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CLARE County Council are still awaiting any formal contact from the Department of the Environment advising them which unfinished housing estate in Clare will be exempted from the € 100 housing levy.

The local authority confirmed last night that, although they have received a number of queries from the public about the issue, the department is yet to give them any indication who will pay and who will not.

Last year seven housing estates in Clare wee given Category Four status by the Department of the Environment – which means that they are unfinished housing estates where there is no chance that the developer will be able to finish the estate. It had been speculated that all houses in category four housing estates will be exempted form the € 100 charge.

Speaking at last nights meeting of Clare County Council, Director of Services, Nora Kaye, said that Clare County Council is yet to receive any information what-so-ever from the Department of the Environment concerning possible exemptions .

“The council did have a roll in trying to categories the estate of unfinished estates in the county. There were seven in category four. I am not aware of the rational behind the list that the Minister for the Environment is compiling at the moment and whether that has any connection to the list produced last year,” she said.

“We have not been contacted by the department about this. We have not been asked for statistics from the de- partment about this list. We are trying to determine for ourselves what estates will be categorisesd in what list.“We are getting a lot of queries from the public about their lists and we understand that clarification is coming from the department in the coming days and that would be a welcome move. This does not mean that these are ghost estates – this means that they are unfinished.”

Shannon Cllr Gerry Flynn (IND) described it as “lunacy” that the details of who must pay this charge have not yet been finalised, even though some people have already paid the charge.

“It is absolute lunacy that the Minister for the Environment would not have the list out there. This charge came into effect on the first of January,” he said.

THERE have been calls for new emergency access points to be introduced on a section of the M18 near Barefield. The National Roads Authority (NRA) has been urged to carry out the “retrofit” works to ensure that emergency service vehicles can reach accidents on the road.

The call came after it emerged that an emergency vehicle had to travel almost 20km to Crusheen to attend a single vehicle crash that occurred near the Barefield interchange last week.

Despite the accident occurring close to Ennis, the ambulance was forced to travel north to Crusheen in order to gain access to the southbound carriage of the motorway. Councillor Johnny Flynn (FG), said that in light of recent accidents in the area, the NRA should look at providing access points on the M18.

He explained, “Because of the concrete median there is serious difficulty for emergency vehicles trying to get to accidents. In that case the journey had to be extended by almost 15 to 20km. When the NRA were designing the motorway they didn’t leave room for sufficient ac- cess points. It could have been done at Tubber or Dromore.”

He added, “It would be a matter of retrofitting the motorway. There would be access points every 5km across the concrete barriers. So instead of travelling 20km, if you had multiple access points, you would have a facility to access it.”

Cllr Flynn warned that the situation could be exacerbated if accidents occurred in both the north and south carriageways. “On a foggy day or a day when the weather is really bad, it’s conceivable that you could have accidents at points at either end of the motorway and you would have serious difficulties trying to get to them.”

Cllr Flynn added, “The delay in getting to the accident site would impact on the ‘golden hour’ – which is the critical time frame from the time of an accident to receiving treatment.”

Concern had previously been expressed over the length of the slip roads from the M18 at some of the road’s main access points.

Cllr Flynn said safety works carried out by the NRA were welcome. He added, “the motorway system is much more safer but the frequency of accidents at that location that is quite worrying.”

DESPITE the ongoing recession, there were 375 new companies formed in Clare in 2011 and there were 695 new business names registered in the county according to new figures from the business intelligence analyst, Vision-net.

This translates to a total of 1,070 start-ups in Clare in 2011. The figure for company incorporations was also up 7.5 per cent on the 2010 figure (349). These figures are very healthy when offset against the total number of company liquidations in Clare in 2011 (19), with eight Clare companies going into receivership.

With the news last week that over 170 Irish companies collapsed every month, Clare only accounted for 1.3 per cent of that national figure.

Meanwhile, the Clare Local Development Company (CLDC) reported € 1.8m paid out to a wide range of community and enterprise projects in Clare during 2011 under the current EU LEADER Rural Development Programme, bringing to € 3m the amount paid out locally since 2009. The actual amount approved in this period was € 5.5m.

This form of EU-funded grant aid would have played a role in the number of new companies formed within the county in 2011.

Figures released this week by CLDC reveal that € 1.25m has been invested in enterprise in 2011, leading to the creation of at least 70 full-time jobs and the retention of hundreds of other jobs in established businesses. A further € 1.75m has been paid out to community and training initiatives, as well as community projects such as children’s playgrounds, astro-turf facilities, and community centres.

CLDC will allocate more than € 5m to local projects and initiatives during the period 2012-2013, while it expects to pay out € 2.5m to pre-approved projects during 2012.

“Since 2009, CLDC has administered more than € 5.5m to dozens of companies, projects and other initiatives throughout Clare. An additional € 5m will be allocated up to 2013 further complementing the considerable developments that have taken place locally since the beginning of 2009,” CLDC Chief Executive Doirin Graham told The Clare People this week.

Clare Local Development Company was established in 2009 with the merging of Rural Resource Development, Ennis West Partners, Eirí Córca Baiscinn and part of Obair Newmarket-on-Fergus.

The organisation is responsible for the delivery of a range of rural and enterprise, social inclusion, community development, work placement and environmental initiatives in Clare.

Currently the company employs 68 people on a wide range of programmes. It is also responsible for the employment of a further 232 people on schemes including community employment, the Rural Social Scheme and Tús.

A full list of all projects supported to date under the EU LEADER Rural Development Programme can be found on the CLDC website, www. cldc.ie.

CLARE’S only elected Sinn Fein representative, Shannon-based councillor Cathy McCafferty, has been suspended from the party while her husband, prominent party member and former leading light of the local Sinn Fein organisation, Eugene McCafferty, has been expelled from the party.

The action was taken by the Sinn Fein top brass at two separate meeting held in late December. Both Councillor McCafferty and Mr McCafferty have a number of weeks to appeal the decisions, but should Cllr McCafferty’s suspension become permanent she will be asked by the organisation to give up her seat on Shannon Town Council to allow another party member to be co-opted.

A spokesperson from the Sinn Fein national organisation in Dublin confirmed that one person had been expelled from the party in Clare but would not confirm the identity of the person.

“We don’t have any official public spokesperson in Clare at the moment. We are restructuring the party locally at the moment and will have someone in place in the near future,” said the party spokesperson.

“Regarding the expulsions from the party – this matter is being handled internally by the party and we won’t be making any comment on it whatso-ever.”

Despite this a number of sources within Sinn Fein, both from Clare and within the Munster region, confirmed to The Clare People that Mr Eugene McCafferty had been expelled and that Cllr McCafferty had been suspended. The Clare People contacted Mr McCafferty in relation to this matter but he declined to confirm or deny his expulsion from the party only saying that he “was not and had never been” a Sinn Fein organiser in Clare. The Clare People also contacted Cllr McCafferty in relation to her suspension from the party but no response was forthcoming at the time of going to press. The Clare People also contacted the Clare Sinn Fein organisation in relation to this story but no official comment was forthcoming at the time of going to press.

Sinn Fein did not run a candidate in Clare in last year’s General Election, despite the party securing its position as the fourth most popular party in the country in the national poll.

The Clare wing of the party has been hit with a number of high profile defections in recent years with a number of former election candidates walking away from the local organisation.

THE number clothes being dropped to the Enable Ireland shop in Ennis dropped by 50 per cent – the largest drop recorded at any Enable Ireland outlet in the country. The charity, which works with people with physical disabilities, blamed the recession for the drop in donations but could not explain why donations were so much lower in Clare than in the rest of the country.

Clare spokesperson for Enable Ireland Ann Kelly said that there was no danger that the Enable Ireland shop in Ennis would be closed and confirmed that the shop came in just marginally below its budgeted amount of profit for 2011. Any drop in profit for the organisation is likely to hit local services however, as all money raised by the organisation in Clare, remains in Clare.

“The donations that were dropped into the shop in Ennis were reduced dramatically last year. I don’t think that the people of Clare are in any way less generous than they were in 2010 but I think the recession is hitting people hard and people are holding on to clothes for longer than the would in the past,” she said.

“At the moment there really is an urgent appeal for anyone who can donate clothing. There has been a reduction everywhere but for some reason last year the donations to the show in Ennis were drastically reduced. The shop overall was not that much below the targets that were set out for the year. We did the best we could with what we had but the more donations that we get the more we can make for the charity.

“It all goes locally. Everything that is raised in Clare gets spent locally helping people in the county. So by not having as many donations it is impacting on the local people in the county.”

While the organisation recorded a reduction in the amount of donations in every shop, the most drastic drop was recorded in Ennis. The percentage reduction was just 16 per cent in both Louth and Westmeath.

The organisation is also to examine the possibility of getting their drivers to go door to door to collect donations instead of leaving them outside to avoid bags being collected by bogus collectors.

Enable Ireland to enable people with physical disabilities to achieve maximum independence, choice and inclusion in their communities.

IN THE week that Aer Lingus transatlantic services out of Shannon Airport were suspended until the end of March, a new target of having 500,000 passengers a year on the North American route has been set by marketing gurus at Clare’s international airport.

Moves to target an increase in transatlantic traffic – once the jewel in Shannon’s crown – will be made over the next four years as passen- gers numbers on the lucrative North American route have been halved in the last decade.

The latest available figures for Shannon contained in the 2010 Dublin Airport Authority annual report showed there were 349,381 passengers out that year, which represents a decline of almost 50 per cent from the figure of 682,715 in 2000.

Shannon Airport Authority marketing director Declan Power has said the aim is to increase this figure to 500,000 by 2015. “That is what is sustainable for this region,” he said. “Anything over and above that isn’t going to be sustainable, services will come and go,” he added.

Figures secured by The Clare People show that transatlantic traffic through Shannon reached a record 20-year low in 2010 – the worst figures on the North American route since the compulsory stopover was abolished by then Minister for Transport Brian Cowen in 1993.

Figures on the transatlantic route stood at 372,000 in 1992, a figure that rose to 682,715 by the end of the decade, while the historic high for transatlantic business in Shannon came in 2006 when passenger numbers of 780,917 were recorded.

In setting out new goals for Shannon’s transatlantic operation, Mr Power has said “there is too much negative publicity about Shannon Airport in the media. It is a global village now and that’s picked up by all our customers. We need to talk up our region and our airport. If we talk negative about it, we’ll start believing the negativity ourselves and we might as well close up and go home,” he added.

OFFICAL passenger numbers through Shannon Airport in 2011 are set for another drop, but the drastic fall-off experienced in 2010 has been stabilized with figures of over 1.6m recorded for the year.

Shannon Airport Authority marketing director Declan Power has revealed that passenger numbers in Shannon have now bottomed out, with early projections saying that figures for 2012 will be along 2011 lines.

In 2010 passenger numbers through Shannon dropped by one million over the previous year. This drop represented a 37 percent decline in passenger traffic, a 12-year low at Shannon.

Only 1,755,885 passengers used Shannon in 2010. The drastic fall-off in numbers, from 2,794,563 in 2009 represented the fourth year in a row that Shannon’s passenger count when into sharp decline.

Between 2004 and 2006 passenger numbers increased by a record 37.9 per cent as Shannon’s numbers grew to a record 3,639,046 from 2,395,116 over a two-year period.

The drop in traffic was attributed to Ryanair’s decision to drastically cut its Shannon operation – from having 53 routes that accounted for 1.9m passengers in early 2009 the lowcost carrier now only has 300,000 passengers in Shannon.

“That traffic was there during the boom time in the economy, it is not there now,” said Declan Power in arguing the case that it’s good for Shannon that it no longer has a dominant carrier like Ryanair.

“Before we had the Ryanair base, we had five or six different foreign carriers in Shannon and they were all driven out. Now we have to get back to the start again and go back to what we were good at and get other airlines to fly in.

“Politicians state that Shannon should give everything away for free so that we get the business in, but we have an airport to run. We have to pay for a € 6 million overlay on the runway, basic facilities have to be paid for, the lighting and the heating and security,” he added.

Mr Power also pointed out that 80 per cent of the passenger numbers provided by Ryanair were Irish people travelling abroad.

Stephen McCOY
of Loughash, Newmarket-on-Fergus. Late of The Strand,Walshestown, Mullingar, Co.Westmeath. Tragically. Laid to rest in Lemanagh Cemetery. Date of death: Saturday, December 31, 2011. May he rest in peace.

Tess McMAHON,
(née McGuane) of Greygrove, Kilmihil. Late of Coore. Laid to rest in Kilmihil cemetery. May she rest in peace.

Bridie KAYE
, (née O’Gorman) of Ballycotton Liscannor. At St.Theresa’s nursing home Kilrush, relict of the late Percy, (Manchester). Laid to rest at St Brigid’s Well cemetery. Date of death:Tuesday, January 03. May she rest in peace.

Mary WARD
of 13 Fergus Road, Shannon. Buried in Lemenagh Cemetery. May she rest in peace.

Michael (Buddy) PURCELL
of Ballyduff, Barefield, Ennis. Suddenly. Donations, if desired, to the ICU, University Hospital Galway. Date of death:Tuesday, January 03, 2012. Laid to rest inTemplemaley Cemetery. May he rest in peace.

Teresa MULHERN,
(née Hehir) of Main Street, Kildysart. laid to rest in the local cemetery in Kildysart. Date of death:Wednesday, January 04, 2012. May she rest in peace.

Mrs Bridget (Bridg) Keating,
(née Moloney) of Oughterard, Cross, Kilrush. Peacefully at home in the loving care of her family. Laid to rest in Kilballyowen Cemetery Cross. Date of death:Thursday, January 05. May she rest in peace.

Nancy CRAWFORD
of Connolly. Laid to rest in Mount Temple Cemetery, Kilmaley. May she rest in peace.

Lena BROWNE,
(née Culligan) of Kilmurry McMahon, Kilrush. Laid to rest in the Kilmurry McMahon cemetery. Family flowers only, please. Donations, if desired, to Unit 1, St. Joseph’s Hospital, Ennis. Date of death:Thursday, January 05, 2012. May she rest in peace.

Doris BERND
of Mahonbourgh, Inch, Ennis. Cremated privately on Saturday, January 7. May she rest in peace.

Mary WALSH,
(néeTuttle) of TLCNursing Home Santry, Dublin and late of Quin and Ennis, Clare. Peacefully, after a short illness. Laid to rest in Drumcliff Cemetery. Date of death: Saturday, January 07, 2012. May she rest in peace.

Vida SANCHEZ
of Elton Court, Meelick. Deeply regretted by her husband Fernando, son Jaden, daughter Caitlin, mother, brothers and sisters, other relatives, neighbours and friends. Laid to rest in Ballycannon Cemetery, Meelick. May she rest in peace.

Jake Marcus O’TOOLE
of Kilrush. Formerly of Lucan Co. Dublin. Peacefully, in the loving care of the staff at St.Vincent’s Hospital, ElmPark, Dublin.A Service of Remembrance will be celebrated onTuesday afternoon in Newlands Cross Crematoriumat 2pm. Family flowers only, Please. RequiemMass will be celebrated in St. Senan’s, Church, Kilrush. Date of death: Friday, January 06, 2012. May he rest in peace.

Rebecca KELLY
of Kincora Park, Ennis. Formerly of Bealnalicka, Ruan. Laid to rest in Dysart Cemetery. May she rest in peace.

Frank (Francis) HALPIN
of 82Tullyvarragh Crescent, Shannon. Late of Knockainey, Co Limerick and Customs and Excise and Shannon Estuary Port. Funeral Mass onTuesday at 11am. Burial afterwards in Knockainey Hill Cemetery. Date of death: Saturday, January 07, 2012. May he rest in peace.

Robert WATCHORN,
Kildimo, Miltown Malbay. Funeral Mass onTuesday at 11 o’clock with burial after in Ballard cemetery. May he rest in peace.

Mattie FENNEL,
43 Moore Street Kilrush – Peacefully at Ennis General Hospital. May he rest in peace. Funeral arriving at St Senans Church, Kilrush, on Tuesday for 11 o’clock Mass with burial in new Shanakyle cemetery. May he rest in peace.

Paul KEANE,
Ballymaconna Barefield. Funeral mass onTuesday at 11. Burial after in Kilraghtis cemetery. May he rest in peace.

NEWLY released figures show that the Clare Motor Tax Office issued a total of 126,600 tax discs during 2011. The figures represent a seven per cent decrease in the total number (135,800) of tax discs issued during 2010.

While the figure looks excessively high, particularly when considering that the most recent census population figures for Clare have the entire population of the county at 116,000, the high number of tax discs for the county is explained by the incidence of two-car families. It has also been noted by motor tax officials that more and more people are now taxing their cars for short periods of time, with three-month and six-month discs proving very popular.

The Clare Motor Tax Office, which moved from Francis Street in Ennis to Aras Contae an Chláir in late 2011, is responsible for the issue of all vehicle licences and driver licences for County Clare.

Clare County Council has also issued an appeal this week to motorists to consider using alternative payment methods, including the postal and online tax services. The Clare Motor Tax Office this week witnessed an increase in the number of customers and phone calls, leading to longer queues and waiting times.

Pauline Keane of the Clare Motor Tax Office praised staff who had successfully managed to keep waiting times at local area offices down to a minimum during 2011.

“Waiting times could be further reduced by members of the public choosing to use alternative payment methods including our online tax service which is operational 24 hours a day, seven days a week at www.motortax.ie. Customers may also avail of the Motor Tax Department’s postal service,” she explained.

The service was the first Motor Tax Office in the country to receive a Quality Service Management Award (Q-Mark) in 2004. In late 2009, the service was named overall winner of the Government Health and Social Services category at the National Quality Excellence Awards.

IN LIGHT of recent figures that show a jump in the number of farm related accidents, Clare farmers are being urged to attend rural health and safety conference.

Organised by the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH), Western District Committee, a seminar on farm safety will take place at the Greenhills Hotel, Limerick, on Tuesday, January 17, at 7pm.

The event will cover a number of topics including: the challenges of health and safety in farming; practical approach to farm risk assessments; safety covers and pesticide approval and the safety aspects of pesticide use.

Speakers on the night will include: John McNamara, Teagasc health and safety officer; Aidan Brennan, farm manager, Teagasc, Moorepark, Fermoy; Gerry Graham, Reliance Bearing and Gear Co, Limerick.

A speaker from the Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine will be in attendance.

Geraldine Gregan, IOSH Western District Committee member, called on Clare farmers to attend the seminar. She said there needs to greater awareness of the dangers of operating farm machinery.

She said, “As professional safety officers we decided last September the need to organize a seminar on farm safety. Most industrial fatal accidents occur on farms. Traditionally farms are family units and there needs to be more of an emphasis on the fact that farms are mechanized industrial units.”

According to figures released last week, a total of 55 workplace deaths were reported to the Health and Safe- ty Authority (HAS) in 2011. During 2011 there were 22 killed while working in agriculture compared to 25 in 2010.

Over the last number of years the high fatality rate in agriculture has resulted in the authority increasing inspections and awareness raising activities in that sector. A new awareness raising campaign aimed at encouraging farmers to stop taking risks has just been launched.

KILRUSH Town Council has finally resolved to flush away the public toilet in the town centre that costs over € 200,000 to operate over a fiveyear period, while netting less that € 10,000 in income for the local authority over the same period.

The council has issued formal notice that it is to extricate itself from a 20-year agreement for the public toilet on Martyr’s Square in the town, by terminating the contract for the facility with JCDecaux Street Furniture Limited. The toilet will still be in operation in 2012 at a rental cost of € 35,910, but to terminate the contract later in the year must pay € 60,382 to Street Furniture Limited.

At the September meeting of Kilrush Town Council it was revealed that the town authorities were tied to a 20-year contract for provision of the toilet that was signed in 1999 and doesn’t run out until 2019.

The figures provided by the local revealed that the provision of the toilet cost € 201,301.51 between 2005 and 2010. Over the course of the same six-year period income to the council from the public’s use of the facility was just € 9,940.49 – figures that led independent councillor Paul Moroney to describe it as “the most expensive piece of retail property in Ireland”.

Mayor of Kilrush, Ian Lynch led calls for the council to extricate itself from this contract, which he said was “a huge drain on Kilrush Town Council’s resources at a time when we need every penny we can get”.

Now in light of a council report, which revealed that annual receipts from the superloo are about € 1,200, councillor have unanimously agreed to terminate the contract which will save the local authority € 239,401 in rental charges for the remaining six years and eight months of the contract.

“We thought long and hard about this, but it needs to go,” said Cllr Marion McMahon-Jones (FG). “We cannot justify the expense and we have no statutory obligation to provide a public toilet. It is necessary now to terminate the contract.”