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KILRUSH Town Council is expected to vote on Thursday night to ring fence and redesignate money once earmarked for Civic Offices for other local community projects.

More than € 373,000 had been sitting in the council’s coffers to pay for office buildings, but as the council is to be dissolved next month concerns had been expressed that this money would be lost to central government.

In March former mayor Cllr Marian McMahon Jones (FG) had proposed that the council use the rarely used Section 140, Subsection 3 of the Local Government Act 2001, which would request the manager to ring fence money from the town council capital funds for specific projects such as the sports field on the Cooraclare Road.

Town Manager Anne Haugh had suggested that a request be made to the county manager and Head of Finance to ring fence the town council’s money for the projects for which it had been intended.

This Thursday the council is expected to reallocate the money from the Civic Office fund to community projects, and ring fence monies already designated to other projects for the purpose they were intended.

Cllr McMahon Jones said that she is happy with this outcome.

“It is important this money stays in Kilrush for what it was intended after the council is dissolved,” she said.

“As long as the money is prioritised for projects that will benefit the town of Kilrush and the hinterland, I am happy with that. The main objective here it to see the town and area well served.”

Meanwhile the Department of the Environment and Local Government released € 350,000 of the council’s budget for local capital projects.

Town Clerk John Corry had expressed his frustration last month that the department had not given permission for projects already identified by the council as necessary and strategic.

It is understood that the € 350,000 released by department will be used for the astro turf pitch element of the sport facility of the Cooraclare Road with the remainder to be used to progress other identified projects. ��������� ���������� ������������ �����������

A DERELICT complex, once used by homeless people who were sleeping rough, has gone on the market and the members of Ennis Town Council believe the local authority should buy it.

At last evening’s meeting of the council, Cllr Brian Meaney (FF) suggested that the council request permission from the Government to raise the loan necessary to purchase the Fairways which has gone on the market for € 75,000.

The derelict building, which was described by Cllr Tommy Brennan as “an awful eye sore”, is situated on the entrance to the town from the Galway side, across from the Fairgreen (Active Ennis Tim Smyth Park).

Dereliction orders have previously been served on the building, according to Town Manager Ger Dollard, who agreed to “investigate with a full view to a solution”.

Cllr Meaney maintained that the purchase prices tag of € 75,000 would be more cost affective to forcing a dereliction order to its conclusion, which is a lengthy and costly legal process.

“It is a landmark site that I believe will increase in value,” he said.

The purchase of the building should “well be within the ability of the council,” the councillor argued.

“What we are dealing with here is a legacy issue from another planning era.

“You would never get planning permission for that now.

“I think this is an opportunity where we can begin the process again.

“Maybe improve it or maybe demolish it and use the site for some- thing more appropriate.”

Cllr Mary Howard (FG) seconded Cllr Meaney’s motion stating that from a Tidy Town’s perspective there is nothing that can be done with the building currently.

Ennis Town Clerk Leonard Cleary told the meeting that the building was not suited to the housing needs of Ennis Town Council clients as there are “significant building management issues.”

“If a property such as this were to be developed for social housing it may need the management oversight of an organisation such as a volun- tary housing body,” he said.

“An initial viewing of the building would indicate there would be considerable works required.”

The Town Clerk said that such issues as this would have to be assessed before seeking permission for a loan.

ENNIS Town Council yesterday heard calls for shaving foam, eggs and other messy substances to be banned from the town during certain public events such as St Patrick’s Day. The ban was called for by Cllr Mary Howard (FG) in the wake of a number of unsavory incidents which took place during this year’s St Patrick’s Day festivities in Ennis.

According to Cllr Howard, large numbers of young people gathered at the Fair Green during and after this years parade because they were “too scared” to go up town.

“I think that it is obvious that if a group of 11 or 12 year olds are buying lots of shaving foam that they are not all going home to shave their legs. I walked through the Fair Green on St Patrick’s Day. I asked the young why they were gathered there they told me that they were too scared to go up town. It doesn’t look good to have people frightened or intimidated,” said Cllr Howard.

“Shaving foam creates a huge mess. I raised this with a member of the local Chamber of Commerce who said that we could not ban the sale of shaving foam on these days because traders have had a bad year. I think they [the traders] will have worse years if people don’t come into town for [for St Patrick’s Day] next year.”

Cllr Howard called for the council to foster to join with local businesses, the Gardaí and local schools to draw up a voluntary code of conduct for days such as St Patrick’s Day and the last day of the school year.

Meanwhile, Cllr Johnny Flynn (FG), called for Ennis Town Council to introduce a scheme to aid people make Anti-Social Behaviour Orders (ASBOs) against a group of “untouchables”, which he saws are hurting the image of the county town.

“It is heartening to hear that they are looking at issuing warning notice for these groups which are in the town centre. If you took out maybe 12 of them [the untouchables] out of the town centre, and put warning notices on them, it would take another dozen or so out of the equation as well,” he said.

A MAJOR new survey is being undertaken in North Clare, which aims to examine how happy the 18,000 residents of the greater Burren area are with their lot in life.

The survey, which is being undertaken by the newly-formed ChangeX Burren organisation, is the first of its kind in Ireland and will be used to analyse different approaches that could be taken to sustaining Burren communities, which are under constant threat from depopulation and economic hardship.

When completed, the ChangeX Burren project will be used as a prototype to roll out a ‘wellness’ analysis of other communities in Ireland and eventually to compare relative happiness in different areas as well as tracking changes over time.

Work on the ChangeX Burren survey has been underway since February and the project will be officially launched on May 8. Once the survey have been completed, they will be analysed with the help of NUI, Galway, and a number of community initiatives will be promoted to tackle any problems identified in he survey.

These initiatives include the promo- tion of a number of existing community groups such as Grow It Yourself (GIY) groups, Coder Dojos and the Slow Food Movement.

“The idea of the survey is to give us an insight into what innovations would work [to improve life] in the Burren region but also to measure well-being. Key to the whole process is community involvement and we want to community to take this into their own hands from the very beginning,” said Elaine Williams of ChangeX Burren.

“Well-being is a very broad term, and one person’s idea of well-bring is very different to anothers, so people will define their own definition of well-being for themselves. The hope is that through the survey we will be able to come up with a base-line definition of well-being for the Burren.

“The Burren is the pilot project for this. It is a great opportunity for the people of the Burren to be involved in this. It is the perfect place to start. We are very excited because there is already a great community spirit in the Burren.”

The group are hoping to collect as many completed surveys as possible before the end of next week but will continue to collect surveys after that date. To complete the survey email elaine@changex.io.

THE Moneypoint power station could be transformed from Ireland biggest polluter to Ireland’s biggest source of renewable energy, according to a new report.

A BW Energy report, which was released over the weekend, claims that a switch from coal to biomass in the three Moneypoint electricity generators would effectively be a “silver bullet” for reaching Ireland’s renewable energy targets.

The transfer from coal to biomass at Moneypoint would, at a stroke, bring Ireland’s renewable energy levels above the 40 per cent target required by the EU by 2020. With Ireland’s renewable energy levels currently around 19.6 per cent of total, the estimated 25 per cent boost would bring Ireland comfortable over the target and even allow for a slower roll out of other renewable plants.

The three current power plants at Moneypoint are likely to be phased out on or before 2025. At present, there is no obvious choice for what form of power plant might replace the plants as coal or gas plants are unlikely to go ahead without the addition of carbon capture technology, which has yet to be developed.

Pro-nuclear group have begun lobbying the Irish Government about the possibility of building a new form of nuclear reactors, known as Small Modular Reactors, at the site. However, with both nuclear energy and the storage of captured carbon currently illegal in Ireland, there is no obvious energy form to replace the current system.

According to the BW Energy report, the conversion from coal to could be done for € 380 million. The proposed new new generators would burn mainly wood pellets at the West Clare site.

While biomass energy sources do release carbon, they are considered environmentally friendly and renewable as the carbon they release during burning is equivalent to the carbon captured by the trees and other plants used to make wood pellets. In this way, biomass factories do not contribute extra, previously trapped carbon, into the environment.

The majority of the wood pellets needed would likely have to be shipped from America, creating both extra cost and environmental impact, as Ireland currently does not have enough planted biomass plants to meet demand.

CLARE drill makers Mincon made a record profit of € 15 million last year, despite a general slowdown in the international mining sector. The Shannon-based company last week posted operational profits in excess of € 15 million for 2013, despite a sizable shrinkage in their overall sales.

The company, who famously played a key role in a mission to save a large group of Chilean miners trapped un derground for 69 days in 2010, saw their overall sales drop from € 63 million in 2012 to € 52 million last year. Despite the reduction in overall sales, Mincon managed to raise their overall profits by nearly 20 per cent over the last 12 months.

The company’s increased profits came against the background of a shrinking global mining market, with the price of precious metals continuing to decline in 2014. Mincon’s yearly sales were also hot in 2013 through by currency fluctuations in some of its key markets, particularly in South Africa and Australia.

Indeed, according to the company’s accounts, this currency fluctuation cost the company € 1.3 million in profits last year. The company determines that the profit increase has been brought about by increasing its share of the global rock-drilling products markets, which generates higher margins than what it can earn from the sale of third-party products.

Earlier this year, the company’s two biggest shareholders gave employees € 1.2 million from their own private funds to reward them for their hard work over the years. Company founder Paddy Purcell and Kevin Barry initiated the employee recognition plan, which excluded all members of senior management. The money was paid to Mincon’s 140 eligible employees across the group and was based on years of service with a payment of € 1,000 per staff member per year of service.

The company was founded in 1977 and listed on the Dublin and London stock exchanges late last year. Many of the company’s Shannon based employees have been there for a number of decades.

AN ANIMAL rights group has offered a € 5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for the deaths and dumping of 17 animals in Doonbeg.

The decomposing carcasses of approximately 10 horses, four cattle and three calves were discovered at the bottom of the spectacular Baltard Cliffs last week.

Gardaí in Kilrush, along with Clare County Council, the Department of Agriculture and the ISPCA are investigating how the animals died and who dumped their remains.

One horse was found at the top of the cliff, barely alive, and had to be put down by a local vet.

Questions also remain if the animals at the bottom of the cliff were fully dead at the time their bodies were dumped over the cliff edge.

The animal carcasses, which have been at the scenic cliffs for up to two months, have not yet been removed as there is some difficulty in getting the proper equipment to where they are located.

“The council is trying to determine if it can get a tracked machine down to where they are located, which is not easily accessible.

“The HSE has advised the council that the animals are not going to cause a public nuisance in the meantime due to their remote location,” said a council spokesperson yesterday (Monday).

The group, Animal Rights Action Network (ARAN), has now offered a reward for information.

John Carmody from ARAN said, “The new laws which the Minister introduced recently are clearly not going to deter these cowards from taking their issues out on whomever is available to them.

“As a nation we should now hang our heads in shame that we’ve reached a point where animal abuse has now gone so out of control that those who are involved in it, simply don’t have anything to fear. We’ve been saying it for years.”

CLARE County Council is investigation complaints about the possible disposal of asbestos at three sites in the Shannon region. The local authority said the complaints are still being investigated but no asbestos material has been located at these sites to date. It confirmed however that “intact pipes” have been identified and need to be removed from Clonmoney Reservoir near Shannon where pipes were replaced. The complaints follow the discovery of nine sites in West Clare where the material known as “the hidden killer” was illegally deposited and not disposed of properly. This week the council said it is progressing with its independent investigation into why the material was illegally deposited in the west. The issue came to light last June when former Kilkee Town Councillor PJ Linnane raised concerns about broken asbestos pipes found dumped at a former reservoir near his home. A specialist asbestos consultant was engaged by the council to advise the authority on the removal of the materials just last month. Since then it has removed pieces of broken asbestos pipe from the surface of four of the nine sites. A spokesperson told The Clare People last evening that the surface asbestos should be removed from all nine sites within a fortnight. When this work is completed a specialist asbestos consultant will be employed to develop and carry out soil testing on the sites to establish the extent of asbestos material, which is buried at the sites. “Phase three [of the clean up process] will involve the removal of any asbestos material at any of the sites which is buried. The timeline for phase two and three is not known in detail as yet because it is subject to estimating the amount of material in each site,” he said. The costs associated with carrying out these works are not yet known.

THE recession may slowly be releasing its grip from Clare’s county town as live register figures for March show that the number of people signing on in Ennis has reduced to their lowest level in more than five years.

According to figures obtained from the Central Statistics Office (CSO), the number of people signing on the live register in Ennis last month was just 4,975 – the lowest level recorded in the county town for any month since January of 2009.

These figures represent a market reduction of 560 people or 10.1 per cent compared with March of 2013. The number of people currently signing on in Ennis is also 1,064 people, or 17.6 per cent, fewer than in March of 2010 – the worst March on record.

These recent improvement were also replicate in other parts of the county but the overall figures would suggest that the improvement is taking place in Ennis quicker than in the rest of Clare.

According to Ennis Chamber of Commerce, a number of new jobs could be created in Clare right now, if credit was made more easily available to businesses.

“We certainly feel that there are businesses in Ennis who could expand if the situation with credit was normalised. We need to see some sort of connect between the finance aspect and the supports available. While we believe that there is no point in giving credit to businesses that are not viable and would not work even give credit, there needs to be some sort of support there to make credit available to businesses who have a justifiable plan,” said Rita McInerney, CEO of the Ennis Chamber of Commerce.

“Sometimes there is a bit of a disconnect. You can have a business that, if given the right advice and support, would be in a position to justify receiving credit and moving the business forward. If a business is refused credit from a bank, the question that should be asked is why it was refused. The bank might think that the business is not viable but if might also be the case that the business just need more planning and help to show that they are viable.”

Overall figures for Clare show that 9,023 people signed on the live register last month – a drop of more then 800 people on the same month last year. The number signing on reduced by 200 in Ennis with Ennistymon also performing well, with a drop of 80 people last month.

ENNIS Town Council yesterday heard calls for shaving foam, eggs and other messy substances to be banned from the town during certain public events such as St Patrick’s Day Parade.

The ban was called for by Cllr Mary Howard (FG) in the wake of a number of unsavoury incidents which were reported to have taken place during this year’s St Patrick’s Day festivities in Ennis.

“I think that it is obvious that if a group of 11 or 12 year-olds are buying lots of shaving foam that they are not all going home to shave their legs,” said Cllr Howard. See page 17 for more