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THE first phase of the new Cliffs of Moher Visitors’ Experience was officially opened by Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Tony Kileen last Friday. The €31.5 million project represents the biggest capital expenditure on a single tourism project ever in the history the county.

Phase one on the project incorporates some 300 metres of cliff edge pathways, viewing platforms and seating areas looking out over the cliffs facade and is now open to the public.

Opening the first phase, Minister Killeen was highly complementary of the work that has been done.

“I think it is fair to say that the project fully respects the natural environment of the Cliffs and is in keeping with the overall integrity of the site,” said the Minister.

The new viewing platform provides views from the Cliffs of Moher to Hags Head in the south, as well as the vista over Liscannor Bay. The platform, which is paved with Liscannor stone and faced with limestone, has been specially designed with multiple seating terraces to allow for visitor seating.

The existing cliff pathways have been extended to the south and a new raised platform allows views to the north towards O’Brien’s Tower and the Aran Islands. This platform also provides a vantage point to view Goat Island, the low grassy promontory below the tower, which is home to one of the largest puffin colonies in Ireland.

The cliff’s famous Liscannor slab walls have been restored and extended and the grassy areas outside the walls have been made into an ecological reconstruction. The cliff edge has been sanctioned a Special Area of Protection (SAP) under the European Union Birds and Habitats directives.

Ealls have been designed to make it more difficult for visitors to go out on the extreme cliff edge.

THE official leading the Cliffs of Moher visitor centre project has confirmed that the council is in talks with US-based business people in order to secure corporate sponsorship.

Ger Dollard expressed confidence that the talks, involving business people with Irish links and aimed at bridging the €4 million shortfall in the €31.5 million project, would bear fruit.

In spite of the shortfall, Mr Dollard expressed confidence that the centre would be completed on time and within budget.

However, the costs of visiting one of Ireland’s best known attractions is set to soar under a new pricing regime.

It will cost €8 per car and €60 per standard coach from next year when the centre becomes operational. Currently, it costs individuals €4 to park any vehicle.

Tourists face an additional charge of €4 per adult, for visiting the interpretative centre, while concession rates for groups, families, children and others will also apply.

When the centre opens next year, 94 people will be employed at peak season, including a team of 16 rangers to provide guided tours to visitors.

Last Friday, Junior Enterprise and Employment Minister, Tony Killeen, officially opened the the first phase of the project, consisting viewing platforms, 300 metres of cliff edge pathways and seating areas at the cliffs.

Mr Dollard also revealed that the council would accommodate buskers at the Cliffs.

“This must be a managed controlled way and we will be going through a process later in the year to seek expressions of interest to progress this,” he said.

According to Mr Dollard, the new charges would “reflect the vastly enhanced facilities both in and out of doors.” He described the new prices as “excellent value”.

“The original charging philosophy in which a single charge of €7 per head for access to all aspects of the visitor experience has been replaced with an alternative, more flexible approach.

“A visitor could spend up to two hours in the interpretative centre if they wished to do so, as well as an unlimited amount of time on the cliff edge and in the public areas of the visitor centre, plus the support of the rangers”.

Mr Dollard said that the new rates were comparable to other visitor attractions in the area, including Ailwee Cave, Bunratty Castle and Folk Park, the Burren Centre and Blarney Castle.

LAST week’s opening marks the first step towards the completion of the €31.5 million Cliffs of Moher Visitors’ Experience. The remaining phase, which includes a subterranean visitor centre building and further cliff edge works in the area of O’Brien’s Tower, is expected to be open early in 2007.

Along with the development of a new visitor centre, Clare County Council also envision the development of a comprehensive programme of visitor and education activities at the site.

A team of rangers will be employed to operate on the cliff edge and within the visitor centre building providing information, guiding and first aid, as well as providing a safety role.

Plans for a visitor centre at the Cliffs of Moher have been muted for many years. These plans were originally held up due to concerns over the environmental impact that a centre might have on the surrounding area.

With this resolved, an international competition was launched to design the new visitors centre. This was won by Cork based company Reddy/ O’Riordan/Staehli Architects. The contract to build the new centre was awarded to Rohcon Ltd.

However, the projects was further delayed due to a disagreement between Shannon Development and Clare County Council over what role each organisation would have with the development and management of the visitors centre. In more recent times the Cliffs of Moher Visitors’ Experience has met with controversy over attempts to prevent buskers and traders from operating at the cliffs. This situation is ongoing with Clare County Council stating their intention to go to the High Court to seek injunctions against traders.

AS family and friends of murdered Ennistymon woman, Emer O’Loughlin, gathered for her first anniversary mass on Sunday, gardaí were continuing to investigate whether her killer was in the UK.

The 23-year-old art student was discovered burnt to death, close to Tubber, on the Clare/Galway border one year ago, last Saturday.

Despite an intensive Garda investigation, no-one has been charged for the Emer’s horrific death, in the caravan she shared with her boyfriend.

As he mourned his youngest daughter, Emer’s father Johnny said he had been through hell during the past 12 months.

“Emer was a lovely young girl. The man that did this – what sort of man would he have to be, I ask myself?” he said, in a weekend interview.

The young woman had studied art in Galway and just days before she was killed, was overjoyed to learn that she had been accepted into the National College of Art and Design (NCAD) in Dublin.

But Emer didn’t live to realise her lifelong dream. Instead her distraught family and friends have been left to try and come to terms with her brutal killing.

The chief suspect in the case, a Galway man in his 40s, disappeared some time after the murder.

His clothes and some personal belongings were found on the Aran Islands last April. But he hasn’t been seen since.

Detectives continue to suspect that he faked his own suicide by leaving his clothes on Dun Aengus cliff, in an effort to throw the them off the scent.

The team investigating the case have liaised with UK police, amid reports that the suspect was seen there.

A garda close to the investigation said while there was a possibility that the suspect was overseas, there was nothing to prove this.

“There is no evidence that he is dead or alive. The fact that his clothes were found close to the cliff edge suggests he fell over, or threw himself in. However there are suggestions that he is alive and well, living in the UK,” he said.

The National Roads Authority has committed to examine whether the new Gort to Crusheen by-pass can be equipped with two turn-offs to and from Gort.

The move follows a secret meeting between the Chief Executive of the NRA and members of the Gort Regional Alliance for Community and Environment (GRACE), in Dublin.

The NRA officials have now agreed to look at all possible alternatives and get back to the GRACE delegation with their decision within a matter of weeks.

The secret meeting, which was described by a GRACE delegate as “very open and frank”, came on the back of a town meeting, which attracted some 200 people.

The meeting, which was held at Sullivan’s Hotel on Wednesday 29, was attended by senior officials from Galway County Council’s Roads Design Office as well as officials from the NRA, but produced few concrete results.

A campaign has been in place in Gort concerning the proposed bypass since 2000.

MEMBERS of Ennis General Hospital Development Committee have said they are “disheartened” but determined to fight on, following a week of confusion about the future of the accident and emergency service at the hospital.

The lobby group had just begun celebrating the arrival of a letter, which confirmed the future of 24 hour A and E at the county’s hospital, when a phone call said it had all been a mistake.

The letter from a HSE official stated “that a 24 hour A and E service will continue to operate at Ennis General Hospital. This service was recently enhanced by the recruitment of emergency care physicians.”

Just minutes after receiving the letter, the chairman of the hospital group Peadar McNamara received a phone call from a HSE official explaining that the letter was sent by mistake.

Days later, the hospital committee received a similar letter, with the same date – March 29.

Signed by the office manager for the National Hospitals Office, the significant opening paragraph confirming the future of A & E was omitted.

The new letter merely pointed to the on-going independent review of all acute hospital services in the mid west, which was to be completed at the end of the year.

A spokesperson for the hospital committee said they were concerned that such a review was taking place without any consultation with the group.

A NEW mid-west private medical facility will provide services for Clare patients and take some strain off existing public services, people attending Ireland’s first National Private Healthcare Conference has heard.

Limerick’s new 95 acute bed private hospital which is being built on the southside of the city on the Dock Road, was one of the sponsors of the conference held in Dublin last week.

The Blackberry will provide one floor dedicated to day procedures, containing two minor procedure/day surgery theatres and 12 recovery suites for day care patients.

It will also provide a dedicated surgical floor, providing four full specification operating theatres, six intensive care units, 12 high dependency bedrooms, 65 additional private en-suite bedrooms, 14 beds in semi private accommodation, as well as 16 beds in four dedicated respite units, to provide care to long term or terminally ill patients on each of the remaining two floors. Physiotherapy facilities and consultancy suites will also be provided in the new hospital.

Shay Sweeney, managing director, Blackberry Properties Ltd said that “step down, long stay and intensive nursing patient care will be provided at the hospital, which will ease pressure on the existing hospital services”.

He added that it was “important that debate is stimulated as to the type of healthcare service we want to develop for the future.”

The conference was opened by the Tánaiste and Minister for Health, Mary Harney TD.

THE search for a man who went missing from his home close to Gort last week intensified yesterday, when the Garda Water Unit began searching a river in the town.

Ernie Cooke (51), walked out of his family home near Kilcolgan during his breakfast last Tuesday morning. His distraught wife Mary and two young daughters have not heard from him since, while gardaí say his bank account has not been touched in the interim.

Ernie’s wife Mary told The Clare People that her two daughters – aged seven and nine – just want to see him return home.

“They just want their daddy found. They ask ‘Is daddy home yet?’” she said.

“We are extremely worried, but have to keep channelled on finding Ernie. He is normally very conscientious and this was totally out of the blue. He upped and left during breakfast. It was in the middle of breakfast. He had put the milk in his cup, he has a habit of putting the milk in the cup first,” she said.

Ernie has suffered from depression since November.

“For some reason he got this notion to go. When I realised he was gone, I followed him, but I lost three or four valuable minutes,” she said.

Mary pursued her husband, in a car, but could not find him.

She remains optimistic that he will come home.

“He is probably just wandering around. He may be just confused. We are appealing to Ernie to come home,” she said.

There have been numerous reported sightings of Ernie, originally from Donegal, over the past week. However gardaí say many of those reports are adding to confusion.

Extensive searches have taken place over the past week in parts of Galway, Clare and Limerick, on the foot of reported sightings. Several of Ernie’s work colleagues from Crown in Galway, travelled to Ennis last week, in the hope of locating him.

Initial reports suggested he travelled, via bus, from Gort to Barefield on Tuesday. He was also reportedly seen at Ennis General Hospital and in parts of Limerick and Dublin.

“The search is now being refocused, after a week of pursuing reported sightings,” said Gort Superintendent Paul Mockler, who is leading the investigation into his disappearance.

“All of the reported sightings have been looked into, without any success. There have been conflicting reports. He can’t be in all places at one time,” he said.

It’s understood that a relative of the missing man received a telephone call from a woman claiming to be a nurse, who said he had been checked into hospital in Ennis. However, despite intensive efforts, gardaí could not locate him there.

A SHANNON-based garda has appeared in court, accused of committing a public order offence.

Garda Pat Keating (33), with an address at Woodlands, Cahercalla, Ennis, is accused of engaging in disorderly conduct, at Shannon Knights carpark, Tullyvarraga, Shannon, on March 13, 2004.

At Ennis District Court last Friday, solicitor Daragh Hassett, acting as agent for Garda Keating’s solicitor, said he was seeking a date for the case to be heard.

“It will take at least three hours. There will be a very lengthy cross examination,” said Mr Hassett.

Inspector Michael Gallagher said the State was ready to go ahead with the case. He indicated that there would be twelve State witnesses. Mr Hassett said there would be at least three defence witnesses.

Mr Hassett said the accused had only received five statements from State witnesses and would be seeking statements from the others.

Inspector Gallagher said the accused should liaise with the superintendent in Kilrush on that matter.

The case will be heard later in the month.

CLARE County Council is to lodge an application with the Department of the Marine for up to €2 million in funding to allow it extend Doolin pier and dredge the local harbour.

The council says the works are necessary in order to upgrade the increasingly busy Doolin harbour, where four ferry operators are located in the peak Summer months.

The Department of Community, Gaeltacht and Rural Affairs has already committed to providing substantial funding to the €4 million project, according to County Engineer, Tom Carey.

Minister Eamon O’ Cuiv’s department could provide up to €2 million for the scheme, if matching funds are found. Mr Carey said the remaining shortfall was too much for the council to bridge, so it would apply instead to the Department of the Marine.

Mr Carey said that the council had been unsuccessful in the past in persuading Marine to provide the funding, because the department’s main focus lay with fishing harbours.

But, Mr Carey said that the council would be stressing the importance of the facilities at Doolin to the local fishing industry.

“We are hoping that the department will revisit their earlier decision,” said Mr Carey.

Mr Carey said that the council had already spent €120,000 on a geo-technical survey to see how the safety problems identified in transferring passengers from the pier to the ferry boats, at medium and low tides, could be addressed.

He said that progress had also been made on plans to progress visitor facilities for passengers at Doolin. He said these would cost in excess of €1 million.

In addition, some improvements had been made to plans unveiled eighteen months ago to establish a terminal for all companies operating out of Doolin.

“We are continuing to work on the plan and have had some fresh thoughts which have improved the proposals.

“We now hope to show these proposals to the people on whose lands we hope to locate the building. The Office of Public Works (OPW) has also entered the fray with their plans to build a station for the local coastguard unit, so there is a good bit happening in the background.”

Mattie Shannon of the Doolin Community Harbour Co-op welcomed the council’s initiative.

“Unfortunately, the Council has been refused by the Department of the Marine before, but now there are six fishing licenses that could operate out of Doolin. This issues needs to be pushed more.”