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CLARE County Council spent € 742.15 last month on the official launch of the its new Local Enterprise Office (LEO), but the spend was far from the € 4,000 splurge of some other local authorities or the frugal celebrations of Leitrim County Council who partied for just € 30.

On July 14, the Minister of State for Small Business, John Perry, officially launched LEO at Áras Contae an Chláir in Ennis, a department that has been operational since mid April.

Combining the resources of the Clare County Enterprise Board and Clare County Council’s business support unit, Clare LEO is one of 31 around Ireland that is tasked with delivering services and support to busi- nesses within a framework set by the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation and overseen by Enterprise Ireland.

According to figures released in a parliamentary question, 27 local authorities have already hosted official events to launch these offices.

The € 742.15 spent by Clare County Council on the official launch included photography costs.

The efforts of the neighbouring local authority, Tipperary County Council, were not as prudent however as it ran up the largest bill of € 4,385, which included a € 1,449 catering bill and a € 1,000 marquee hire.

Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown also ran up a bill over € 4,000 with the Taoiseach’s home county of Mayo coming in third with costs reaching € 3,717.

Clare was well below the mid-way mark in 16th place when it came to costs, but it was Leitrim that proved to be the most entrepreneurial when it came to showcasing its enterprise office. The € 30 it spent was for the cost of a courier to deliver a stand. The tea and coffee for the celebration was provided by the council canteen and kitchen with two small local companies displaying their home baking and providing the food free of charge.

Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Richard Bruton said official launches of these offices, which cost a total € 38,528.81, were part of an ongoing effort to raise awareness of their role.

“Each LEO has a small allocation for events such as these and the costs are incorporated into each Office’s budgets for the year,” he said.

SCORES of Clare horses are being trapped in a circle of neglect with many horse owners literally unable to give their animals away.

The number of Clare horse owners increased sharply during the Celtic Tigers years but reports of cruelty and abandonment have been widespread since the economic downturn, with many people now unable to af- ford the cost of keeping the animals properly.

However, according to Clare dog warden Frankie Coote, a large number of Clare horses are suffering from neglect on numerous occasions – with their owners unable to get rid of the animals. With a large number of horses bought or sold on the black market, many Clare horse owners have no longer got the money to keep their animals but do not have the documentation to sell their animals.

“We are dealing with the same horses now as we were dealing with four or five years ago. Because of difficulties with passports and microchips, there people are unable to sell them on to factories which has resulted in a lot of people owning horses who don’t have the means to look after them,” said Frankie Coote.

“We are being called out to the same horses again and again over the past four years. These horses are getting no vetinarial treatment, their hoofs are not being done and they are not being fed right. They are not getting adequate water in many cases.”

A number of Clare cases of animal cruelty have currently been referred to the DPP for possible investigation.

“We can take animals away in severe cases and we have sent a number of files to the DPP in relation to cases from last year,” said Frankie.

“But we do have a situation at the moment where we have a lot of peo- ple who just can’t take care of their animals but can’t get rid of them either. People should know that in emergency cases we have fodder for horses available and vetinarial fees available – so people can contact us for help.

“We are expecting this to be a difficult winter and we are certainly advising people not to over stock. But I think we need a legislation change really to allow for these [undocumented] horses to be moved on.”

A WEST Clare artist, commissioned to sculpt a marble bust of Bobby Sands, saw his work unveiled in the Felon’s Club in West Belfast at the beginning of the month. Paraic Casey from Kildysart was working with white marble on the Greek Island of Thassos when he was approached by the Bobby Sands Memorial Trust to create a piece of sculpture to represent the iconic hun- ger striker. The 100 kilo piece was unveiled by Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams in the club dedicated to republican political prisoners as part of its 50th anniversary celebrations. The bust was hand-carved by the 31-year-old Clareman over two and a half months and three locations. The work began on Thassos Island and the marble was then moved to Athens while Paraic attended the Athens School of Sculpture. The life-size bust that stands at 60cm in height, 50cm in length and 35cm in width was then shipped to Kildysart to Paraic’s workshop for completion. The young sculptor explains that there were no short cuts taken with the work as it was all completed by hand. He even made the pointer he used to carve the piece using clay and then casting it in plaster. “I felt very grateful to be allowed to do this work and I would love to do more realist pieces like this,” said Paraic. “A lot of the work I do is garden sculpture and abstract work, but I enjoy doing realist pieces too. I work mainly in stone – limestone, granite and marble, but have also done some abstract work in wood.” From as early as three years old Paraic has been creating pieces of sculpture. He attended art college in Limerick but his love of sculpture saw him leave other mediums behind in favour of sculpting. He attended the School of Sculpture in Leitrim where he learnt his craft and further honed his talent in Greece. He hopes to continue to make commissioned pieces of all shapes and sizes from his workshop in West Clare.

ONE hundred and fifteen jobs at one of Clare’s leading employers are safe – following the buyout of Ennistymon’s Data Display by US firm Daktronics yesterday.

The buyout, which was announced to the US stock market yesterday morning, could see an increase in employment in Ennistymon with an investment promised by the NASDAQ-listed company.

Data Display has been a landmark company since it was founded by local businessman Kevin Neville in 1978. While Mr Neville took a step back from the company in 2007, both Paul and Ann Marie Neville retain a senior management role within the company and are expected to remain in their roles as the company passes to Daktronics.

According to a company spokesperson, careful negotiations have been underway between Daktronics and Data Display for the past 12 months.

“Daktronics have given a firm commitment to the company here and the employees in Ennistymon. They have a long-term view of the facility here and they want to bring investment here for production and engineering,” said Paul Horan of Data Display.

“A growth in employment is certainly possible but I would not want to overstate it at this point. There is talk about the future but everyone is being very careful not to overstate anything. My own personal view is that there is good potential for growth here in the future.”

In a statement to The Clare People yesterday, Daktronics confirmed that they would retain the Data Display workforce.

“We believe Daktronics and Data Display complement each other well. Daktronics is active in the transportation business, mainly in the United States, and we have a global presence with offices and people in many countries, currently focused on sports, third-party advertising and video solutions,” said Daktronics CEO Reece Kurtenbach.

“Adding the strengths of Data Display will allow our combined organisations to better serve transportation customers worldwide and broaden our leadership position on a global scale. Daktronics looks forward to further expanding its customer and market focus in Europe and surrounding areas.”

ENNIS has moved up the litter free league table by 10 places, retaining its “Clean to European Norm” status. The awarding body, Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL), said yesterday that it would prefer to see this town push on to a higher position on the table.

According to the report carried out by An Taisce for IBAL, “the top ranking sites in Ennis were not just clear of litter but well presented and maintained”.

The sites that made the A grade included Clare Leisure World, Garden of Remembrance and Recycle Facility at Ennis Shopping Centre.

St Patrick’s Terrace and the road from the town centre at Carmody Street out to square at Dalcassian Avenue were also given the top grade, as were Dalcassian Avenue and the N68 / N67 Kilrush – Kilkee Approach Road to Ennis.

The An Taisce inspector was less impressed with the Mill Road River Walk giving the area a poor C rating.

“This is an extensive site incorporating the river walk, hurling monument and Ennis Civic Trust Amenity Project at the Weir. It is a lovely environment, which has been poorly treated. The area beside the hurling monument was clean and tidy but across the road at Civic Trust Project garden was a different story – there were heavy levels of a wide variety of litter at the sluice gates. Throughout the rest of the area surveyed cigarette butts were very pronounced along the paving and there were several separate incidents of graffiti, including on one of the statues,” the report said.

Ennis Shopping Centre received a grade B. “This was a freshly presented and generally quite well maintained environment – car park surface / signage / markings were in good order and the interior was spot- less. However, cigarette butts and chewing gum were very prevalent throughout the exterior,” the inspector maintained.

The Clare County Council Recycle Bank at the Leisure Facility also got a B.

“This was a somewhat littered site but certainly much improved on previous IBAL Anti-Litter survey. The area to the base of the bins and surrounding shrubbery harboured a variety of food related litter and bottles tops. Two clothing recycle bins were overflowing. Extensive and colourful signage was very clear about not leaving items if bins were full,” the report said. MAUREENO’GORMAN(née O’ Shaughnessy) , Corbally, Kilkee. Peacefully. Reposing on Wednesday evening, August 20, at Lillis’Funeral Home in Kilkee from 6.30pm, with removal at 8pm to Kilkee Parish Church. RequeimMassonThursdayat 11.30amfollowed by burial in Lisdeen Cemetery. May she rest in peace.

GOOD news keeps landing at Shannon Airport as as new figures from the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) confirm another impressive month of growth at the Clare Airport.

After passing out Cork Airport just last month, and reclaiming its position as Ireland’s second largest airport, Shannon begun to pull away from its Munster rival.

According to the new Air Traffic Figures for July, compiled by the IAA, Shannon Airport recorded an 18 per cent growth in the number of daily commercial flight coming through the airport compared to July of 2013.

More impressive than the percentage growth however is the number of commercial flights which are landing at the Clare airport each day.

An average of 74 daily commercial movements were recorded at Shannon Airport in July – the largest monthly average for more than four years. This compares to 66 daily commercial movement in Cork for the same period.

While commercial movement do not necessarily translate directly to passenger numbers, it is expected that Shannon Airport will also have passed out Cork Airport when those figures are released later this year.

This growth in traffic through Shannon Airport comes in the way of the decoupling of the airport from the Dublin Airport Authority. During 2012 Shannon Airport was close to being passed out by Knock Airport in Mayo as Ireland third busiest airport.

Meanwhile, the Central Statistic Office have compiled detailed figures for Shannon last year which show that the airport hosted 1,308,242 passengers last year – with four out of every ten passengers travelling to or from London.

The most popular route was Shannon to Heathrow which carried 258,000 passengers while Shannon-Stansted and Shannon-Gatwick hosted 183,000 and 104,000 respectively.

In the same year, more than 200,000 people travelled between Shannon and New York with 107,000 travelling from Shannon to Newark and 102 travelling from Shannon to JFK.

THE NUMBER of children being baptised in West Clare has dropped significantly in recent years as the effects of emigration further impacts on rural Clare.

According to figures produced by the Diocese of Killaloe, the number of baptisms in the west of the county fell from 170 in 2010, to just 157 in 2013 – this equates to a drop of almost 8 per cent.

The worst hit areas were Kilmihil which recorded a 39 per cent decrease (from 23 to 14) and Doonbeg which saw a 33 per cent decrease (from 21 to 14).

Despite losing all of it’s government funding in 2012, Kilrush based Rural Resettlement Ireland continued to rehouse urban families in rural areas.

“Indeed, according to founder Jim Connolly, the organisation has brought three new families to West Clare so far this year.

“Where we see the drop in population most is in requests from schools, who are desperately needing two or three students who need students to save a teachers job.

“We get requests like this from families from all over the west – it’s like they are ordering families off a fence.

“We have three villages in West Clare who are getting new families this summer, all with young children. I know that in each of these cases they are saving a teachers job,” said Mr Connolly.

“It seems to me that all over the West [of Ireland] a generation has been lost.

“The spin at the moment that Ireland is pulling out of recession applied only to Dublin and to the East coast.

“I’m not a doom merchant, I’m a very positive person, but as far as I can see it every rural town in Ireland is as dead as a dodo.”

Rural Resettlement Ireland has also began taking requests from homeless families who are currently being kept in emergency accommodation by ur- ban local authorities.

“None of the current situation makes common sense. We have a housing crisis in Dublin.

“For the first time ever we are now taking inquires from people who are homeless – people who had a mortgage, Mr and Mrs Average who had a mortgage and couldn’t keep up with it.

“We were dealing with one family last week who were being put in a Travelodge by a local authority,” continued Jim.

“You have hundreds and hundreds of families who need a home, and on the west coast we have thousands of homes with no-one in them.

“It just doesn’t make sense.”

FAMILY, friends and many clergy members turned out in Ennis last week to celebrate the life of the late Canon Frank Mulvey (pictured above).

Born in 1935, Canon Mulvey was the son of the late George and Margaret Mulvey from the Clonroad area of Ennis. He studied for the priesthood at St Patrick’s College Thurles and was ordained on Thurles Cathedral on June 14, 1959.

He was ordained for the Archdiocese of Cardiff and in August 1959, his first parish was in Gendros, Swansea. He had a brief spell in Cardiff before serving for 12 years in Tredegar in the Welsh Valleys.

After a number of years in St David’s parish in Newport, he moved to Rumney, Cardiff where was attached to the Blessed Sacrament Church for 28 years.

In 2009, he was joined by family and friends to celebrate his 50th year in the priesthood. To mark the occasion, he was made a Canon.

Canon Mulvey was on his annual summer break back home to Ennis when he became ill.

He died peacefully in the company of his family at University Hospital Limerick on August 6.

At his funeral mass in Ennis Cathedral on Friday, family and colleagues recalled a warm and generous person who loved sport, particularly golf, the Clare hurlers and the Munster Rugby team.

“Canon Frankie despite his many years in Wales never lost his love of his native county and especially rejoiced in their wonderful success down the years”, recalled Fr Brendan Quinlivan.

He told mourners, who included members of the clergy from Wales, how Canon Mulvey’s house was often a ‘haven’ for people travelling to rugby games Cardiff Arms Park.

Fr Quinlivan said Canon Mulvey was a man of “deep prayer and reflection” who came to love Wales and it’s people.

Shane Mulvey shared with mourners memories of his Uncle Frankie’s much-anticipated visits home to Ennis. “He was always thinking of others such was his nature”. Shane told mourners his uncle was a keen photographer who lived for his visits home to see his sister Rita and brother Tony. “We were so happy to have him home for the last few days and we got to hear him sing one last time. I’d like to thank him for everything he’s done for us. A very special man to the end. We’ll miss you very much Frankie”, Shane added.

THE Director of the upcoming Merriman Summer School in Ennis believes the event remains relevant and important in shaping discussion in Irish society.

Speaking ahead of the school, which runs in Ennis from August 1317, Professor Patricia Coughlan says the events such as the Merriman still have a future.

“I absolutely think so. I’m a huge fan of them.

“I think it’s a place to thrash things out where people can have an input into what is a national discussion. I think it is a more thoughtful medium”, she says,

“The radio is very good. Television tends not to be so good for this because it tends to be soundbites.

“There are good discussions on radio but the constraints of time on a radio are very narrow.

“This is something more leisurely and something where you can draw things out a bit more”.

This year’s theme – Emotional Life in Ireland – will be discussed and debated by authors, academics and musicians.

Prof Coughlan, who is Professor Emerita in the School of English at UCC, says summer schools have a relevance beyond academic and literary circles.

“They do. I’m really a fan of summer schools, generally. It’s an Irish invention that doesn’t exist elsewhere.

“I think it’s one the things that we do really well. I hugely respect the people that attend summer schools because they are not necessarily people with influence.

“They are serious people who want to hear things trashed out and discussed. They take issues seriously and I think that’s a very positive sign of our culture”, she explains.

Prof Coughlan said she also made a conscious decision to invite more young speakers to the school.

She explains, “One of the parts of the brief was to engage some younger speakers and I very much sought to do that.

“That’s not to outlaw the older speakers. But looking at the programme, most of the speakers are actually under 50 and probably under 40, between the poets and all the other speakers.

“They are younger scholars and critics primarily. To be honest it was easier to find people doing this kind of research in the various disciplines and who were interested in discussing. It was actually easier to find younger people. It’s a topic that’s only coming into being discussable now.”

THE government has not allocated any money for more than 30 Clare storm defense projects needed to prevent further devastation should storms threaten Clare coastal communities this winter.

The Office of Public Works wrote to Clare County Council last Friday, August 8, informing them that they cannot consider any new coastal protection works until funding has been released by the Department of the Environment.

Clare County Council had been waiting on news on a € 12.1 million submission for more than 30 new coastal protection structure, including those at the devastated area of Clohaninchy in Quilty, since February of this year.

The council made the submission as part of an overall funding allocation sent to the Department of the Environment in February.

At the time, the department re- ferred the situation to the OPW for consideration.

Last Friday’s admission by the OPW has created a chicken-and-egg situation regarding the € 12.1 million – with the OPW saying they cannot consider the submission until the Department of the Environment makes funding available, and the Department of the Environment referring the matter to the OPW.

The money allocated to Clare County Council to date is only to cover repair of flood defenses and other infrastructure.

No money has been allocated to build any of the 35 new structures required – following the previous flood defenses being completely swept away.

The Chief Executive of Clare County Council, Tom Coughlan, wrote to all councillors last Friday informing them of the situation.

This revelation comes after a series of communications between the OPW and Clare County Council in recent days, including a behind closed doors meeting which took place in Ennis on Thursday.

This revelation comes despite a number of assurances given by former Minister for the Environment, Phil Hogan (FG) and Minister with responsibility for the OPW, Brian Hayes (FG) that all steps would be taken to avoid any “cash-flow issues” slowing works.

Both former minister are currently serving at the EU.

“We don’t know what is going on. Hayes [former Minister Brian Hayes] and Hogan [former Minister Phil Hogan] were back here promising money but it turns out that this money has never been signed off on,” said Kilkee Cllr Ian Lynch (IND).

“The councillors are blue in the face trying to bring about some movement on this issue.

“The Chief Executive [Tom Coughlan] and Senior Engineer [Tom Tiernan] are doing everything they can. The whole situation is incredibly frustrating for everyone involved.”

On March 11, former minister Bri- an Hayes (FG) announced funding to “immediately assist local authorities” in the repair for coastal defenses.

“The physical damage will take time to repair and I am pleased that my Office has responded so quickly. The amounts being made available, together with the guidance provided by the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government on works and development consents required will greatly assist local authorities in these works,” he said March.

“Furthermore, I am also conscious of the urgency of these works and in order to assist local authorities in a practical way and avoid any potential cash-flow issues, my Office will con sider advance funding requests of up to 80 per cent where a contract for works has been made.” The Clare People contacted the OPW in relation to this story but a spokesperson declined to make any specific comment on last Friday’s revelation.

“The matter of both multi-annual funding for storm damage and further funding for the February 2014 storms is a matter for Departments of Environment, Community and Local Government and Public Expenditure and Reform,” a spokesperson said.

A spokesperson from the Department of the Environment yesterday declined to have any role in relation to the allocation of funding to the OPW.

“The Department of the Environment doesn’t fund coastal protection works so we wouldn’t be making funding available to the OPW. The department’s role in this matter was to co-ordinate the submissions from LAs [local authorities] in respect of the estimates of the cost of damage to public infrastructure caused by the second period of severe weather from January 27 to February 17 and these have been compiled.

“A Government decision on funding for damage caused by this second period of severe weather has not yet been made,” said a Department of Environment spokesperson.