Category: News

A LONG-AWAITED rescue centre for the Doolin Unit of the Irish Coastguard is the next top priority of the Department of Transport, according to Minister for Transport, Leo Varadkar (FG).

Speaking at a joint Coastguard/ RNLI event on Sunday, December 30, Varadkar named Doolin as the next station-house for construction, once a new building for the Killybegs Unit of the Irish Coastguard has been completed.

Construction is already well underway on the Donegal station, with work set to be finished early in 2013. With no new cuts to coastguard funding announced in last month’s budget, this could leave the way open for the start of construction in Doolin later in 2013.

A campaign for a new station at Doolin has been ongoing for almost two decades and has been delayed on a number of occasions over the years because of planning issues, difficulty in acquiring land and uncertainty about funding for the project.

Planning permission for a new rescue centre at Doolin was granted in 2010. The centre will include a new two-storey rescue centre on the site of the current facility as well as a single-storey, three-bay boat and vehicle store.

The current station is prone to flooding and is too small for the Doolin Unit to store all of its rescue equipment and boats. This means that some of the unit’s crafts have to be stored off-site, creating the possibility of a delay in responding to some emergency situation.

“Funding for the Coastguard has been protected for the second year running in the Budget. Similarly, funding for the RNLI and Mountain Rescue will be maintained at current levels through to 2016,” said the transport minister.

“These are essential services and much of the cost is met by volunteers. But I particularly want to pay tribute to the huge number of volunteers who save lives every week of the year. Without these volunteers, it simply wouldn’t be possible to provide the same level of emergency response.”

The 2012 Irish Coastguard statistics were also released on Sunday and showed that the year had been the busiest on record for the service. Nationally the coastguard saved 161 lives and recovered 88 in thousands of operations over the last one month.

While individual number of the Doolin and the Killaloe units of the Irish Coastguard have yet to be released, the Shannon based Coast Guard helicopter recorded its busiest year on record with 191 missions.

The coastguard also fielded a total of 325 hoax calls from members of the public, a figure described my Minister Varadkar as “unacceptably high”. A we e k o f m ild we a t h e r a n d a lo t le ss ra in t h a n we h a ve b e e n e xp e rie n c in g o ve r t h e p a st we e k o r so .

CARERS from all over Clare took to the streets of Ennis in December to raise their concerns about budgetary cuts to the Respite Care Allowance. More than 50 people too part in the impromptu including parents of young children with disabilities, older parents of adults with special needs and full-time carers of the elderly.

One of the organisers, Niamh Daly, said that a similar protest organised in Dublin by the Carers Association was an indication at how upset people were but, as most carers cannot travel to protest, the carers of Clare decided to have their

say on their own streets.

“Carers cannot all get to Dublin but, at the end of the day, we have to have our voice heard,” she said.

Many more Clare carers were unable to attend the protest as the people they care for are house-bound and therefore could not come to En nis.

It is not just the cut to the respite grant, however, that is affecting Clare’s carers. Family carers, providing unpaid care to family mem- bers and loved ones, have been seriously affected through the number of cumulative cuts, including the cut to the Household Benefit Pack- age, increases to the prescription charge from 50 cent to € 1.50, the new carbon tax on fuel and the drug payment scheme threshold increase from € 132 to € 144. The Carers Association said it was extremely disappointed with the level of reduction of over 19 per cent in the respite grant paid to over 77,000 family carers, 20,000 of whom receive no other support from the State for providing full-time care for a family member from their own resources. The grant is designed to be used by carers to buy in home care or pay for residential respite care for the caredfor person in order to give the carer a much needed break from their caring role. However, many carers are using this grant to pay for necessary therapies and services for those they are caring for. Despite intense pressure from lobby groups and concerned citizens the government has, to date, help strong on the issue of the Respite Care Allowance. It is as yet unclear whether the Cares Association or other interested organisation will host more protests or other actions in 2013. Wed02January13

PRESIDENT of Ireland, Michael D Higgins did not call himself a Clare man during his first official presidential visit to the county in June, but his brother and sister both agreed it was safe to consider him “one of our own”.

Ireland’s first citizen, who spent his formative years, from the age of five to 19, living in his parental home of Ballycar, Newmarket-onFergus, would not describe himself as a Clare man but a man with many associations with different counties.

“Yes, indeed, I associate myself with Clare. There are many origins I have that are very simply understood,” he said.

“My father and my grandfather and my greatgrandfather have been associated with County Clare since time immemorial. I am glad to say in the 1901 census, in the townland of Ballycar, there are four families of Higgins. And once again, as a result of my brother’s [John] activities and his sons, there are four families in Ballycar again.”

The President explained that his mother came from an area near Charleville in Cork and her family continue to live there.

A former TD for Galway West, he described how the city accepted him as a migrant and its mayor twice.

“Galway is where my own fam- ily have been born and rared,” he added.

While the president maintained his life experiences have been made up of many counties, including the city of Limerick where he was born, all have a common thread of both rural and urban life. It is these experiences that have formed the ninth President of Ireland, who admited that coming back to Clare as the country’s first citizen was like coming home.

THE future of Clare’s international airport was finally resolved in December when the new vision for Shannon Airport and Shannon Development was announced in Dublin.

The decision to separate Shannon Airport from the control of the Dublin Airport Authority was confirmed by the Minister for Transport, Leo Varadkar (FG), who said that as many as five thousand new jobs could be created in the new company over the next five years.

It was also confirmed that Shannon Airport debt, understood to be in the region of € 100 million, would remain with the Dublin Airport Authority – but Shannon would also lose any stake in Aer Rianta International.

The new airport authority was been provisionally named as NEWCO. The Minister for Jobs, Richard Bruton (FG) confirmed at the announcement that there would be no compulsory redundancies form Shannon Airport or Shannon Development. The Clare People also reported on December 4 that Clare woman Rose Hynes was being lined up to become the first chairperson of the new airport authority.

The Bellharbour woman, who chaired the Aviation Business Development Task Force that drafted the new airport plan, was rubber stamped into this role later in the month.

At the Dublin announcement the government set a ambitious target for boosting passenger numbers at Shannon by one million over the next nine years, Minister Varadkar telling The Clare People that “if Shannon can’t achieve that kind of growth, then there is no future for the airport”.

However, it’s in the area of jobs that Shannon can expect its biggest windfall with the transport minister revealing that a new international aviation services centre has “the potential to create between 3000 and 5000 jobs within five years”.

Minister Bruton said the airport’s independence, which will see two companies in Shannon provide up to 850 in the coming months represents “a new chapter in regional development” in Ireland.

“The independence of Shannon Airport has been sought for many years,” said Minister Varadkar. “It certainly is a risk, but the risk with doing nothing is far greater. It is an historic decision and it will bring a new future for Shannon Development and Shannon Airport.”

Shannon was formally separated from the DAA on December 31. The government now plans to appoint a new boards for the NEWCO in the new year. The government will also have to address the possibility of industrial actions as Shannon Development workers hav raised a number of worries about the new arrangement.

A SPATE of aggravated burglaries targetting elderly people living in the West Clare area is causing huge concern in the community, as gardaí believe the culprits have local knowledge of their victims.

In a latest attack, two elderly brothers were targetted in their home in Lack West Kilmihil during the weekend before Christmas.

At least two intruders, yielding iron bars, broke into the frightened men’s home between 2am and 3.25am on Saturday, December 22.

They terrorised the elderly occupants and forced them to hand over what is considered to be a sizeable amount of money. The thugs then fled in a car.

The only description available to the gardaí of the intruders was “that they were big”.

“A car with a loud exhaust was heard near the scene at the time,” a garda spokesperson said.

This crime was very similar to burglaries committed in Moyasta on December 8 and in Boolyneaska Kilmaley on December 6. Again, older people were targetted and robbed.

In the Moyasta incident, three individuals broke into the farmhouse of two elderly sisters and demanded money.

The trio broke down the door of the rural house in Kildymo, Bansha, near the seaside town of Kilkee, between 10.30pm and 11.30pm on December 8 and entered the premises where the women had lived all of their lives.

A frightening ordeal then began for the two ladies in their 80s as the robbers ripped the phone from the wall and demanded money from them.

There was very little money in the house and the thugs eventually got away with a small amount of cash from the old age pensioners’ purses.

The three who had targeted the two vulnerable older women in their own home covered their faces during the robbery. Gardaí believe there may be a connection between at least two of the three burglaries.

They are appealing for anyone with any information to contact them at Kilrush and Ennis Garda Stations.

“A substantial amount of money was taken in the latest crime. We believe the culprits in this case had local knowledge as all houses are off the main roads and in relatively isolated areas.

“These criminals are now flush with money and we are sure they are going to spend it,” said the garda spokesperson.

Meanwhile, a file has been sent to the Director of Public Prosecution in the case of an aggrivated burglary on the occupants of an isolated house between the Kilrush road and Kilmurry McMahon on September 21.

Gardaí arrested three men less than an hour after they were suspected of robbing an elderly woman and her family at knifepoint in their West Clare home. The elderly woman has since passed away.

THREE Junior Certificate students from Ennis were hailed as heroines by Clare Civil Defence chief Liam Griffin after their quick thinking helped save the life of a woman who got into difficulty after going into the River Fergus to retrieve her dog.

Rice College students Ellen McMahon (15), Aisling O’Sullivan (15) and Eve Copley (15) came to the rescue of a woman, who hasn’t been identified, who was out walking her dog one June evening near Steele’s Rock in the Lifford area the town.

“The three of us were walking past at about 7.15pm, having been up town for something to eat after our Business Studies exam,” revealed Ms McMahon. “When we were passing, the woman was standing behind the wall and the dog was on the steps at Steele’s Rock. We walked on a bit and, when we looked back, the dog was being dragged downstream and the woman had moved to the steps and was calling him.

“Then she went in after the dog and was taken away by the flow of the water down towards the FBD offices. She was very tired because she had swum out to get the dog and the current was so strong there was no way she would have been able to swim back to the steps,” she added.

The three students quickly raced back to get the lifebuoy that’s located near Steele’s Rock and came to the aid of the woman, who was getting into difficulty.

“She had a hold of the dog and we raced up got the lifebuoy and threw it in to her and slowly dragged her in. We didn’t get her name because, after being soaked to the skin, she got a drive home from a passing motorist,” revealed Ms McMahon.

“Their quick thinking helped save that woman’s life,” Clare Civil Defence chief Liam Griffin told The Clare People . “It just shows the importance of lifebuoys,” he added, “because sometimes they get vandalised and the people who do that can cost a life. Luckily in this case, it was there and the girls were able to use it and come to the rescue of the woman.”

PLANS to construct a massive Rotterdam-style transshipment port at Kilrush were lodged with an Bord Pleanála in December.

The multi-million euro project has been earmarked for banks of reclaimed land adjacent to the Moneypoint Power Station and could create hundreds of sustainable jobs locally if successful and transform the area into one of Europe’s largest freight ports.

The Shannon Container Transshipment Port Company lodged papers with the national planning authority seeking to have the development classified as a Strategic Industrial Development (SID).

The deep waters of the Shannon Estuary would allow larger vessels from America and Asia to unload massive volumes of cargo in the area – which would then be transferred to smaller ships and brought to shallow ports in other parts of Europe.

The 16-metre water depths on the Shannon is rivalled only by Rotterdam in Holland. The Dutch port employs well over a hundred thousand people directly and indirectly around the Europort facility, the biggest in Europe and currently operating at full capacity.

A Spokesperson from An Bord Pleanála said a meeting with the Shannon Container Transshipment Port Company would likely take place in January but could not confirm any details about the specifics of the proposed port.

If the facility is deemed to be of strategic national importance, An Bord Pleanála will give it SID status – which means than a decision on planning will be made by them and not by Clare County Council.

The application was made by the Shannon Container Transshipment Port Company – who are not currently listed with the Irish Company Registrations Office (CRO).

The Shannon Foynes Port Company (SFPC), who had previously examined the possibility of creating its own deep water transshipment facility in the Shannon Estuary, confirmed yesterday that the application had not been made by them.

A spokesperson said that that the organisation had “no comment” to make on the proposal currently before an Bord Pleanála but did say that the company would assist “any marine or shipping related projects” in the area of the estuary.

In 2004, the Shannon Foynes Port The Shannon based Atlantic Way group commissioned a feasibility study on a deep water port in the Shannon Estuary in 2009. That report, conducted by international expert Dr John Martin, indicated a massive demand for a deep mater port to service shallow ports across Europe.

Speaking on behalf of Atlantic Way yesterday, former chairman of the Shannon Airport Authority, Brian O’Connell, said that his organisation were not responsible for the application to An Bord Pleanála.

A NEW future of Shannon Airport began to emerge in January with the confirmation by the Minister for the Transport, Leo Varadkar (FG), the airport would remain in state ownership and will not be sold off as part any fire-sale of state assets.

The minister also indicated that any decision on the future of Shannon Airport would have implications for the workers at Shannon, saying that the company “should not be run in the interest of the workers”.

This ruled out the possibility of an all-out privatisation of the airport and the idea of extending a long-term lease, or between 30 and 50 years, to the property sector. Clare County Council welcomed the development saying that it opened the door for the council to have a larger role in the operation of Shannon Airport.

“It is intended that the airports will stay in public ownership but that is not to say that there cannot be private sector investment and involvement in the airports in a way that is not the case currently,” said Minister Varadkar.

“Shannon Airport has a great future as a passenger airport but also as one which is concerned with avionics and aero-industry but the status quo there is not working and the airport is in decline, which is why we need to have a change of policy in that regard.”

The minister was speaking after receiving the Booz report, the findings of which would not be made public until later in the year.

Clare County Council said the news was a step in the right direction.

“Recent comments made by Minister Varadkar concur with the council’s own views. The comments also are in line with the detailed submission made by the council to Booz & Company during 2011. We look forward to playing a key role in the progression of a new framework for Shannon Airport,” said a council spokesperson.

As the year rolled on, it became clear that a separately operated Shannon Airport, with full independence from the Dublin Airport Authority, was the government plan. Shannon Airport officially decoupled from the Dublin Airport Authority later on December 31, 2012, and a new entity, currently called NEWCO, comprising Shannon Airport and parts of Shannon Development will be created.

HOUSEHOLDERS in Clare are being exposed to radiation doses that are the equivalent of having three chest x-rays a day, a shocking new study conducted by the Radiological Protection Institute (RPII) of Ireland and released in July revealed.

The statistic emerged from a new radon investigation in the county, which found that one in five homes tested by the RPII registered high levels of the gas, with a number of dwellings in the county containing over five times the acceptable levels of exposure to the cancer-causing substance.

And, the findings revealed that the county capital of Ennis was the county’s chief radon blackspot, which prompted the RPII to sound out new appeal on all householders to carry out radon tests on their dwellings.

“It is a serious problem,” an RPII spokesperson told The Clare People, “because 11 homes in the county have been identified as having radon gas levels above the acceptable levels in the past five months”.

Two homes in Ennis had up to five times the acceptable levels of the gas, while another six in the county capital as well as two in Clarecastle and one in Tubber levels up to three times the acceptable level.

“Tens of thousands of homeowners in Clare have yet to test for radon and among them are many hundreds that are unknowingly living with a high risk to their family’s health,” said RPII scientist Stephanie Long.

“Only a small fraction of homes in Clare have been tested for radon. Our research shows that, of those that have already tested, there is a large percentage with high radon levels and so we are urging homeowners to take the radon test.

“It is really important for people to test their home for radon as this is the only way of knowing if your family is exposed to this cancercausing gas,” she added.

Radon is the second biggest cause of lung cancer after smoking and is directly linked to up to 200 lung cancer deaths each year.

A MAJOR shake-up in the way that policing is operated in Clare was announced in December with the news that eight Garda Stations were to close around the county.

Stations in rural areas such as Quin, Inagh, Lahinch, Broadford, Mountshannon, Doonbeg, Kilmihil and Labasheeda were named for closure while it was also announced that both Ennistymon and Killaloe District Garda Headquarters will be downgraded.

Former Superintendent, Frank Guthrie, who is now involved with the Inagh Housing Association said that there was some concern in the village about the new arrangement.

“A lot of people, especially older people, favour the old-style policing and confiding in their local garda. They felt safe. The meeting is really to see how this will be dealt with,” he said following the news.

The changes will see the garda serving in Quin reassigned to Ennis, the gardaí in Inagh and Lahinch moved to Ennistymon, the Broadford garda will now be based in Ardnacrusha, the Mountshannon garda will be based in Killaloe and the Doonbeg garda will be working out of Kilrush Garda Station.

Labasheeda and Doonbeg stations were provided with a garda from Kilrush every weekday from 10am to 1pm and at the weekend from noon until 2pm. These stations will also close.

The Chairperson of the Lahinch Community Council welcomed the closure of Lahinch Garda Station, saying the station was already “virtually closed” and the town would be better served from Ennistymon.

Donogh O’Loghlin believes that the closure of Lahinch Garda Station will not have an effect on the safety of the local population.

“I am not really concerned by the closure of the station. It is a beautiful building but I think it has been more or less closed for years already,” he said.

“It should have been closed years ago really. The local people here don’t have any idea when there will be a garda present in the station or not, so what is the point of having it there? There are 30 guards stationed just two miles out the road in Ennistymon. That should be enough.”

Clare Labour Party National Executive Member Seamus Ryan called on the Government to rethink the course of action.

“While the Commissioner is operating under the same financial constraints as so many people and the Government, it is short-sighted on the part of the force to abandon these facilities in favour of patrols and cover from other stations, some of which are up to 20km away and are themselves part-time and up to 25km to a 24-hour station for communities like Mountshannon,” he said.