Author: admin

LOCAL councillors in Kinvara have warned the Sisters of Mercy that they will block any attempt by them to sell the grounds of Seamount College for commercial use.

In a joint statement, seven county councillors of the Loughrea electoral area last Friday stated that the Kinvara local area plan had now been adapted to designate Seamount College and its grounds for community use only.

The Sisters of Mercy announced earlier this month that they were to wind down the 80-year-old all girls school over the next three years.

While they have not yet announced any plans for the college and its grounds, one local auctioneer estimated that the area would be worth a minimum of €1million if sold as a commercial site.

“We believe that a need currently exists within Kinvara for a post-primary school. With the population increase forecast for Kinvara and its hinterland over the coming years, this need will become even more apparent in the near future,” read the statement.

“We have recently adapted the Kinvara Local Area plan in which we designated Seamount College and its grounds to be used solely for community facilities.”

Meanwhile, parents and teachers group RESCUE have stepped up their campaign to save the school. They are seeking an urgent meeting with the Minister for Education Mary Hanafin.

Each of the 243 pupils of the college posted hand written letters to the Sisters of Mercy head office in Ballinasloe last week begging for time to save the school.

“We have no idea what the Sisters of Mercy have in mind to do with the site and we have had no correspondence with them since the announcement,” said Jane Joyce of RESCUE.

“What we are trying to do now is to establish the education need for the minister, to show her that we can sustain a school in Kinvara. After that it is at the minister’s prerogative what she wants to do.”

RESCUE are also urging the Sisters of Mercy to re-appoint the school’s board of management who were not ratified by the Sisters at the start of the school year in September.

A HEALTH Service Executive (HSE) inspection of Carrigoran House nursing home near Newmarket on Fergus has given the facility a clean bill of health.

However, Age Action Ireland has questioned the value of such reports “as they tell us nothing about the homes in question”.

In relation to Carrigoran, the HSE Inspection Team concluded that the nursing home, which can accommodate 152 residents, “was found to be in substantial compliance with the Health Act 1990 and subsequent regulations”.

The published report runs to less than 200 words. It acknowledges that Carrigoran Nursing Home in conjunction with the Nursing and Midwifery Planning and Development Unit of the HSE are developing policies and procedures for “person centred care” at the Nursing Home.

The inspection related to an unannounced visit to Sancta Maria nursing home in Cratloe also stated that most of the items of a previous inspection had been addressed.

There are eight private nursing homes in Clare and there are currently reports available on the HSE website in relation to two – the other homes are Cahercalla Community Hospital Ennis, Kilrush Districk Hospital, Kilrush, Lakes Hill Rd, Killaloe, Riverdale House, Ardnacrusha, St. Domnic Savio, Liscannor and St. Theresa’s, Kilrush.

Sr Christina Murphy of Carrigoran said that the home was “gratified” by the comments made in the HSE Inspection report.

She said: “We strive for a holistic approach in relation to the residents here and the HSE has recognised that. It was an announced inspection and was a very thorough examination of the home. The inspection team examined everything. They were very professional, checked all the charts and all aspects of the operation of the nursing home. They didn’t leave any stone unturned.”

Sr Christina said that the inspection team commenced their examination of the facility at 9.30am and remained until 2.30pm.

“We are quite pleased that the inspections are going on. They can only help to improve your standards in the quality of care.”

A spokesman for Age Action Ireland said: “The reports tell you nothing about the care facilities. What do we know about the social activities at these homes, the diets? Nothing. The details in these reports are so scant as to render them meaningless. All the details in relation to these facilities need to be published. An independent inspectorate needs to be put in place. The Government has promised it since 2002, but we are still waiting for it to happen.

SHANNON Aer Lingus workers concerned for their jobs were reluctant to speak on the record at the weekend about the Ryanair bid and proposed cuts.

With Ryanair making an aggressive bid for the airline and promising major cuts and job losses, Aer Lingus bosses are fighting back by promising cost-cutting measures.

On Friday, staff were concerned about reports in the national media that job-cuts might also be on the agenda for Aer Lingus management.

Those who did speak to The Clare People declined to be named but revealed how staff felt they are caught in the crossfire.

“If Michael O’Leary gets his way, then none of us can be certain whether we’ll have jobs this time next year. Now our own bosses are saying there will have to be cut-backs. Seems we’re damned if they do and damned if they don’t,” one woman worker said.

Another man working in the catering department said that staff generally were “concerned. We’ll see what the union has to say about it all, but people are worried, particularly if it looks like Michael O’Leary will take over. But it’s not even a question anymore of who you want to be paying your wages, so long as you have a wage.”

Last week, the national media carried reports that Aer Lingus chief executive Dermot Mannion called in union representatives to tell them that there would be drastic cuts if the airline was to meet the Ryanair low-fares challenge.

The 100 employees involved in sales and marketing in the US were reported to be under scrutiny. In its bid for the airline, Ryanair said it could run the department with just a handful of people. But SIPTU had a clarification meeting with Mannion in the wake of the media reports.

A spokesman for SIPTU in Shannon said that Mannion, “clarified the position. All he said was that costs would be kept under constant review. He said nothing about cutting jobs. Keeping costs under review is normal procedure for any company. All of the agreements we negotiated with Aer Lingus are still in place.”

Meanwhile, the chances of success for the budget airline’s bid for a hostile takeover now seem unlikely. O’Leary had built up a 19.2 per cent stake in Aer Lingus, but on Thursday, Aer Lingus pilots added to their existing 4 per cent stake.

WHILE the drama of the Ryanair takeover bid continues, Shannon Development have been drawing up plans to bring in tourism revenue from the destinations served by the airline out of Shannon.

As part of its regional tourism development role, the development agency plans to forge links with a number of tourism authorities in key countries where Ryanair routes have emerged.

“The launch of the new Ryanair routes this month from Shannon Airport to Biarritz and Carcassonne in the South of France, Faro in Portugal, Krakow in Poland and Venice in Italy, and newly announced routes from Madrid in Spain, Edinburgh and Bournemouth in the UK, as well as increased frequency on routes from Shannon to Barcelona Malaga and Milan, gives us an ideal opportunity to form strategic partnerships with local tourism authorities in these cities to facilitate a marketing alliance, and ultimately attract more visitors to the Shannon Region”, says John King, Heritage and Tourism Director, Shannon Development.

The first initiative of this type will see key Shannon Development tourism executives head to Biarritz early next month for what they are calling a ‘Biarritz Blitz’.

While in the area, they will target tourism travel media and invite them to a briefing on the Shannon Region as a tourism destination.

“If this pilot run proves successful we will roll it out in other Ryanair destinations important to Shannon Airport.

“We believe that we must keep aggressively marketing these routes to ensure the best return for the Shannon Region in terms of attracting additional tourists to our region”, said Pat Daly, Tourism Marketing Manger, Shannon Development.

He added that as “part of our ongoing tourism strategy we will be working with our colleagues in Tourism Ireland and Fáilte Ireland and Ryanair, we will be inviting travel media from these destinations to visit the Shannon Region.”

Business organisation ISME, has questioned the Government’s commitment to competition, “in light of their policy of protecting Aer Lingus at all costs.”

According to ISME Chief Executive, Mark Fielding, the business community is “perplexed at the hypocrisy of, on the one hand fighting tooth and nail to ensure competition in the air, but on the other preventing competition on the ground through disallowing the break-up of the ESB and not allowing competition in other State controlled sectors of the economy, such as Bus Eireann and Dublin Bus.”

Fielding is claiming that the motive behind the Government’s move is to “protect the interests of the unions as opposed to any belated Pauline conversion to the merits of competition.”

The ISME chief criticised the Minister for Transport, whom he claimed was “loathe to fully deregulate the bus market where the bus licensing system discriminates against private sector operators. Consequently, we are left with an inefficient public transport system that does no justice to the public it serves.”

With electricity costs due to increase by a further 20 per cent in January, Fielding said it “beggars belief that the Government continually refuses to break-up the ESB to generate competition.

“How can a Government that outwardly proclaims to encourage competition, dismiss their own consultants’ recommendations to increase competition and in the process bolster the ESB’s dominant position?”

Fielding called on the Government to “put the same commitment into opening up competition in other parts of the economy as they have belatedly applied to protecting competition, when it suits, in air transport.”.

FURTHER doubt was cast on Enterprise Ireland relocating 400 jobs to Shannon this week with Enterprise Minister, Michael Martin conceding that it wasn’t possible to say when the decentralisation will take place.

Last February, Minister Martin said Shannon Development would sell a prime 13-acre town centre site for Enterprise Ireland’s new Shannon headquarters. However, in his latest Dail response, Minister Martin admits that no progress has been made on relocating Enterprise Ireland to Shannon.

To date, only 19 existing employees at Enterprise Ireland have indicated their willingness to transfer to Shannon, while an additional 33 public servants have also expressed an interest to move to Shannon, giving a total of 52.

In his Dáil statement last week, Minister Martin said: “It is not possible, at this stage, to say with certainty when the full move of Enterprise Ireland’s headquarters will take place”.

“The agency’s regional development headquarters will be established in Shannon as well as a new unit to work with city and county enterprise boards. It is intended that these will be operational in Shannon by mid-2007”.

“The functions hitherto carried out by Shannon Development under delegated authority from Enterprise Ireland will revert to Enterprise Ireland on January 1, 2007. The transfer of functions will also involve the transfer of a number of staff from Shannon Development to Enterprise Ireland”, he said.

THE Minister for Enterprise, Michael Martin moved to conclude talks on the revised mandate for Shannon Development after been told that the continuing uncertainty had given rise to a deep level of concern and frustration, documents released under the Freedom of Information Act show.

In July of last year, Minister Martin announced a new mandate for Shannon Development, which removed from the company responsibility for the promotion of the Shannon Free Zone and transferred indigenous promotion functions to Enterprise Ireland. SIPTU firmly resisted the new mandate.

The talks dragged on for months and Mr McElligott wrote to Minister Martin in March to state: “To be frank, there is a deep level of frustration and concern.”

The documents released also show that at a meeting with Minister Martin one month later, Mr McElligott and chief executive, Kevin Thompstone told Minister Martin that “the new mandate provided 95 per cent of what the Board has sought and while it is difficult to assess the SIPTU position, it seemed clear that most staff now wished to move on”.

A note of an internal Departmental meeting on July 27, 2006 stated that during an informal meeting between the minister and SIPTU officials, it emerged that the union was not in a position to deliver any compromise proposal.

“As a result, Minister Martin ordered that the clarification process with SIPTU be regarded as concluded and the mandate implemented.

Later, it was announced that Shannon Development would retain responsibility for the Shannon Free Zone, though no documentation was released as to how the minister arrived at this decision.

A LEADING member of the Shell-to-Sea campaign will speak at a specially organised public meeting in Ennis later this month.

Sean Harrington, who is a brother of Mayo school teacher Maura Harrington, will address the public meeting at the second stage in Glór at 8.30pm on November 23.

Mr Harrington is himself a prominent member of the Shell-to-Sea organisation.

His sister gained national recognition earlier this month when she was hospitalised following an altercation with gardaí at the site of the proposed gas refinery at Bellanaboy in Mayo.

Meanwhile, the award winning Channel 4 documentary “The Drilling Fields” will be shown as part of a Clare Shell-to-Sea fundraising evening, which will take place at the Astor Cinema in Scariff this Saturday from 8pm.

The documentary tells the story of Ken Saro-Wiwa, a Nigerian man who was hanged along with 8 other men for his opposition to a Shell project in the Ogoni region of the Niger Delta.

“The main purpose of this evening is to get bums on seats for the international day of protest against Shell on November 10,” said Niall Harnett of Clare Shell-to-Sea.

“There will be busses from all over the country travelling to Mayo for the day and we would be expecting a good turnout in Clare.”

A large number of Nigerians are expected to travel to Mayo for the international day of protest on November 10.

All proceeds from the film evening will go towards funding busses from Clare to Bellanaboy for the day of protest.

THE father of a murdered Kilrush woman has been warned he may face a jail term if he fails to pay compensation for damage he caused to a neighbour’s house.

Stephen Walsh (56), of Pella Road, Kilrush, admitted damaging a door panel at a house in the early hours of July 17, 2004.

Garda Seamus Gleeson told Ennis Circuit Court the cost of repairing the damage to Raymond Conway’s house was €1,300.

Mr Conway had installed a video camera in the house, which was been renovated, and it showed the accused – and his co-accused, who cannot be named for legal reasons – throwing blocks at the house.

“The two pushed in the gate. Both had a concrete block and a bar in each hand. You could see them throwing the blocks and running out the gate,” said the garda.

Mr Walsh’s barrister Pat Whyms said there has been considerable history between the Walsh and Conway families. The court was told there were allegations of threats on both sides of the dispute.

Judge Con Murphy said the case was very difficult. He said Stephen Walsh went out “deliberately” in the dark hours to a neighbouring house. “This was a vigilante type act with intimidation and gangsterism written all over it,” he said.

He said he was taking into account the accused’s guilty plea and that his daughter was murdered since the offence took place. However he said the accused did not pay compensation and this indicated there was no real remorse.

“This type of act has to be severely frowned upon. I have no option but to sentence him to one year in jail. It would have been higher but for the relatively small amount of repairs,” said the judge.

Mr Whyms then pointed out to the judge that there was “severe provocation,” and asked him to suspend the sentence.

Judge Murphy said, “You cannot, in any town in Ireland, have people taking the law into their own hands. The way to show people are gone past that is to pay compensation.”

Mr Whyms said his client took out a €6,000 loan to pay for his daughter Ann’s funeral last year and he would seek to increase that loan.

The judge said he would adjourn the case and said “if compensation is here, I might well take a slightly more lenient view. I have given a very, very clear indication of the way I am going. This carry-on has to stop.”

A PRIMARY school teacher in Clare has appeared before Ennis District Court, charged with 69 counts of sexual assault.

The accused, who cannot be named for legal reasons, and who has an address in Clare, is facing the charges arising out of alleged incidents on a number of dates between 2001 and 2004.

The charges relate to the alleged abuse of several young boys.

Garda Denis Collins told the court on Friday he arrested the accused on October 8 last.

When charged at Ennis Garda Station the accused replied, “no comment” after each charge.

The alleged assaults are understood to have occurred at various locations, including at the defendant’s home and the school where he taught.

Inspector Kevin Moynihan (prosecuting) told the court that the State did not have any objection to a remand on continuing bail to appear in court early next year, to facilitiate the preparation of the Book of Evidence.

Inspector Moynihan said the DPP has directed to a trial on indictment and he applied to extend time to serve the Book of Evidence.

There was no objection from the accused’s solicitor, Ted McCarthy.

Judge Joseph Mangan agreed to the request. He adjourned the case until early in 2007.