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DELAYS in processing social welfare payments are causing major hardship for Clare families, a meeting has heard.

The Clare Citizen’s Advice Centre has said that many people seeking making social welfare claims have to wait up to nine months before receiving payments.

Ann Marie O’Reilly, Advisor for the Citizens Information Centre, was speaking last month at a seminar hosted by Citizen Information Centre and Alliance of Social Protection of Recipients.

The event at the Temple Gate hotel highlighted the impact debt is having on Clare households.

The meeting heard that the centre raised the issue with the Government in a pre-budget submission last year.

Ms O’Reilly said, “Everyone knows the waiting list for all benefits are extensive. There is no quick fix for a benefit. No matter what benefit you go for, you’re going to be waiting. Carers allowance, disability allowance, invalidity pension, you’re talking possibly nine months plus. It’s going to be at least six to eight weeks before you even get a text or a letter stating that. We’ve people coming in after six or eight weeks asking, ‘Will you ring them?’, ‘How long more will it take?’. You just have to wait. The delays in processing benefits are causing major hardship.”

Ms O’Reilly said the majority of queries to the centre in Clare relate to social welfare payments.

She continued, “In 2007 the majority of our queries were social welfare. That was it. In 2010 we had a significant increase in queries about redundancies, constructive dismissal, minimum wage, everything. It was a complete change for us. It’s been changing over the years. The main thing I find in particular in Clare is that it is all social welfare queries at the moment. You might get one or two queries about something else but at the moment it’s social welfare, employment and debt. That seems to be a major factor. We seem to be referring a lot more people to MABS.”

The meeting, chaired by Ennis man Dermot Hayes, also heard from Professor Kathleen Lynch, University College Dublin, and Siobhan O’Donghue, Director of Migrant Rights Centre.

THE manager of the St Francis Credit Union in Ennis has warned that financial pressures are driving people into the arms of moneylenders.

Louie Fay says people are being “pushed to extremes” and forced to pay exorbitant borrowing rates.

Mr Fay was speaking last month at a seminar hosted by Citizens Information Centre and Alliance of Social Protection of Recipients.

The event at the Temple Gate hotel highlighted the impact debt is having on Clare households.

Mr Fay said, “For me the push is to push people towards moneylenders. I use the word legal but I would use it with a question mark because I don’t believe there is such a thing as a legal moneylender. For example, € 500 over six months, a person will pay € 150 interest. Whereas if they go up to the Credit Union they pay € 15 interest. And that’s what happening. MABS will verify this. People are being pushed out to extremes.”

He also critcised the lending practices of some banks. Mr Fay said, “I had somebody come in to me lately. This lady had a job and wasn’t earning big money. She was saving € 500 a month. When I looked at her pay packet, I asked her how she could save € 500 a month. She said, “What I do is, I save first and then I live.” I thought that’s pretty serious. She had been saving € 500 for 60 months. That works out at € 30,000 saved over five-year period. She needed to get some work done on her house that was going to cost € 55,000. She went to the bank and said I need to borrow € 25,000 on top of my € 30,000. They took the application. She nev- er thought about this idea that she would be refused. It never crossed her mind. When she went back to pick up the money, she found that the bank had approved € 5,000.” He continued, “I thought about it afterwards, the bank didn’t refuse the loan. They offered her € 5,000. So in the stats that the banks are throwing at us saying they are lending, that (situation) did not come under refusal, it came under the customer not taking the money.” Mr Fay told the seminar that tough new regulations and the consolidation of smaller credit unions would have a big impact on the sector. The meeting heard that lending at St Francis Credit Union has fallen from € 20.3m in 2008 to € 11.8m in 2012. He said, “2013 is probably going to be worse than that. The issue is demand for lending has dropped. People have lost confidence. People are not confident about their jobs, they are not secure in doing what they want to do. Mr Fay said credit unions also had to shoulder some of the burden for fueling a lending market that caused the economy to crash. He said, “We’ve got to put up our hands because we were part of the problem, as credit unions we were part of the problem. We bought into some of that bad lending. Some credit unions did, some credit unions didn’t. We need to learn from what has happened in the last five years.”

THERE was been a heavy visible Garda presence in a Clarecastle estate over the the Easter weekend as armed units from Limerick monitored the troublespot.

The gardaí were responding to the latest incident that involves one house in the estate, which culminated in a fire early on Good Friday morning. No-one was injured in the fire which was attended by local fire services and no real damage was reported.

The suspicious fire, which gardaí are investigating is the latest in a series of incidents that has greatly concerned local residents, incidents that have seen a house and car damaged on more than one occasion. There have also been reports of men armed with slash hooks and other weapons around the house in question on different occasions over the past four weeks.

“It is ridiculous what’s going on,” a concerned resident who called the offices of The Clare People , told us: “One or two nights cars have driven into this lovely quiet estate with the lights off and men with balaclavas got out and smashed windows and attacked a car,” she said.

Gardaí have acknowledged there is an ongoing issue in the estate and have confirmed that they are keeping a presence in the area to ensure the situation doesn’t escalate.

“The windows of this house have been smashed in a couple of times now and windscreens of cars have been done as well. There are children in the house and someone is going to be seriously hurt if this is allowed to go on,” the caller told us.

One neighbour who also didn’t want to be identified said that the house has been subject to a number of late night attacks over the past few months.

“There are children in this house and on more than one occasion we have all been woken up by screaming as a group of men arrived to the house. They are in and out in minutes, breaking windows and shouting and roaring. We’ve called the Guards and in fairness they are here in no time, but the men are gone as quick,” she said.

“The windows in this house and the door is no sooner replaced than there’s another incident, always at night. I’ve seen the weapons. We are definitely frightened this doesn’t get rightly out of hand, someone could be killed,” she added.

Over the Easter weekend there were a number of Garda cars parked in the estate at various times and an emergency response unit from Limerick also parked at the entrance to the estate.

The incidents are not thought to be related to another ongoing feud within the town of Ennis.

ONE man was airlifted to hospital while at least two other removed to hospital by ambulance following a traffic accident on the main Ennis to Kilrush Road on Holy Thursday afternoon.

Traffic on the N68 was disrupted at Lissycasey for three hours following the incident.

An elderly man had to be cut from the wreckage following the crash, which occurred at the Ennis side of the West Clare village at approximately 12.30pm.

He was then taken to the local GAA pitch from where he was airlifted to hospital.

A passenger from his car and the driver of a second vehicle were removed to hospital by road ambulance.

Fire crews from Ennis along with HSE paramedics and gardaí attended the incident.

This follows an incident last month when a mother and her two children escaped with minor injuries following a collision involving an articulated lorry and two cars near Lissycasey on Tuesday, March 19.

The collision occurred at around 8.30pm at Crown approximately five kilometers west of Lissycasey on the main N68 Ennis to Kilrush road.

The woman and her children, aged between 7 and 10, were travelling in one of the cars involved in the incident.

They were taken to the Mid Western Regional Hospital Limerick by ambulance as a precaution.

The occupants of the other car and the lorry driver escaped uninjured.

The road was closed for more than two hours.

Gardaí from Kilrush are investigating the accident.

ALLEGATIONS of council corruption led to an hour-long debate, that went round in circles in the council chamber on Friday evening last, and eventually ended up back where it started, albeit with a happier council membership and executive.

Elaborating on his questions into council contractors, how the contracts are awarded and if the contractors are compliant with employment law, Cllr Gerry Flynn (Ind) quoted a paper “Political Corruption is not just about Brown Envelopes” and presented by Frank Flannery at the MacGill Summer School in Donegal last year.

“Among the public there is a belief that corrupt practices are endemic in political life,” said the councillor.

County Manager Tom Coughlan was quick to raise concerns about any accusations of corruption that may be contained in quoting an article that specifically referred to political corruption.

“Are you alleging corrupt practices yes or no please?” he asked the Shannon Councillor.

Cllr Flynn said he was merely quoting from Frank Flannery, adding he carefully worded his motion with council workers and union representatives.

The county manager said that none of the issues had been brought to his attention when he met with the union just “a couple of weeks ago”.

“The chamber is not the place for these issues to be raised,” he added.

In reference to a query as to whether council staff, elected members or members of their immediate family, provide goods or services either directly or indirectly to Clare County Council the manager replied;

“It is a small county. A lot of people are related to a lot of people.

“You cannot expect me to carry out a witch hunt,” adding there was a contingency in place that put the onus on the contractor, employee or council members to reveal any such information.

“If any councillor considers there are any corrupt practices in this council let me know,” he said.

“You may not be aware but your members are aware that not all contractors are compliant,” said Cllr Flynn.

“You say you are aware. Will you give me that information?

“I don’t see how I can do something if I am not given the facts,” replied the county manager.

Cllr Cathal Crowe (FF) told the chamber the issue could not be disbanded with until Cllr Flynn made it clear who he was accusing of corruption, stating a grey cloud now hung over the council.

Different members of the council called on the controversial Shannon councillor to make clear his accusation.

In an attempt to bring an end to the debate, Mayor Cllr Pat Daly (FF) “I do not think anyone is corrupt”, to which Cllr Flynn said “I didn’t say the manager or the executive was corrupt.”

“We take it from that it was the councillors that are corrupt,” said Cllr Patricia McCarthy (Ind).

“She’ll know next year when the elections are on I’ll give her a chance to come back,” retorted Cllr Flynn.

“I am the only female member here to say her is to suggest he is referring to me,” she replied angered.

“Are you corrupt?” said Cllr Flynn.

“Take that back,” Cllr McCarthy replied.

“Not for one minute did I state Cllr McCarthy or the manager is corrupt,” he conceded.

The manager then noted there were now not allegations of corruption at executive level.

Councillors then called on Cllr Flynn to name who he considered corrupt.

“Don’t start the innuendo and walk away from it and leave the mud on the rest of us,” said Cllr Joe Arkins (FG).

Eventually Cllr Flynn conceded somewhat – “not once did I say the council elected members or executive are corrupt. I was speaking in terms of speech from MacGill Summer School.”

This was enough for the council and we all got to go on with our lives – one hour later.

THE issue at the centre of the question over shadowed by allegations of corruption at this month’s adjourned meeting of the county council seemed to centre on a change in method of hiring local authority contractors.

In the public gallery were council workers frustrated at a new IT system that calculated tenders on a point system.

In his motion Cllr Gerry Flynn (Ind) asked the County Manager to provide comprehensive information concerning contractors employed by Clare County Council.

He specifically asked for a list of any of the council staff, elected mem- bers or members of their immediate family, provide goods or services either directly or indirectly to Clare County Council “in the interests of accountability and transparency in Local Government.”

The Shannon Councillor also inquired if contractors were compliant with working conditions set out by the Local Government Advisory Board such as rates of pay, pension fund, sick fund, and revenue.

He also asked for the terms of reference governing senior engineers granting contracts and if the council supplied a list of successful contractors to the trade unions.

Speaking on behalf of the council executive, Senior Executive Officer Corporate Services Michael McNa- mara said the council was not aware of any Contractor or Sub-Contractor that was incompliant with the various statutory requirements.

He also assured the councillor that a list of all successful contractors is forwarded to the unions.

“The Council’s purchasing procedures sets out levels of expenditure which staff at various levels have authority to approve subject to availability of budget.

“It is the responsibility of each approver to ensure compliance with the various statutory requirements,” he continued.

Furthermore Part 15 of the Local Government Act 2001 provides for an Ethical Framework for the Local Government Service ensure that up to 137 employees and elected members complete a declaration of occupation, land ownership, shares, directorships annually and these are available for inspection.

Cllr Oliver Garry (FG) said that in his experience the tendering landscape has changed significantly in the last five years.

“I am a director of a company but I want to make it clear we do not tender for Clare County Council contracts.

“We do tender for other public contracts but not Clare County Council,” he said.

“Anything we tender for now is 100 per cent on price. Once it was on experience, or equipment or the engineer may even have had a say, but now the only concern is price.”

RURAL roads in Clare are in danger of being littered with potholes in what will be the biggest crisis to affect the network around the county in over 30 years, Clare County Council has been warned this week.

A cash-crisis with rural roads has been sounded out following the revelation that the 2013 roadworks programme for the county has been slashed by 42.4 per cent over the past five years.

County Engineer Tom Tiernan outlined the scale of the roads budget reduction across a host of areas in the Roadworks Programme 2013 secured by The Clare People. In the report he has issued a stark warning that “the resources being made available to facilitate maintenance and restoration are falling significantly short of what is required to sustain the county’s network”.

For 2013, € 17.9m has been allocated for road infrastructure in the county – a drop of over € 13m from the figure of € 31.1m in 2008. The biggest decreases are set to be felt in rural roads: down 36.8 percent for restoration improvement; down 40 per cent in the Surface Dressing Programme; down 72 per cent for Specific Improvement Schemes and Overlay Projects down 69.1 per cent.

These figures, which were laid before the monthly meeting of Clare County Council on Friday, has led a number of councillors to voice their concerns about the county’s road network.

“Rural roads are in a horrendous state and roads in the county are crumbling away,” claimed Cllr Cathal Crowe (FF) as he blasted the decision to spend € 1.3m of the council’s resources on the Limerick North Distributor Road, a project he said “that is very fictional and is pie in the sky and one that isn’t happening”.

“The alarm bells are out there – there has to be a readjustment of thinking within this council in relation to investment in county road structures going forward. People in rural Clare deserve a service and their road network has to be protected for many reasons,” said former Mayor of Clare, Cllr Christy Curtin (Ind)

“As far as I’m concerned, for us in rural areas, roads are back on the agenda. In my tenure (since 1979) on the council I’ve never had as many complaints about potholes. As far as I’m concerned we have to address it, we haven’t the manpower at present to do that,” he added.

A decision on whether to adopt the roadworks programme has been deferred until the April meeting of the council.

SIX cars have been burned out on Clare County Council property in North Clare in recent weeks – while an attempt has also been reported made to set fire to a house in one of the traveller accommodation units in Ennistymon.

Lahinch based councillor Bill Slattery (FG) said that the situation at some of the councils traveller accommodations units in Ennistymon was become dangerous.

“I think the next thing that will happen is that a house will go up in flames. It has been tried before [in Ennistymon], or so I have been told. We will have another situation like the Ashline situation in Ennis,” said Cllr Slattery.

“A third car was burned out outside one halting site over the weekend, that makes six cars burned out between the Deerpark and the Kilfenora Road site in recent times.”

Speaking at yesterday’s North Clare Area meeting of Clare County Council, Cllr Joe Arkins (FG), said:

“There may have been six cars recently but the real number is probably closer to 66.

“The only way to solve this type of situation is to attach fines to social welfare payments.

“These people are fined but they can’t pay the fine – they go down to prison, say hello to the guard on the way in and wave goodbye to him on the way out,” he said.

“But if they have to pay for their actions out of their social welfare payments, it won’t be long before they realise that they can’t keep doing what they are doing.”

SOME teenagers in Ennis are being forced to commit crimes to pay off debts to a ‘Fagin’ type figure in the town.

The man was referred to during a sitting of Ennis District Court on Friday where a 17-year-old boy pleaded guilty to charges of burglary, trespass and the unauthorised taking of a vehicle.

His solicitor, John Casey, said there had been an element of force attached to the crimes.

He explained that a situation might arise whereby the man would offer to lend a young person money.

Mr Casey said, “You might never pay this back but he might say to you to do this or do that.”

“A vulnerable young man like this can never get out of it. His mother is genuinely disturbed by all of this.” he added.

The man, whom the court heard is known to gardaí, was compared at a previous court sitting to ‘Fagin’, the criminal mastermind from Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist.

The court heard that the boy has now moved out of Ennis to a rural part of West Clare.

He has also removed the SIM card from his mobile phone so he could not be contacted by people in Ennis.

Addressing the court the teenager said; “Since I left the court the last day, I’ve done everything the court asked me to do.” Judge Patrick Durcan adjourned the case until May. SEPARATELY a different 17-yearold boy has pleaded guilty to multiple charges of theft and burglary at premises in Ennis and Kilfenora.

At Ennis District Court on Friday the boy pleaded guilty to handling a stolen Samsung Galaxy phone on Newbridge Road on October 31; handling a stolen Samsung phone in Considine’s Road, Cloughleigh, Ennis on January 20 (2013).

He also pleaded guilty to stealing a mobile phone on Watery Road, Ennis on February 4; theft of a black Apple iPod from Old Gort Road on February 8 and stealing a Nintendo DS and camcorder from Hermitage, Ennis on dates unknown between December 30 and 31.

He also pleaded guilty to entering Ennis Rugby Club as trespasser to commit the theft of a 32 inch television on dates unknown between December 1 and 25.

Also listed was theft of a Playsta- tion at Doctor’s Hill, Kilfenora on dates unknown between December 25 and 27; entering 66 Westwood, Ennis as a trespasser to commit the theft of jewelry worth € 300 and a mobile phone on dates unknown between December 25 and 26; entering 8 Showgrounds View, Ennis, as a trespasser to commit theft of a Samsung TV, laptop computer and Playstation on dates unknown between December 26 and 27.

Judge Patrick Durcan said he was very concerned about the teenager. He sought a pre-sentence report from the Probation Services. The case was adjourned until April 17.

THE MYSTERY of the missing plaque commemorating three Ennis Republican Volunteers shot during the Civil War has been solved, as Ennis Town Council confirmed to the Clare People that it is “safely with a local community group.”

Republican Sinn Fein Clare plans to call for the reinstallation of the plaque on New Jail Road after its Easter memorial service this week- end.

According to a council spokesperson a local community group, who feared it would be damaged during the work, took down the plaque during the construction of the new road.

“It is still in safe keeping,” he said.

The town council plans to erect new signage on the New Jail Road next month and said it was happy to reinstate the plaque at that time, if the group wish them to do so.

The plaque remembers Patrick Mahoney (25), Christopher Quinn (21) and William Shaughnessy (18) who were executed on Station Road at the old gaol in 1923.

The three men will also be remembered at a memorial service on Easter Monday at the Republican plot in Drumcliff Cemetery at 3pm organised by Clare Republican Sinn Fein.

The group will also remember James Glynn who died on May 2 1934.

Wreaths will be laid afterwards by RSF Clare and the James Connolly Cummann.