.5 acre site at Gleninagh, recommended the provision in the area of a games area, passive amenities and a pathway to adjacent houses.

In recent weeks, council officials have held discussions with representatives from the local residents and St Claire’s School to see what part of the CAAS plan can now be implemented.

“The agreement entered into needs to be honoured to show the bona fides of Council,” said Ennis Town Councillor, Donal O’Bearra (GP).

“One in five of all Europeans are now obese so it is more important than ever to put in elements of CAAS plan because they are all active amenities.

“The residents have kept their side of the deal.

“It is now up to the council to fulfil their side and be generous and speedy in carrying it out”.

No final figure has been put on the works and the council is to lodge the proposed works programme with the Department of the Environment. That is expected back within a couple of weeks.

However, part of the money will be invested in implementing the CAAS report.

In advance of the site being demolished, the Council relocated the six traveller families to a new emergency site on Ennis’s Quin Road last October.

The structures contained in the halting site contained re-enforced concrete.

It is proposed to demolish these and put a layer of top-soil on the surface.

A MAN who gardaí say went on a “serious crime spree” over ten days last month has been charged with setting fire to a house in Kilkee.

Patrick McNamara (29), from Miltown Malbay, and of no fixed abode, appeared before Ennis District Court last week, charged with arson, at Lisgreen, Lisdeen, on March 19 last.

He was also charged with entering Lernihan’s Garage in Cree, Kilrush, as a trespasser and stealing a cash till containing €80 in cash on February 20 last. He pleaded guilty to this offence.

Detective Garda Oliver Downes gave evidence of arresting the accused last Wednesday morning. He said McNamara made no reply after caution. Inspector Tom Kennedy requested that the accused be remanded in custody.

In Kilrush court last month, the accused pleaded guilty to trespass, at Kilkee Bay Apartments on March 21 last; trespass at Cunningham’s caravan park, Kilkee, in January and with entering Matt Lernihan’s garage as a trespasser and stealing €36 of petrol at Cree, Kilkee, on March 17 last.

According to gardaí, he gained access to an apartment and caravan in Kilkee and lived there, on different dates. He also admitted driving without insurance at Ennis Road, Kilrush, on March 19. A report relating to these matters will be available to the court later this week.

Inspector Kennedy said the new charge was “substantially more serious.”

Judge Joseph Mangan remanded the accused in custody to appear again in court later this week.

ATTRACTING new staff and maintaining existing personnel at Clare County Council’s planning department, is continuing to prove problematic.

A senior council official has confirmed that between 2002 and 2005, there were a number of vacancies and the full staff complement was rarely in place. There are currently three vacancies.

She also confirmed that the council received €582,105 in planning fees – down on the €1 million received in 2004 and the €941,244 received in 2003.

The drop is attributable to the deluge of applications to the council in 2004 and 2003 from developers seeking to build hotels, holiday homes and other commercial developments, aimed at seeking to take advantage of Government tax incentives.

In the past five years, the council has received €3.5 million in planning fees.

The revelations came in a response from the council’s Director for Planning, Bernadette Kinsella, to a motion by Councillor Christy Curtin (Ind).

As part of a “secret bonus deal last year, the council authorised payments of €112,500, or €7,500 each to 15 planners for unpaid overtime, as the council grappled to deal with the tax-incentive applications.

The number of planning applications lodged last year showed a drop on the numbers lodged in 2003 and 2004, according to the response.

Last year, 2,491 applications were lodged compared to the 2,773 and the 2,857 lodged in 2004 and 2003.

AT LEAST ten members of a drugs gang were trying to peddle narcotics in an Ennis pub on Friday night, when undercover gardaí raided the premises.

A total of 75 ecstasy tablets were seized and four Dublin men arrested.

The Garda operation was part of an ongoing initiative, aimed at combating suspected drug dealing in licensed premises in Ennis.

“We believe at least 10 people were targeting this premises. It was organised,” said Ennis Superintendent, John Kerin.

Plain-clothes gardaí mingled with the crowd late on Friday night and bought a number of illegal drugs.

Reinforcements were called to the scene. The four Dubliners who were arrested under Section Two of the Drug Trafficking Act, were taken to Ennis Garda Station for questioning.

They were released on Saturday afternoon. A file is being prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Two of the men questioned are in their 20s and two in their 30s. The Clare People has learned that one of the four currently lives in north Clare.

Gardaí believe that a number of others were involved in the operation.

Supt Kerin said the Garda operation had been going on for some time.

“This operation has been going on for a number of months. We are pleased with how it went,” he said, adding that gardaí would be “looking to serve a closure order within a week” on the premises in question, unless the “house is in order.”

“We will have to be satisfied that drugs are not sold in there again,” said Supt Kerin.

In a separate, unrelated development, a small quantity of cannabis resin was seized by gardaí in Shannon on Saturday evening.

A car, occupied by two Limerick men was searched and the drugs were found.

Heroin, one of the most feared illegal drugs, has taken a grip in Clare, according to top gardaí.

Detectives have disclosed that the drug has spread to rural parts of the county.

They’ve even established that the average age of heroin addicts in Clare is 31 years old.

The local Garda drugs team has reported a big increase in the number of heroin seizures this year.

Members of the Clare Garda Divisional Drug Unit say that addicts are spending an average of €50 a day to feed their habits.

“It’s the speed at which people become addicted to heroin that is the most frightful aspect of it. Undoubtedly it is the most dangerous drug available to the people of Clare,” said Detective Garda Seamus McMahon, of the Clare Garda Divisional Drug Unit.

He said heroin, at €25 a deal was now cheaper than a €50 gram wrap of cocaine.

Clare people are getting their supply of the drug by travelling to Limerick and Dublin, and in some instances Galway or Cork.

“There is a perception that by smoking heroin, it won’t do any harm and that you won’t get addicted to it. This is not correct . . . heroin is an addictive substance and the likelihood of somebody kicking a heroin habit successfully is quite remote. Heroin addicts would have had a history of abusing other drugs, before using heroin,” he said.

Generally, users initially smoke heroin, before they start to inject.

“People who would normally have an objection to using needles and wouldn’t contemplate injecting any type of drug are using needles to inject heroin,” he said.

“The average age of people we know who are addicted to heroin is 31.5 years. This leads us to believe people are getting into abusing heroin, knowing what it is capable of doing,” he said.

“There is no urban/rural divide when it comes to heroin. Naturally enough, the majority of heroin users would be centred around Ennis, broadly speaking. We would be aware of people having difficulties with heroin all over the county,” he said.

“Heroin will feature on the seizures for 2006. It is too early to say what sort of an increase we will have this year, but we will have a significant increase,” he added.

“We are appealing to people not to try heroin as it could be that one time that would get you addicted and risk a lifelong addiction,” he said.

HEROIN is gripping the people of Clare at an alarming rate with more than 100 people using the drug and half of these, addicted.

Addiction counsellor in the midwest, Mark Campbell said more than 50 people in the county were receiving counselling, as a result of heroin over-dependency.

“In the last 12 months there has been a significant increase in the number of addicts. Fifty people in Clare access this service. There are at least 100 users of heroin in Clare. All of those might not be dependant. The 50 who come here would have a dependency,” he said.

Mr Campbell, who has worked in Clare for four years, said the problem had become increasingly prevalent in the past two years.

“There is quite an increase in the number of users. It is more available now than it was two years ago,” he said.

“It becomes the main thing in people’s lives and can tear families apart. All addicts think about is their next fix,” he said.

He said the symptoms experienced by heroin addicts were comparable to the flu, but were “100 times” worse.

“Everybody who uses heroin isn’t necessarily an addict, but for those who become addicted, it becomes a physical dependence and they would do almost anything to get their hands on it.”

According to Mr Campbell, addicts range from their mid 20s to their mid 30s. The majority are males.

He said teenagers tended to fear the dangers of heroin, whereas some older adults did not have such qualms.

He believes they delve in the drug, out of curiosity. Good family support can help wean people off it.

“It is very much to do with curiosity. They like the effect and then try it again . . . and again. People who depend on alcohol tend to develop a dependency on heroin,” he said.

THE future of essential infrastructural requirements in Clare will largely be determined by the data collected in the forthcoming Census.

That’s according to officials from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) who have begun issuing forms to households, institutions and businesses around Clare ahead of the Census on April 23.

“The statistics gathered from the Census are essential for detailing the requirements for health care, education and employment. The greatest strength of the census is the provision of detailed population figures at local level. These help to identify such things as the demand for hospitals and schools and it is of vital importance that we have all our people counted” said Kieran O’Loughlin, a field supervisor for the greater Ennis area.

About 1.5 million census forms are expected to be sent to homes throughout the State. In the Ennis area, it is expected that the forms will be sent to around 6,000 households, but precise figures are unknown.

Every person residing in the State on the night of the Census must be included in the form. This includes people staying with friends or relatives, staying in institutions, hotels and on board vessels. Householders and those responsible for institutions, must complete the forms in respect of every adult and child present on census night.

Not only will the census determine the demographic make-up of the population, it will also chart housing and employment trends. The forms will be translated into eleven languages and for the first time ever, will feature specific questions about a persons’ ethnic and cultural background. Census forms are also available in Braille and audio formats.

The census is the first since 2002, which recorded a population of 3.9 million, of which about 6 per cent were foreign nationals. Officials have predicted that the results may show that up to 10 per cent of the population are foreign nationals.

THE MONEYPOINT power plant is at the centre of another industrial row today after a subcontractor at the plant tried to send five Polish workers home.

One of the men – a TEEU shop steward – was the “whistle blower” who revealed recently that Polish workers were being paid just €5.20 and hour to work on the €350 million refurbishment programme at the power station.

The men were working for ZRE Katowice, one of the main subcontractors on the Moneypoint site.

They were entitled under the Registered Employment Agreement to be paid €18.97, plus premium rates for overtime.

The company told the men that their contracts of employment were not being renewed.

When the union became aware that the 26-year old shop steward and his four colleagues were to be flown home from Shannon at 5pm yesterday, it intervened.

TEEU Regional Secretary, Pat Guilfoyle said that after successfully intercepting the workers, the union secured a commitment from Lurgi-Lentjes, the main contractor on site, that it would instruct ZRE that the rights of the men to remain in Ireland must be respected. The ZRE workers are to meet today to hold a strike ballot on the company’s actions. The TEEU secretary said that as far as the union was concerned, “this is a straight forward case of victimisation of trade union activists.”

There is also strong support among workers in the power station for the five and TEEU shop stewards are meeting tomorrow to assess the situation. The union has asked for a meeting with ZRE, but the company said the earliest it could meet would be Wednesday.

The ESB said it was dealing with the situation as a matter of urgency.

BISHOP of Killaloe, Dr Willie Walsh, said this week that it was a moral offence to put lives at risk through dangerous driving.

Dr Walsh said there was a serious moral obligation on motorists to drive safely because good driving preserved the sacredness of life.

“There is a lot of discussion on the legal implications of dangerous driving and very often the issue is treated as a civil law matter, whereas it is also a serious moral issue,” he said.

Dr Walsh said that people should admit that driving under the influence of alcohol or dangerous driving was wrong, even if they didn’t get caught.

“People should say to themselves, ‘I have done wrong’ . . . there is a serious moral obligation to sit behind the wheel of a car and drive in a safe manner.”

Dr Walsh said that drink-driving was “endangering human life and therefore it is wrong”.

Dr Walsh said that the church had made a number of statements on the issue of road safety.

But these didn’t receive the same publicity as statements the church would make about sexuality, celibacy of sex abuse.

Dr Walsh added that he had signed up to the Safe Driving Pledge, organised by campaigner Jim Connolly, and it had made his driving safer.

The bishop recently spoke at the dinner of the Safe Driving Pledge conference, describing it as “a resounding success”.

“I am more conscious of not speeding. The vast majority of us would admit that we have broken the speed, but now I find with taking the pledge I am driving with more care”.

Mr Connolly said that there was consensus on a number of issues, including the immediate introduction of driver education into secondary schools, random testing for all drugs, including alcohol, higher Garda visibility, a radical change in driving test procedures and the elimination of test waiting lists.

The conference called for adequate ambulance and helicopter emergency medical services for pre-hospital and inter-hospital transfers.

It heard that government responsibility for road safety must be vested in one Minister.