Category: News

CLARE Green Party councillor, Brian Meaney has suggested that the Clare County Development Plan be changed to allow for fracking to take place, but only if it undertaken by a member of the local community.

The suggestion was made at last night’s December meeting of Clare County Council following a motion by the Green Party councillor concerning the status of a ban on fracking, which was asked for by the elected members of Clare County Council earlier this year.

In response to this motion, Ger Dollard, Director of Services with Clare County Council, said that it was not within the legal remit covered by the County Development Plan to place an outright ban on any activity – or any “crude exclusionary policy”.

Cllr Meaney then suggested that instead of introducing a ban on fracking, the council could take a “more creative” approach to the issue and change the County Development Plan to allow for fracking, but only by Clare people.

“We really don’t have a lot of power to change our own County Development Plan in order to reflect the needs of the elected members,” said Cllr Meaney.

“There is an awful lot going on with the energy companies. They are building up a reasonable expectation that they are going to be able to exploit this gas. The EPA [Environmental Protection Agency] and the European Commission still have not taken a proper look at whether this can be extracted properly. We still don’t know how people are going to be affected by this most intrusive of activities.”

In his response, Mr Dollard also said that there was no “hesitancy” from Clare County Council to deal with the fracking situation in the Clare Basin.

“The council will keep the matter under review and monitor progress at national level on the assessment of the issues and report back to the elected members in due curse,” he said.

“The council can be assured that there is no hesitancy on the part of the planning authority but any proposal must accord with law and be based on any national guidance on the issue.”

After successful test in West Clare, UK based company Enegi Oil confirmed last week that it intends to apply for a fracking license from the Department of energy next year.

CHAIRPERSON of the Shannon Airport Business Development Task Force, Rose Hynes, confirmed yesterday that negotiations are at an advanced stage with Ryanair, but admitted that the airport should not be beholden to Michael O’Leary.

Speaking at last night’s meeting of Clare County Council, which was hosted by Shannon Airport, Ms Hynes confirmed that talks were ongoing with a number of carriers, including Ryanair.

The Bellharbour native, who is expected to head up the new company which will manage Shannon Airport and Shannon Development from January of 2013, also confirmed that the local property of Shannon Development, and its rental income, will be folded into the new company in July of next year.

“We have spoken to many airlines and Ryanair is one of them. Ryanair is the largest airline in Europe and they are right on our doorstep. We haven’t concluded a deal but we have to grow our numbers. We are talking to a number of airlines and the interest has been high. One does not want to be beholdant to Ryanair, that is a dangerous place to be.

“Before July 1 of 2013, the lands of Shannon Airport and their rental income will transfer to the new company. The airport is starting off with funding facilities available to us. I’m not going to get into the numbers but there will be openings for us.”

Responding to questions from councillors at last night’s meeting, Ms Hynes also confirmed that keeping Aer Rianta International as part of the new Shannon Airport organisation was never within the remit of the Task Force.

“It wasn’t a negotiation – the government own all the assets and it [Aer Rianta International] was not on the table. It wasn’t a case of trading one thing off against another,” she said.

Current Director of Shannon Airport, Mary Considine said that the rights of staff at the airport will be protected under the transfer.

“We have gone through a period of consultation with ICTU but we have also been talking to people here on the ground – they are the people who will ultimately deliver this change for us and we need to be conscience of that,” she said.

“There are some worries among staff members but it is important to stress that their terms and conditions will be the same after the separation.”

CLARE County Council is to make a submission to the Electoral Commission in an effort to retain the current local authority boundaries and save the North Clare or Ennistymon Area of the local authority.

A joint motion put forward by three councillors from West, North and East Clare at last night’s December meeting of Clare County Council requested that the council lobby the Minister for the Environment, Phil Hogan (FG), to have some flexibility in how the electoral areas of Clare are divided, in an effort to ensure that the five traditional electoral boundaries in Clare are allowed to continue in their current form.

While no formal decision has yet been made, it is likely that the Ennistymon Local Area and the West Clare Local Area will be amalgamated, while the East Clare, Ennis and Shannon Electoral Areas will remain. The criteria for deciding on the number of councillors who represent each area has also been changed but it is not clear as yet whether this will mean a reduction in the overall number of councillors.

The motion was put forward jointly by West Clare Cllr PJ Kelly (FF), North Clare Cllr Richard Nagle (FF) and East Clare Cllr Joe Cooney (FG).“If this goes ahead, it seems that the Ennistymon Area council would be a prime candidate for abolition. I think that we need to make the submission and hope for the best,” said Cllr Nagle. Cllr Kelly said that a “small bit of flexibility” by the Minister for the Environment would result in a a situation that was “not too different from what it is like at the moment”.

Speaking on the motion, North Clare Cllr Joe Arkins (FG) said that the local areas of the council represent different community blocks in Clare and should not be altered.

“An electoral area should be a community area – Ennistymon has very little in common with Kilrush and probably even less in common with East Clare,” he said.

FINAL confirmation on whether commercial drilling will take place off the Clare coast in 2013 is expected before Christmas.

Chrysaor E&P Ireland Ltd, who now own the majority stake in both the Spanish Point and Burren gas and oil fields within the Porcupine Basin, undertook a vessel-based geotechnical and environmental survey of the Spanish Point Field in September.

While initial results for this resource have been described by the company as very positive, an official announcement on the survey, and the prospects of commercial drilling taking place next year, is expected to be made in the coming weeks.

According to Chrysaor, planning is already well underway for a programme of drilling off Spanish Point over the next two years.

“In 2013, subject to normal governmental consents and rig availability, the group intends to drill a Spanish Point appraisal well to confirm volumetrics and reservoir properties,” said a company statement.

“If that well is successful, the group will return in 2014 to drill a second Spanish Point appraisal well, frac-test the original Spanish Point appraisal well and drill the first ranked exploration prospect.”

The cost of drilling two explorations wells on the Spanish Point field is likely to run to between € 80 million and € 100 million.

Chrysaor now own a 62 per cent share of the exploration licence for both the Spanish Point and Burren fields. Irish company Providence Resources’ share of the license has been diluted to 32 per cent while Sosina Exploration also owns an 8 per cent stake.

Providence, who held a majority share of the licence when interest in the “Clare” fields was reignited in 2007, told The Clare People at the time that they would not be bringing any gas on shore in Clare.

Chrysaor have not indicated how they intend to bring the gas and oil ashore.

Latest estimates indicate that Spanish Point contains about 200 million barrels of oil equivalent, with peak production estimated to be 70,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.

This is estimated to be enough gas to fill Ireland’s entire domestic gas need for the next 50 years.

Gas and a small amount of oil was discovered in the field in 1981 but was deemed to be too difficult to recover at the time.

However, with increases in gas prices and improvements in exploration techniques, the prospect is now thought to be profitable. A c o n sist e n t we e k o f sin g le – fig u re t e m p e ra t u re s b u t n o re a l fre e ze . Ne xt we e k lo o ks sim ila r. No Wh it e Ch rist m a s o n t h e c a rd s t h is ye a r 🙁

CLARE was the toast of the national Tidy Towns movement in the mid west on Thursday night last as the county scooped 17 awards at the regional prize-giving ceremony for 2012 at the Old Ground Hotel in Ennis.

Ennis led the way for the county and region by winning the overall award, having already captured the title of Ireland’s Tidiest Large Urban Centre at the National Awards ceremony in September. Gold Medal winners in the region were Ennis, Ballynacally and Kilrush.

The winners were presented with their awards by Ms. Jan O’Sullivan T.D., Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government and Leonard Fay, Regional Manager with SuperValu, proud sponsors of the competition. Also joining the Minister on stage was Mr John King, Assistant Chief Executive, Shannon Development.

Speaking at the awards ceremony Minister O’Sullivan said: “I’m delighted to have this opportunity today to acknowledge the efforts of TidyTowns groups across this region, and to pay tribute to the very many enthusiastic and dedicated volunteers who get involved in this competition year on year regardless of the weath- er conditions.

“The unselfish effort and the generosity displayed by these volunteers really does make a difference to our communities. The results of their hard work is evident across the region in towns and villages that are more attractive, better cared for, better places to live and more appealing places to visit.

I would like to pay tribute to all the other TidyTowns groups not here today who are also committed to improving their communities year on year and I’m sure they will be providing tough competition to this year’s winners in the future.

“All of the TidyTowns groups take pride in their communities. I’d like to congratulate Ennis; the overall winner for the Mid West region and the winner of Ireland’s Tidiest Large Urban Centre Award as well as all of today’s other prize-winners,” she added.

“Tourism is a key economic driver in the Shannon Region economy and it is vitally important that we maximize all our resources to enhance the environment and promote tourism business,” said Shannon Development assistant chief executive John King.

“SuperValu Tidy Towns is a priceless resource, not just for now, but for future generations who want to live, work and spend leisure time in the Shannon Region,” he added.

Clare Winners
National Award IrelandsTidiest Large Urban Centre: Ennis MidWest Region – Overall Winner: Ennis Gold Medals: Ballynacally, Ennis, Kilrush Silver Medals: Mountshannon Bronze Medals: Kilkee,Tuamgraney

County Winners
Winner: Ennis Highly Commended: Ballynacally Commended: Mountshannon Endeavour Award: Connolly

Gum Litter Taskforce
National Award: Ennis Large Urban Centre Award: Ennis Small Town Award: Newmarket-on-Fergus

Tourism Town Awards
Ennis & Ballyvaughan

THE community spirit of the Clare Tidy Towns effort was celebrated on Thursday night by the county’s flagship centre in the national competition over the last number of years.

Ennis was presented with seven different awards on the night, with the chairperson of the Ennis Tidy Towns Committee, Áine Purcell hailing what she called “a back to basics” approach as being the major contributory factor for the county capital’s achievements.

“In Ennis this year what we decided to do was go back to basics,” Ms Purcell revealed when accepting the award for Ennis as Ireland’s Tidiest Large Urban Centre. “We led by example. I know Tuamgraney do it, I know Mountshannon do it, I know Kilrush do it – I know all of you do it.

We asked people. People like to be asked. Everyone likes to be part of a community so we asked people.

“We didn’t make any emails, we didn’t make any phone calls, we didn’t write any letters – all 22 of us just went around and asked people. It paid off very well in that there’s a tradition that we’re very proud of, but it paid off more importantly in that it brought everyone together as a community,” he added.

Ennis’ other honours were as in the Gum Litter Taskfore competition, where the town was named both the large urban centre and national winner, the Tourism Town Award, the County Award, as well as a Gold Medal and the Shannon Region award winner.

“One of the highlights for me personally,” continued Ms Purcell, “was after we won the award as Ireland’s largest urban centre, someone said to me in the street ‘didn’t we do well in Dublin’.

“That was powerful because there was a sense of ownership in that because it was the community coming together.

“We are very, very fortunate in Ennis in that we have a very positive and great working relationship with our town council. Any positive relationship that you can foster is brilliant. SuperValu are to complimented for promoting Tidy Towns and promoting bringing communities together,” she added.

COMPANIES are queuing up to do business in the Shannon Free Zone and provide thousands of new jobs – the only thing they’re demanding to turn this commitment into a reality is that Clare’s international airport be freed from the strictures of Dublin Airport Authority control and be given its full independence.

This promise of a jobs bonanza for the region was delivered by Rose Hynes, the chairperson of the Aviation Business Development Task Force that has helped draft a blueprint for the independent Shannon Airport structure over the last four months.

“We have people lined up who are willing to do business with Shannon but they are only willing to do it if the airport and the new entity is created on the basis of separation,” Ms Hynes revealed at Monday’s press conference heralding the timeframe for the airport’s independence.

“People are willing to do business, but not when there’s an air of uncertainty. They want to do business when there’s certainty and separation. We are already talking from a position of strength where we have commitment for a 1000 of those jobs – that’s a position of considerable strength. We are talking a success- ful airport that when combined with the landbank we can actually create and additional 3,500 jobs over five years,” she added.

Ms Hynes, who is tipped to become chairperson of the new Shannon Airport structure, has moved quickly to dispel thoughts the jobs target is overly ambitious, telling The Clare People that the plan represents “the beginning of a new era” for the airport.

“We had intensive discussions and we formed the view that the status quo was not a sustainable option and that a restructured Shannon and Shannon Development can be sustainable and can be successful,” said Ms Hynes. “Shannon cannot just remain where it is at the moment. We have looked at the Shannon situation high up and low down and we are absolutely convinced that we have a plan that’s viable, that’s going to lead to a successful airport.

“We had a philosophy in the task force where basically we decided that we weren’t going to leave behind a set of recommendations that were going to just gather dust somewhere. We decided that if we were going to recommend something we were going to put momentum into it.

“We were going to try and take that as far as we could do. We did that in relation to job numbers; we did that in relation to every other recommendation that we made. It means that when we talk about it, we talk about something we believe,” she added.

Commenting on the cabinet decision, Shannon Airport Director Mary Considine said, “Today is a pivotal step in the process of separation. The focus of staff and management at Shannon Airport has been on ensuring that the airport is financially and operationally ready for separation.

“This entire process is all about securing a sustainable future for all the stakeholders of the Airport and that Shannon Airport delivers on its role as a key economic driver for the West of Ireland,” she added.

GARDAÍ in Ennis have launched an investigation after an attempted arson attack on units in the Beechpark Traveller accommodation site.

Two buildings at the site on the outskirts of Ennis sustained smoke damage when an attempt was made to set them ablaze on Saturday night.

Intruders attempted to set fire to the kitchen of one unit after breaking a window. The rear was forced open in another unit and an attempt was made to set the building alight.

Gardaí in Ennis said yesterday that petrol was discovered near the scene of both attempted fires. No one was injured in the attack.

The family who live at one of the damaged units were away on the night. As of yesterday, no one had been arrested or charged in connection with the attack.

It is the second time in three years that the Beechpark site has sustained damage. Between 2010 and 2011, the Council was forced to spend € 2800 a week on providing security at Beechpark after units there were destroyed by vandalism and arson in April 2010. Last year, a report from Clare County Council on the costs associated with providing traveler accommodation in Clare, stated that Beechpark has been the subject of threats and intimidation since 2010.

THE new independent Shannon Airport has been warned away from entering into a new deal with Ryanair similar to the one that resulted in record passenger numbers of over 3.6m passing using Clare’s international airport in 2007.

Transport Minister Leo Varadkar told a media briefing in the Dublin Convention Centre that was attended by key figures from the Shannon Airport Authority, Shannon Development, Clare Oireachtas members and the mayors of Clare and Ennis that any dealings with Ryanair in the future should be on “a commercial basis” and instead pointed to the benefits of securing more military traffic through the airport.

Shannon’s passenger numbers rocketed to 3,620,623 in 2007 on the back of an incentive package arrangement between the airport and Ryanair that saw the low-cost carrier operate over 50 routes, but since then have declined year-on-year with figures expected to dip below 1. 5m by the end of 2012.

“I would expect that any deals that the new Shannon Aiport makes would be on a commercial basis that can be sustained, which was not the case in the previous Ryanair deal,” said Minister Varadkar, before revealing that targeted growth of having up to 2.5m passengers over the next decade was not dependent on a new Ryanair deal.

“They did reach a peak of 3.6 passengers largely on the back of that arrangement (with Ryanair),” said Minsiter Varadkar, “but bear in mind that prior to that they were well over 2m passengers on various occasions and up as far as 2.7m passengers at one point”.

Last June, Ryanair made a pitch to treble its passenger numbers through Shannon to one million if it was given a new deal by the Shannon Airport Authority whereby all charges would be waived for all additional passengers over the current level of 375,000.

Meanwhile, as late as last week it was revealed in The Clare People that the budget airline was on the cusp on announcing a new investment at the airport to bring in one million extra passengers providing an extra € 100m passenger spend to the region.

However, instead of looking to Ryanair, Minister Varadkar championed the cause of secured extra military stopover at Shannon as a way of boosting the airport’s figures.

“I have indicated for a very long time that Shannon has been a transit point for military flights and part of the plan would be to grow that,” he revealed.

FIVE thousand new jobs can be created in Shannon by 2018 as Clare’s international airport finally prepares to free itself from the shackles of Dublin Airport Authority control and chart a new independent future for itself.

This ambitious blueprint for Shannon was revealed by senior Cabinet ministers, Leo Varadkar and Richard Burton at an aviation conference in Dublin on Monday, with December 31 next set as formal beginning of the new independent airport freed of its € 100m debts and given a start-up fund in this Wednesday’s budget as it begins life as a separate, stand alone entity.

The new airport authority has been provisionally named as NEWCO – a merger between existing Shannon Development and Shannon Airport staff, and in an early move to allay fears among the workforce in the two companies, Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Richard Bruton has said “there will be no compulsory redundancies”.

Meanwhile, The Clare People can exclusively reveal that Clarewoman, Rose Hynes, is being lined up to become the first chairperson of the new airport authority. The Bellharbour woman chaired the Aviation Business Development Task Force that drafted the new airport plan, which she says is “the beginning of a new era” for Shannon.

The government has set a target of boosting passenger numbers at Shannon by one million over the next nine years, with Transport minister Leo Varadkar telling The Clare People that “if Shannon can’t achieve that kind of growth, then there is no fu- ture for the airport”.

However, it’s in the area of jobs that Shannon can expect its biggest windfall with Minister Varadkar 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.