Month: June 2008

yesterday that the recent dramatic rise in the cost of diesel has increased his costs by almost 20 per cent, meaning that he is now operating at a loss.

“It’s an absolute joke that the Gov- ernment can just merrily take their percentage. They are going to have to take a cut. At the moment the Gov-

ernment of Ireland is getting more for the oil than the Arabs are get- ting for selling it. That doesn’t make Sense to me,” he said.

‘The fishermen in France and in other European countries all get a big cut on the tax on diesel. There has to be some way in capping the amount of money that the Govern- ment is taking on this. The business is not sustainable at current prices. So either I’m going to have to put up prices drastically or the price of diesel is going to have to be brought down somehow. I cant keep doing it under the current situation.”

Like many other Clare boat owners, Mr Aston was forced out of the com-

mercial fishing business a number and years ago. He took advantage of Government funding made available from Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM) to diversify into chartered sea angling.

“IT was commercially fishing here in Carraigaholt until about five years ago and at that time we would have been the biggest boat fishing out of Clare. But it just wasn’t viable for us to keep going,” he said.

“We were lucky enough to get a di- versification grant from BIM to set up some marine tourism. I know that there are big boats out there that also received Government grant aid that could now easily go out of business. It doesn’t make sense.”

Clare TD and Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture with special responsibility for fisheries, Tony Killeen, revealed yesterday that he has requested an early meeting with the European commissioner re- sponsible for fisheries and maritime PNR N Dace

“I am cogently aware of the dif- ficulties being experienced by the fishing industry at local and national level,’ he said.

“IT have requested a meeting with Commissioner Joe Borg to discuss these difficulties. I am aware that the issue will also be discussed at next week’s meeting of the Fisheries Council.”

THE HEAD of the IFA in Clare has said that he has every confidence that the government will deliver on it’s promise to veto any World Trade Organisation (WTO) deal if it was negative to Irish farming.

Following last week’s agreement between IFA President Padraig Walshe and Taoiseach Brian Cowen on WTO, Clare IFA head Michael Lynch has urged all Clare farmers to vote yes on Thursday.

“The IFA has always favoured in- volvement in Europe. Our protest was always about the WTO and once we have the commitment on that then we are in favour of the treaty,’ said Mr Lynch.

“We feel that we have a guarantee; it was given in public and we would expect this to be honoured. – no mat- ter who is in power.”

“We expect that farming interests would be defended as the mainstay of the rural community in Ireland”.

Mr Lynch did admit however that despite his organisations protests, the treaty has very little to do with levuscupetse

““T don’t see it having a major influ- ence one way or the other on farm- ing. It seems to be more about the general running of Europe and mak- ing it easier to manage all the coun- tries,’ he said

“We had tried every means neces- sary to get the government to use the veto on world trade before we made the Lisbon Treaty a farming issue.”

“We had numerous meetings and

numerous protests and yet the gov- ernment wasn’t willing to move.”

“Anytime you get an election peo- ple do use it strategically to defend their position and that is what we had to do.”

‘This was really a backs to the wall job for Irish farming, we did what we really had to do. We had no alterna- tive but to put whatever pressure we could on the government on this.”

“At local levels we had commit- ments from both government and op- positions at county council level and I failed to understand how the gov- ernment failed to give a commitment for so long when their representa- tives on the ground were calling on them to do so. At the end of the day it was a last resort but it was what we had to do.”

THE effort to defeat the Lisbon Trea- ty is the largest political campaign ever undertaken by Republican Sinn Fein in Clare, according to a party spokesman.

With more than 15,000 houses vis- ited in the Ennis area alone, the party believe that the ‘No’ campaign is set to be a successful one.

“We feel confident at this stage that the ‘No’ campaign will win the day. The response that we have got has been brilliant so far. We have been all over the county and the response from people on the doorsteps has been great,’ said Paddy Kenneally, Clare head of Republican Sinn Féin.

The party claims to have serious reservations about the security of the State and it’s neutrality should the treaty be passed.

“This treaty lays the foundations for a Super European army and will be a big challenge to Ireland neutral- ity,’ he said.

“It will also be the end of Irish farming as it will open up trade

agreements with Brazil, Argentina and New Zealand which will supply the markets of Europe with cheap but inferior meat. Irish farmers will suf- fer for this for years to come.”

“Corporate tax in Ireland is the envy of all of Europe and this is one of the main reasons why multination- als invest here. We believe that the EU intends to bring our tax levels in line with the rest of the EU, which will effectively double our tax rate.”

“We believe that the multinationals are going to leave Ireland if this takes place and look for cheaper business in countries in Asia and Africa.”

Mr Kenneally also hit out at a number of elected representative for advocating a treaty that they admit not to having read.

“The main political parties of the State are asking people to vote yes even though they admit that there are no benefits from it and that many of them haven’t even read it.”

“They tell us that there’s a veto on several issues. But they have not told us that this veto can be overturned by a board of EU minsters.”

ON Friday last all four Clare TDs – two Fianna Fail and two Fine Gael – campaigned together around the county.

Minister of State Tony Killeen has urged the people of Clare to support the Lisbon Reform Treaty while he also criticised ‘No’ campaigners for making claims that had zero basis in ele

“It is now only a matter of days to polling in a referendum that will make a huge difference to the direc-

tion of our country. I believe that the only way that our country can grow, prosper and provide opportunities for our people is to be at the heart of the European Union,” the Junior Agriculture Minister said.

‘I know that many people are con- fused about what is involved in the Lisbon Reform Treaty. Part of this is because they are hearing claim and counter-claim from both sides. A lot of this has been a deliberate tactic by groups like Youth Defence, Sinn Fein and Libertas which are making claims that have zero basis in fact.

For example, they claimed that the treaty undermined our tax policies even though every independent body which has examined this has said ex- actly the opposite.”

Opposition TD Pat Breen (FG) was in the unusual position of supporting the Government stance.

“A ‘No’ vote will do nothing for our tax autonomy, do nothing for our independent defence policy, do noth- ing for workers rights, do nothing for our farmers and nothing for Ireland’s capacity to develop new opportuni- ties for our people,’ he said.

Meanwhile, the chairman of Ire- land’s only regional agency has warned that the Lisbon Treaty is too important an issue for the people of the mid west not to take time to be- come informed about it.

“A “Yes’ vote for the Lisbon Treaty referendum is vital for Ireland. By supporting this treaty we will be supporting Ireland’s position as a global economic player and failure to do so will result in this position being eroded and undermined,” said John Brassil, Chairman Shannon Development.

“There seems to be a view out there that people are voting ‘no’ because they are not sure of what the treaty is about. This is too important an issue not to take the time to get informed. I would strongly urge everyone who 1s unsure to take time to understand the treaty. There is plenty of information out there.

“We are all in businesses of one type or another and therefore the re- sponsibility for ensuring the future prosperity of the business communi- ty in Ireland rests in all our hands,” he said.

CLARE County Council spent al- most €5 million on private consult- ants in 2007 it was revealed at last nights meeting of the local author- ity.

Responding to a motion put forward by Councillor Martin Conway (FG), the local authority revealed that it spent a total of €4,936,000, or more than €2,700 per day, on consultants last year.

“We are spending a serious amount of money on consultants. Surely to God we don’t need all these. At this time of financial difficulties I wonder could a lot of this not be dealt with in-house,” said Cllr Conway.

“We have had a number of nega- tive issues with contractors lately, and one on the Lisdoonvarna to Bal- lyvaughan road in particular. We need to make sure that we are get- ting value for money. Maybe we need to bring in consultants to make sure that we are getting value for money from our consultants.”

The meeting heard that the majority of consultants fees was spent on large projects such as the Ennis bypass. In addition to this some €400,000 was spent in the interactive video exhibi- tion at the Cliffs of Moher.

“Really the expenses on consult- ants are spent in the area of infra-

structure. The Ennis bypass was a large amount of this funding and the NRA would have paid for a lot of that,” said Clare County Manager Alec Fleming.

‘The second biggest area of invest- ment here would have been water services. We have €60 million work done on this and we plan to spent another €200 million in backing that up. We need to have an expert consultant on some of the bigger projects.

“If you have a very large product like the Ennis bypass you need to have a large expertise there and it would not be possible to build up that experience in house. Now that the Ennis bypass has been completed this will not appear on our budget for the coming years.

In a related motion, Councillor Martin Lafferty (IND) called on cutbacks to be made in the area on CLO ITIUU LEAT OT ACR

“I would be urging the county man- ager to indicate where savings could be made. Are there areas where we could cut back? If we spend this money the people who will lose out are our own local workers and the services that will be available for the people,” he said.

You should keep a tight reins on these expenses to see us through a particularly tough year.”

EAST CLARE Councillor Colm Willey (FF) proposed a novel idea to help schools avoid crippling water Ot heone

The colourful councillor asked the county manager if schools could receive a grant to sink a well in the yard for their use.

The suggestion, which received a smile from the head of the council executive, was made in response to a question from Cllr Tom Prendev- ille who asked for an outline of the charges to schools as set out by the Department of the Environment.

Cllr Prendeville told last night’s meeting of the council, “The Depart- ment of the Environment needs to know schools are cash strapped and under resourced. They rely on char- ity and local fundraising to make ends meet.”

Clir Cathal Crowe (FF) said the charges were also affecting sporting Ode ee aU ISTALB CO) ILE

“One group was advised to shut off water to toilets and urinals until it was needed,” he said.

Green Party cllr Brian Meaney blamed the controversial charges on the failure of successive Govern- ments to implement the EU Water Framework Directive.

“T think we are really at a stage where councillors here look at things

through Fianna Fail tinted glasses. The sad reality is successive Gov- ernments have failed to put in water directive. There would be no need to charge schools or other non-profit or- ganisation.”

A circular was received by Clare County Council from the Depart- ment of the Environment in January this year that announced transitional arrangement for charging schools for water services as part of the imple- mentations of the EU Water Frame- work Directive.

The transitional arrangement in- volves the payment by schools of the flat rate water charges proportion- ate to the school size for three years 2007 to 2009.

The amount to be charged to non- fee paying schools for these years will be based on the number of pu- pils at a cost of €3 per pupil for 2007, €3.50 for 2008 and €4 for 2009.

However if the actual usage as re- corded by a metre is less than that calculated per head then the lesser amount will be charged.

While Cllr Flan Garvey (FF) suggested that the council allow a threshold before charging schools, Clare county councillors agreed to write to the Departments of the En- vironment, Education and Finance asking that compensation funds be made available to the schools to help cover the charge.

SHARON Collins is not a greedy woman and the allegations against her do not make sense, according to one of the men she is accused of conspiring to murder – who planted a kiss on her lips in open court.

PJ Howard kissed Ms Collins af- ter he stepped down from the wit- ness box, having completed giving evidence to the trial just before noon last Thursday.

The 58-year-old businessman leaned over to the accused woman, touched her cheek and kissed her, be- fore swiftly leaving the courtroom. Minutes earlier, she had broken down in tears as he told the court she was “far from” greedy and had looked af- ter him when he had been ill.

Asked about the allegations against her, he said, “It doesn’t make sense to me. It is totally out of character. I find it very, very, very hard to be- lieve.

‘In the eight years since I’ve known Sharon, she has never asked me for anything. That’s one of the things I find astonishing. I often offered her things and she said ‘No’.

“If she was given three or four hun- dred euro for herself the first thing she would do was make sure her two lads had enough. She’d be far from a greedy person, far from it. I made a Statement to that effect,’ he said.

“When I wasn’t well she looked after me extremely well. She had a very good life for us. I was very happy with it. I presume she was too. We didn’t feel there were any serious

problems between us until this situa- tion arose. Prior to that, we were liv- ing quite normally,” he said.

During a 20-minute cross-exami- nation by Paul O’Higgins SC for Ms Collins, Mr Howard was asked about a “marriage” to Ms Collins. Mr O’Higgins referred to a pre-nuptial agreement and asked was part of that to ease Mr Howard’s two sons’ state of mind.

“They were considerably involved in the business at the time and would have expected to be left the business. The business is too small to be di- vided up,” said Mr Howard.

“It has been put across here that it was a very fast decision. This was not a very fast decision. It was de- cided over a number of months. We Spent time discussing it. We both took legal advice. I was told by my

solicitor that pre-nuptials were not accepted by the Irish courts. This was made perfectly clear to Sharon. She accepted this and we decided that we could not get married,’ said Mr Howard.

““T think it was well established that we were not married,’ he added.

ESSAM Eid would have stuck out “like a sore toe” in an identification parade as none of the eight other par- ticipants were “remotely like him’, his counsel claimed at the trial.

Michael Collins BL, for Mr Eid, made the claim in his cross-examina- tion of Sergeant Noel McMahon, who conducted the parade at Ennis Garda Station on September 27, 2006. That was the day after a man called to Robert Howard’s home demanding €100,000 to cancel contracts on the lives of the three Howards.

Sergeant McMahon told the court last Tuesday that eight men were made available to him, along with Essam Eid. He said that both Robert and Niall Howard identified Essam Eid as the man who had called to

their home at Ballaghboy, Ennis, the previous night.

However, Michael Collins pointed out that just one of the eight men was in his 50s, one was in his 40s, four were in their 30s and two were in their 20s.

“The reality is there was only one man in his 50s. None of them had a moustache,” said Mr Collins.

He asked, “Did any of them look as if they were of foreign extraction?” Sgt McMahon replied, “One of them had sallow skin.”

“Mr Eid would have stuck out like a sore toe,” said Mr Collins.

Sgt McMahon replied, “I don’t be- lieve he stuck out. These were the people who were made available to me. There was no objection. I had to work with them. I conducted the pa- rade as it should be conducted.”

COMMENTS in relation to a Re- spond house in Shannon, made at a meeting last month, have angered local residents. The remarks have prompted the Respond group to call for Clare County Council to take over the maintenance of the estate in which the house is built as a matter Oma Rees Neate

A motion placed before a Shannon area meeting of Clare County Coun- cil last month called for the council to contact Respond, in relation to Number 10 Rineanna View, which

was badly damaged by a fire and needed to be adequately secured.

The motion, placed by the Mayor of Shannon, Councillor Sean McLough- lin, received minimal discussion at the meeting.

Now, Respond has issued a state- ment, saying the residents reject what it has referred to as “council criticism” and pointing out that the house was secured immediately after RAV ROFD OM OL-LOMes-C-UNONDOLSLO ms LE

‘Several residents living in Rinean- na View, Ennis have expressed dis- appointment to Respond staff within the past week at the comments made

by their public representatives at the recent meeting of the Shannon Elec- toral Area Council,’ said the state- ment.

Respond Regional Manager Paul Hargaden said, “Rineanna View is maintained to a very high standard. Respond has a planned maintenance programme and, as part of this pro- gramme, the estate was painted in May and all guttering was cleaned. Respond manages a very high qual- ity community building on Rineanna View which provides supports for the local community, including a Family Resource Centre, Youth Activities

and educational programmes.”

Mr Hargaden said he “would have expected that the local councillors would have acquitted themselves with all of the facts before making any statement on the matter”.

The estate was built 10 years ago. Respond says it 1s well time for the local authority to take over the main- tenance of the lighting, roads, sewer- age and grass.

The statement added that Respond had used its own resources for the past ten years to maintain the estate, including the green areas, lighting and public walkways.

Respond, it said, had called on the local authority on numerous occa- sions to take the estate in charge, under the 2000 Planning and Devel- opment Act.

Mr Hargaden said that in addition to housing, Respond provided ad- ditional support services to the resi- dents, including estate management, community development, family re- source and childcare.

Respond staff visit the estate on a weekly basis to ensure the estate is well maintained, to deal with resi- dent queries and to develop commu- nity activities.

ONE of the largest employers in the Shannon area, Molex Ireland Ltd, suffered a loss last year due to a €6 million restructuring charge. Accounts filed with the Compa- nies Office show that the company sustained an operating loss of €1.49 million to the end of June 2007. In

2006 operating profit was €2.3 mil- lion. According to the accounts, the loss is made up of a €5.656 million restructuring charge and a fixed asset write off of €971,000.

However, the overall financial health of the company remains very strong with accumulated profits of €61 million. The company has other reserves of €33 million.

Underlining the contribution the company makes to the Clare econ- omy, Molex spent €22.6 million on staff costs last year, down slightly from €23 million in 2006.

The accounts show that 533 people were employed at the plant at the end of last June, an increase on the 501 employed at the plant twelve months previously. Some 454 employees are

engaged in production. The sales and marketing team has been cut back from 22 to 15.

The accounts show that the compa- ny increased the size of its business by 17 per cent in 2006, from €122 million to €143 million. Cost of sales in 2007 was €128 million.

The large rise in administrative ex- penses from €11.2 to €15.5 million,

which includes the restructuring charge, resulted in the company re- cording an operating loss of €1.499 million. The accounts show that a loss before tax of €8,000.

The US-owned Molex is engaged in the manufacture of electrical compo- nents and according to the accounts, directors expect a general level of ac- tivity to continue.