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NINETY per cent of the staff at En- nis General Hospital are preparing to strike if issues relating to staff- ing numbers at the hospital are not resolved.

Last evening (Monday), more than 90 per cent of the 130 INO nursing staff, 85 per cent of SIPTU’s nursing staff and 100 per cent of the support

staff at the hospital voted in favour of industrial action.

In total, 270 of the hospital’s dis- eruntled 300-member staff are pre- paring to down tools if a resolution to the crisis cannot be found.

Staff and management at the hospi- tal have been involved in a number of industrial relation issues, which were brought to a head with the HSE staff- ing embargo at the beginning of the

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Among the concerns expressed by employees is the night staffing of the male medical and female medical wards. The wards, which can have up to 26 patients each, have just two nurses on night duty in each ward made up of several different rooms.

Following an independent report, it was agreed that three nurses would be provided in each ward at night.

Prior to the staffing embargo, a floating nurse was provided between the two wards and it was agreed to provide another nurse in June.

As a result of the budget freeze, the “floating nurse” has been lost. Staff say they are now concerned by reports that if one of the two nurses on night duty is off sick, there will be no replacement, leaving one nurse responsible for 26 patients.

Following the result of the ballot, Mary Fogarty of the INO said her union 1S now going to seek assistance from the Labour Relations Commis- sion. She said she is particularly concerned about the cutbacks in the nurse-led units at the hospital, includ- ing palliative care, infection control, repertory care and heart failure.

“A blunt curtailment of services at the hospital concerns us most. These nurse-led units are critical to patients even on a humanity level. I will be writing to management again, asking them to pullback on the curtailment of these services,” she said.

Tony Kenny of SIPTU told

A 42-YEAR-OLD man facing a string of serious charges including three counts of rape, possession of a shotgun, false imprisonment and threatening to kill, assault and bur- glary, has been refused bail.

The accused, who cannot be named for le- gal reasons, is facing eight charges in total arising out of an alleged inci- dent at a house in west Clare on Sunday, Sep- tember 9 last.

Detective Garda TJ Mol- loy told Mil- town Malbay District Court that he arrested the accused at Ennistymon Garda __ Station last Wednesday morning.

He charged the accused with eight alleged offences. He made no reply to each charge.

Superintendent Gabriel O’Gara said the DPP had directed that the case be dealt with on indictment and the State was seeking to remand the accused in custody for one week.

He said he was seeking the remand in custody on a number of grounds. These were that the charges were “very serious’ and that there was a “likelihood of interference with wit-

nesses”.

Supt O’Gara said gardai were “car- rying out enquiries in relation to ad- dresses used previously by this man.

“Based on those circumstances, I would ask that he be remanded in custody,’ said Supt O’Gara.

IDS roatesnety solicitor, | Eugene O’Kelly said he was surprised

to hear “there 1s a question of 1n- MKS ICOM ALOE witnesses”.

He noted that his client was facing “very se- rious” charges, but stressed that he was entitled to benefit from the presumption of innocence.

He said the accused had ex- Same neeb eA support.

Supt O’Gara replied that the

charges before the court were “in the higher scale, with regards serious- ness.” He said that the “family sup- port is to be admired, but it is this man here that is facing the charges. The possibility of intimidation of witnesses is a very real possibility,” said Supt O’Gara.

Judge Joseph Mangan remanded the accused in custody, to appear again in court later this week.

THE Sisters of Mercy in Lahinch have lodged a planning objection against what they describe as a “con- crete jungle” proposal for the north Clare coastal village.

In the plan, Brendan O’Doherty, Patrick Montgomery, Paul Mont- gomery and John McInerney plan to develop 114 residential units, to in- clude a number of holiday homes.

In their objection, the Sisters state, “While we are not opposed to devel- opment in Lahinch, we do believe that a development of this size and nature is not in keeping with the character of the village.

“This is a huge development of over 100 homes, including apartment blocks, duplexes and a variety of house styles, and one entrance with the potential to generate over 200 ve- hicles poses a serious danger to us, other traffic using Station Road and eee COMETS

“We also have serious concerns with regard to the visual impact of this development. As it is directly opposite our house, we will be look- ing at a ‘concrete jungle’.

“We would also ask you to look at this development in light of the se- rious issues of anti-social behaviour on Station Road and the fact that the services to Lahinch including sew- age, water supply and electricity are seriously over-stretched.”

In her Toloysab hwy (eyem Marie O’Donoghue claims that “in the main, Lahinch permanent residents are not at all adverse to development. It is the bread and butter on which a Seaside resort thrives. However, cur- rent development is doing nothing for the village apart from creating a ghost town, which is a lot less attrac- tive to holiday-makers than it was 20 years ago.”

Michael and Maria Vaughan of Vaughan Lodge Hotel have also ex- pressed their opposition against the evee

They state, “The transient popula- tion of summer house-owners creates massive pressure on scarce resources for a period of 10 weeks in summer and leaves the village without com- munity for long periods in the win- oe

A decision on the application is due later this month.

IRISH companies are being urged to enter the European Business Awards 2008, the competition that show- cases Europe’s business skills and competencies.

Companies only have one more month to enter the awards as the deadline for entries is the October 18.

“European business is innovative and talented and it is important that

we showcase examples of this bril- liance. For the rest of the world the European Business Awards is an ad- vert of our abilities and for Europe, an example for all of us of what is possible,” said Adrian Tripp, Chief Executive of the European Business aN LAU Ke ce

This opportunity follows the suc- cess of an Irish company in the European Business Awards 2007, Diageo, a Dublin-based company drinks business with a collection of

brands including Guinness, Baileys and Smirnoff, which was selected to compete in The AXA Award for Corporate Sustainability.

For short-listed and winning com- panies the recognition and exposure is very powerful as the European Business Awards has extended its partnership with The Wall Street Journal Europe and has set collabo- rations with important national Me- dia Patrons.

“Every business day The Wall

Street Journal Europe reports on business issues and companies across the region.

Our association with the European Business Awards allows us to honour the best of these companies and the vision and energy of their leaders,’ said Jonathan Wilson, director of marketing and business development, The Wall Street Journal Europe.

The names of the winners will be revealed on March 11, 2008, at the high profile awards ceremony held in

the InterContinental Paris Le Grand in Paris and attended by Europe’s business elite. The entry deadline 1s 18 October 2007.

The European Business Awards is supported by organisations, CMS Legal Services EEIG and Société (os ilore- 8 oe

To obtain further information or to enter please visit www.businessa- wardseurope.com, telephone 0044 O 20 7234 3535 or email info@busines sawardseurope.com.

THE first work area recovery centre in the west of Ireland has been set up by Work Area Recovery Solu- tions Ltd. (WARS) in Shannon. The recovery centre offers businesses in

the western half of the country a pro- fessional, secure and cost-effective world-class recovery solution within easy access of their existing opera- tions.

Pat Hannon, IT Manager of Avo- cent International based in Shannon

and a client of the WARS facility endorses the centre stating “this new work area recovery centre is long overdue and provides a very valu- able back-up for business continu- ity support in the event of business disruption. It also gives publicly-

traded companies extra assurance and security to conform to corporate governance regulations outlined in Sarbanes-Oxley (US) and Turnbull (EU ) requirements, which states that they must produce timely, accurate and complete corporate financial re-

ports regardless of any type of busi- ness interruptions’.

The new WARS centre is fully equipped with resilient and redun- dant telecoms connectivity, back- up power, telephony and computer hardware.

THE plight of hundreds of unmar- ried Clare fathers who have no legal rights to custody of their children under the Irish Constitution took a dramatic step forward last week fol- lowing the Mr G case in the High Sous

According to the local representa- tive of the Unmarried Fathers of Ire-

land Organisation, pressure 1s now on the Government to propose an election to change the constitution. “Our main objective is towards the fundamental right of a child to have both parents involved in its life. We are not about fighting parents against parents. It’s about the kids. We love our kids and we want to have a life around our kids,’ said Andrew White, Munster Spokesperson for

the Unmarried Fathers of Ireland. ‘This is so widespread, there are so many cases of unmarried fathers. Un- married fathers don’t have any rights to their children in this country. “The case last week will have a massive impact. It brought out the problems with the constitution in this country when it allowed a mother to take two kids out of this country and completely take them away from

their father, without the father having any say in the matter at all.”

According to the Unmarried Fa- thers of Ireland, the lack of contact between fathers and their children is having a massive impact of Irish so- ciety as a whole.

“Look at the suicide rate among young men in Ireland. In 2005, eight out of 10 male suicides were fathers who were being denied access to their

kids or young children who were be- ing denied access to their fathers,” he continued.

“T have been fighting for the last four years for this to happen. It’s a disgrace that two kids were essen- tially abducted away from the father before this has become an issue.”

For more information on the Un- married Fathers of Ireland, contact Andrew White on 086 1641513.

TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern could lose more than nine county coun- cillors in Clare less than two years ahead of the local elections.

Clare County Councillor Richard Nagle is chairman of the Clare tour- ism forum and one of the nine gov- ernment party county councillors contemplating leaving their parties if the government fails to ensure con- nectivity between Shannon and Lon- don-Heathrow.

Aware of the implications the 1s- sue has on his tourism brief and the economy of the western region, Cllr Nagle said, “I would have to strongly consider my position if that were to happen.”

The north Clare councillor was not alone in his sentiment.

Green Party councillor Brian Meaney has already informed party leader John Gormley of his intention to step down if the Government does not fight to acquire or retain the re- quired slots into London Heathrow.

Cllr Bernard Hanrahan was one of three councillors who did not want to give a definite yes to the answer, opt- ing for probably instead.

He said he would “probably resign” but under serious consideration.

“I would have to seriously consider it. | can’t fight from the outside. I can only fight from the inside.”

Cllr Bill Chamber said, “There is no point in leaving the Fianna Fail party. I am not in the Dail.”

If the councillors were to uphold their promise that Fianna Fail will be sending, at most, seven sitting county councillors on the hustings in 2009.

Even among those that gave a nega- tive answer to

THE Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern could be facing outright revolt in Clare if the feelings of his county council- lors are an indication of the mood within the party.

Though the majority of Clare county councillors from Fianna Fail and the Green Party would not only expect the Government TDs from the western region to resign the whip, many are prepared to see the Government fall over the issue.

Just six of Clare’s county coun- cillors from the government par- ties said they did not believe that the TDs of the area should resign their seat 1f a link between Shannon and London-Heathrow is not main- tained, and one of the councillors answered no only because the sug- gestion did not go far enough.

West Clare councillor Bill Cham- bers (FF) said the TDs should be prepared to resign before a vote of the issue is even taken and let Ber- tie Ahern know they are prepared to vote against the government on the issue of Shannon.

“That is letting them off the hook, there is no point resigning after.

They need to force the vote on the S)areveb ae) sm Re one

The issue of using the Govern- ment 25 per cent Aer Lingus share was not as clear a resigning matter for the Clare councillors.

Ennis councillor Peter Considine said it was not a yes/no answer and felt that the other two questions on

KILRUSH Town Councillors have been accused of “not caring about” the Shannon crisis, and the loss of Aer Lingus’s London-Heathrow slot from the airport.

Mayor of Kilrush, Tom Clyne (Ind) said he is aware of comments that the councillors have been very quiet on the issue and “did not speak out in public’.

At this month’s meeting of the town council, Cllr Marian McMahon- Jones (FG) said while the council may not have been there as a unit, members of the council did attend.

‘Maybe we should have had a state- ment out by now,” she said.

“T think we as a council need to be a lot more aware and a lot more vo- cal,’ she added.

Independent councillor Deirdre Culligan told the members, “It has been noted that councillors were TPO Basso be roa

In addressing the meeting, Cllr Tom Prenderville (FF) said, “a lot has been said about the issue. We at- tended a lot of meetings, we are four- square behind the airport.”

“We are a sinking ship and there are people out there who can throw us a life raft and that is the Govern- ment,” said Cllr McMahon-Jones.

“Tf small councils, big councils and our politicians stand united, disre- garding political parties, and call

Bertie out, we could force his hand,” she said.

She said it was time that the TDs and Government stood up and were counted.

“They were not elected to roll over for Aer Lingus. They are elected to represent the people.”

Fianna Fail councillor Liam Looney agreed with his council colleague.

“T am beginning to question my own membership of Fianna Fail,” he told the meeting.

WOODSTOCK’S hopes of All-Ire- land glory perished in Belfast on Thursday afternoon as they bowed out of the Pierce Purcell Shield at the semi-final stage to a crack Warren- point side.

The semi-final clash was played in Shandon Park, just outside Belfast, but the local knowledge of the War- renpoint club from nearby Down was crucial in driving them to a compre- hensive 4-1.

Woodstock failed to win any of the five matches in the foursomes competition. Indeed, the semi-final bid of the 2002 champions started on the worst possible note when the lead pairing of Michael Kelly and Stephen Spencer went down by 6 and 4 to S Sands and D Flanagan.

Woodstock then gave themselves some hope for the remainder of the tie when Jimmy Kelly and Jason Dor- mer played out a halved match with S Colgan and P Devlin. They were one up with five to play, but then found themselves one down with three to play. However, they battled back to Neu kommer DEe

Match three then became a cru- cial rubber for Woodstock, but the

pairing of Noel Dinan and Liam O’Connor bowed out after putting up a brave battle against N Devine and A Campbell. They were four down after five but battled back to be only one hole adrift by the 16th. However, Devine and Campbell held firm and closed out the match on the 18th to win by two holes.

It meant that Martin Nolan and Michael O’Brien had to win their match — they made a bold bid but had to be content with a half. It was the all-important half-point for Warren- point that put them through to a fi- nal meeting with Donabate who beat Bearna in the other semi-final.

The final match out on the course also went Warrenpoint’s way with M Redmond and M McGivern beating Tony Lawlor and James McMahon by 3 and 1.