Month: November 2006

ONE of Fine Gael’s general election candidates, Cllr Tony Mulcahy, has come under fire from Shannon residents over his plans to jointly develop a number of homes in Shannon.

Last month, Cllr Mulcahy, along with Noel Justice, lodged three separate planning applications with Clare County Council to build three dormer homes at Ballycasey.

In their objection, the ‘concerned residents of Clairin Glas’ against all three applications, state that the proposed houses, “will be out of character with existing houses and lead to increased density and traffic flow and, in turn, risk to our children and disregard the rights of surrounding residential homes.

“The availability of single sites in Shannon is at a minimum and it was never intended for the Clairin Glas area to be used by property developers as an opportunity to change the pattern of development and intended use by individual families.

“This is now being contravened by Cllr Tony Mulcahy and Noel Justice.

“We would like to bring to your attention the fact that a portion of the proposed site is zoned open space in the south Clare plan for the area.”

The residents also state that the current application contravenes the condition of a previous application in relation to style of house and overall density as laid down by Shannon Development who insisted on a low density for the area.

“Purchasers of sites were legally compelled to abide by these conditions as part of sale and overall development of these sites. There is a duty on the council to uphold these conditions.”

Speaking to The Clare People yesterday, Cllr Tony Mulcahy said, “I certainly reserve the right as a citizen to submit a planning application. However, as the application is live and as I am a member of the planning authority, I cannot comment on the applications.”

A decision is due on the applications later this year.

THE mother of one of the Kilkee girls killed in a car driven by a 15year old has formally requested the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to appeal the leniency of the sentence given to the driver.

At Ennis Circuit Court last month, David Naughton (19) was jailed for three years after he pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing the death of two girls, Stacey Haugh (16) and Lorna Mahoney (13) on October 17, 2003.

Imposing sentence, Judge Con Murphy said that Naughton was on a campaign of dangerous driving on the night in question.

Solicitor for Mrs Mahoney, Eugene O’Kelly, has written to the DPP on her behalf to have Naughton’s sentence appealed to the Court of Criminal Appeal.

The letter focuses on Naughton’s extradition warrant, and demands to know who was responsible for errors on it.

“This error had the most significant impact on the length of the sentence imposed and was wholly within the Prosecution’s control.

The letter continues, “Mr. Naughton had done everything in his power to avoid prosecution for this offence including failing to appear while on bail for the first time. When he was subsequently arrested he was again granted bail and absconded to the UK. . . .

“He only pleaded guilty when there was no other option open to him. In the circumstances it is questionable whether he should have been given the benefit of his guilty plea in mitigation . . . His attempts to avoid prosecution added considerably to my client, and her family’s, distress . . .”

ENTERPRISE Minister Micheal Martin has hit back at claims that Enterprise Ireland has no intention of decentralising to Shannon.

The minister was in Shannon last week to announce 350 new high-tech jobs for the region. The jobs are to be created over the next five years by Digital River Ireland, which is setting up its European Headquarters in Shannon. The company, which has just clinched a contract with Microsoft, handle all of the online trading requirements for companies including Adobe, Canon and CompUSA Inc.

Shannon Development were instrumental in bringing the company to Shannon.

Answering questions after the announcement, the minister said that a recent move by Enterprise Ireland to sign a 25-year lease on premises in Dublin was not a statement of intent to stay in the capital.

He was reacting to criticism that just a handful of people had expressed an interest in moving to Shannon under the decentralisation scheme. He said the new lease “is a sensible move,” which allowed functions of Enterprise Ireland, currently scattered, to come together under one roof.

The minister added that the signing for 25 years does not mean Enterprise Ireland would stay in Dublin for that length of time. “There are get-out clauses,” he said. The Minister added that a site had now been identified in Shannon for the move and negotiations were under way.

“The first to be up and running in Shannon will be the new unit which has been given a special brief to support the county and city enterprise boards. I would hope there will be 70 staff in situ by next February,” he said.

Stating that the “government decision to decentralise Enterprise Ireland stands,” the minister admitted that they had “greater success” with departmental decentralisation than with the various other bodies listed to move.

“There are discussions going on with the social partners to see how best we handle the move with the agencies,” the minister said.

Asked why he had rowed back on his decision to give Shannon Development’s foreign investment brief to the IDA, Minister Martin said that they had made a convincing argument for it.

“Shannon Development came to us a year ago and put the argument to us that they are a catalyst for economic development in the region. They felt that they still had a role to play in the Shannon Free Zone and I accepted their overall argument,” he said.

THERE has been mixed reaction to the confirmation by the HSE that the Mid Western Regional Hospital Ennis is to get its own CT Scan. The National Hospitals Office approved the purchase of the scanner for the MWRH Ennis, after the Mid-Western Hospital Trust agreed to provide the capital cost.

“The National Hospitals Office will then over the coming weeks agree the revenue costs for the project and will make available from 2007 onwards,” a statement from the HSE said.

Leader of the opposition Enda Kenny (FG) expressed his concern that the scanner on offer was “minimal in capacity.”

During his visit to the county, the Fine Gael leader said the scanner would be “out of action” in three to five years time. “It seems like a false economy,” he added.

Senator Timmy Dooley (FF) said he was not prepared to accept the delay in sanctioning the purchase of the six-slice CT scanner when the money was already available from the MidWest Hospitals Trust.

“The absence of a CT scanner has a negative effect. Only very urgent cases at Ennis Hospital are considered for CT scanning,” he said.

“These patients must be transferred to Limerick by ambulance and, in some cases, be accompanied by a consultant anaesthetist.

“It is estimated that 3,000 scans per annum are required at Ennis Hospital,” he added. “Until now, however, only approximately 1,000 patients receive a scan by transferring to Limerick.”

AFTER months of speculation, the Health Service Executive has finally given its seal of approval to the €20.8 million development at the Mid Western Regional Hospital Ennis and the project can finally go to planning.

Brian Gilroy, National Director of Estates at the HSE, gave approval for the long-awaited third stage of the project on Wednesday. It allows a detailed design to be completed and the plan to progress to planning permission.

Fianna Fáil Senator Brendan Daly, who gave an ultimatum to the Taoiseach regarding the hospital before being added to the party’s election ticket, described the news as “a key decision” and “very important”.

“It will allay the fears of people in the county that there may be further delays in delivering the plan.”

Minister Micheál Martin announced the funding for the hospital development when he was Minister for Health in 2002.

In 2004, Minister Mary Harney approved the funding and a design team was put in place.

It was hoped that the hospital project would be at planning stage by last summer.

The HSE called for an analysis of the cost of the project last August after it emerged that the first phase, which was allocated €20.8 million, would cost in excess of €30 million.

The increase in cost was a result of changes to hygiene and other requirements in hospitals nationally.

A TEENAGE birthday celebration turned to tragedy when a young girl was killed in a road accident, moments after she had left a party.

Ennis Coroner’s Court heard that Charelle Howard (17), an only child, from The Watery Road, Ennis, was a back-seat passenger in a Volkswagen Polo car that was involved in a single vehicle accident at Shanaway Road, Ennis, in the early hours of July 16, 2005.

Charelle’s friend, Jennifer O’Halloran, recalled how she held a house party at her home in Woodstock, Ennis, to celebrate her 18th birthday. At around 12.30am, a number of those attending the party decided to go to the Queen’s nightclub. A young man, Aidan Quilligan from Sixmilebridge, was driving and there were six passengers in the car. Mr Quilligan had not been drinking and everybody was in good form, the inquest heard. En route to Ennis, the car overturned and Ms O’Halloran noticed that her friend was not moving.

“Charelle didn’t answer. I said to her, ‘Come on, get out of the car’, but she was not moving. I knew she was unconscious,” recalled Ms O’Halloran.

A man who was driving behind Mr Quilligan’s car, minutes before the accident, said the car in which the group was travelling was moving at a speed of “maybe 60 mph.”

Charelle’s grandfather Jack Howard, from Newmarket-on-Fergus, recalled how his daughter Sandra rang him at 12.45am to say that Charelle had been in an accident. Twenty minutes later, she phoned again to say that Charelle had passed away.

A PSV inspector examined the car and noted that it was roadworthy. Dr Jeffrey de Freitas, who carried out an autopsy on Charelle’s body, concluded that death was due to cardiac respiratory failure, due to a fracture of the skull, consistent with having been involved in a road traffic accident.

County Coroner Isobel O’Dea said the accident, after a birthday party, was a “sad tragedy”. The jury agreed with her suggestion that a verdict of accidental death be brought. Ms O’Dea said alcohol was not a factor in the accident. “A young life was tragically lost, after an evening’s entertainment. It was a tragic accident,” she said.

Mr Quilligan’s family extended sympathy with the Howard family on the loss of Charelle, through their solicitor.

AGREEMENT with the unions on a package which would allow Shannon Airport to move forward will be achieved before Christmas. That was the prediction by Airport Executive Chairman, Pat Shanahan, when he came as an invited speaker to address Clare County Council last night.

Shanahan told the meeting that after 18 months of negotiations, he now hoped that talks, which are on-going under the auspices of the LRC, will be successful, “in time for a busy festive period.”

And he promised councillors that “no-one will be coerced or forced to take a redundancy package. Staff will be made an offer and if they don’t want it, then they can stay.”

The Executive Chairman was making a presentation and answering questions from elected representatives on the situation at, and future plans for, Shannon.

He told the meeting that passenger numbers would top 3.6 million by the end of the year. This is an increase of 21 per cent in European traffic, 11 per cent in US traffic and 13 per cent in UK traffic. The one downturn this year was in military traffic, which has been cut by 60 per cent.

He added that with the advent of open skies, “we are aggressively going after the North American market and advertising that the place people want to be flying into to spend their holidays in the west of Ireland is Shannon, not Dublin and then taking a four-hour bus ride.”

The decision to close the bar at the airport and cut back on opening hours in the restaurant was one forced by staff shortages, Shanahan said.

“We cannot afford to increase direct employment and the way forward is to provide state of the art franchising facilities,” he added.

He warned councillors that the “biggest problem facing Shannon Airport is financial viability and this needs to be addressed urgently.” He added that other cost factors besides staffing, including energy costs and rates would also have to be addressed.

As well as targeting increased passenger numbers and decreased costs, the cargo and property elements of the business would be developed.

“We are operating in a very competitive market and we want to have a world-class facility at Shannon. We need a seismic shift at Shannon and a point has been reached where management and unions are ready to make that shift. In this environment, people will have long-term, sustainable jobs.”

AN inquest has heard how a man tried to wake his daughter as their Scarriff home was ablaze, but the young woman died in the fire.

Ennis Coroner’s Court was told that Suzanne Moroney (24), of Drewsboro, Scarriff, died in a fire on the night of Sunday, June 26, 2005.

Ms Moroney, who worked as a secretary, was pronounced dead at the scene of the blaze, after efforts to wake her failed.

Suzanne’s father, Denis Moroney, said he was at home with his wife and mother-in-law on the evening of June 26 last year.

His wife later went to Tuamgraney to collect Suzanne. Some time later he saw the light flickering in one of the bedrooms. The bedspread in that room was on fire and he grabbed his mother-in-law. Suzanne was asleep in bed in another room and he tried to wake her up.

“I said, ‘The house is on fire,’” he recalled.

Garda Liam Donoghue said he received a call to go to the scene of a fire at Drewsboro, Scarriff, shortly after 10.30pm.

When he arrived at the house, members of the fire services were at the scene and Garda Donoghue was told there was a body in the house.

“There was a huge fire around the house at that stage. There was a large crowd at the scene. A number of people had escaped from the house,” he said.

Dr Jeffrey de Freitas carried out an autopsy on the deceased’s body. He told the inquest that her face was covered in soot and she had sustained superficial burns on exposed parts of the body. He concluded that death was due to cardiac respiratory failure, due to carbon monoxide poisoning.

Coroner Isobel O’Dea said the case was “very sad. I am satisfied that an accidental fire broke out in the house. I feel an appropriate verdict is an accidental verdict, because it is quite clear a fire broke out in another room in the house,” she said.

Addressing the Moroney family, Ms O’Dea said, “It must have been terribly shocking for you. I hope the verdict brings some degree of closure for you.”

Ms O’Dea and Inspector Michael Gallagher expressed their sympathies with the Moroney family on their loss.

FINE Gael TD, Pat Breen has apologised to a second victim of sex offender Joseph Nugent for the offence caused by tabling a Dáil question inquiring into Nugent’s eligibility for early release.

The man, in his 30s, confirmed that the TD apologised in a telephone conversation between the two, in response to the man contacting Deputy Breen’s constituency office to complain about the Dáil question being tabled.

He said that the apology from Deputy Breen “is a start”.

“He apologised for the offence caused by asking the question and said that the whole thing had been blown out of all proportion. He said that if there was anything he could do, to give him a call; that he would help out in any way,” the man told The Clare People.

“I’m happy that he did apologise. I felt very hurt over the question being asked. If the paedophile was released, it would have been a pure joke because he is a danger to all kids and society.

“With the publicity around the case, I didn’t know if I was coming or going last week. I was not myself because it does upset you.”

The man that Deputy Breen apologised to is one of two victims found to have been abused by Nugent, who was sentenced to six years in jail in 2002 and 2004.

Deputy Breen met with the second victim on Sunday in Doonbeg.

Nugent was sentenced to six years’ imprisonment at Kilrush Circuit Court in November 2004 on one count of buggery and one count of indecent assault. The sentence was backdated to run concurrently with the sentence that he received in 2002.

The man said that Nugent had never apologised.

“There has been no apology. He doesn’t feel sorry for what he did. I will never forgive that paedophile for what he did.”

The man said that he was first assaulted by Nugent when he was aged eight and the abuse continued until he was 15.

He said that after Nugent was questioned by gardaí in relation to a separate complaint from a male victim, Nugent was asked did he abuse anyone else and he named the man.

“I’m angry that the paedophile didn’t receive any extra time in jail over the abuse he carried out on me. The sentences ran concurrently.

“I’m also angry that there has not been one iota of remorse or even an acknowledgement of what he did.

“You could see in court on the day that he didn’t give two fecks and was only laughin’.

“My name has been slandered in certain ways over this case. I came forward after the gardaí asked me to give a statement and when I heard that the paedophile made an attempt to abuse another person.

“Certain people criticised me for going forward and telling of the abuse and saying that I should have said nothing.

“If everyone had their attitude, no paedophile would be jailed. What would they do if it was their child, brother or sister being abused?

“I’m also very mad that there has been no compensation as there are still legal and psychiatric costs and it is wrong that I would have to pay that and I won’t be paying it.

“I lost a lot of friends over it and if I knew all of this, maybe I would have been better off saying nothing and just living with it.”

He added, “The counselling has been very good.

“I’m a hardworking, honest man and I would help out anyone in any way I can, but if I am hurt I don’t forgive.”

FINE Gael TD Pat Breen has blamed the Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell, and sections of the media for the storm of controversy surrounding his tabling of a Dáil question into the early release of a convicted child rapist.

Deputy Breen gave a written statement to the primary victim of sex offender, Joseph Nugent, when the two met in Doonbeg on Sunday.

In the letter, Deputy Breen does not apologise for tabling the question and instead focuses on the role Minister McDowell and the media have had in the affair.

In the letter, Deputy Breen states, “This issue would never have been the subject of public debate if it had been handled in the normal way.

“However, the Minister for Justice in his Dáil reply provided unusual and extensive detail about the case, which clearly identified those involved.

“This directly led to it becoming a public issue because certain sections of the tabloid media saw an opportunity to create sensational headlines without showing any regard for the pain and suffering it would cause to the victims.

“Thankfully, other sections of the media acted responsibly and treated the issue with sensitivity.

“I genuinely regret the pain and suffering that you have been caused, not only by the terrible crimes of the perpetrator, but also the fact that you had to relive the terrible experiences because of the actions of certain sections of the media.

“Although, it is not under my control, I hope for your sake that there will be no more debate on the matter.”

Explaining the circumstances around the tabling the question, Deputy Breen said, “I was approached by a relative of Joseph Nugent who was seeking clarification as to the exact situation in relation to Joseph Nugent.

“The family was totally confused about the matter, having received conflicting information on different occasions. It is usual for a TD to be approached on an issue such as this and I agreed to table a written question to seek this information on their behalf.”

The victim told The Clare People yesterday that he was satisfied with the letter from Deputy Breen.

“Deputy Breen told me that he regretted asking the Dáil question. We had a cup of tea and I think both of us want to get on with our lives now.”

Nugent is currently serving a sixyear term in Portlaoise for the buggery and indecent assault of two young west Clare boys.

Last month, Deputy Breen tabled a Dáil question inquiring when the 74year old, Nugent would be eligible for early release. Minister McDowell said that due to the seriousness of the offences, he would not be authorising any early release.