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IT HAS been confirmed that from late October, Shannon Airport cutbacks meant that US immigration pre-clearance won’t be available to British Airways on one of its daily all-business class flights from London City to New York.

The airline currently offers two daily all-business class flights, with both services routing via Shannon on the outbound journey for refuelling, before returning directly from New York.

At present passengers can avail of US immigration pre-clearance at Shannon during the stop, meaning that they arrive at JFK as a domestic passenger, thus avoiding immigration queues.

BA has confirmed that from October 28 pre-clearance will only be available on flight BA001. This change has been forced by cutbacks at Shannon Airport, which will see US officials working fewer hours.

“Our business class-only service between London City and New York, which stops at Shannon, is about to enter its third year of successful operation,” a BA spokesperson revealed.

“Changes in the staffing regime at Shannon Airport, by the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has shortened the opening hours of their pre-clearance facility in Shannon.

“Therefore, we have made changes to the double-daily service for the winter schedule, beginning in October 28.

“Following consultations which explored a range of different options, and feedback from our corporate customers, we have rescheduled the BA001 to depart earlier at 0950 to allow continued access to US preclearance facilities in Shannon.

“The BA003 remains departing at 1600, but customers will not benefit from pre-clearance in Shannon and will instead arrive in New York at International Arrivals,” the spokesperson added.

THE current chief executive officer of County Limerick VEC will head up the new board that will take over the functions of Clare VEC.

Sean Burke has been named as CEO Designate of the new Education and Training Board for Clare and Limerick.

The new board will be an amalgamation of VECs in Clare, Limerick city and Limerick County.

The September meeting of Clare VEC heard that that the new Education and Training Boards (ETB) would be established in the early part of 2013.

The current CEO of Clare VEC, George O’Callaghan has been named CEO Designate of the new city of Cork and Cork county ETB.

Mr O’Callaghan, who has worked as CEO for seven years, said he is looking forward to his new role in Cork.

He said, “It will be a challenge. There will be a lot of work involved, amalgamating the new VECs, they are two fairly large VECs. It’s not going to happen for another six to eight months at the earliest so I’ll still be in Clare for that length of time.”

Mr O’Callaghan said he enjoyed his time working in Clare.

“It was fantastic. The staff are fantastic and the people here are great to work with. The committee have always given me great co-operation down the years.”

Implementing the 2001 Vocational Education Act, the growth in adult education and improvements to school facilities, are among the main changes Mr O’Callaghan has helped oversee during his time with Clare VEC.

He said, “All the schools have very modern facilities. That was part of our objective as well. We were very anxious to get that up and running and I’m very happy that we have got that done. We have achieved three major extensions for three of the schools in the county as well.”

Mr O’Callaghan will be leaving Clare VEC as it prepares to undergo major structural change. He believes the county will have a strong influ- ence on the new ETB.

He said, “The challenge for Clare will be to maintain what it has got. It’ll be a large part of the new entity as well. There are 110,000 people living in Clare. There are over 2,300 post primary school pupils in the VEC here and we have something like 4,000 to 5,000 adults here as well. It will make up quite a large part of the new entity as well. So it will have quite a large influence on the new entity as well.”

CYBER-bullying is more common in rural areas of North Clare than in Dublin City, according to digital media expert Brendan Smith.

The proliferation of online- or cyber-bullying in rural Clare is also a contributing factor in the rise of youth suicides in the county.

Mr Smith, who is the outreach education officer at the Digital Enterprise Research Institute at NUI, Galway, will address groups of parents in Ennistymon next week to educate them of the warning signs for cyberbullying.

He also says that high-profile cases, such as the tragic death of Fanore teenager Phoebe Prince, demonstrate just how serious cyber-bullying is for young Clare people.

“This is a hidden world for a lot of parents who are not familiar with Facebook and other social networks. Children in rural areas are being harassed more than ever before. Before, the bullying would stop at school or on the street; now it can follow them into their homes,” he said.

“The home used to be a sanctuary but that is no longer the case. The bullying can take place right in the bedroom if they have a laptop or a smartphone.

“We have been talking to guards and they say that this is now a bigger problem in rural areas than in cities. If you live in North Clare, there is a much bigger chance that you talk to your friends online rather than meeting up with them, as people can do in the cities,” continued Brendan.

“Phoebe Prince is one of the most famous incidents of cyber-bullying but, trust me, every village and every townland in Clare has some form of cyber-bullying going on. It is difficult to say exactly what the level is but I have never come across an area where it wasn’t a problem.”

Brendan is one of a number of speakers who will address teachers and parents at the North West Clare Family Resource Centre in the coming weeks. There will also be free talks about teen mental health, teen use of drugs and alcohol and teen choices – which is about encouraging teens to make positive choices for themselves.

Each talk is free and will take place at two different times, to allow as many parents as possible to attend. For more information, including the exact times of all the talks, contact Barbara Ó Conchúir, Community Development Worker with the North West Clare Family Resource Centre on 065 7071144 or email info@northwestclarefrc.ie.

SERVICES will be cut in the county to cover the € 240,000 withdrawn from the council coffers by the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government.

Last August, council members agreed to continue with services as planned under the budget adopted at the beginning of the year, on re- assurances from the county’s Fine Gael Oireachtais members that the money cut from the third quarter of the budget would be returned.

Now the council must take an axe to services during the last three months of the year to make up the unplanned shortfall.

The county’s councillors were angered on Friday when it was announced that the money would not be returned as promised.

Instead it must face a meeting on Monday where it will be asked to consider cutting certain vital services in order to balance the books.

Former mayor of Clare Tommy Brennan (Ind) proposed last August to go ahead with the budget as planned given the reassurance from the Government members present, and this week he was angry at the u-turn.

“I am calling on them [TDs] to see the Minister and return the money to Clare County Council. A lot of services will be cut back otherwise,” he said.

Mayor of Clare Pat Daly (FF) described the minister’s decision as “totally wrong”.

“The council is living on the edge at the moment.

“The last thing we need to do it cut services and there is a real danger that this could happen.”

He added that there was a real danger that those that did not pay will not pay the household charge now.

“Two thirds of people have paid the charge and they are being penalised by this man,” he added referring to the minister.

“He has let down his Fine Gael colleagues, especially Pat Breen and Joe Carey in a big way.”

Fine Gael councillor Joe Cooney was equally incensed by the decision.

Describing it as “desperate” and “unbelievable”, he fears for the future of essential public services.

“My belief is that minor and local roads are going to suffer, and we are asking people on those roads to pay taxes and household charges,” the councillor added.

Cllr Joe Arkins (FG) said he was concerned that there was “now no incentive on Clare County Council, Clare county councillors or the householders of Clare to contribute to the charge.”

AN elderly woman is recovering today after a fall at Doolin Pier on Saturday in which she sustained hip and head injuries. The woman slipped and fell at the water’s edge but she was brought to safety before she entered the water.

The Doolin Unit of the Irish Coastguard was alerted to the incident by one of the local ferry operators and were on the scene within minutes. The woman was given medical attention at the water’s edge before she was moved to a more secure location by stretcher.

The casualty complained of severe pain to her left hip and had a cut and swelling to her forehead. The woman was brought to Limerick Regional Hospital for further treatment.

Meanwhile, rescue services on Lough Derg took part in 25 different rescue operations on the lake this summer.

Figures released last week show that the Lough Derg RNLI launches nine times during the summer months, while the Killaloe Unit of the Irish Coastguard took part in 14 rescue operations since the beginning of June.

Among the call-outs responded to by the Lough Derg RNLI was a request to assist 15 people on-board a cruiser that had grounded by Cormorant Island, north of Illaunmore, some four nautical miles from Dromineer Bay.

The lifeboat also launched to investigate a vessel upturned in Youghal Bay, close to Garrykennedy, and on another occasion launched to assist four people after their cruiser grounded and they abandoned it to board a small tender.

LABASHEEDA is a village on the Shannon estuary, an area of high environmental sensitivity, yet its people are asked to survive a recession, develop the area and care for the environment without any sewerage scheme.

And despite more than a half a century of promises from different governments and plans and funding being allocated by the second last Minister for the Environment, the plans have been cancelled and the money taken back.

This is of little surprise to the despondent local people, who have spent the last decade working with planners, the county council and government departments in developing the plan for the village.

Among those involved was local school principal, Liam Woulfe.

“I’m convinced that it was never a runner from day one, and the Department of the Environment were merely playing with figures and statistics just to show that a number of projects were being considered, to look good in Europe,” he said.

“They constantly changed the conditions relating to the type of system to be installed, and Clare County Council, in good faith, would have to go back to the drawing board. We were being regularly told that the money was ‘ringfenced’, a term I don’t want ever to hear in use again, it just seems to mean that the funding is never really there in the first place,” he added.

The “ringfenced” money for the Labasheeda and Carrigaholt Scheme has now disappeared and the goalposts have changed again, so much so that the council can no longer apply for a scheme for Labasheeda.

Sean Ward, Senior Engineer with Clare County Council told The Clare People , “The rules governing the 2011 Annual Review did not give us any leeway for re-submission of the Labasheeda element of the scheme.”

“As neither of the two villages (Carrigaholt or Labasheeda) was included in the new WSIP, the budget allocated in 2008 is no longer available. Clare County Council was reim- bursed by the department for the design and other planning costs, which it had incurred up to the time the scheme was dropped from the Water Services Investment Programme (WSIP),” he said.

The engineer was not confident of a resolution to the situation anytime soon.

“Unless and until the scheme can be reconsidered as part of any 2014onwards WSIP, it isn’t possible to say if and when a sewerage scheme can be built in either Carrigaholt or Labasheeda,” he said.

CLARE-GROWN lemons will be on the menu for this year’s charity Clare Harvest Banquet, which takes place this weekend in Ennis.

Now in its fifth year, the annual banquet made up exclusively of food sources in County Clare, will include a number of new-found foods.

Due to the poor weather this summer, bread will once again be off the menu for the banquet as no Claregrown wheat could be obtained. The weather did not dampen the growth of some more exotic foods, however, and the organisers have been able to source locally-grown lemons for the first time ever.

“We’re very excited this year to find two different sources of Clare lemons, from Barrtra and from Fanore,” said organiser Sinead Garvey.

“The night will start off with some Clare-made wine and music from the Ennis Brass Band on the lawn of the Old Ground Hotel.

“We have found some Clare hazelnuts this year, which is another new food for us, and we will be harvesting salt from seawater and making our own butter as usual.

“We haven’t been able to source Clare flour this year so we will be using some Clare-grown cucumber as the crackers for the cheese board.

“This year, the two chefs from the Old Ground Hotel, Freddy Rynne and Frank Landy, are cooking the meal and they have really got into the event.”

All proceeds from the Clare Harvest Banquet will go to the Asral Charity, which helps to support some of the most needy families in Mongolia.

“Every ticket sold will get a Mongo- lian family through the winter, which otherwise they would not survive, so this is a feel-good event for everyone who comes,” continued Sinead.

“The charity is still supporting groups in Mongolia to export beautiful textiles which are on sale now in Ireland. It is all about creating sustainability for the people in Mongolia.”

The Clare Harvest Banquet will take place at the Old Ground Hotel in Ennis on Friday, October 5 at 8pm.

For ticket information, contact the Old Ground Hotel on 065 6828127 or, more information on the Clar eHarvest Banquet and the specifically local foods it features, visit www. clareharvestbanquet.com.

FOUR groups have so far expressed an interest in taking over patronage of a primary school in Shannon.

Shannon has been identified by the Department of Education and Skills as one of 44 areas nationwide to be surveyed with a view to determining parental preferences regarding school patronage in those areas.

It is proposed that surveys will be conducted in by the Department during the autumn in 44 identified areas to determine parental preferences regarding school patronage.

Clare VEC has already expressed an interest in assuming patronage. Three other groups – Educate Together, An Foras Pátrúnachta and The Redeemed Christian Chruch of God – are interested in becoming school patrons in Shannon.

CEO George O’Callaghan said, “Shannon is designated as one of the areas, which primary school we do not know. That has not yet been identified.”

The issue of school patronage was raised at the September meeting of Clare VEC.

Mr O’Callaghan told the meeting that the Department would run a number of public advertisements prior to the start of the survey process. He explained that the surveys would also be conducted online.

In June, Minister for Education and Skills Ruairi Quinn, announced an action plan in response to the report of the advisory group to the forum on patronage and pluralism in the primary sector.

The survey process is expected to take up to 12 months and any patron age application would be taken up by the new Local and Education Training Boards, that will replace VECs.

THE Government has reneged on a promise to return almost quarter of a million euro to the people of Clare if they increased their payment of the controversial household charge.

The fall out has placed the county’s two Fine Gael TDs in the eye of a storm as they delivered the message from Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan just over a month ago that the cut to the county council’s Local Government Fund was a temporary measure.

In his address to councillors last August, Deputy Pat Breen (FG) said the loss of € 243,000 from the third quarter of the funding allocation would be returned to the council’s coffers.

“You will get back what is owed to you before the need of the year. I don’t think the council should worry about that,” he said.

His colleague Deputy Joe Carey said, “The money is not being cut. It is being withheld.”

“We don’t have to face the cuts if we get the allocation up to 70 to 75 per cent. I got that assurance from Phil Hogan,” he added.

On Friday the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government confirmed the money would not be paid back to Clare County Council under any circumstances but as the county surpassed a 65 per cent payment rate it would not be further penalised during the last quarter of the year.

Deputy Carey told The Cla re People yesterday (Monday) that while the reduction is “disappointing” the overall allocation was € 10.8 million. “The reduction is two and a half per cent within the budget,” he said.

He added that reassurances given to the council by him and his colleagues was done in “good faith”.

“Notwithstanding that, at that meeting I said if Clare County Council got up to 75 per cent there would be a reimbursement, it is still only in the high 60s,” he said.

Since then he said the budgetary situation had changed.

Deputy Breen said he was disappointed, frustrated and angry.

“I am disappointed with the fact he assured us funding would be there and then I got informed that the department cannot deliver on promise,” he said.

He added that he “always tells the truth” and the information was given in “good faith”.

“The return of the household charge is not as good as it should be,” he added which impacted on the loss of the funding.

Asked if his relationship with Minister Hogan was now strained, he said he had a good relationship with all ministers and this was not a personal decision by the minister.

He added however, “I am going to have strong words with Minister Hogan.”

THE Merriman Hotel in Kinvara is going on auction again this week, with the guide price set at just € 400,000, or € 12, 500 per bedroom.

The 32-bedroom hotel, located in the very centre of Kinvara, was auctioned already this year but that deal was not brought to completion.

On that occasion, the hotel was sold to the highest bidder for a price of € 610,000 and it remains unclear whether it will reach those heights again.

Along with the 32 bedrooms, the hotel also boasts a bar with the capacity to seat 200 guests, a dining room with licence capacity for 100, a kitchen, study, entrance hall and private secure car parking.

During the property boom, a number of luxury six-bedroom houses in Kinvara sold for more than € 1 million, or roughly € 170,000 per bedroom.

If the Merriman reaches its previous auction price of € 610,000 from earlier this year, it will be sold for just over € 19,000 per bedroom.

The auction will take place on Friday, September 28 at 3pm at the Victoria Hotel in Galway unless it is previously sold.

The property is being brought to auction by O’Donnellan and Joyce Auctioneers.

Meanwhile, property prices continue to fall across Clare, according to the Myhome.ie price change index.

Of the 48 houses whose asking price changed in the county so far this September, 46 reported a reduction in the asking price.

The largest drop in asking price was for a large thatched property in Doolin whose asking price fell by € 150,000, from € 500,000 to € 350,000.