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PAYMENTS to consultants working on Clare County Council’s €32 million Cliffs of Moher visitor centre pushed the council’s overall consultants’ bill to over €5 million last year.

In figures released to The Clare People through a Freedom of Information request, the council confirmed this week that the council paid out €5,275,131 to consultants last year.

The biggest winner was Corkbased architectural firm, Reddy O’Riordan Staehli, for designing the award-winning visitor centre at the Cliffs of Moher.

The council confirmed that last year, the company received €834,499 in fees for the project. Last year’s payment brings to €1.437 million the amount the company has received to date for its work on the scheme.

Another company working on the Cliffs project to scoop one of the highest amounts was Dublin-based Martello Media Ltd, receiving €579,320.

The company is developing for the visitor centre, 16 major audio visual installations that include a walk through “float off the cliff-top” virtual reality experience that caters for groups of up to 100 people.

The payments of €5.275 million represents a 11% increase on the €4.719 million paid to consultants in 2004.

Along with the consultants involved in the development of the Cliffs of Moher visitor centre, the big winners were engineering firms and architects.

The list released by the council shows that 78 firms and individuals received the €5.275 million.

The top ten firms received payments totalling €3.675 million. Along with the companies involved in the Cliffs project, Jacobs Babtie received the second highest amount at €691,953; RPC MCOS Ltd €284,896; Nolan Ryan Partnership €257,732; Brady Shipman Martin €251,816, Dermot and Sean Merry €216,763; Ove Arup & Partners €190,668, White Young Green €186,836 and Ove Arup & Partners €181,500.

Some of the region’s other top architectural firms feature in the payments. The records show that Murray O’Laoire Architects received €115,699, Byrne O’Donnell Scully Architects, €86,597; Paddy Coleman & Associates received €74,902 and Thomas McGahon architects received €55,771.

A COROFIN Manor House has been sold for a figure believed to be over €3 million.

Clifden House, which is located eight miles outside the north Clare village, was sold last week by international estate agents JacksonStops.

The early Georgian house is located on a 12 acre wooded estate and overlooks Lake Inchiquin. It had been the subject of intense interest from three English bidders since it went on the market last summer with a guide of €1.75 million.

The property was sold by Jim and Bernadette Robson, who had been operating it as a family run guesthouse for the last number of years. They purchased the then run down property some thirty years ago and restored it painstakingly to its former glory.

The Corofin property is the lat est in a series of high profile sales that have taken place in the area in recent times. Indeed, Jackson-Stops also sold a Tipperary mansion to an American businessman for €4 million last week.

“In my 40 years in the business, I have never seen the market as buoyant as how it is now,” said Philip O’Reilly, Managing Director and owner of Philip O’Reilly Ltd in Ennis.

“We have more than 2,000 people looking for a house in Ennis right now while there is also a report of huge prices being paid for specialist propertys around the county.”

Mr O’Reilly believes that it is the IT sector that is driving the housing market at the moment.

“The IT industry is what farming was in Ireland 20 years ago,” said Mr O’Reilly.

“ It is the barometer of our success and there is great confidence in it at the moment. Low interest rates and things like that are contributing factors but it is the IT sector that is the real driver.”

Clifden House was the birthplace of the pre-Raphaelite painter Frederick William Burton, whose family originally built the property. The water colourist was born in the house in 1816 and enjoyed a career as an artist before he took up the position of Director of the National Gallery in 1874.

The house boasts home grown organic fruits and vegetables from the walled garden and farm, as well as a wide range of trout and pike fishing. Other attractions include horse riding, hunting and walking.

RESIDENTS from two counties are to unite to fight the decision on where to situate a new crossing over the Shannon.

Angry residents from Killaloe and Tipperary are to meet on Wednesday night to plan a campaign to oppose work going ahead on a location, which would see the route pass less than 200 meters from historic Clarisford Palace.

Residents say that the route chosen will cause maximum damage in terms of the town’s amenities and residential considerations.

People in Killaloe have already met to discuss their concerns and opposition to the plan, as have residents in Ballina. Now the two groups are to come together to plan an orchestrated campaign of opposition.

One person involved in the Killaloe campaign said that at least part of the group’s action would be to highlight the potential damage to historical monuments.

“There is a lot of history and heritage being vandalised by this bridge,” the resident said.

“People here tell stories of how noone ever starved in Killaloe in the famine because the Bishop fed people who came to the walls of Clarisford Palace. And there is a plan to put one of the pillars of the bridge in the canal. There are records of barges drawing Guinness form James’s Gate to Clare going back two centuries.”

The objectors say they are also concerned that this route will bring traffic too close to St Anne’s Community College, putting pupils at the school in danger.

It is likely that people from a third local authority may become involved, as a second bridge downstream from O’Briensbridge and Mountpellier in Limerick is also on the cards as part of the plan.

Local Councillor for Montpellier, Noreen Ryan (FF), said that the bridge decision “was anti-democratic from the start. This has done nothing but veto any possibility of getting a proper crossing which that serve the whole region.”

Killaloe councillor, Tony O’Brien (FF), has said that while a decision is welcome to end uncertainty, the bridge will not totally alleviate traffic problems in the lakeside towns.

“What is needed is a proper plan for the town to charter economic development and a bypass,” he said.

The route was chosen following a study of route constraints, commissioned by three local authorities; Clare, Limerick and Tipperary North County Council. It is expected that the new route will be finished in March.

CLARE savers will bring a massive €80 million in cash into the county when the first of the SSAI accounts mature this year.

That’s according to findings from a Bank of Ireland study on how much people will have to spend and what they intend to do with it.

But people who have saved for the last five years could lose a huge chunk of their investment if they don’t remember to fill out the necessary form for the Revenue Commissioners.

Presenting the findings of the survey, conducted among 400 Bank Of Ireland customers, Ennis branch manager, Rose Hally, warned that the forms “must be filled out in the three months leading up to the end of the month in which the fifth anniversary of the account falls. Otherwise, Revenue will tax the entire balance at 23 per cent.”

The bank’s research also discovered that a massive 112,635 of a total of 120,000 SSAI holders came on board with the scheme at the last minute.

And equity-based SSAI accounts performed extremely well, the bank found.

The bank is launching its own new products for those with cash to invest when the SSAI’s mature.

These include a special bonus investment plan, in which the bank will continue on the 25 per cent payment on investments for six months.

Other products are a combined lump sum deposit and savings account and an alternative lump sum deposit option, offering a three to five year savings plan free of DIRT and a two year bond offering a 6 per cent fixed rate.

At the launch, Ms Hally said that the research showed that 74 per cent of customers had no previous regular savings prior to the scheme, “and 80 per cent intend to continue saving on a monthly basis when the scheme ends. It has had a very beneficial effect on saving habits.”

A YOUNG man who stole a car in Ennis, crashed it into a wall a short distance away, “destroying” it in the process.

Christopher Dobbin (22), of John Paul Avenue, Ennis, committed the offence, at Cusack Road, Ennis, on August 21, 2004.

Inspector Tom Kennedy told Ennis District Court that the stolen vehicle was valued at €1,000 and was effectively destroyed in the accident when it hit a wall.

The court heard that Dobbin committed two offences under the Public Order Act, at Fahy’s Lane, Ennis, on November 16, 2003.

He was also convicted of stealing a slab of Heineken, valued at €17.99, from Deasy’s shop in Clarecastle, on July 31 last.

Defending solicitor Tara Godfrey said the three incidents were alcohol-related.

Inspector Tom Kennedy pointed out that the car was crashed into a private wall which had to be repaired, at a cost of €2,200.

Judge Leo Malone convicted Dobbin of drink driving and fined him €250. He banned him from driving for two years. He fined him €200 for driving without insurance.

He adjourned the case of stealing the car for four months, for payment of the cost of the car and repairing the wall.

He said if the compensation was paid, he would impose a fine. If not paid, he would sentence Dobbin to three months in jail.

MEMBERS of Ennis Town Council were left waiting by the two leading figures in Clare GAA this Monday, who were to brief them about plans for Cusack Park.

County board chairman, Michael McDonagh and secretary, Pat Fitzgerald, pulled out of the meeting nearly a half an hour after they were due to be in the council chamber in Waterpark House.

Councillors were told by way of a letter last Thursday that the chairman and secretary of the GAA board would give “a briefing session” on Cusack Park’s future.

“The chairman and secretary of the Clare County Board of the GAA will attend to brief the members of the potential development of Cusack Park. I would be obliged if you could arrange to be in attendance,” said the Town Clerk, Eddie Power’s letter.

This meeting was arranged after it was revealed by The Clare People last week that a consortium made up of businessmen Noel Connellan, Sean Lyne and Bernard McNamara had made a sensational offer to take Cusack Park over from the county board.

The consortium pledged to deliver a 42,000 capacity stadium on a 15-acre site on the Quin Road within 18 months of receipt of planning permission from Clare County Council, in return for possession of Cusack Park, which would then be redeveloped as a shopping centre.

However, when the county board officials failed to show, the Mayor of Ennis, Frankie Neylon, had to apologise to members.

“I have to apologise for bringing you in here at 3pm,” he told the monthly meeting. “We were supposed to be joined by our friends from the county board, but as you now know they didn’t arrive to address the meeting as they were supposed to,” added Mayor Neylon.

Fianna Fáil councillor, Tom Glynn, who grew up adjacent to Cusack Park on Francis Street then asked the meeting, “did we get any reason why they failed to show”.

In response, Mayor Neylon said “you know as much as I do Tom, they just didn’t arrive.”

When contacted by The Clare People on Monday night, board chairman, Michael McDonagh apologised for the no show.

“I take responsibility. We are going to meet them at a later date, once we get in all the proposals for Cusack Park. The matter will be debated and everyone will hear what we have to say,” said the chairman.

A DOCUMENTARY shot secretly on a tour bus in the Burren last Summer, received its world premier at the Burren Spring Conference in the Ballyvaughan School of Art over the weekend.

The documentary, entitled

, was shot by the Director of the NUI, Galway Huston School of Film, Rod Stoneman. It takes an undercover look at the Burren as seen through the eyes of the package tourist.

It raised a number of questions about the quality of products on offer in the Burren, the nature of mass tourism itself and the effects that this form of tourism had on an area like the Burren.

“The first thing that struck me was that the tour guides had a more substantive and well formed knowledge than I had expected,” said Mr Stoneman. “I had thought that there would be far more anecdotal but they did have some good clear information.”

The documentary follows a tour bus through Kinvara, Ballyvaughan, Fanore and Doolin before making its first stop at the Cliffs of Moher. The tour then takes the tourists to the Poulnabrone Dolmen before finishing up at the Ailwee Caves.

“I was really surprised that the tourists arrive here with very little knowledge of the area and without any real sense of where they are,” continued Mr Stoneman. “Despite the speed of their tour, they do seem to get a feel of the area.”

The documentary prompted lively debate at the Burren College when it was shown on Saturday afternoon. A large crowd, including three local tour guides, discussed the impact that large-scale tourism had on the area and whether the industry should be subject to greater regulation.

One of the documentary’s comments came from an Australian tourist at the Cliffs of Moher. When asked about the effects of visitors, she replied, “just look at what is going on out there”, referring to the massive construction work involved in the Cliffs of Moher Interpretative Centre.

There are no plans currently in place to bring the documentary to a wider audience. Stoneman has had success in the past as executive producer of the multi award winning documentary, “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,” as well as numerous feature film and shorts.

PLANS to transform Ennis’s skyline with a €20 million apartment block overlooking the River Fergus are facing fresh opposition.

Ennis-based firm, Paddy Coleman & Associates, has expressed concern over the proposal by Galway company, Briarlane Development Ltd.

The plan provides for a new pedestrian bridge across the River Fergus to the Abbey Street car-park in Ennis, adding to the four vehicular bridges already in use in and around the town centre.

The new proposal – in common with the application turned down by An Bord Pleanala last July – seeks to transform the Ennis skyline with a six-storey apartment block.

The six-storey building will be arranged around a central podium, while the development also includes a plan to develop a 30-bedroom hotel and 58 apartments.

The plan also includes eight commercial units and 238 car-parking spaces along with one three-storey and one two-storey block.

In their submission however, Coleman & Associates argue that the proposed development does not respect the scale, proportions, designs and architecture of existing neighbouring structures at Bank Place, Bindon Street, or Harmony Row.

It goes on: “Furthermore, the massing of the proposed development would detract from the existing Bank of Ireland building which is a protected structure. New buildings proposed for Architectural Conservation Areas should reflect the scale, proportions, design and materials of the existing structures.

“Clearly, the applicant has made no attempt to comply with a policy of the Ennis and Environs Plan in relation to conservation, as the proposed development does not conserve and enhance the character and appearance of the ACA. It is imperative that new buildings to be constructed within an ACA be faithful to the scale, character and detailing of the existing development.”

In relation to the Bank of Ireland building, Coleman & Associates state: “The proposal would be unsympathetic with and detrimental to the character, appearance and integrity of the Bank Building resulting in an incongruous and visually obtrusive addition to the conservation area of which it would form a part.

“The town does not have many buildings as fine as this bank building. The council must ensure that all of the features and views of this building are protected and that any development of the site that is granted permission is complementary or subservient to it from the point of view of visual impact.”

The submission by Coleman & Associates follows concerns expressed over the plan by Cllr Donal O’Bearra. A decision is due on the application later this month.

THE prospect of Clare GAA leaving Cusack Park for a new purpose-built home on the outskirts of Ennis has moved closer this week after three Clare businessmen tabled a €30 million proposal with the county board.

The move by the consortium headed up by Noel Connellan, Sean Lyne and Bernard McNamara to deliver a state-ofthe-art 42,000 capacity stadium to Clare GAA in return for Cusack Park falls into line with the express wish of board chairman Michael McDonagh.

The chairman told The Clare People earlier this month that “what we would be looking at is developing a Nemo Rangers type facility in Ennis, where a developer would come in and in return for buying Cusack Park would develop a state-of-the-art 30,000 capacity stadium for us on another site in Ennis”.

He added that “there’s no sign of that happening yet,” but his wish has come true less than three weeks after he challenged property developers to bring forward their proposals about developing what he said would be “the new Cusack Park”.

Cusack Park was developed by the Ennis Dalcassians club and was officially opened in May 1936 when Clare played against Cork at minor and senior football championship level. It replaced the Ennis Showgrounds as Clare’s premier GAA venue.

In time, possession of Cusack Park passed from the Dalcassians club that folded in the late forties to the county board. In the mid seventies, the board considered selling Cusack Park for housing.

However, the board decided against this and instead, under the chairmanship of the late Brendan Vaughan a major redevelopment programme was instituted and the revamped Cusack Park was opened in 1980.

However, any plans by the board to sell the jewel in Clare’s GAA crown have been called into question by Mayor of Ennis, Frankie Neylon.

In an interview with The Clare People , Mayor Neylon claimed “Cusack Park is owned by the people of Ennis”.

Continuing, Mayor Neylon said “this field was used by the RIC to keep their horses and when the RIC was disbanded in the early ‘20s they donated the field to the people of Ennis. They are the owners.”

However, GAA secretary Pat Fitzgerald, rubbished these claims by revealed that “the County Board took control of the grounds in 1979 and the deeds of the property are now in our possession”.

This means that Cusack Park is the county board’s to sell, something that will happen if they rubber stamp the €30 million offer put before them this week.

All at the same time as the county gears up to celebrate the GAA founder Michael Cusack in this 100th anniversary year of his death.

THE overwhelming support from GAA club officers around the county for a move away from Cusack Park has sparked this week’s overture to the Clare County Board by some of Ireland’s leading property investors.

Club support for selling Cusack Park and developing state-of-the-art stadium facilities in the environs of Ennis was the main finding of a Clare People survey undertaken for the January 17 edition of the paper.

The survey results represented a ringing endorsement of a county board campaign to sell Cusack Park, which was effectively launched at the annual GAA Convention on December 11 last. It was there that board chairman Michael McDonagh announced that because of traffic congestion in the town centre “we might have to develop a new stadium”.

Since The Clare People broke this story in its December 13 issue, the Cusack Park question has become the burning issue within Clare GAA.

This issue was moved on to a higher level when The Clare People survey showed that 78 per cent of respondents backed the county board’s plan to sell Cusack Park to the highest bidder in return for the building of a stadium with proper carparking and road access infrastructure that was capable of hosting Munster championship matches.

That’s what has been laid on the table by a consortium that includes Ennis businessmen Noel Connellan and Sean Lyne and Lisdoonvarna-born builder Bernard McNamara.

They have promised to build a 42,000 seater stadium on the Quin Road together with 800 parking spaces on site in return for Cusack Park.

This bid has been tabled with the county board only two weeks after The Clare People survey revealed a massive mood for change within GAA officials at club level.

Forty-two club officials questioned by The Clare People said that Clare GAA should leave Cusack Park. Only nine officials were in the vanguard of a campaign to retain the existing Cusack Park as the county GAA grounds and redeveloping it into the future.

However, among the objectors were the chairmen of Éire Óg and Clarecastle. Éire Óg chairman Ollie Hanrahan said “any proposal to sell Cusack Park is an absolute disgrace”, while Clarecastle’s Paschal Russell called Cusack Park “the soul of Clare hurling, we can’t forget that tradition”.

They were backed by former board vice-chairman Michael Lee sho described Cusack Park as “the jewel in Clare’s crown” that should be redeveloped on the back of planning permission secured by the county board in December 2003.