Month: October 2006

UP TO 180 Clare people might not be alive today had it not been for the success of last year’s Annual Healthy Living Expo at the Mid-Western Regional Hospital Ennis.

Speaking at the launch of this year’s expo Stephen McMahon, Chairman of the Irish Patients Association said the unique event had diagnosed people early and saved lives.

Last year 45 per cent of the people who availed of the free screening had not been to their GP in three years, and the majority of these people were non-medical cardholders.

Two of the people screened were referred to the Accident and Emergency Department immediately for treatment. A further 12 per cent were found to have high blood pressure; another 12 per cent had cholesterol over 6.5, while another 12 per cent had high blood sugar. Half of the people examined were found to be over weight.

Twice as many women as men attended last year so this year, organisers are actively encouraging men in the community to avail of this opportunity to have their heart health checked.

Almost 100 staff, including hospital consultants will volunteer from 10am to 4pm on Saturday, to check peoples’ cholesterol levels, blood pressure, lipids and glucose levels, body mass index, and to carry out eye tests. Those availing of the free service will then get the results of the blood tests within an hour, and will be informed of any difficulties in private. A follow up report will also be sent to their GP where necessary. Healthy living information and children’s entertainment will also be provided.

As well as the free health check, the staff at the hospital will also give a hand hygiene demonstration.

“Staff in the hospital are well aware now of hospital hygiene. The public in general have an awareness of it, but everyone minds a sick relative at some stage during the year or someone in the house is sick. They are never aware of how they should be washing their hands or what the precautions are,” said hospital manager John Doyle.

Mr Doyle said the expo, in its fifth year was a way of linking the hospital back into the county.

“We see ourselves having a role in the whole preventative exercise not just somewhere to go when you’re sick,” he added.

A COUNTY Clare businessman has made a €26.5 million settlement with the Criminal Assets Bureau – the biggest in the history of the State.

Businessesman Dylan Creaven (32), a native of Newmarket-on-Fergus with an address in Kensington in London, is understood to have handed over €26.5 million (£18 million sterling) to CAB and the ARA (Assets Recovery Agency) in the UK.

He has also handed over a villa in Marbella, Spain and four racehorses including Latino Magic, which won the McDonagh Handicap at the Galway Races last year.

Creaven, the former director of Silicon Technologies, was acquitted in June of last year of an alleged £20 million VAT fraud in the UK.

He had been accused of teaming up with an array of off-the-shelf British companies to defraud the tax man.

The Prosecutors at London’s Crown Court had claimed that Creaven supplied companies with VAT-free computer chips that were then resold with the tax added. It was alleged that instead of passing a percentage to Customs and Excise, the money went to Creaven.

However the Clareman denied two counts of conspiracy to cheat the public revenue between December 2000 and October 2001 and was acquitted following a month-long trial.

The ARA and CAB continued to investigate Creaven and this resulted in the settlement being reached.

Creaven had traded as Silicon Technologies Europe Ltd, which had an office at Ennis Business Centre, Francis Street, Ennis, and turned over €417 million in 2000 to 2001.

LESS than one hundred metres from Richard Harris’s former home in Kilkee, over a thousand people gathered at the weekend to pay homage to the late actor.

At a site adjacent to the Diamond Rock cafe, overlooking the Pollock Holes, the crowd were treated to a song from Hollywood star, Russell Crowe, dedicated to his late friend.

The trailer of an articulated truck was one of the more unusual stages that the Oscar-winning actor had performed on.

Gene Hackman may have sent his regards and Clint Eastwood and Pamela Anderson were sorry that they weren’t able to come to the unveiling of a bronze statue of Harris, but all of that didn’t matter to the people as they heard Crowe recall his first meeting with Harris on the set of Gladiator.

Taking a break from filming in New York to be at Saturday’s event, the New Zealand-born actor said, “Richard told me ‘there is a good night out in you, I think I am going to like you’”.

The two shared a passion for rugby and had agreed, while Harris was ill in hospital, that they would both attend the Ireland vs Australia match in 2002. However, Harris died weeks before the match.

After Harris died, Crowe said that he travelled to Ireland “to pay homage to a friend” by visiting many of Harris’s old haunts.

Explaining how he came to write a song dedicated to Harris, Crowe told the crowd how, when Ireland beat Australia for the first time in 37 years, he believed that Harris was there with the Irish on the day.

Crowe said that, after the match, he was by himself, drinking a pint of Guinness and wrote the verse in memory of his friend. He told the crowd, “It was written on the back of a beer coaster, so it’s very short”.

Backed by local singers, a guitarist and an uileann piper, Crowe sang the “requiem in the idiom of a football song”, with the crowd clapping along to the tune.

Later, Crowe joined with members of the Harris family to unveil the lifesize statue by local sculptor, Seamus Connolly, which depicts Harris playing racquet ball. The Limerick man won a racquet ball competition four times in a row in the west Clare resort where he used to spend much of his summer holidays.

Alluding to an appeal by a local resident against planning permission to erect the status at Wellington Square, event organiser, Manuel di Lucia said, “It is a slight problem, a minor detail.”

Earlier, Jared, one of Richard Harris’s three sons present, told the crowd that they were a living memorial to his father. He said, “When my father died, I was told that life goes on, but I asked ‘why? I want it all to stop, to stop and mark the passing of this great man’ and days like this allow us to make sense of it all.”

Jared said that his father had “a deep, deep affection for Kilkee”. He said, “He loved Kilkee. There was something in his heart for Kilkee. He fell in love with movies in Kilkee by going to the old cinema here.”

Another son, Damien, told the crowd, “My father wasn’t a sentimental man, but he was sentimental about Kilkee”.

Richard’s brother, Billy, said that links between Kilkee and the Harris family went back to 1850 and the resort allowed Richard to express his wild personality to the full.

He added that Richard was the first person to swim unaccompanied across the bay at Kilkee. Billy said, “He adored Kilkee and, during the last five years of his life, we reminisced over Kilkee and the huge part it played in his childhood.”

The time is right for a winter election. That is according to Clare’s Independent TD James Breen who believes the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern should go to the country in light of the Mahon Tribunal revelations.

“There is only one way to clear the air and that is an early general election,” he said.

But not all politicians are keen to embrace the crisp winter air on the hustings.Just North Clare’s Cllr Michael Kelly (FF) shared the outspoken TD’s view that the Taoiseach should call the election soon. Cllr Kelly told a reporter from The Clare Peopl e that there were people in the Fianna Fáil organisation who thought that Mr Ahern should go to the polls early, and that not to do so would be seen as a sign of weakness.

He described the money in question as “ peanuts” in the context of an economy and said Taoiseach which have “performed so well”.

In a survey carried out by reporters from The Clare People among 14 of the15 Fianna Fáil county councillors (Cllr Colm Wiley could not be contacted), just Cllr Tony O’Brien was unsure if now was a good time to call an election – the remaining 12 concluded it was definitely not a good time. The Fianna Fáil members of the council agreed unanimously however that the Taoiseach should not resign his position, a view that was shared by the Oireachtas members, with the exception of Deputy Pat Breen (FG) who had some reservations until after today’s long anticipated Dáil session.

Whether the council members would have accepted the “loan” or “gift” was not as clear.

Ten of the 14 councillors polled said they would not, but four said they did not know. Cllr Bernard Hanrahan (FF) qualified the answer by saying, “ if you found yourself in a bad situation and you had friends who could help you out, you might accept the money, but only on the condition that they would take back the money when you could repay it.”

Just three of the councillors surveyed believed that the events of the previous fortnight had tarnished the Taoiseach’s reputation.

Meanwhile the people of Clare had their say on the issue through the new Website for The Clare People. In this week’s Web-poll, almost 70 per cent of people said that they were not satisfied with the Taoiseach’s answers to date. Just over a fifth were satisfied,. Ten per cent were not bothered.

MANAGEMENT at Shannon Airport yesterday delivered on its promise to withdraw a €30 million voluntary severance package.

The package was put on the table last year, as part of a viability plan for the airport, but unions representing staff at the airport did not accept it.

Management warned earlier this year that the package – put together as part of cost-cutting measures – would be withdrawn if agreement was not reached by this month. According to sources, the package was scrapped, because there was no “meaningful engagement.”

The National Implementation Body now wants both sides to engage in talks, over a four-week period. SIPTU, which represents the majority of staff, did not want to be drawn on the issue, when contacted by The Clare People last evening, but confirmed it wouild take part in talks.

“We are in a process. The National Implementation Body has made a statement. We are going along the basis of that,” said SIPTU spokesman Tony Carroll.

“The Labour Relations Commission has been instructed to take it. As soon as they assemble the parties, we will go there,” he said.

Fine Gael general election candidate Cllr Madeleine Taylor-Quinn (FG) said she was disappointed that this opportunity had been “lost.”

“Last week, I appealed to both sides to get involved in negotiations. We have to ensure that the future of the airport is secured. I am calling on the Minister for Labour Affairs, Deputy Tony Killeen, to engage in the necessary resources to ensure this situation is resolved, sooner rather than later,” said Cllr Taylor-Quinn.

“There must be some respect for the position of the workforce. What is the future for the workers? This needs to be clarified at an early stage,” she added.

Fianna Fáil’s Seanad Transport spokesman Timmy Dooley said the Dublin Airport Authority must consider the needs of those who wish to stay on and those who wish to leave.

“This is an effort to divide the workers, to turn those who intend to leave against those who want to make a career out of their work at the airport. It is important that those who leave get a proper package to ensure they get a good retirement. There is no mechanism other than the two sides sitting down and thrashing it out,” he added.

He said that the Director of Change Management at Shannon, John Horgan, must be removed.

“He doesn’t have the confidence of the workers and is no longer effective,” he said. Mr Horgan was unavailable for comment when contacted by The Clare People last evening.

THE final hours of three young men who were drowned in Doolin during the October Bank Holiday weekend last year will be recalled at their inquests next week.

Joe O’Callaghan (34) from Tulla, Mick Doran (31), who lived in Broadford, and Martin Griffin (24) from Ennis, disappeared after a night out in Doolin.

Their bodies, and the jeep in which they were travelling, were subsequently found in the local area.

The entire search, co-ordinated by Doolin Coastguard and assisted by hundreds of people, lasted 11 days.

Up to 20 members of Doolin Coastguard were involved in the search, along with other search teams, navy divers, the garda water unit and families and friends of the three men.

The body of popular Ennis man Martin Griffin was washed up the following Tuesday, at Trá Leathan, Doonagore, Doolin.

As the search for the other two bodies intensified, the Naval Service sent sonar equipment to Doolin to search the sea, amid treacherous conditions.

Waterford native Mick Doran’s body was located a week after they disappeared.

Much of the searching was confined to the shoreline, as the seas became increasingly rough.

Mr O’Callaghan’s body was washed up on the 11th day.

All three were found within 100 metres of each other.

Parts of Mr O’Callaghan’s Suzuki Vitara jeep in which they were travelling were washed up throughout the days of the the search.

In the immediate aftermath of it becoming apparent that the men were missing, a Garda appeal was launched.

Superintendent Eamon Dolan, who coordinated the investigation, appealed for anyone who saw the men in Doolin to come forward, in an effort to trace their final movements.

The trio were last seen outside McGann’s public house at 1.30am on Bank Holiday Monday, October 31.

The three were all craftsmen and were known to be hard-working and popular and thoroughly enjoyed their lives. They had worked together on the restoration of Coolreagh House at the East Clare Golf Club in Bodyke.

The sense of grief was palpable not only in Doolin, but also throughout the county, not least in the home towns and villages of the three missing men.

AIRPORT Director with the Shannon Airport Authority (SAA) Martin Moroney yesterday welcomed the commencement of construction work on the €349 million Shannon tunnel.

The tunnel forms part of the €349 million 10km southern bypass of Limerick city and is set to extend the catchment area for Shannon airport.

Mr Moroney told The Clare People , “It is a very, very important route and we would like to see it finished as soon as possible. The airport is suffering from bottlenecks on the roads in the Galway and Limerick directions, so news that the work has started on the tunnel is very good.”

The scheme is the largest road infrastructure project in the State outside Dublin and will be completed by 2010.

The National Roads Authority (NRA) announced that the contract for the €349 million scheme had been awarded to the Direct Route consortium, made up of Austrian company, Strabag AG; John Sisk & Son (Holdings) Limited, Lagan Holdings Limited and Roadbridge Ltd. The consortium is expected to genenate an estimated €456 million in tolls from the tunnel over the first 30 years of its operation.

In the toll scheme adopted by the NRA for the project,car drivers are to be charged €1.60 to access the tunnel, while truck drivers will have to pay €5.46.

According to a spokesman for Limerick County Council, the project is expected to be completed by 2010. The height of the Limerick tunnel is the same height as the Dublin Port Tunnel and An Bord Pleanála dismissed pleas by road hauliers to increase the height of the tunnel. The tunnel will be composed of six precast pieces, which will be built in an adjacent casting basin which will later be immersed into the river and anchored into the river bed to allow the pieces to be put in place in the dredged river site.

Limerick city mayor, Joe Leddin (Lab) has welcomed the works starting on the scheme but expressed disappointment that the road will be tolled.

“I do not object in principle to the Public Private Partnerships (PPP), but with the exchequer awash with money and motorists paying large amounts through car tax, there is no need to toll the tunnel and I would fear that a percentage of motorists would divert away from the tunnel and use the existing road network. The Jack Lynch tunnel isn’t tolled for instance,” he said.

MORE than 14,000 extra people could be traveling through Ennis train station daily before the end of 2008.

These figures were released last week after the Minister for Transport Martin Cullen granted permission for work to begin on the €100 million Western Rail Corridor, which when completed will link Limerick to Galway.

The Ennis to Galway line will form the first phase of development and should be completed early in 2008.

Under the proposals, seven trains per day will travel between Galway and Limerick, passing through existing stations in Ennis and Athenry as well as five restored stations at Sixmilebridge, Gort, Ardrahan, Craughwell and Oranmore.

“Once the line is opened it will enhance Clare as a tourist and business location, and help towards balanced regional growth and development,” said General Election candidate, Madeleine Taylor-Quinn (FG).

However, she added that it was imperative that the rail spur to Shannon from the Ennis/Limerick line was advanced with urgency.

“I am calling on Minister Cullen to expedite the feasibility study for the spur line to Shannon, so that the region can maximise on the benefits of the international airport, and that the construction of the rail spur is prioritised,” she continued.

The present plan includes the provision for a commuter bus between Shannon Airport and Sixmilebridge. Plans are also in an advanced stage to reopen the tracks as far as Castlebar in the near future.

“This whole project will be absolutely fantastic for Shannon Airport and especially if the whole project comes on line as soon as possible,” said Colmán Ó Raghallaigh of West on Track. “It would open up Shannon to all of Mayo and Galway as well as Clare and Limerick. This is a huge operation and a bits and pieces approach won’t have the same effect.”

Mr Ó Raghallaigh also expressed his hope that the project could be completed ahead of schedule.

A CONSULTANT’S report has revealed that last year’s average staff cost at the Moneypoint power station in west Clare was €124,419.

The report, carried out by Deloitte on the Irish electricity sector, found that staff costs at ESB Power Generation facilities were high, compared to those in other jurisdictions.

However, Moneypoint ESB worker director candidate, John Coleman, strongly disputed the figures, stating that the average salary at Moneypoint was “nowhere near the figure quoted in the report”.

The Deloitte report concluded that ESB Power Generation staff costs were 20 to 30 per cent higher than the benchmark stations in the UK. A significant level of overtime was paid and this was not the practice for the vast majority of UK facilities.

This was disputed by Mr Coleman who said that payroll costs at Moneypoint had gone down dramatically.

“Workers at Moneypoint would not be on even half the amount quoted in the report. They no longer work overtime and General Services day workers receive around €60,000. We are well paid. It is a marvellous job, but the figures in the report are way out.”

Two years ago, Moneypoint work ers agreed to paycuts of up to 30 per cent and an end to overtime. When the deal was struck, there were 320 employed at the plant and the target was to reduce numbers by 80 through voluntary redundancy and natural wastage.

Local county councillor, Tom Prendeville (FF), said average staff costs would include management salaries, shift allowances and unsocial hours.

“The wages at Moneypoint have been agreed between management and unions and it is the price management are willing to pay for industrial peace. If Moneypoint was to close in the morning, west Clare would become an economic wasteland,” he said.