Month: June 2006

TWO foreign nationals detected with false passports at Shannon airport last Thursday have appeared in court.

A 27-year-old Iranian and a 20-yearold Kurd were arrested shortly after 6pm on Thursday, and taken to Shannon Garda Station.

Detective Garda Denis Keating said both were detected at the airport, with false passports. They were travelling together to catch a flight to Toronto.

He said the 20-year-old Kurd was a failed asylum applicant and when charged, said “Thank you so much.”

The 27-year-old applied for political asylum in Greece, four years ago, but failed.

Solicitor Una Moylan, who represented the pair, said the 20-year-old Kurd had lived in Kirkuk. “He was asked by the Basque party to join and refused. They threatened to kill him and he left Iraq, for fear of retaliation. He then went to England and applied for asylum,” said the solicitor.

Referring to the 27-year-old, Ms Moylan said he left Iran four years ago, after his friend was sent to prison.

“He feared he was also going to be sent to prison because of the friendship,” said Ms Moylan.

He had lived in Greece for four years, before moving to London, where he met his co-accused.

Judge Joseph Mangan fined both €100.

THE Government’s performance in attracting quality research and development positions to rural Ireland has been criticised by North Clare County Councillor, Martin Conway (FG).

While welcoming the announcement of significant funding in science, technology and research and development Cllr Conway said that the Government must ensure that it gives young people who choose to spend their youth in rural Ireland similar opportunities to their peers in the cities.

“This funding presents a golden opportunity to foster enterprise, a research and development culture and indigenous home grown industry right across Ireland both rural and urban,” he said.

“I hope this new initiative indicates that the Government is finally taking a more serious approach to research and development – to date the Government’s record in this area has been disappointing.”

The Ennistymon based councilor called on the Government to take a “more coherent” approach to job creation and ensure that there is a fair spread between rural and urban.

“I welcome the focus on creating more post-graduate opportunities in our academic institutions,” continued Cllr Conway. “However, the target set out by the Taoiseach and his Ministers falls short of that envisaged in the Lisbon agenda.

“The Government hopes to double the number of post-graduates to around 6,000 by 2013, whereas the Lisbon agenda set a target of 10,000 post-graduates in Ireland by 2010. This suggests the Government has still not realised the importance of developing a thriving ‘fourth-level’ sector in Ireland.”

CLARE County Council’s decision to place an effective embargo on private housing schemes in Corofin and its continued granting of planning to its own housing proposals in the village has caused serious concern.

In the past month, the Council has refused planning permission to two separate private housing schemes of eight and 15 homes on zoned land in Corofin due to the failure of the local sewage system in Corofin to accommodate the developments.

However, at the Council’s June meeting, councillors gave the goahead for a 24-unit Council housing scheme in Corofin after the planner recommended that permission be granted, allowing the development to connect to the public sewer.

This followed six days after the Council refused planning permission to Maureen Halpin to develop eight houses on zoned land at Fair Lane, Laghtagoona, Corofin.

The planner’s report in the case supports claims that the Council has placed a ban on future housing developments in Corofin due to the absence of adequate sewage facilities.

The Area Planner initially recommended that planning permission be granted, however, following a conversation with the Senior Executive Planner, it was recommended that permission be refused.

The report states that planning be refused due to “the policy agreed between the Senior Executive Planner for north Clare and the Senior Executive Engineer (SEE), Water Services, further development in Corofin is considered premature pending the upgrade of public infrastructure’.

In the decision, Ms Halpin was told that planning was refused due to the Corofin plant being biologically and hydraulically overloaded.

Last month, planning permission for 15 homes on zoned land was also refused in Corofin to Fallon Developments for the same reason.

The Council’s Director for Planning, Bernadette Kinsella was unavailable this week to comment on the disparity in the decisions made between the private and Council housing developments.

THE students of Scoil Chriost Rí Cloughleigh were celebrating this week when their Green Flag status was honoured with a flag raising ceremony on Tuesday last. Among those in attendance at the celebrations were Senator Timmy Dooley, Mayor of Clare, Pat Keane, Mayor of Ennis, Frankie Neylon and Bishop Willie Walsh.

The Green Flag, an internationally recognised status, is awarded by An Taisce to schools who undertake the Green-Schools programme. The Green-Schools programme is an international environmental education programme, which promotes awareness of environmental issues for primary and secondary school students. It aims to help students apply what they have learned about environmental awareness to their day-to-day lives, both at school and in their own homes.

The students of Scoil Chriost Rí Cloughleigh gained this presitigous status by successfully completing a seven-step progamme, through spearheading a recycling campaign with the aim of reducing waste produced by the school. This included recycling tetrapak cartons, batteries and printer cartidges as well as finding imaginative uses for their litter. The school not only makes regular trips to the recycling centre in Ennis and the landfill facility at Ballyduffbeg, Inagh, but they also publish a newsletter to raise awareness of environmental issues in their community.

Teacher Connor Healy said that “the award was down to all the hard work put in by the children over the past two years. They put in a massive effort.”

To date 2,300 school have participated in the programme, while 900 have already been awarded the Green Flag status.

THE chairman of the Ennis General Hospital Development Committee has issued a statement saying the Clare Health services are still suffering under the legacy left behind from the Haughey era.

Peadar McNamara was referring to the period in the 1980s, when the late Charles J Haughey was Taoiseach.

During his time in office, the maternity unit in Cahercalla closed, never to be reoponed.

“Medical and acute care and maternity care services at the district hospitals in Ennistymon, Raheen and Kilrush were (also) closed,” he said.

These three units were later to be opened as elderly care units by the community.

“Ennis had four wards prior to 1988. Two of the wards were closed. There were threats to downgrade the hospital at the time, and the bed numbers fell from 130 to 88 beds. Ennis General Hospital still has 88 beds,” he said.

Angered by some of the accolades bestowed on the late Taoiseach by former colleagues following his death last week, Mr McNamara said, “Essentially this is the medical legacy that the Haughey administration provided for Clare, and regrettably, we are still under a cloud as to the future of Ennis Hospital.”

In his tribute to Haughey, former minister, Senator Brendan Daly outlined that what he said was his former boss’s vision of future acute health services in Clare.

He said that as minister for health and social welfare from 1977 to 1979, Mr Haughey had discussed the possibility of relocating the county hospital to Cahercalla with senior politicians in Clare.

He outlined plans to develop a medical campus on the site, then owned and run by the St John of God Order, which would include a maternity service and psychiatric services.

The Taoiseach is believed to have made the comments while on a visit to the county to sanction the further development of the maternity unit at Cahercalla Hospital in the late 1970s.

During the visit, the Taoiseach also spoke of his wish to close Our Lady’s Psychiatric Hospital on the Gort Road in Ennis. None of these developments were to come to fruition during his periods in power.

ONE of Ireland’s leading maternity units is based in a county where fewer babies are born each year than to mothers in Clare.

But Clare mothers are forced to give birth in Galway and Limerick hospitals, as the Banner County still has no maternity unit or plans for one.

The maternity unit at Mayo General Hospital in Castlebar has long been recognised as one of the leading units in the country, yet just 1,632 babies were born to Mayo women last year, 21 babies less than to Clare mothers.

Clare County Councillor Madeleine Taylor-Quinn (FG) said this week that she would contact the Tánaiste and Minister for Health Mary Harney, to press upon her the need for a full-service maternity unit at the Mid Western Regional Hospital, Ennis.

Cllr Taylor-Quinn said that Clare was the only county on the western seaboard that did not have hospitalbased maternity care, yet Ennis was the fastest growing town in Ireland. She said that the lives were been put at risk by the obligation on expectant mothers to travel to Limerick and Galway.

“Without a maternity service at Ennis hospital, Clare women are being left to carry an unacceptable risk, especially if they are coming from the more remote parts of west, or north Clare.

“Because of increased traffic volumes on the roads, journey times into Limerick and Galway have increased dramatically in recent years.

“This is a significant inconvenience for mothers-to-be. But in an emergency, journey times are a critical issue.

“I am aware of a number of women who have delivered babies in cars on the side of the road, either en route to Limerick, or to Galway. Had there been complications, the consequences could have been tragic,” she warned.

“Furthermore, the population of Ennis has more than doubled on what it was 17 years ago, when women had the choice of two hospital maternity units, at Ennis General Hospital and Cahercalla.

“There are now a very high number of women of childbearing age living in the town and its surrounding areas.

“Under the National Spatial Strategy, the populations of Ennis and Shannon will grow further, and the number of women in the county requiring maternity services, will increase as a result.”

She said that the current independent review of general hospital facilities must give serious consideration to a maternity unit in Ennis, in order to cater for Clare’s current and future population needs.

WEST Clare’s most problematic housing estate is to have a long awaited CCTV system installed. Funding has now been approved for the installation of street CCTV in John Paul Estate, Kilrush, as part of its overall regeneration plan.

Commenting on the capital funding, Fiona Mooney, Town Clerk said that “we are satisfied that we are responding positively to the needs and requests of our tenants and other residents of John Paul Estate.”

Significant progress has been made on the regeneration of John Paul Estate to date. Door-to-door consultation and public meetings were held on the estate and a masterplan for the regeneration of the estate has been prepared.

The masterplan which involves the complete refurbishment of 24 houses and the redesign of the area to make better use of its amenity potential and to make it more secure by eliminating back alley ways and unused vacant space.

The installation of street CCTV in the estate has been raised at many fora in Kilrush, including Town Council meetings and the MultiAgency Group hosted by Kilrush Town Council.

COUNTY Clare could face bills of up to €22 million in 2010 for producing 490,000 tonnes carbon dioxide above the limit set by the Kyoto agreement, an audience at the launch of a new conservation body heard.

The Limerick Clare Energy Agency, a body set up to provide energy services to help everyone have a greener approach, is having its official launch today.

The Agency was established by Limerick and Clare county councils and is one of 16 other agencies which form an all-Ireland association.

Among the priorities for the energy agency in its first three years is to promote both a transport strategy for the area and an indigenous energy supply.

The body is also charged with advising community groups and local authorities on energy conservation in their buildings and facilities. Other tasks for the agency include promoting knowledge and use of renewable energy technologies and advising the local authority’s housing department on energy efficiency.

They also plan to establish a fuel poverty programme for both counties and to implement the Energy Performance Buildings Directive.

Meanwhile, the Renewable Energy Show comes to Glór on July 1 and Duncan Stewart, presenter and coproducer of the top rating RTÉ series ‘Our House’, will be on hand to officially open the show, as well as give the keynote presentation in the seminar programme.

Local town councillor Johnny Flynn, Chairman of the Clare Branch of the Renewable Energy Skills (RES) Group, said, “the group has been working since January 2004 to develop a national standard as well as give impartial information and support on the technology, and it is great to bring information to consumers through this show.”

For anyone considering a new installation, or a change from conventional fossil fuel heating systems, it will be an opportunity to learn about the various sustainable alternatives.

The show will feature Clare installers of renewable energy heating systems, equipment suppliers, and a seminar programme, in which there will be a series of 15 minutes presentations on current and future renewable energy options. There will also be details available on the current grants available for heating systems.

The show opens at 12 noon and ends at 5pm. Admission is €5 for adults. Youths and children are free.

Meanwhile, an introductory course to Renewable Energy will be held in the Auburn Lodge Hotel on Monday July 3.

The course costs €100 and will focus on such issues as practical installation, skills and on system specifications and requirements.

THE development of a major energy resource off the coast of Spanish Point moved a step closer last week with the completion of a study into the viability of the site.

Providence Resources, which owns the rights to drill for gas at the Spanish Point field and at a second potential field off the Burren, confirmed at their annual general meeting last week that the study had been completed and a data room had been opened.

According to a statement from the company, this data room would possibly be used to accommodate the future farm-out of the site.

Earlier this year, Providence announced a farm-out of an 80 per cent stake of a similar project at Dunquin off the Kerry coast, to the world’s largest publicly listed energy company, ExxonMobil.

A 2-D seismic programme is scheduled to commence at the Dunquin site next month.

Initial survey evidence indicates that there could be a 30-year supply of gas in the Spanish Point field,

Exploratory work on its sister site off the north Clare coast is ongoing.

Providence also maintains lucrative operations in the Celtic Sea, St. George’s Channel and Nigeria.

MORE than 10,000 people utilised the facilities at Lees Road Sports and Amenity Park in its first 12 months of operation, according to figures released this week by Ennis Town Council. And work is to start shortly on a €90,000 skateboard park at the Drumcliffe facility, it has been announced.

The local authority celebrated a successful first year of operation by hosting an open day at the Park last Sunday.

The aim of the event, a spokesman for the Lees Road said, was “to promote the facilities and raise awareness that both passive and active recreational needs are catered for at the park.”

Up to 70 different school groups, sporting organisations and clubs have utilised the park’s facilities since it was officially opened in June 2005.

The park, which is located on a site of approximately 134 acres at Drumcliffe, currently offers four conventional playing pitches, a floodlit all-weather pitch, a cross-country running track and three kilometres of woodland amenity walks.

The site also comprises an accommodation building that includes eight dressing rooms, offices, toilets and parking facilities.

The management estimate that the designated walkways and running track have been used over 100,000 times in the past year, while up to 500 people availed of the all-weather pitch each week during peak periods.

Further developments planned over the coming year include a skateboard park. Ennis Town Council hopes to shortly begin construction on the park, which is being funded by a grant of €90,000 from the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government.

An application has been made under the Sports Capital Grant Programme 2006 for funding for a synthetic running track including floodlighting at the park, estimated to cost in the region of €1.3 million euro. Ennis Town Council is also finalising plans to expand the cross-country track. It’s anticipated that this will facilitate the holding of Munster and All-Ireland Cross Country competitions.

Clare senior hurling manager Anthony Daly said that the “all-weather pitch gives the county side the opportunity to train at any stage of the week.

“In my day, the lack of any floodlit all-weather facility meant that we could only train at weekends.

“It certainly has contributed to the development of the team.

“It’s a fantastic development for the town and county.”