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ENNIS has held onto its ‘Clean to European Norms’ status in the latest litter survey by Irish Business Against Litter, despite dropping 15 places to 31st, among 42 towns surveyed.

There were just five top ranking sites out of a total of ten surveyed in Ennis – combined with two seriously littered sites. This puts Ennis in the bottom third of the towns / cities surveyed. Ennis Rail and Bus Station was the only area in the survey deemed to be “littered”.

The railway station scored a grade C in An Taisce’s report. It states, “The station itself is well presented e.g. good paving / road surface / planter boxes etc, but unfortunately there were a couple of separate incidents of heavy levels of litter on the ground beside the telephone box and on the steps. It was mostly ‘fresh’ litter, indicating it was not a long-term problem.”

A spokesperson for An Taisce descrbied the results for Ennis as “disappointing”.

She continued, “The two seriously littered sites, Ennis Community College and Ennis Railway Station, put Ennis at the bottom of the ‘Clean to European Norms’ category. The litter situation at Ennis Community College was a more long-term issue than that at the railway station. The R469 Quin approach road had been a very poor site during previous IBAL Anti-Litter surveys. Things were much improved this time around and hopefully this upward trajectory can continue.”

The findings come a week ahead of the results of the annual Tidy Towns competition. The study, despite showing continuing improvement in the cleanliness of our cities and towns, revealed the environs of Dublin Air- port to be a litter blackspot.

76 per cent of the 42 towns and cities surveyed were deemed to be clean, a record percentage. Cavan was judged Ireland’s cleanest town, one of 18 to be rated ‘cleaner than European norms’. An Taisce inspectors praised it as “a town that clearly takes great pride in its environment”.

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.”

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.”

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.

AS CARERS, the elderly and those with disabilities face an uncertain wait while the HSE decides how much of their services to cut, one Clare mother worries about her daughter’s future. Mary Finnegan worries about what will happen her daughter Claire when she is gone.

The Cratloe woman is Claire’s primary carer and assistant but she realises that if the cuts to the health services announced last week remain in place, her daughter has no chance of ever receiving a personal assistant and her independence.

The greater worry for this mother is how her daughter will manage if she can no longer take care of her.

“It is more about what is going to happen after me. I look at what I do now for her and I wonder who is going to do it when I am gone,” she said. Claire is even more frustrated by the lack of service, and is very stressed as she battles for some little assistance from the HSE.

She has applied to the service on numerous occasions for a personal assistance for a few hours a week but repeatedly she has been told “no”.

More than two years ago Claire, who lives with the condition spina bifida, broke her leg during a fall while she tried to shop.

“I was in a wheelchair. I could not drive and still I was turned down for an assistant. I explained to the HSE that this would happen again if I did not get some help. I told them I was struggling. My biggest issue was with shopping. I cannot reach items if I am in my wheelchair, and I cannot carry bags if I have my crutches,” she explained.

Last November Claire’s harrowing prediction came true and she fell again, and once again broke her leg.

Mary maintains that this would not have happened had she an assistant with her.

Claire has also suffered severe burns to her feet while taking a bath. She explained to The Clare People that she attempted to live independently without home help, but one evening while drawing a bath was unaware of the temperature this resulted in severe burns.

THE full extent of the building boom that was experienced in Clare during the Celtic Tiger years has been revealed in the latest bulletin report released by the Central Statistics Office on the 2011 census returns for the county.

Figures for Clare have shown that in the 20-year period from 1991 to 2011, there was a 76 per cent increase in the number of houses in the county from 31,606 to 55,616 – statistics that paint a picture of the biggest building boom in the county’s history over a period in which the population grew by over 15,000.

The 2011 figures show that housing stock in the county now sits at 55,616. Of this figure 42,534 of the houses are occupied, which means that there is a vacancy rate of 21.2 per cent in the county, which represents over one fifth of the county’s housing stock know lies vacant.

This figure can be directly attributed to the building boom that took place in the county, with the number of houses being build over a ten-year period from 1996 to 2006 illustrating the scale of the property industry in the county at the height of the building boom. In 1991 there were 31,606 houses in Clare when there was a vacancy rate of 14.6 per cent. The number of houses increased by less than 3,000 over the next five years until 1996, while the vacancy rate dropped to 12.8 per cent.

However, from 1996 onwards there was a massive increase in construction, with 7,124 new houses built over a five-year period, which had the knock-on effect of bumping vacancy rates up to 16.1 per cent.

This trend continued from 2001 to 2006 when 7,321 new houses were built as vacancy rates jumped to 20.1 per cent. Now there are 55,616 houses in the county, an increase of 24,010 when compared with 1991 figures, but the vacancy rates are now higher than they ever were at 21.2 per cent which translates into 11,782. The numbers of vacant houses is 5,936, while there are a further 1,236 flats unoccupied. The number of holiday homes in the county stands at 4,610.

The Census figures revealed that the number of new housing stock in Clare increased by 14 per cent in be- tween the 2006 and 2011 censuses, which means that Clare house builds ran ahead of the national average of 13.3 per cent.

These figures highlighting Clare’s building boom have been released in the same year that Clare planning was placed in the dock by the heritage watchdog, An Taisce, which published a report saying that Ennis was “an example of some of the most senseless zoning excesses of the ‘Celtic Tiger’ era”.

This damning indictment was delivered in an Taisce’s hard-hitting annual report, ‘State of the Nation – A Review of Ireland’s Planning System 2000-2011’.

Ennis and wider Clare was singled out for special mention in the 45-page report that turned the microscope on 32 planning authorities throughout the country.

Clare has been ranked 23rd out of the 32, the planning in Ennis coming in for special mention because of a range of decisions that were made during the 11-year timeframe covered by the report.

“Clare was the most over-zoned county in the State with 3,208 hectares allowing for an overall additional population of 273,000,” the report said, while noting that between 30 per cent and 50 per cent of all planning decisions in the county was for one-off housing in unzoned land.

In Ennis, An Taisce said that “almost 4, 500 acres of land was zoned for development, sufficient to increase the population of the town from 26,000 people to over 100,000.”

THE book launched last week, The Ennis Atlas has been hailed as an “impressive monument” to the history of the town.

The book was written by local man Brian O Dálaigh as part of the Royal Irish Academy’s series of historic town’s publications.

It was officially launched at a civic reception in Waterpark House, Ennis on Friday night.

According to Professor Howard Clark, joint Chairman of the Historic Town Atlas Project, the comprehensive level of information provided in the book will provide a “reliable baseline” for future historical studies of Ennis.

He said, “Brian O Dálaigh proved himself to be an energetic researcher. This is an impressive monument to the history of Ennis.”

Prof Clark said the Atlas could not have been completed without the support of Clare County Library Services, Ennis Town Council and staff at the Royal Irish Academy.

He also commented on the high level of interest in the history of Ennis, saying,

“The general interest and pride of the townspeople is evident in this room tonight.”

County Librarian Helen Walsh said the value of the Atlas to the history of Ennis is “substantial.”

Tom Brassil, secretary of the Royal Irish Academy, said the project could not have been brought to realisation without the support of local authorities and library services.

He added, “This kind of local support is crucial to these projects.”

Brian O Dálaigh, who edited the Corporation Book of Ennis, told the launch that he had been first ap- proached to compile the Atlas in 1990 but had been unable to do so due to work commitments.

He started researching the Atlas in 2007, adding that the project had reignited memories of his childhood growing up in Carmody Street.

Mr Ó Dálaigh, whose father worked as a cooper, recalled many of the tradesmen who worked in Ennis at the time including Jack Darcy (forge), Frank Malone (farrier) and Tom Clohessy (stone cutter).

He added, “My research has brought me back into an Ennis that has unfortunately disappeared.”

Mayor of Clare, Cllr Pat Daly (FF), who grew up in Parnell Street, said the Atlas was a “very impressive project” that would help to keep alive memories of “old Ennis.” Mayor of Ennis, Cllr Peter Considine (FF) said the Atlas shows the extent of interest that exists in the history of Ennis.

He added, “It is broad on reach and depth and will be of invaluable assistance to people who plan the town in future.”

Cllr Considine said the Atlas would provide a use reference point for Ennis Town Council, who had recently initiated the Ennis 2020 public consultation visioning process.

THE war on crime is being won by the gardaí, or else the numbers of incidents of crime-related activity being reported to the force has decreased dramatically over the last 12 months.

These are the two contrasting scenarios that have emerged out of the publication of a Central Statistics Office report on crime figures in the county that give a detailed breakdown of offences/incidents reported and dealt with at 26 Garda stations around the county.

All because the CSO report carried out by the All-Island Research Observatory has shown that the county’s five primary towns, form the county capital of Ennis outwards to the main towns in West, North, South and East Clare have all shown a dramatic deccrease in the number of cases that were on the Garda books in 2011.

This drop is most pronounced in Ennis, the largest centre of Garda operations in Clare where the numbers of incidents under investigation by the force in 2011 plummetted by 14.4 per cent when compared with the previous year.

This slide has been mirrored in the West Clare capital of Kilrush, the second largest centre of population Shannon, the North Clare capital of Ennistymon and East Clare’s main town Killaloe.

In 2010 there were 2044 different crime related cases on the books of Ennis Garda station, but the drop of 294 to 1750 represents the biggest of any individual station in the county, a figure that has been brought about by a sharp decrease in a number of frontline crime activities such as drugs offences, assaults, weapons cases and burglaries.

There is anecdotal evidence to suggest that the Ennis’ problem drug has significantly increased over the last number of years, with Class A substances like heroin and cocaine freely available in the county capital, but the CSO figures have painted a different picture where drug activity in the town is concerned as it relates to cases that were under investigation by the local gardaí.

Drugs offences in Ennis decreased from 215 in 2010 to 139 in 2011, a trend that was mirrored in Shannon, Ennistymon, Kilrush and Killaloe.

Elsewhere in Ennis, assaults and harrassments dropped from 152 to 120, while burglary and related offences declined to 108 as against 147 for the previous year. Weapons offences in Ennis also saw a sharp decline in the number of incidents, from 46 to 20 over the space of 12 months.

Shannon also experienced a dramatic decline in the numbers of offences, with the statistics again showing up a big drop in the number of drugs related incidents over 12 months, dropping by over 50 per cent from 62 to 28 as overall figures for all crime in the airport town were down by 220 from 754 to 534. Theft related offences, public order issues and damage to property was also down considerably in Shannon.

The overall crime figures for Kilrush saw a drop from 448 to 357, in Killaloe from 317 to 270, while the number of incidents in Ennistymon dropped by just over 50 per cent from 146 to 72.

RURAL communities in Clare are playing their part in preventing crime in their midst, but can’t be expected to do the work of the Garda Siochána who are being forced out of the countryside because of government cutbacks.

That’s the verdict that has been delivered by community leaders in Labasheeda this week as fears grow that garda services that were already cut back following the retirement of local garda, Michael Ryan, two years ago are to set to be scaled down even further.

“There is nothing more important in a rural community than a Garda Station,” community activist Mike Cassidy told The Clare People .

“We play our part in crime prevention and we take our role seriously, but we need the powers to play their part by having a presence on the ground. A garda is a vital part of the community.

“The idea of presence prevents things from happening – the fact that a person is there or the community knows that there’s someone there who can respond quickly,” he added.

Concerns about a further diminution of Garda services in the village have escalated this week on the back of the Crime and Victimisation Survey conducted by the Central Statistics Office.

In Labasheeda, only five offences came to light in 2011 – they were one threat/harassment, two burglary related offences, one drug offence and one case of damage to property.

“In a community like ours, the population has diminished over the years, but we have people here who live a good distance from the next house or the next farm. We’re on the edge of a peninsula and in place like this, I won’t say they’re in danger, but if someone was looking to do something it might be a prime place to do it if there was no garda presence,” said Mr Cassidy.

“We have a lot of older people in the community and I think the security of knowing that somebody is there – even if it’s only for a few hours or a few days – the presence is reasuring, and is prevention for anything that might happen.

“The analogy is with all the speed cameras. The beauty of that is people know that they’re there and it forces them to have the cameras on their mind and makes sure they obey the law.

“The physical presence prevents things from happening, but the prevention doesn’t get into the statistics, but is as real as the actual events themselves. It’s two parts of the process. Everything from Neighbourhood Watch to neighbours being more aware of anything unusual in the community, but we also need that garda presence,” he added.

THE retention and preservation of old buildings in Ennis must play a role in the future development of the town, according to a leading local historian.

Ennis man Brian Ó Dálaigh, a former director of the Merriman summer school, says too many buildings of historical interest have been lost to demolition in the past.

He was speaking in Ennis on Friday night at the launch of his latest publication, the Ennis Atlas. Published by the Royal Irish Academy, the Atlas traces the urban development of Ennis from 1200 to 1900.

Mr Ó Dálaigh says the future of Ennis can be influenced by the how the town developed in the past.

He said, “From my point of view I think they should try and keep as much of the old character of the town as possible, particularly from a tourist point of view. Now that’s not always possible. But in Ennis I get the impression they have resorted to demolition too quickly in the past. There are other options for old buildings besides demolition. That’s would I would be inclined to say, to keep as much of the character within reason.”

He also welcomed recent renovations to the historic 13th century Ennis Friary.

He says, “I like it. It’s a pity they didn’t roof the chancel as well. I think it needs it because a whole lot of the carved stone has been weathered. It’s a good move in the long term but it means all the stone carvings will be displayed out of context because its been taken out of the chancel and into the nave. But it’s the better of two evils at this stage to keep it out of the weather.”

Mr Ó Dálaigh, a Dublin based school principle, grew up the Carmody Street area of Ennis where his father worked as a cooper. He said he was proud to have written a history of his native town.

The Atlas also explores how the famine devastated the population of the town.

Mr Ó Dálaigh explains, “Ennis grew up until the famine period, 1845-46. At that time it had a population of over 9000 people. It was the largest population recorded for the town under the 1832 boundary. After the famine, there was a collapse practically in the population of the town so between 1845 and 1901 the town lost almost half its population. It fell from just over 9000 to about 5000. The poverty in Ennis was endemic, a very impoverished town.

“Emigration took hold particularly to Australia. With the coming of the railways to Ennis in 1859, it practically emptied the back lanes of the town.”