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IN AN era when the HSE is relying more on air travel to attend serious emergencies in West Clare and other rural areas, concerns have been raised that one busy town is without a publicly designated helicopter pad.

The population of the seaside town of Kilkee also multiplies during the summer months, making the need for emergency access more urgent.

Mayor of the coastal town, Cllr Claire Haugh (FF) said that the need for the helicopter pad had to be a priority, especially as a support to the entire local emergency services.

Helicopter support has proven essential to voluntary organisations such as the Kilkee Marine and Rescue Service.

For many people rescued off the cliffs and in the sea, time is of the essence when it comes to accessing medical help.

Kilkee is more than 95 kilometres from the nearest Centre of Excellence at the Mid Western Regional Hospital, Dooradoyle, Limerick.

“For a coastal town like Kilkee, this is vital. We must take it on as a project for the coming year and ensure it is installed,” said Mayor Haugh. “We are now asking Clare County Council to get working on a helicopter pad in Kilkee. We have services here for emergencies yet we haven’t this necessary facility.”

Kilkee’s first citizens said that the cost of putting a helicopter pad is Kilkee is estimated at € 30,000.

“All we need to do is to find a designated area for the helicopters to land.”

She suggested that the area adjacent to the Garda Station, which had been spoken of before, would make an ideal location. “It would be just along the beach and beside the rescue centre,” she said.

The council must now contact the Department of Justice about the possible location.

“This has been in the mix for a few years. It is a very urgent thing. It is imperative we this facility fast,” said Mayor Haugh.

PRIMARY schools across County Clare are now among the most overcrowded anywhere in the country.

These alarming statistics from primary education in the county have been revealed this week in new study published this week, prompting the county’s Irish National Teachers Organisation supremo to describe them as “a wake up” call for the Minister for Education, Ruairi Quinn.

The figures show that now almost 90 per cent of primary pupils in the county are in classes that are greater than the European Union average.

And almost 90 per cent of pupils in Clare schools are in classes of 20 or more, while over a quarter are in “supersize” classes of 30 or more children.

The latest figures show that 27 per cent of primary pupils are in classes of 30 or more, which translates into 3656 pupils in the county being in classes of 30 or more. In addition to this, 58 per cent of pupils are in classes of 20 or more and 15 per cent of pupils are in classes under 20.

The INTO said the figures showed the impact of government cutbacks on the ground in schools. The General Secretary of the INTO, Sean McMahon, the county’s representative on the national executive, described the findings as a wake-up call for the minister. He said Irish class sizes were now the highest in the EU and called on the minister to stop the rise in over-crowded classes.

“Irish class sizes are back to where they were a decade ago and getting worse. In 2002, average class size in Ireland was 24.5m the same as it is today. More than one hundred thousand children (112,821) are in classes of 30 pupils or more, up 10 per cent on the previous year,” said Mr McMahon

The INTO General Secretary, Ms Sheila Nunan commented that the primary school classroom is the frontline of the education service.

“It is where most children spend the majority of their time,” said Ms. Nunan.

A MEMBER of Clare County Council has called for all surplus lands from the development of the Crusheen by-pass to be sold back to local landowners to prevent its use as “illegal encampments”.

Cllr Joe Arkins (FG) asked the Director for Service for Transportation to liaise with Galway County Council on the issue. He asked that “any portions of land acquired for the Crusheen by- pass, which were not completely used in the course of construction of the bypass” be sold back to local landowners, “rather than having them available for use as illegal encampments”.

“We cannot have people moving into the area upsetting people, farmers and the local community,” he said, adding that people who set up such encampments “should be taken to task”.

Supporting the motion Cllr Johnny Flynn (FG) said that there have been similar problems on the Ennis bypass.

REPRESENTATIVES from Ireland’s largest provider of addiction treatment services may be forced to appear before Ennis District Court to explain why a Kilrush man has not been admitted to one of it’’s centres.

Cuan Mhuire Bruree, County Limerick have been ordered to send a letter to the court confirming that Martin Burke (30) has applied for a place at the centre.

The order was made by Judge Patrick Durcan at Ennis District Court on Wednesday. He said that if a letter were not forthcoming, he would issue a witness summons to Cuan Mhuire.

Mr Burke (30), with an address at 4 St Senan’s Terrace, Kilrush, previously pleaded guilty to handling stolen property at John Street Kilrush on June 25.

The court previously heard that Mr Burke was found by gardaí rolling a wheelie bin containing a keg of Budweiser down a street in Kilrush. Mr Burke has also admitted to charges of criminal damage, theft and public order.

The court previously heard that on April 29 (2012) the accused damaged the side of a car at Convent Road, Kilrush and then stole a handbag valued at € 20.

The other offences were committed on May 5 (2012) when the accused smashed a window of the Central Pharmacy causing an estimated 200 euros worth of damage.

Mr Burke also pleaded guilty to be ing intoxicated in a public place on the same night. Mr Burke has 82 previous convictions.

In June, Judge Durcan ordered that Mr Burke enter a treatment centre to deal with his alcohol and drug addiction problems.

He had also previously requested a letter from a doctor recommending that Mr Burke enter a residential treatment programme.

On Wednesday, solicitor Fiona Hehir said her client is still on a waiting list for Cuan Mhuire.

She told the court that Mr Burke is clean of drugs but may have to wait another month before gaining a place in Bruree.

She explained that Bruree does not accept doctor’s letters as a form of recommendation.

Ms Hehir said Mr Burke had been in near daily contact with the centre.

Judge Durcan ordered that a letter be sent from Cuan Mhuire confirming that Mr Burke had applied for a place in Bruree.

THE Ennis Town Manager has defended Ennis Town Council’s record of investment in amenity facilities following criticisms over the Post Office Field.

Ger Dollard was speaking yesterday in response to comments made Cllr James Breen (Ind). In a motion tabled at the September meeting of councillors in the Ennis West Electoral area, Cllr Breen called on the council and the county manager “to take immediate steps to develop the Post Office Field at Bank Place and Bindon Street into a community area”.

Cllr Breen said the field is a “marvelous amenity” in the heart of the town that has been underused and underdeveloped for decades.

In his response, town clerk Leonard Cleary stated that the Post Office Field is a major natural resource for the town centre. “It is rich in wildlife and natural heritage. It offers significant potential for appropriate development. Previously the resource was considered as a proposed site for series of different functions. The issue of resources is key in moving any project forward. The Ennis Hub Town Strategy is currently being drafted by Ennis Town Council after considerable community consultation as part of the Ennis 2020 visioning exercise with University of Limerick,” he said.

“The hub strategy indicates strong support for the development of the post office field as an amenity area. It also presents this type of project as an opportunity for the town to re-orientate towards the great River Fergus resource, which bounds the field. A key challenge in implementing this action in the hub strategy regarding the post office field relates to the available financial resources. Any future proposals for the Post Office Field will in the first instance need to be considered by the elected members of Ennis Town Council.”

The field had been put forward as the site for a new library but the project was abandoned due to a lack of funding.

Mr Dollard said a consensus should be established about the future of the field. However he warned that it would be “a number of years before we have funds available to use”.

Cllr Breen said such a timescale was “unacceptable”, adding that it did not “argue” well for what Ennis Town Council had been doing at times when resources were available for the development of the field.

Mr Dollard said the Council invested hugely in amenities in Ennis, citing the money spent on Lees Road and Tim Smyth Park.

Town Engineer Eamon O’Dea told the meeting that field had only come into the ownership of the council within the last 10 years.

THE enduring success story that is Ennis’ involvement with the National Tidy Towns competition is all down to the spirit of partnership in the county capital that producing consistently impressive results in the competition, year in year out.

That was the verdict delivered Mayor of Ennis, Cllr Peter Considine at the Helix on Monday as the county town was named the country’s Tidiest Large Urban Centre for the fourth time in seven years.

Since winning the overall national title in 2005 – only Clare’s second outright victory and first since Mountshannon on 1981 in the 54year history of the event – Ennis has won the Tidiest Large Urban Centre in 2006, 2007, 2009 and now 2012.

In hailing this latest achievement, Mayor Considine said Ennis’ award successes could not have been accomplished without the support of community groups, schools, residents associations, businesses and State agencies, in partnership with Ennis Town Council.

“This competition provides members of the local community with the opportunity to showcase their pride in their respective towns and villages,” he told The Clare People on Monday.

“The year-round work that has been put in by the Tidy Towns Committee and wider community has reaped dividends. It is evident from Ennis’ outstanding success in this year’s competition that the spirit of volunteerism and pride of place is very much alive in the county capital,” added Mayor Considine.

“These award successes mark the culmination of months of hard work by local volunteers and members of the Ennis Tidy Towns Committee to improve the appearance of the town and its environs,” said the chairperson of the Ennis Tidy Towns Committtee, Áine Purcell.

“The volunteers toiled throughout the summer months in various public areas to create and maintain flowerbeds, keeps streets tidy, cut grass and pick up litter. Retaining the Gold Medal also is a massive achievement for everybody concerned in Ennis,” she added.

Ennis town clerk Leonard Cleary noted that the Tidy Towns awards are the result of a collaborative effort by the local community and the business sector in Ennis.

“Despite the huge volume of people that live in and visit Ennis, this large town has successfully managed to retain its unique heritage charm and tidy appearance,” Mr Cleary said.

“This has been achieved through the combined efforts of residents and the business community, in conjunction with various regional and Government bodies, to enhance the town’s appearance,” he added.

THE Tidy Towns committee in Kilrush has expressed disappointment with its rate of improvement in this year’s competition, even though the west Clare capital had the distinction of winning a Gold Medal for the sixth successive year.

This disappointment was sounded out by Tidy Towns chairperson Paul Edson, who while expressing delight at the town’s latest Gold Medal achievement said that the failure to make the “big leap forward” they were looking for will concentrate minds over the next year.

“Our primary hope was that we would continue with the progress that we have made over the last number of years by winning gold,” said Mr Edson. “We did that and it is a huge achievement for us to win a Gold Medal for sixth year in a row. We are delighted and over the moon about retaining that medal, because it gets harder and harder every year. We are still there and we are hanging on to our gold medal and that’s great.

“We had an increase of one part from last year. We are slightly disappointed with that. We are happy to be moving forward, but we felt that the amount of work and effort that we put in actually deserved more than a one mark increase. We are going through the report to see what areas we need to improve on,” he added.

And, in making his comments about Kilrush’s overall mark of 304 points, Mr Edson said that the goal going forward remains becoming the third centre in the county – after Mountshannon and Ennis – to win the overall national title.

“Unfortunately we haven’t made a big leap forward,” he said. “We felt that with the amount of work and effort we put in during the year would deserve more than one extra mark. It wasn’t to be, so we have to look at the adjudicators report and redouble our efforts next year and come back fighting.

“Our next job is try to understand why we only collected one extra mark and why we didn’t do better for the amount of improvements that we did. Look at Moore Street for instance. Unfortunately we didn’t get any recognition from the judges for the work that was done on Moore Street. There’s no comment on those improvements.

“We feel we need to make a big song and dance about the work that we have done. We will review where the adjudicator has made his points and come back stronger next year. We want to win that overall award,” he added.

THE outstanding success of the opening of the Loophead Lighthouse to tourist traffic for the first time in its four centuries old history is set to spawn a major new building development on the West Clare peninsula. The Clare People has learned that an Irish-American investor has identified a site in the Loophead area as the ideal location for a hotel devel- opment that has the potential to be a boon to West Clare in the construction and operation phase.

There is huge speculation in the area this week that a planning application is to be lodged with Clare County Council’s planning authority in the near future for what is earmarked to be a 50-bedroom hotel and restaurant on the peninsula that has been the biggest new tourist success story in the county over the past two years.

It is understood that the hotel development, if given the green light by the planning authority in Ennis, would bring over 50 jobs in the construction phase and the same number of jobs again in full-time and part-time staff when it opens for business. The Clare People understands that the as yet unnamed investor has been attracted by the success of the lighthouse opening initiative that was initially the brainchild of local Loophead councillor Gabriel Keat- ing (FG) by way of his first motion ever motion to Clare County Council after he was elected in 2009.

The idea was then taken on and brought to reality by Clare County Council director of services Ger Dollard in partnership with Shannon Development and the Commissioners of Irish Lights, who are the owners and guardians of the lighthouse.

Another major factor in attracting to such an investment to Loophead is the fact that there is no hotel in the West Clare capital of Kilrush, while nearby Kilkee no longer has a hotel that’s stays open for 12 months of the year. The last major infrastructural project planned for Loophead was the controversial Loran C navigation mast that the Commissioners of Irish Lights wanted to construct near Kilbaha in the mid-1990s, but after a public out-cry on the peninsula and subsequent oral hearing, plans for the development were eventually scrapped.

CARERS are living in fear not only of the day when they are not around to care for their loved ones, but living in fear that the system that should be there to assist them will let them down.

One carer from just outside Ennis asked that her name not be used. She said that rightly or wrongly, she feared her case would not be looked on favourably if she “said the wrong thing”.

“You are very vulnerable and you may need these services again,” she said.

Rose (not her real name) is married with five children. Just over 13 years ago, when the children were still very young, her husband was diagnosed with a very rare disease of the brain and a stroke. Since then, he has suffered numerous side affects, further complications and a blood condition.

As a result, this still relatively young man requires round-the-clock assistance. The responsibility for his care lies solely with Rose.

The family have currently no outside assistance.

“The DPOC gave funding for a man to come two mornings a week. He was great – so helpful and respectful of my husband and his needs. Two years ago, the funding was cut and we lost the service,” said Rose.

Currently, the family have no home help, although Rose is applying for assistance.

“I have no home help hours and now I definitely won’t be getting them,” she said, resigned to a difficult winter.

“My husband cannot be left alone. For now, everywhere I go, I have to bring him with me or the children stay with him while I go out for something. They are great but they have to have their lives too,” she said.

“I am lucky. I know some people who have no one,” added the young mother, looking at the bright side of a sometimes very bleak situation.

“The cutbacks are terrible. I thought when he (Minister for Health, James Reilly) came in, he would be good as he is a doctor, but he seems as bad as the rest.”

ANY cuts to the already inadequate home help hours allocated to one elderly West Clare woman will have a devastating affect, not just for her but for her whole family.

Carer Margaret Scanlon is living in fear that the six and a half hours of home help allocated to her highly dependent mother-in-law will be cut again as the HSE take the knife to community services.

This one and a half hours, five days a week means that the mother of five can go to work to earn the only wage for the family since her husband was made redundant.

As well as working outside the home, she spends every available minute caring for her mother-in-law, teenage son who suffered a stroke when he was just four years of age and the rest of her family.

Just 18 months ago, when the HSE made its first cuts, her home help hours were reduced from two hours to one and a half. If they are cut again, Ms Scanlon is in no doubt that she will be forced to give up her job.

“There is no way I am putting my mother-in-law into a nursing home. Why should she have to move out of her home of the last 48-years?” she said.

In October 2010, Ms Scanlon applied for a Home Care Package, so grave was the situation. The HSE agreed that, as at least one of the two family members Ms Scanlon cares for around the clock was highly dependent, she was entitled to the package.

However, the package was “put on hold” due to lack of funding.

Ms Scanlon believes she will never receive that assistance now, and is awake nights worrying that she will lose the little assistance she has.

“It can be very stressful. We have five children and the whole of family life has been affected,” she said.

“People are not going out for the day during these home help hours. They have to go do the grocery shopping, or keep doctor or other appointments. Carers are annoyed and frustrated at what is happening,” she said.

“The old and young – the most vulnerable – are being hit by this again. Carers have to stand up for themselves. We do this because we love or care for the person, but it is not easy.”