Category: News

LABASHEEDA is a village on the Shannon estuary, an area of high environmental sensitivity, yet its people are asked to survive a recession, develop the area and care for the environment without any sewerage scheme.

And despite more than a half a century of promises from different governments and plans and funding being allocated by the second last Minister for the Environment, the plans have been cancelled and the money taken back.

This is of little surprise to the despondent local people, who have spent the last decade working with planners, the county council and government departments in developing the plan for the village.

Among those involved was local school principal, Liam Woulfe.

“I’m convinced that it was never a runner from day one, and the Department of the Environment were merely playing with figures and statistics just to show that a number of projects were being considered, to look good in Europe,” he said.

“They constantly changed the conditions relating to the type of system to be installed, and Clare County Council, in good faith, would have to go back to the drawing board. We were being regularly told that the money was ‘ringfenced’, a term I don’t want ever to hear in use again, it just seems to mean that the funding is never really there in the first place,” he added.

The “ringfenced” money for the Labasheeda and Carrigaholt Scheme has now disappeared and the goalposts have changed again, so much so that the council can no longer apply for a scheme for Labasheeda.

Sean Ward, Senior Engineer with Clare County Council told The Clare People , “The rules governing the 2011 Annual Review did not give us any leeway for re-submission of the Labasheeda element of the scheme.”

“As neither of the two villages (Carrigaholt or Labasheeda) was included in the new WSIP, the budget allocated in 2008 is no longer available. Clare County Council was reim- bursed by the department for the design and other planning costs, which it had incurred up to the time the scheme was dropped from the Water Services Investment Programme (WSIP),” he said.

The engineer was not confident of a resolution to the situation anytime soon.

“Unless and until the scheme can be reconsidered as part of any 2014onwards WSIP, it isn’t possible to say if and when a sewerage scheme can be built in either Carrigaholt or Labasheeda,” he said.

THE latest statistical report taken from the 2011 National Census of Population has revealed that divorce is on the rise in Clare, with a record number of divorced people now living in the county since the measure was introduced to the statute books in 1996.

The census returns have shown that there are now 2,252 divorcees living in the county, with the divorces figures on the rise in keeping with the nationwide 800 per cent increase in the numbers of divorces between 1996 and 2011.

Of this 2,252, women are in the majority, with 1,280 female divorcees living in the county as compared to 972 men.

And, from the overall figure there is almost an equal divided between urban and rural, with 1,110 of divorcees living in urban areas as compared to 1,142 in rural areas.

In August it was revealed that despite the cost of divorce thought to be a deterrent in most parts of Ireland, Clare saw a rise of 40 per cent in the number of couples getting divorced in the county in 2011.

According to the figures for the county released by the Central Statistic Office, 69 divorces were granted to Clare couples last year – with a further 66 applications for divorce being made.

Experienced Clare-based family law solicitor Marie Keane said the rise could be attributed to the type of divorces being negotiated as well as the age profile of couples getting divorced.

“The vast majority of divorce cases are now being settled before going to court, with both parties consenting. From my experience I would guess up to 95 per cent of cases settle in this manner,” she told The Clare People .

Meanwhile, other census figures show that 1,375 divorcees in Clare have remarried – the breakdown of the figures being 776 men as against 629 women.

In addition to this, there are now 1,577 separated women living in the county as compared to 1,294 men.

THE Merriman Hotel in Kinvara is going on auction again this week, with the guide price set at just € 400,000, or € 12, 500 per bedroom.

The 32-bedroom hotel, located in the very centre of Kinvara, was auctioned already this year but that deal was not brought to completion.

On that occasion, the hotel was sold to the highest bidder for a price of € 610,000 and it remains unclear whether it will reach those heights again.

Along with the 32 bedrooms, the hotel also boasts a bar with the capacity to seat 200 guests, a dining room with licence capacity for 100, a kitchen, study, entrance hall and private secure car parking.

During the property boom, a number of luxury six-bedroom houses in Kinvara sold for more than € 1 million, or roughly € 170,000 per bedroom.

If the Merriman reaches its previous auction price of € 610,000 from earlier this year, it will be sold for just over € 19,000 per bedroom.

The auction will take place on Friday, September 28 at 3pm at the Victoria Hotel in Galway unless it is previously sold.

The property is being brought to auction by O’Donnellan and Joyce Auctioneers.

Meanwhile, property prices continue to fall across Clare, according to the Myhome.ie price change index.

Of the 48 houses whose asking price changed in the county so far this September, 46 reported a reduction in the asking price.

The largest drop in asking price was for a large thatched property in Doolin whose asking price fell by € 150,000, from € 500,000 to € 350,000.

THERE are now more people over 65 living alone in the county than ever before, the latest statistical report from the 2011 census which is entitled ‘Households and Families Living Arrangements in Ireland’ has revealed.

According to the Central Statistic Office figures, it means that 29.3 per cent of people in the county over 65 are living alone, a figure that jumps to 34 per cent for over 70s in the county. The figures show that women make up the majority of people who are living alone in the county. Of the 3,904 over 65s who are liv- ing alone, women make up 2,354 of these, which represents 34.1 per cent of all women of pension age. There are 1, 550 men of pension age (29.3 per cent) living alone.

When it comes to over 70s, women are also in the majority with 40.1 per cent of the 4,618 in the county over that age living alone which gives a figure of 1,853. The figure for men is 26.8 per cent, which represents 1,066 out of 3,976.

This figures are in line with earlier statistical evidence which points to women living longer than men in the county. The 2006 census returns for the county showed that there were 12, 519 people of retirement age, which represented 11.5 per cent of the total population of 110, 590.

Five years on there has been a jump of 2,065 in the numbers of people of retirement age living in the county, with the increase to 14, 519 meaning that 12.4 per cent of Clare’s 117,196 population are now of pension age.

In releasing the breakdown of figures of those of retirement age, the CSO has split the post-65 generation into five different groups – 65-69, 70-74,75-79, 80-84 and 85 and over.

The biggest gap between females and males is to be found in the 85 and over category, with females outnumbering males by more than two to one. There are 1,581 of 85 and over in the county, 1,070 of them being females to only 511 males.

AN elderly woman is recovering today after a fall at Doolin Pier on Saturday in which she sustained hip and head injuries. The woman slipped and fell at the water’s edge but she was brought to safety before she entered the water.

The Doolin Unit of the Irish Coastguard was alerted to the incident by one of the local ferry operators and were on the scene within minutes. The woman was given medical attention at the water’s edge before she was moved to a more secure location by stretcher.

The casualty complained of severe pain to her left hip and had a cut and swelling to her forehead. The woman was brought to Limerick Regional Hospital for further treatment.

Meanwhile, rescue services on Lough Derg took part in 25 different rescue operations on the lake this summer.

Figures released last week show that the Lough Derg RNLI launches nine times during the summer months, while the Killaloe Unit of the Irish Coastguard took part in 14 rescue operations since the beginning of June.

Among the call-outs responded to by the Lough Derg RNLI was a request to assist 15 people on-board a cruiser that had grounded by Cormorant Island, north of Illaunmore, some four nautical miles from Dromineer Bay.

The lifeboat also launched to investigate a vessel upturned in Youghal Bay, close to Garrykennedy, and on another occasion launched to assist four people after their cruiser grounded and they abandoned it to board a small tender.

GARDAÍ arrested three men less than an hour after they were suspected of robbing an elderly woman and her family at knifepoint in her West Clare home, thanks to the quick thinking of a neighbour.

The late evening aggravated burglary has stunned the surrounding rural area of Cooraclare and Kilmurry McMahon, with local people shocked by the happenings late on Friday evening last.

Between 8.30 and 8.45pm noises were heard by the occupants of the isolated house situated between the Kilrush road and Kilmurry McMahon.

“Three males were seen in the yard wearing gloves and had their faces covered. One of them threw a concrete block through the window and demanded money from the occupants,” said Gardaí.

The culprits did not gain access to the house but it is understood that they threatened the terrified 80-yearold and her adult daughter and son through the broken window using a knife.

A small amount of cash was handed over after which the gang fled the scene. The occupants quickly raised the alarm. A quick-thinking neighbour spotted the three leaving the house and getting into a car.

The neighbour noted the vehicle registration and notified Gardaí in Kilrush who issued a countywide alert to other stations.

As the car was seen heading towards Ennis, gardaí prepared to intercept it on the outskirts of the county town.

BIGGER houses and more houses in Clare than every before, with fewer and fewer people living in them.

This is the latest picture painted by the 2011 National Census of Population returns, which was revealed in the fifth bulletin report released by the Central Statistics Office in the past week.

Figures for the county that fewer people per household than ever before.

In 2011 when the census was compiled, the average number of people per household in urban areas was 2.61, a figure that increased slightly to 2.78 in rural areas, while the over- all figure for the county stood at 2.71.

These figures reflect the continuing overall trend of fewer people living in houses – a phenomenon that is explained by the building boom during the Celtic Tiger years being at a much faster pace than the population increases in the same period.

Earlier this month it was revealed that there were over 24,000 houses constructed in the county in the last 20 years, while in the same two-decade period the population of Clare only increased by 15,000.

There was a 76 per cent increase in the number of houses in the county between 1991 and 2011, from 31,606 to 55,616, but in the same period the average size of households in the county continued to drop.

The drop in the number of people per household in the county over the last 65 years is contained in the census returns.

The average size per household was 4.14 in 1946 as compared with 2.71 today, a slide that has continued in the 12 census reports compiled in that 65 years.

By 1966 the average size of households in Clare had dropped to 3.84, while it went under 3 for the first time in 2002 census when the average was down to 2.92.

The 2011 figures also show that for the first time in 20 years the average household in bigger in rural Clare than it is in urban areas of population.

ENNIS bid farewell on Saturday to one of the town’s best-known fishermen and nature guides.

Jimmy Allard, who lived in Beechpark, passed away suddenly last week. He was a three-time All-Ireland flyfishing champion and international Gold winner and a former member of the Munster Team Championship winning team. In 1976, he finished third in the World Championships.

His exploits were the subject of BBC and RTE documentaries. After working in England, Jimmy returned to Ireland in the sixties and got a job driving for Roadstone.

He lived for a time in Newmarketon-Fergus before settling in Ennis.

Mr Allard captained his country in the home internationals, beating Scotland in 1990 in Lough Owel, just outside Mullingar.

He was the first person to introduce ducks and geese to the River Fergus in 1990 and served as chairman of the Clare Regional Game Council.

In 2011, Mr Allard advocated converting a stretch of land between Beechpark and the One Mile Inn into a wildlife sanctuary. He also brought tourists fishing on lakes around Clare, the American actress Connie Francis and the former Governor of California, Ed Brown, being among Mr Allard’s more famous guests.

In an interview with The Clare People in 2007, Mr Allard recalled his love of fishing and the great outdoors.

“I got into the flyfishing back to Ennis in the ‘60s. I had an idea about starting up a club. I used to go down to Stonehall – there was an old man from England I used to know. He showed me how to make casts and flies.

“I started entering competitions here in Ennis. I did pretty well, won the odd competition and got a few prizes. I went to the Munster championships and I qualified for the National and the first time I was in that in 1974, I won it. It was the first time anyone from Clare won it. I made the Irish team after that. I won a couple of the big competitions on the Corrib,” he said.

Mr Allard will be sadly missed by his wife Cauch, children Tyrone, Kevin, Seamus, George and Cait extended family and friends.

DEPUTIES Pat Breen and Joe Carey are in hot water this week as news emerged that a guarantee about funding they gave to Clare County Councillors back in July will not now be honoured by Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan. In his address to councillors a little over two months ago Deputy Pat Breen (FG) said the lost € 243,000 would be returned to the council’s coffers;

“You will get back what is owed to you before the end of the year. I don’t think the Council should worry about that,” he said.

“The money is not being cut. It is being with-held,” said Deputy Carey (FG) to the same meeting.

“I got that assurance from Phil Hogan,” he added. Clare County Council were informed on Friday that they now need to find the € 243k savings over the next three months.

Councillors have summoned the two Oireachtas members to a meeting next Monday to explain what has happened. The same meeting will also hear what options are available to the Council to find the necessary € 243,000 in cuts.

County Manager Tom Coughlan told The Clare People on Monday that finding the required € 243k in cuts between now and the end of the year would be extremely difficult:

“This will impact services. It will be very difficult because we had in place a very finely balanced budget that had already achieved significant cost reductions. Now we have a € 243,000 gap in funding between now and the end of the year, our options here will be very difficult,” he added.

IT HAS been confirmed that from late October, Shannon Airport cutbacks meant that US immigration pre-clearance won’t be available to British Airways on one of its daily all-business class flights from London City to New York.

The airline currently offers two daily all-business class flights, with both services routing via Shannon on the outbound journey for refuelling, before returning directly from New York.

At present passengers can avail of US immigration pre-clearance at Shannon during the stop, meaning that they arrive at JFK as a domestic passenger, thus avoiding immigration queues.

BA has confirmed that from October 28 pre-clearance will only be available on flight BA001. This change has been forced by cutbacks at Shannon Airport, which will see US officials working fewer hours.

“Our business class-only service between London City and New York, which stops at Shannon, is about to enter its third year of successful operation,” a BA spokesperson revealed.

“Changes in the staffing regime at Shannon Airport, by the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has shortened the opening hours of their pre-clearance facility in Shannon.

“Therefore, we have made changes to the double-daily service for the winter schedule, beginning in October 28.

“Following consultations which explored a range of different options, and feedback from our corporate customers, we have rescheduled the BA001 to depart earlier at 0950 to allow continued access to US preclearance facilities in Shannon.

“The BA003 remains departing at 1600, but customers will not benefit from pre-clearance in Shannon and will instead arrive in New York at International Arrivals,” the spokesperson added.