Month: October 2006

THE CATCHMENT areas for schools have not been reviewed in almost 40 years, it has been revealed.

The last review of catchment areas for schools and school transport was carried out in 1969, according to Clare Green Party Councillor Brian Meaney.

The councillor is calling for an immediate review, on the basis that there have been huge demographic shifts shown in six census results since the last time school boundaries were looked at.

“Ireland has seen significant changes in the distribution of population and in educational practices since then,” Cllr Meaney said. “Our society has become increasingly urban and new systems of education such as multi-denominational schools have been added to the mix. In the face of such dramatic change, a review of catchment areas and boundaries is long overdue.”

The councillor said that the situation had led to anomalies that resulted in some children not being able to go to school in their own villages because they were still being subsumed into large urban areas such as Ennis.

Cllr Meaney said that, despite numerous reports to the Education and Science Committee clearly recommending that the catchment areas be reviewed, “nothing has been done”.

“Why can’t a review be carried out? The Minister for State with responsibility for school transport, Síle de Valera TD, told members of the Joint Committee on Education and Science last year that a review of catchment boundaries may be appropriate in certain circumstances. Let’s carry out the review as a matter of urgency and debate the recommendations later,” the councillor said.

The councillor said that the system, “needs to be brought into the 21st century. Parents now have more choices as to what type of education they want for their child.”

Councillor Meaney said that the widespread social and demographic changes that had taken place since the last review were further reflected in the preliminary figures from the 2006 Census.

This was the sixth census since the last review of boundaries was undertaken back in the late 1960s, the councillor added.

Cllr Meaney was to ask last night’s meeting of Clare County Council to call on the Minister for Education and Science, Mary Hanafin, and her department officials to undertake a nationwide review of the boundaries.

But the meeting was adjourned before the Green Party councillor’s motion was reached. It will now come before the next meeting of council for debate and a vote.

THE Irish National Teachers Organisation says it’s a ‘scandal’ that over 3,000 primary school children in Clare are in classes of over 30 with Central Executive representative, Declan Kelleher adding that the Clare figures make for ‘sorry reading’.

The Corofin INTO leader said the further admission that there are another 3,500 primary pupils in classes of up to 29 at primary school level shows how little has been achieved in reducing class sizes to a level which is consistent with the demands of the THE Government has admitted that there are over 3,000 Clare children in primary school classes with 30 pupils or more.

In response to a Dáil question from Fine Gael TD, Pat Breen, Education Minister, Mary Hanafin revealed that out of the 11,793 primary school pupils in Clare, 3,157 are currently in new primary school curriculum.”

“Most of the 3,500 pupils are in classes of between 25 and 29 and many of the pupils in the classes of over 30 pupils are in multiclasses where the pupil is frequently in a room with pupils from three or four other classes.

“Multiclass teaching is highly specialised and under no circumstances should any multi-class have more than 20 pupils.

“In fact, the Government promised that by 2007 all primary pupils in Infants, first and second classes would be in classes of no more than 20. classes of 30 or more.

The Minister also revealed that there were 6,746 pupils in classes of between 20 and 30 pupils.

Stating that there had been major improvements in this area, she said the average primary school class size was 24 and there was now one teacher for 17 pupils at primary level, including resource teachers.

“Children with special needs and

“6,500 primary pupils in Clare have been badly let down by Minister Hanafin and left in classes which are far too high and way outside the benchmark of 20 pupils per teacher at primary level.

“The Minister states that there is now one teacher for every 17 pupils at primary level.

“This is grossly misleading as she is including teachers whom the government has been forced to employ to teach children with special education needs in mainstream schools.

“In some instances, her Department had to be dragged through the those from disadvantaged areas are getting more support than ever and with thousands of extra primary teachers, recent years have seen the largest expansion in teacher numbers since the expansion of free education.

“Over the next two school years even more teachers will be put in place both for priority areas of disadvantage and special education and courts before these supports were put in place.

“To use these appointments to attempt to “gloss up” the total failure to make any significant impact on class size is extremely misleading.

“The INTO will soon publish the results of a comprehensive study of class sizes in Clare.

“This will give exact data on class sizes in every part of the county and will highlight the need for accelerated action to reduce what is now the second highest primary school class sizes in the EU”, the teachers’ leader added.. also under a reduction in the mainstream staffing schedule.

The statistics show that there are 150 pupils in Clare in a class size up to nine pupils and that there are 1,740 in classes with between 10 and 19 students.

However, Clare Fine Gael TD Pat Breen yesterday slammed what he described as “the Government’s failure to deliver on its Programme for Government commitment to reduce class sizes in the county”.

“Although the latest figures show the Government has finally moved to tackle the single Clare school with a class sizes of over 40, the Department standard is for one classroom teacher for every 28 children.

Deputy Breen said there were still 3,157 pupils – or more than one in four of Clare’s 11,793 National School pupils – in classes of more than 30.

“It is a disgrace that Clare’s schools can fall so short of the national targets and it compares poorly with other counties. In Mayo for example, only 1,840 primary school children are in classes of 30 or more .

“The Programme for Government commitment to reduce class sizes is in shreds and is nowhere near meeting its 2007/2008 commitment of 27 children per classroom”, he said.

A MAN who set fire to a house, forestry and bogland in west Clare within an eight-hour period after he “lost control” has been jailed for three years.

Patrick McNamara (30), of Lisgreen, Lisdeen, Kilkee, and also of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty to damaging a house, by fire, at Lisgreen, Lisdeen, on March 19 last. The estimated damage caused was up to €60,000. He also admitted burning two hectares of forestry, at Monmore South, Kilrush, and bogland, at Tullaher, Doonbeg, on March 18.

Detective Garda Michael McDonagh said the accused brought gardaí to the scenes of the fires.

“He was going through great difficulty in his life at the time,” said the garda. “He is not your average criminal that I would be dealing with every day. He is a man who has committed crime but I believe he makes nothing out of it. He always admits his involvement,” he added.

He said it would cost €2,000 per hectare to restore the forestry.

Garda Michael Ryan, who investigated the Lisgreen house fire, said McNamara stole diesel from a building site in Doonbeg, drove to Lisgreen, poured the diesel around the house and on hay and set it alight.

Gardai did not realise the bog fires were deliberate until they began to investigate the house fire.

Defending Barrister Mark Nicholas said his client regretted his actions and called the emergency services after he set fire to the house.

He said McNamara had a row with someone in Kilkee and “flipped and lost control…lost all sense of responsibility for a period of six to eight hours.”

The court heard that McNamara has several previous convictions, mainly for road traffic offences, while he has also convictions for deception.

Judge Carroll Moran said McNamara, “doesn’t appreciate the duty to observe the law and keep out of trouble.” He said if he had not pleaded guilty, he could be facing a term of up to seven years in jail. He imposed a three-year jail term.

THE Shannon Airport Authority (SAA) yesterday confirmed that passenger numbers at Shannon are up 13 per cent to 2.8 million for the first nine months of this year.

Confirming the continuing growth of Shannon, a SAA spokeswoman said that terminal passenger traffic is up 15 per cent on the corresponding period last year to 2.3 million.

In 2005, transatlantic traffic increased by three per cent.

However, this year with new services available, the important transatlantic sector has shown a 12 per cent increase.

Traffic to UK destinations has increased by 14 per cent, while passenger numbers to Europe have increased by 20 per ceny.

Meanwhile, the number of US troops who have passed through Shannon Airport since the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, in the US has exceeded the one million mark.

It has been estimated that Shannon Airport has earned €25m from the Pentagon so far this year and netted around €37m in 2005. The overall figure since the September 11 attacks has put been at around €130m.

In that time, a total of 1,037,765 US military personnel have transited Shannon on an estimated 6,800 flights.

Figures released by the Shannon Airport Authority have confirmed that the number of US military personnel who have transited the mid west airport in the past five years has topped one million.

But the numbers for the third-quarter of this year slumped by almost half on the same period last year due to the pull-out of troop carrier World Airways.

The most recent figures, up to the end of September this year, show 250,220 have passed through the country’s second largest airport.

However, during the third quarter of this year, 41,146 personnel passed through Shannon, compared to over 81,000 in the same period last year.

During the whole of 2001, a total of 91,495 US military personnel passed through Shannon, although the majority of the activity followed the terror attacks of September 11 when the US launched air-strikes in Afghanistan.

In 2002, the figure decreased to 74,870, while the following year, with the commencement of Operation Iraqi Freedom, the US led invasion of Iraq, 121,943 troops landed at Shannon and their way to or from the Middle East.

In 2004, that number had increased to 158,549 but then more than doubled in 2005, which was a record year for troop activity at Shannon, with 340,600 using Shannon.

THREE local landowners have opposed plans by Michael Lynch Ltd to construct a road-link to the Ennis bypass that would open almost 60 acres of land for commercial development on the outskirts of the town.

The Lynch project is the latest in a scramble by developers to exploit the commercial opportunities provided by the opening of lands by the €190 million Ennis by-pass.

One of the options put forward for the Lynch lands near Clareabbey is the development of a 42,000 capacity G.A.A. stadium.

The company has lodged an ‘expression of interest’ in the Clare County Board’s search for new stadium and the proposal to provide a new county grounds at Clonroadmore is the focus of the Lynch bid.

However, three landowners, Richard O’Connell, Pat Hynes and Paddy McInerney have come together to oppose the plan on the basis that the development of the distributor road takes no account of their right of access to their lands.

They claim that the proposed distributor road cuts through the existing farm and right of way and makes no allowance for a sustainable access to their lands which are zoned as ‘other settlement’ in the Ennis Development Plan.

The three also point out that the proposed new road would raise land levels around their property.

This week the Council planning department confirmed that the application was invalidated on a technical issue and it was open to the applicants to re-submit their application. It is understood that the company has now opted to re-submit their plans.

The proposed development of a 1.5 km long single-carriageway is to connect the Clonroadmore industrial estate where the Lynch company headquareers is based and the western relief route of the Ennis by-pass.

One option put forward by the company is the development of the stadium along with a 70 bedroom hotel, gym, all-weather pitch offices, conference centre, 240 houses, a public park around Clareabbey as well as a train stop and park and ride facilities.

Another option involves the development of 400 residential units, retail warehousing, a public park around Clareabbey along with the train stop and park n ride facilities.

However, before any of these scenarios can be contemplated, the company has to secure planning permission for the road and it points out that this is a key objective of the Ennis Development Plan.

WORDS of caution have been issued in relation to the latest political poll in the county.

Among its critics is Councillor Joe Carey (FG) who polled just seven per cent of the first preference votes in Ennis (five per cent in the constituency), despite topping the poll in the county town in the last local election.

“There was an over-emphasis in this poll on Shannon. Both Shannon and Ennis were coupled together as an individual polling area, thus diminishing the influence of the Ennis vote,” he said.

“Given the fact that Ennis and its environs is by far the biggest population area in the constituency, with over 30,000 people, one has to question the validity of such a poll.”

“Because Ennis was not given a proper weighting, this poll dramatically underestimated my vote. As an Ennis-based candidate I was put at a disadvantage. The same can be said of the Green Party candidate, Brian Meaney,” he said.

“It’s not the first time TG4’s poll was way off the mark, as evidenced by the poll which was conducted before the 2002 General Election,” he added.

While believing that the poll showed her “well positioned to win a second seat for Fine Gael” in Clare, Cllr Madeleine Taylor Quinn was equally cautious of the poll’s finding.

She said when last TG4 sampled her support – just two years ago on the eve of the European Elections – they underestimated her actual vote on the day by 50 per cent. She added that, in recent years, for various reasons, Irish political polls had become less accurate and required a wider margin of error.

“A final point I will make is that even when it is viewed with appropriate caution, the TG4 poll casts in a rather peculiar light the last poll published in the county just a fortnight ago,” she said.

Deputy Pat Breen, who according to the poll will retain his seat, said “With four candidates in the field, there was bound to be fragmentation of that first preference vote, which will make the gaining of a second seat all the more difficult. I have always stated that my preference was for two or three candidates seeking to regain two seats in the county.”

Meanwhile, Deputy James Breen said he was happy with his showing but said the only poll that matters was the one on the day of the election.

FIANNA Fáil is maintaining the support of more than a third of the people in its traditional stronghold of Clare, while Fine Gael has 18 per cent of the vote.

According to the most recent poll taken in the county between September 18 and October 2, 35 per cent of the electorate said they would vote for the party, with 18 per cent opting to give their first preference vote to Fine Gael. 22 per cent were undecided, four per cent opted to support the Green Party, three pre cent Sinn Fein and three Labour.

When asked to give votes to particular candidates however, Fianna Fáil’s first preference vote increased to 42 per cent and Fine Gael’s to 33 per cent.

According to the TNS/MRBI poll for TG4, Minister of State Tony Killeen would top the poll with a surplus of five per cent, a marked increase on his 2002 outing when he received 16.32 per cent of the number ones on offer.

He received a quarter of the first preference vote in the poll of 500 people.

Not surprisingly the junior minister received 30 per cent of the first preference vote in the Corofin, Ennistymon and Ballyvaughan area. He also received 29 per cent of the vote in the Ennis area, which for the poll included Shannon and Sixmilebridge, and 25 per cent of the number ones in what is considered Timmy Dooley land – Meelick, Tulla, Scariff.

Independent James Breen who topped the poll in the last election harnessed a strong first preference vote again -18 per cent – in areas similar to Killeen.

He received 22 per cent of the first preference vote in the Ennis/Shannon area and in North Clare, while he polled ahead of Killeen in the west.

The survey outlined the west as Fine Gael Deputy Pat Breen’s stronghold, with 26 per cent of the KilrushKildysart vote.

He also polled well in east Clare at 15 per cent, but showed just seven per cent of the vote in Ennis and Shannon.

Senator Brendan Daly is, according to the poll, the most likely to take the seat vacated by Síle deValera.

Not surprisingly, Daly’s stronghold is in the west, where he polls 20 per cent of the vote, six per cent behind Pat Breen.

The senator is also strong in east Clare at 18 per cent and in north Clare at 11 per cent. If he is to secure the fourth seat with ease, he will have to build his support in the urban areas of Ennis and Shannon, where he showed a first preference vote of just five per cent.

Former Mayor of Shannon Tony Mulcahy received eight per cent of the first preference vote polling ahead of colleagues Madeleine Taylor Quinn on seven per cent and Joe Carey on five per cent of the vote. Brian Meaney (GP) showed at 6 per cent first preference.

Mulcahy received 17 per cent of the vote in Ennis/Shannon, but got no vote in the west . The poll shows that a lot of his votes were personal with just 48 per cent transferring.

FÁILTE Ireland have given Clare County Council the green light to develop and implement the €1.4 million tourism management plan for the Burren.

The three-year scheme aims at improving the regions infrastructure by using new technologies such as touch screen digital information kiosks.

The plan will also incorporate the development of themed walking routes and the promotion of entry points to the Burren at five locations.

The project is entitled “Environmental Protection of the Burren through Visitor Management Initiative” and is the first time that the local authority and community groups have come together to plan for the future of the region.

Organisations such as Burrenbeo Teo, the Heritage Council and the North Clare Local Area Network have come together with Clare County Council and Shannon Development in planning this project.

“The Burren Region is long recognised as one of Europe’s most important landscapes due to the wealth and diversity of its natural and cultural heritage,” said Tomás Mac Conmara, Acting Heritage Officer with Clare County Council.

“It’s feared, however, that the unmanaged expansion of tourism in the Burren may potentially threaten the very resource on which the region depends. The Environmental Protection of the Burren through Visitor Management Initiative project has been initiated in response to this threat.”

CAIRDE Chuan Chinn Mhara (CCCM) are to put forward a candidate to fight next year’s General Election because they have “lost all faith” in the Government’s willingness to complete the promised €3 million sewage scheme for the Kinvara area The Clare People can reveal.

The identity of the candidate is likely to be decided upon at a meeting of CCCM in two weeks time, but the organisation confirmed yesterday that the candidate would be one of the ten people currently sitting on it’s committee.

“This is really an act of desperation at this stage,” said Stan Mac Eoin of CCCM. “We feel that we really have no choice now but to go down this path. Raw sewage is being pumped into Kinvara Bay every day. The ecoli count is huge and the sailing club have been told that it would be very dangerous if any sailor or child fell into the water.”

The campaign to construct a sewage treatment facility in Kinvara has been ongoing for the last 19 years. Funding for the project was announced in 2003, with details for the plant being submitted to the Department of the Environment in February of that year.

The project stalled at this point, however, with no progress being made until June of 2005 when the department referred the plans back to Galway County Council for modifications. To date, no further movement has been made by either organisation.

“CCCM has lost faith in the political process and the ability and will of politicians, both national and local, to provide sewerage treatment for Kinvara,” read a statement from CCCM. “Our experience in lobbying for a treatment plant for more than a decade reveals, we believe, a deeper malaise at the heart of Irish politics.”

CCCM believe that a lack of political will is at fault for holding up the project and are hopeful that they would stand a good chance of having a candidate elected.

“The frustration level is huge in Kinvara about the continued delay of this project,” continued Mr Mac Eoin. “We have been told that we are fifth in the priority list in the county but it’s hard to imagine anywhere that could be worse than this.”

This move could be more bad news for Fianna Fáil who currently hold two of four seats in the constituency. The Kinvara candidate could increase the pressure on Deputy Noel Treacy (FF) who polled the lowest of all elected candidates in the 2002 election.

FIGURES released by Clare County Council show that it cost more than €15,000 to send a five-strong Council delegation to the Milwaukee Irish Festival last August.

The delegation, which was led by Mayor of Clare, Councillor Flan Garvey (FF), included the Council’s recently appointed PR consultant, Mark Dunphy of Dunphy Public Relations and three officials.

The figures show that €7,840 covered the flight and accommodation costs for Cllr Garvey and the three Council officials, Cliffs of Moher visitor centre Director, Kathrine Webster, paid for her own flight to the US.

The former Head of News at Clare FM was paid €2,470 for work before, after and during the Milwaukee trip; €2,197 covered his flight and accommodation and €550 went towards subsistence. The flights and accommodation were paid by the Council through the Clare Tourist Council.

According to Mark Dunphy, the agreed fee covered a service provided for the local authority over a three-week period. This work included the production of three radio documentaries on the Council’s visit which were subsequently broadcast on Clare FM; seven press releases which received local, national and international coverage; promotional work for Clare County Council at the Festival site; and the organisation of radio interviews at local, national and international level.

Mayor Garvey said the cost of the trip “offered very good value for the Council. It was the biggest Irish promotional event in the world and it was imperative that the Council had a presence there.

“There is proof that it has paid dividends with a number of choirs visiting Clare, while the Minister for Tourism in Nova Scotia has called for direct flights from Nova Scotia to Shannon. These are the direct benefits that I have proof of, but I’m sure there are others I am not aware of.

“There are hotels from Ireland spending a lot of money promoting their businesses, but we are promoting all of Clare. The value of the trip for Clare is undoubted and we had to be there.”

According to a press release issued by Mr Dunphy, over 3,000 tourists are expected to visit Clare via Shannon Airport over the coming months as a result of a tourism promotion drive launched in Milwaukee.

At the annual festival, an estimated 135,000 festival goers were offered discounted airfares to Shannon from Boston,Chicago and New York.