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VISITORS to Lahinch will be forced to foot the bill for the proposed new public toilet and shower facilities that are planned for the town. At last night’s meeting of Clare County Council, a motion was unanimously passed to double the cost of parking on the village’s promenade and in the Liscannor Road Parking lot.

The cost of parking in both locations will increase from €1 to €2 for a three hour parking disc and from €2.50 to €4 for an eight hour disc. With tens of thousands of tourists parking on the promenade each Summer the increase is likely to bring in more than €90,000 extra for the local authority each year.

“If you compare it to the cost of parking somewhere like the Cliffs of Moher, where people are charged €6 to park, it is excellent value for money,” said Ennistymon-based Councillor Martin Conway, who has been campaigning for toilet and shower facilities for surfers in Lahinch.

The extra revenue generated from the increased charges is also likely to be channelled towards improving the lifeguard facilities in Lahinch. While passing the motions at last nights meeting, councillors insisted that all the money collected must be redirected into the local area.

“We have been given a firm commitment from the director of services that all the extra money received from the increase in charges will go directly to provide toilet facilities and other amenities for the promenade,” continued Cllr Conway.

“More money will be invested in the prom than will be collected through the increase. The lack of public toilets in Lahinch is a disgrace and it has been neglected for many years while other towns have received resources ahead of them.”

It is hoped that the public toilet and shower facilities should be up and running in the village by the beginning of the 2007. However, no firm timetable has been put in place for their development. The proposed facilities are likely to be located on the promenade, in a area believed to be close to the Seaworld building.

In recent years Lahinch has seen a massive growth in the amount of surfers coming to the village each week. The numbers are believed to be in the region of 300 people a week.

QUERIES have been flying in to the Citizens Information Centre in Ennis concerning improved maternity leave conditions.

“We have been receiving quite a number of calls from around the county since March 1 in relation to the changes to the amount of time you can take for maternity leave,” said Paul Woulfe, manager of the centre.

Improved maternity leave provisions came into force on March 1, giving women 22 weeks’ maternity leave and 12 weeks’ additional unpaid leave.

There is still a lot of confusion in relation to the leave, Woulfe said.

“If you become pregnant while in employment, you are entitled to take a basic period of paid maternity leave followed by a further period of unpaid maternity leave,” he continued.

“The entitlement to maternity leave from employment extends to all female employees, including casual workers, regardless of how long you have been working for the organisation or the number of hours worked per week.”

At least two weeks of paid maternity leave have to be taken before the end of the week of your baby’s expected birth and at least four weeks after.

Women can decide how they would like to take the remaining weeks.

“Generally, employees take two weeks before the birth and the remaining weeks after,” Woulfe said.

Following the recent changes, women who start on paid maternity leave on or after March 1, 2006 are entitled to 22 weeks paid maternity leave.

Those who started on paid maternity leave before that date are only entitled to 18 weeks.

Those who start on the further period of unpaid maternity leave on or after March 1 are entitled to 12 weeks unpaid maternity leave.

Women who began unpaid maternity leave before that date are only entitled to eight weeks, the CIC boss explained.

Further increases are planned for next year when, from March 1, 2007, paid maternity leave increases to 26 weeks and unpaid maternity leave increases to 16 weeks.

Payment during paid maternity leave is normally provided through Maternity Benefit from the Department of Social and Family Affairs.

The period for which the benefit is paid has also increased in line with the increase in paid maternity leave.

Ennis CIC located at Bindon Lane Bank Place offer a free and confidential advice Service on rights and entitlements and is open daily from 9.30am-5pm.

Telephone: 065 684 1221.

CLARE County Council is to place details in relation to all new planning applications on its website later this year.

However, the Council’s Director for Planning, Bernadette Kinsella said that in response to concerns expressed by the Data Protection Commissioner on the level of detail to be made available online, the Council is in consultation with the Department of the Environment on the issue.

She said: “we are awaiting guidance from the department with regard to the treatment of applicants’ personal data.”

In the annual report of the Data Protection Commissioner published last week, the Commissioner stated that it has “an issue with the placing of the submissions in relation to planning files in their entirety on a web-site”.

The Data Protection Commissioner cites a case study in his report on the issue where he states “even where there is legislation providing that information must be made available to the public, this may not always mean that it is appropriate to place such information on a website”.

The Commissioner Office states: “where details of submissions are being placed on a website – thus being made available to a potentially huge audience – our advice is that the minimum of personal information should be disclosed.

“In our opinion, it should be sufficient in such cases to give the name and address of the person concerned. It should not be necessary for the general public (as opposed to Council officials) to have the phone numbers of the people concerned – the scope for abuse (e.g. in the form of harassing phone calls) is obvious in such cases.

“Where submissions are being scanned in order to be placed on a website, our advice is that any phone/ email contact details contained in them should first be ‘blacked out’.

“While this involves extra work for already hard-pressed Council officials, we believe that the effort involved is worthwhile in order to protect the privacy of the people concerned.

Ms Kinsella stated: “the Council commencerd scanning documentation relating to Planning applications in May, 2005.

“Since 1st January 2006 all new applications being lodged are scanned and available for viewing on the four computers located in the Public Office of the Planning Department.

“These computers provide members of the public with the ability to search Planning Files and view documents which have been scanned.

“We intend having these scanned images available on the Council website. It is planned that this would happen in the latter part of 2006, subject to the resolution of some technical issues.”

ONE of the county’s most vibrant cultural celebrations will not be affected by Clare’s most pressing sporting engagement.

Fears had been expressed that the National Cultural Parade for the 2006 Fleadh Nua would clash with the meeting of Clare and Cork in the opening round of the Munster Hurling Championship in Thurles. Both have been scheduled for May 28.

However, organisers moved to allay fears that turnout for the festival’s centrepiece would not be affected by starting the parade at an earlier time. The parade will now take place at 11.30am with organisers hoping this will allow hurling fans enough time to make the trip to Thurles.

Chairman of the Fleadh Nua organising committee, Domhnall Ó Loingsigh said the committee were never worried that the parade would be overshadowed by the hurling and had spoken with GAA officials about the matter. A similar situation arose in 1992 when Clare’s footballers were taking their first tentative steps to sporting immortality. Clare tackled Cork in the opening round of that famous championship on the same day as the Fleadh Nua festivities.

Mr O’Loingsigh also revealed that the parade would travel on a more condensed route than in previous years. This year the parade will begin on Francis Street, travel up through O’Connell street to the cathedral and will continue down Station Road.

“We have got around that,” he said. “We have brought the parade forward so that it will take place after 1.30pm with assembly taking place at 1pm. It would usually begin at around 2.30pm, but it has been changed to accommodate the match.

“The parade will also take a more condensed route than before, usually it goes the whole way through town. The parade would usually go down the market but this year it goes down station road.”

The week-long celebration of traditional Irish culture will run from Sunday, May 21 to Monday 29 and will feature a multitude of concerts, performances and workshops. This year there will be a commemoration of the events of the Easter Rising in 1916 and the festival will also look back at the first Fleadh Cheoil na hEireann. There will also be a multimedia celebration of the music of Robbie McMahon.

“This year we are really trying to concentrate on the performance element of the festival, which is what the Fleadh has always been about. It’s all about getting the Cheoil back on the street,” added Mr O’Loingsigh.

A JUDGE has stressed that elderly people must be allowed to live out their lives in safety, as he sentenced a man to four years in jail for robbing a woman in her 80s, at her Ennis home.

Judge Con Murphy made the statement as he sentenced Mark McCarthy (20), of Millbrook House, Mill Road, Ennis. He admitted stealing €20 cash from the 82-year-old woman at her home on the Turnpike Road area of Ennis on July 20 last year.

Detective Garda Kevin Kennedy told Ennis Circuit Court that the woman – who lives alone – woke up at 3am to find an intruder searching her bedroom. The accused, he said, told her he was looking for money.

“He beat her over the head with a pillow. He said ‘All old people hide money under their mattresses.’ He turned over the mattress while she was lying in bed,” said the garda.

McCarthy then searched the woman’s handbag and took €20 in cash.

The woman pleaded with him not to kill her. McCarthy told her he wouldn’t kill her, that he wanted money. She tried to ring gardai and he disconnected the phone.

McCarthy was arrested some hours later, on suspicion of robbery. He told gardai he had been drinking under the de Valera monument, took tablets for depression and other tablets that gave him a buzz.

He said that a friend of his lived in the Turnpike area and he had intended going to his house, but went to the elderly woman’s home in error. The garda accepted this explanation.

The court heard McCarthy has been in trouble most of his life and has a long list of previous convictions, including for burglary, public order and damaging property.

Defending barrister Michael Fitzgibbon said his client was sexually abused when he was very young and as a result he started drinking and taking drugs.

“Things began to get totally out of control for him. He is not a career criminal. He hasn’t been involved in major crime,” said the barrister.

Judge Con Murphy said burglaries must be stamped out and said the incident before the court was “most serious”.

“Even if it wasn’t premeditated, he went on with it. In towns like Ennis, old people should be allowed to live out their days in safety and security,” he said.

He took the guilty plea into account and the fact that McCarthy cooperated with gardai, but said he has a “plethora” of previous offences. He imposed a four-year jail term.

THE Mid Western Regional Hospital Limerick has some of the longest delays in the Western area when it comes to surgery and medical treatment.

Half of patients awaiting medical treatment are now waiting more than a year, with almost one third of adult patients waiting more than 12 months for surgery in the Mid Western Hospital.

A further 19 percent of the 74 children available for surgery but not yet scheduled are also waiting more than 12 months.

The biggest delay in the largest hospital in the Mid West is in the area of general surgery where more that half of the patients are waiting more than a year to be called.

In total 986 patients have yet to be scheduled for surgery in Limerick’s three hospitals, while Galway has an even higher waiting list of 1,493 between the University College Hospital and Merlin Park Hospital.

The figures from the Patients Treatment Register (PTR) shows that eight per cent of the 1,191 adult patients awaiting a date for surgery in the University College Hospital Galway are waiting one year, with 55 per cent scheduled for surgery within six months of being placed on the waiting list.

As many as 12 per cent of the 115 children awaiting surgery in the hospital have a 12 month wait.

In the University College Hospital Galway the longest wait is also for general surgery with 27 people waiting more than 12 months. A further 2,677 patients are waiting 12 months and more for plastic surgery at the hospital.

Patients who require hospital treatment but not surgical procedures have a one in two chance of a 12-month wait for treatment at the Mid Western Regional Hospital Limerick.

Nine of the 12 people awaiting treatment for pain relief are waiting more than a year in St John’s Hospital Limerick.

The figures on the PTR show however that children awaiting medical treatment in the hospital do not wait longer than six months.

The PTR provides an online database with information on public patients and waiting times for in-patients and day care procedures.

It currently represents 19 hospitals and 74 per cent of the patient waiting list numbers.

The data is compiled by the National Treatment Fund, which offers private surgery to those waiting longest.

The Fund has treated 43,000 patients since it started in 2002. It has said it will now start writing directly to patients who are facing the greatest delay for treatment.

Meanwhile the public health alliance will host a conference on inequalities in the health service in Glór, Ennis on Thursday night at 3.30 pm.

THE problem of unneutered and stray dogs is reaching epidemic proportions in Clare, with new figures revealing that more than 10 per cent of all dogs destroyed in Ireland each year are put down in the county.

With almost 2000 dogs being destroyed in Ennis annually, careless owners are being blamed for not taking the responsibility for neutering their pets.

Clare has a dog population of around 35,000 and, according to Clare Dog Warden Frankie Coote, many owners are not acting responsible towards their pets.

“It is a major major problem in Clare. The fact that we have to put down between 1500 and 1800 dogs in Ennis each year tells it own story.

“This is despite the Clare ISPCA putting €20,000 towards the problem each year,” said Mr Coote.

This reluctance to neuter dogs is leading to an increasing population of strays in the county and an escalation in the problem of dog dumping, as well as attacks on sheep.

“Dog dumping is becoming a major problem. People just bring their dogs to a remote place and dump them there. The dogs either starve to death or start worrying and killing sheep,” continued Mr Coote.

“If it wasn’t for one farmer last week two beautiful Jack Russell pups would have starved to death after they had been dumped on his land, just two miles off the main road.”

While the cost of neutering may well be a contributing factor Mr Coote is at a loss as to how to encourage owners to take responsibility for their own animals.

“All the vets vary a lot in price from €6 up to as much as €150.

“I’m not sure that the cost of it is the main problem. We have tried absolutely everything to get people to do it but nothing works,” he said.

“You can see by the numbers that are being put down that the problem isn’t getting any better.”

Meanwhile, the Dogs Trust is launching a nationwide campaign today designed at drastically increasing the number of dogs being neutered.

The campaign will offer neutering for dogs at only €14 euros per animal for people on means tested benefits.

In 2004 some 25,000 stray and abandoned dogs were collected by local authorities in Ireland, with 16,598 of these healthy animals being destroyed.

THE mayor of Shannon has warned of a back-up in acute services in the county if the refurbishment work at St Joseph’s Hospital, Ennis is not planned properly.

Councillor Tony Mulcahy has said that he fears no new referrals will be made to the geriatric hospital and nursing home during the face-lift.

While welcoming the much-needed work in the Ennis hospital, he said he fears that proposals to close one unit at a time in the hospital and relocate the patients may diminish the number of beds available to new patients. This in turn will have a knock-on effect for the acute services, as patients will not be able to be moved from mainstream hospital to the specialist units.

The Shannon mayor has suggested that a portocabin be put in place as a temporary relief measure at the 250bed hospital.

“We need to consider how we are going to accommodate these people and where,” said the Fine Gael councillor. “We don’t want to limit the bed numbers further.”

A spokesperson for the HSE Mid West told The Clare People that the Health Service Executive would be maintaining the existing public bed complement during the upgrading and renovations at St. Joseph’s Hospital.

“There will be significant work undertaken at St. Joseph’s Hospital in the current year with the commencement of the complete upgrading of the heating system and water system within the hospital,” she said.

In addition all windows in the hospital will be replaced and each ward will be refurbished and upgraded as part of this programme.

Meanwhile expectant mothers from Ennis and surrounding areas will have to find a new location for their antenatal classes, which took place in a room in St Joseph’s Hospital.

They have until Friday week to find a new location for the classes.

“We were officially informed on April 11 that the Conference Room in St Joseph’s Hospital would no longer be available to us for antenatal classes as of May 12,” a HSE spokesperson said.

“We are currently trying to source a suitable alternative venue for the classes in the Ennis area. Every effort will be made to bring the situation to a satisfactory conclusion for all concerned.”

There is no maternity hospital in Clare, with mothers travelling to Galway and Limerick to have their babies. Home births are also difficult to secure in the county with one private midwife in the west of the county providing the service.

THE lives of thousands of Clare women are being put in jeopardy because of the unwillingness of the Department of Health and BreastCheck Ireland to utilise the mammogram facilities on offer at the Galway Clinic.

This is the opinion of Dr James Sheehan, founder of the Blackrock and Galway Clinics, who claims that the Galway facility could end the nine-month waiting being experienced by women in the west, with some reportedly waiting as much as two years.

“We have offered breast checks in the Galway Clinic for the last two years for as many women as need it – but for some reason we have been turned down,” said Dr Sheehan, who took part in the Burren Law School in Ballyvaughan this weekend.

“We have all the facility needed to offer a high quality service already in place.”

Plans were announced last year for two new BreastCheck facilities to be located at the Victoria University Hospital in Cork and University College Hospital in Galway (UCHG).

It is planned that the Galway facility will have two mobile screening units enabling it to offer tests to the estimated 60,000 women at risk in Clare, Sligo, Roscommon, Donegal, Mayo, Leitrim and parts of Tipperary.

It is projected that these new mammogram services would end the waiting list for screening in the west. However, they are not projected to be up-and-running until 2007 at the earliest.

The Galway Clinic is the first private hospital in the country to offer acute medical care for parents. Dr Sheehan has hit out at the unwillingness of Ennis General Hospital and UCHG to refer patents from Accident and Emergency to the clinic, even though both locations experience overcrowding on an ongoing basis.

“Galway Clinic is the first private hospital to deal with acute illness. My disappointment is that never have any patients from the University College Hospital in Galway, or indeed from Ennis General, been transferred to us for acute care, even though half of them would have health insurance,” continued Dr Sheehan.

“There is a paranoia in the public sector when it comes to anything to do with private health care. Around 52 per cent of the population have private health insurance and are thus unsatisfied with the public health system on offer,” he continued.

“Anything that the state can provide is 20 years behind what can be provided in the private sector. This is not just in health care, it’s all through the system.”

THE county manager has conceded that planners in the county are making last-minute decisions and the situation “is not good enough”.

Alec Fleming said the council needs extra resources to deal with the large number of planning applications. He said the 208 quarries before the planning department for registration is one of the highest in the country and is adding to the strain.

The current permanent administrative and clerical staff complement in the Economic Development and Planning Department is 22, excluding temporary staff. Owing to a national cap on staffing numbers, there are currently no proposals to increase this.

“There is a small amount of leeway for temporary contracts and we are making use of that,” he said.

Director of Services Bernadette Kinsella said that three vacancies within the planning department, including a senior executive and two assistant posts, are likely to be filled within the coming week.

Officials were responding to claims by councillors that the planning staff are refusing to meet with the general public to discuss planning applications due to their work load.

“I am beginning to be won over by the idea that planning is bursting at the seams,” said Cllr Tom Prenderville. He said people are questioning if the planners are “architects of their own misfortune”.

“We now find the planning department is not able to cope with planning applications,” he added.

Cllr Oliver Garry said he is afforded a halfhour meeting every week with the planners but this is not adequate time.