Category: News

KILRUSH’S most senior garda has reassured those who may be the victim of illegal loan sharks that they can meet his colleagues in the strictest confidence. At Thursday morning’s meeting of the Kilrush Joint Policing Committee (JPC), Superintendent Gerry Wall said he was aware of the is- sue of illegal money-lending in the town, but he needed people to come forward and make a statement if an arrest was to be made. He told the committee members that there are two ways open to the Gardaí to tackle the issue – firstly through direct reporting, and secondly throgh the assistance of specialst gardaí based in Dublin. “I have as much access to these specialist gardaí as any of my colleagues. “They are not a million miles away just because they are based in Dublin,” he said. The most direct route to an arrest is through victims and witnesses coming forward. “We are drawing a blank on people reporting this,” he added. The superintendent said he would encourage people affected to come forward and speak to Gardaí in strict confidence. During the last few months, problems associated with illegal moneylending have come to the fore in the West Clare town, with reports of lenders standing outside the post office waiting for payment as borrowers collect social welfare payments. There are also reports of lenders holding on to people’s social welfare cards to ensure payment. Those at the mercy of the moneylenders have said they are not willing to talk about their situation as they are afraid of reprisals. Many who signed up for these exorbitant loans fear the unscrupulous lenders too much to even tell the Gardaí. Gardaí in Kilrush have reassured people, however, that they will meet them in confidence.

SHANNON Development’s work as a driver for tourism in the mid-west is being rewarded with the results of increased numbers into region over the past year.

That’s the message delivered by Shannon Development chief executive Dr Vincent Cunnane following the publication of the company’s annual report last week.

Preliminary tourism figures from Fáilte Ireland for 2011 indicate that the Shannon region was one of Ire- land’s top performing areas in terms of the growth of international visitor numbers.

The region recorded 850,000 overseas visitors in 2011, an 11.7 per cent increase over the previous year, with Dr Cunnane highlighting Shannon Development key role in this upsured. “We are delighted with these preliminary results which clearly reflect the hard work that is being done on the ground and internationally to promote this region as a premier tourist destination,” he told The Clare People .

“While these figures are encouraging, we would acknowledge that not all businesses would have benefited equally. To support tourism businesses in the Shannon region, Shannon Development undertook a series of its own strategic tourism initiatives in 2011,” he said.

“These delivered 155,000 extra visitors, 310,000 bednights and an additional € 30 million in revenue. Over the past four years, tourism initiatives undertaken directly by the company have delivered a direct economic benefit of almost € 160 million for the region’s tourism industry.”

Tourism continues to be one of the key economic drivers in the Shannon region’s economy, employing more than 25,000 people in over 1,000 tourism businesses and attracting over 1.8 million visitors in 2011.

The continued success of Shannon Development subsidiary, Shannon Heritage, in this tourist drive was highlighted in the figures that show it recorded a five per cent growth in 2011 with 436,300 visitors across the board at all its tourist sites.

“The Shannon Heritage operation continues to be an economic driver by contributing an estimated € 15 million in revenue for the local economy,” said Dr Cunnane

“The Shannon region boasts a superb range of tourist attractions and Shannon Development’s Product Development team is constantly working to help the tourism trade devise new visitor attractions to entice the next generation of visitors.

“We want to ensure that this region is a ‘must visit’ destination.

“Our team is currently working on over € 22 million worth of tourism projects. A particular area of concentration for the company in 2011 was the development of sports tourism and conference business in the Shannon region,” added Dr Cunnane.

THE East Clare community of Ogonnelloe will say a final farewell this morning (Tuesday) to a father of three who drowned following a boating accident on Lough Derg.

Pat Danaher lost his life in the picturesque lake after his 20-foot speedboat capsized on Thursday. It is understood that the boat ran aground after hitting rocks.

It was later found upturned and a search of the waters was immediately carried out. The massive search involved volunteer members of the RNLI, Coast Guard, Civil Defence, Mountshannon Search and Rescue and Killaloe/Ballina Search and Recovery Unit.

Divers from the Killaloe/Ballina Search and Recovery Unit recovered the 44-year-old’s body on Friday.

His death has been described as a tragedy by Parish Priest Donagh O’Meara, who said the whole community was still in shock.

“Pat’s tragic death is an awful loss to his family and the local community. Pat was a great character, larger than life, and the community is still in shock at the news. It’s a terrible tragedy.”

Fr O’Meara was confident that the community would provide support to his widow Pauline and their three young children, Rachel, Laura and Leo.

“There is a fantastic community here in Ogonnelloe and people are great. I know they will all rally around Pauline and the children and Pat’s own family at this terrible time. Many from the community were down in Garrykennedy during the search to show their support for the family,” he said.

Mr Danaher was originally from Ballinacurra Gardens in Limerick, but the painting contractor had set- tled with his young family in Nancy’s Well, Ogonnelloe.

Gardaí and the Marine Casualty Investigation Board are continuing to conduct separate inquiries into his untimely death. Gardaí have confirmed that they are treating the death as a tragic accident.

Requiem Mass will take place this morning in St Mary’s Old Church, Ogonolloe at 11am followed by a private cremation.

Mr Danaher is survived by his wife Pauline and three children Rachel, Laura and Leo, his parents Bridie and Tony, and sisters Monique, Samantha, Sonia and Natasha.

SHANNON Development has stated that plans to develop a major new visitor attraction in Bunratty are still in the pipeline, with the company’s annual report revealing that the campaign to secure expressions of interest for the multi-million euro project is ongoing.

“Shannon Development is seeking expressions of interest for a major new international visitor attraction on its 120-acre landbank next to the world famous Bunratty Castle and Folk Park,” the report reveals.

“Research carried out by Shannon Development identified a number of possible suitable projects for the site, among them a diaspora visitor centre and genealogy centre, and a themed family adventure park,” it adds.

The deadline for expressions of interest for the project was extended earlier this year as part of Shannon Development’s attempts to spark interest in a multi-national investor coming on board to develop the project.

It was originally intended that the closing date for submission to the regional development agency would be the end of March, but in extending this deadline chief executive Dr Vincent Cunnane said, “additional time is required” because of the sig- nificant “nature of the project” that would be one of the largest to be undertaken under Shannon Development’s watch in decades.

“While the money may not be in Ireland, there is money elsewhere and the best value can be had at this point in time,” Dr Cunnane said.

This project has its genesis in a 2009 Clare County Council decision through the South Clare Local Area Plan to pave the way for the development of visitor facilities on the Shannon Development-owned site.

Shannon Development subsequently revealed that “informal discussions with Clare County Council indicated that they would welcome a tourism related planning application for this strategic site”.

In tender documents for the development of the site adjacent to Bunratty Castle, Shannon Development have highlighted gaps in the market that can be filled Bunratty – 50 years on from the start of medieval banquets in Bunratty Castle.

One of the proposals is to develop an Ireland Through the Ages History and Cultural Centre incorporating a diaspora visitor centre and genealogy centre.

“It is estimated that the size of the available market for cultural tourism in Ireland from main source markets of Britain, United States, France and Germany to be of the order of € 65 million,” the tender documents stated.

“The preferred option for Shannon Development is to enter into a development and management agreement with a preferred party for the development and operation of the new attraction,” the documents added.

Earlier this year, Dr Cunnane stated that the project “represents a unique opportunity beside an existing tourism attraction visited by 400,000 people per annum, adjacent to Shannon Airport and two hours by motorway from Dublin.

“We are hopeful that something very significant will happen at Bunratty. I’m confident that we will receive several expressions of interest,” he added.

PARTS of the mid-west experienced twice the amount of average rainfall during June and July, according to Met Eireann.

Figures for July recorded at Met Eireann’s station at Shannon Airport was 140 per cent of average in July.

Temperatures were also 1.4 per cent lower than average. The highest mean temperature, however, was recorded at Shannon Airport at 14.9 degrees. Met Eireann spokesman Hugh Daly explained that the rainfall for June and July was significantly higher than normal.

He said, “After a wet June and a wet July, we’ve had two pretty bad months. Not record-breaking bad or out of the ordinary like we’ve previously had. In June and July, rainfall recorded at Shannon was 240 per cent of average, which is significant. That’s twice the normal amount of rainfall for the two months.”

Mr Daly continued, “Having one bad month on top of another has really compounded the situation. A constant period of heavy rainfall meant the saturated soils did not have the time to recover. We had low pressure and northerly winds keeping temperatures down and rainfall high.”

“We had no string of pleasant days, it was constantly interrupted by rain. I was looking through the charts there and I couldn’t find one day in where it wasn’t raining in any part of the country. It was always raining somewhere,” he added.

Apart from being bad news for farmers, the poor weather is also contributing to a decline in domestic tourism in the west.

According to Eugene Maher, CEO of Shannon Ferries, the near constant bad weather is convincing many families to cancel short breaks and day trips.

He explained, “The biggest decline has been in domestic traffic. People just can’t afford to go anywhere anymore. People are not taking long journeys, long trips. That’s a consequence of both domestic economic woes, less money in the pocket, as much as it due to the weather. In tandem with the economic downturn, Ireland has probably experienced five of the worst summers in history that has had a huge damaging effect on domestic tourism.”

IT’S as you were for Shannon Development as the agency that has been the economic driver for the mid-west region since 1959 prepares for the future, despite the uncertainty surrounding its role in the wake of the Government decision to change the company’s remit as part of creating a new model for Shannon Airport.

Chief executive Dr Vincent Cunnane has spoken confidently about the company carving a new niche for itself in the region, but has admitted to “uncertainty” about what its new remit will be over the next year.

“It is a period of uncertainty for Shannon Development, but in a way, we always have had uncertainty”, admitted Dr Cunnane. “Uncertainty is not a good environment in which to work but it’s business as usual as much as we can. That’s our mantra since these announcements.

“It’s business as usual until something officially changes. Nothing has been officially changed, nothing is before the Government and we will continue to do our job in the professional manner we have always done it and yield good results in difficult times,” he added.

In June this year a steering group was appointed to oversee the Government decision to merge Shannon Airport with Shannon Development to form a new entity with a commercial mandate in public ownership.

As part of this, Shannon Development’s functions in relation to indigenous enterprise, foreign direct investment and tourism are to transfer to the national agencies.

Commenting further, the Shannon Development chief said, “Shannon Development staff will continue to provide a range of services to all their clients. We are in touch with our clients to assure them that our service levels will be unaffected during the interim period and that staff will continue to deliver the high level of service that clients have come to expect.”

“Shannon Development is working closely with the Government steering group and is represented on the working groups of the two task forces set up to look at the aviation development and the change management dimensions of the decision,” said Shannon Development chairman John Brassil.

“A successful Shannon Airport is vital to secure the future economic success of the region. Therefore it is crucial that the blueprint being developed for it is fit for purpose and utilises the unique experience and skills set of Shannon Development and Shannon Airport staff to plot its course and deliver the next generation of world firsts,” he added.

THE importance of Clare to the late Maeve Binchy through her unstinting support of the Merriman Summer School for over four decades has been recalled in North Clare this week as the final touches are being put to preparations for the 45th annual event that takes place in Lisdoonvarna from August 15 to 19.

Ms Binchy, who died last week, has a special place in Merriman history, having attended the first ever event in 1968 and, more recently, in 2005, by being commissioned to write a short story to commmemorate the bicentenary of Brian Merriman’s death.

“She wrote a short story called ‘A Week in Summer’. It was about people returning, discovering family connections, after being asked by the Merriman School director, Bob Collins,” revealed Marian O’Callaghan of this year’s organising committee.

“Maeve read the story and we did a live recording of her reading the story and the response to it.

“Brian Farrell wrote the introduction and introduced her on the night in question. It was very special and she had a captive audience in the Spa Wells. She was thrilled with it.

“We got the boolet published and we had a CD of the recording with it. It was brilliant, because it was the very fact that Maeve wrote it especially for the Merriman School and she read it at the school and we recorded it,” added Ms O’Callaghan.

“It’s very, very funny,” recalled Merriman School chairman, Liam Ó Dochartaigh. “It was published in The Irish Times , but then Marian O’Callaghan and Mary O’Flaherty published it along with a CD of Maeve reading it that was recorded by Sean Jordan, who is our sound man,” he added.

“The following year when the book and CD was launched,” recalled Ms O’Callaghan. “Maeve came down and spoke about how thrilled she was to have ‘a Maeve Binchy CD’. It meant a lot to her, because this was her writing her own story, then reading at the Merriman School which she loved,” she added.

EMPLOYMENT numbers at the Shannon Development managed Free Zone dropped by three per cent in 2011 as the company grappled with the demands of the economic recession, but there are still over 7,700 working in the industrial estate.

The Shannon Development annual report shows that employment numbers were boosted by 406 over the past year, which when measured against job losses of 580 over the same period meant that there was a net loss of 174 for the year.

“Shannon Free Zone is home to over 100 companies and generating almost € 3 billion in annual sales, more than 90 per cent of which are to export markets.

“Despite the economic downturn, Shannon Free Zone continues to be a strong revenue generator for the local economy.

Companies based at the Free Zone collectively contribute over € 600 million to the Irish and Shannon region economies annually in areas such as staff payroll, materials and services.

“While overall employment at the Zone fell 3 per cent year on year, it should be noted that almost 90 per cent of these job losses were the result of downsizing and not closures, enabling Shannon Development to continue working with these companies to identify new market opportunities. The company is encouraged by the slowdown in job losses, reporting a net loss of 174 jobs during the year. Jobs in indigenous companies at Shannon Free Zone continued to grow in 2011, in the past two years indigenous jobs have increased by over 10 per cent from 949 to 1,045,” the annual report adds.

Among the job highlights in 2011 was the announcement by Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Richard Bruton of 170 new jobs to be created through a joint partnership between US company ZAGG International Distribution Ltd and Irish company CREGG Logistics.

The jobs are supported by Shannon Development and ZAGG is confident of creating a further 130 jobs over the next four years.

In addition, Bustec, the Shannon Free Zone-based technology firm, announced a $21 million (€ 15 million) contract with US technology firm Lockheed Martin to supply data capture and testing equipment which will be used by the US Navy.

“Considerable progress was made on marketing the Free Zone to potential overseas investors in 2011,” says the annual report.

During the year, Shannon Development succeeded in securing 19 itineraries from prospective new clients for the Shannon Free Zone, seven of which were generated in partnership with IDA Ireland.

“Shannon Development approved financial supports to Shannon Free Zone companies in 2011, which leveraged investments of € 13 million by these companies. A total of 20 Shannon Free Zone companies received Shannon Development support packages across key areas such as R&D, employment, management development, international marketing supports and training.

“These supports illustrate Shannon Development’s commitment to enable Free Zone companies maintain market leadership and underpins their future growth and success,” the reports adds.

YOUNG mothers in the county are facing homelessness as cuts to their rental accommodation supplement means they can no longer pay their rent.

In Ennis, a young mother, who recently lost her husband, said that she has to move house as she can no longer pay the rent.

Her rental support has been significantly cut and she cannot make up the difference and meet all her bills.

She told The Clare People that the landlord is not able to reduce the rent cost so she must move.

Finding a new home for her young family on her budget is proving difficult, however.

Making rental payments is not just an issue in the county town.

Cllr Gerry Flynn (Ind) from Shannon said he has been approached by a number of people in a similar situation.

“One was a young mother that just didn’t know what to do.

“The average cost of a three-bedroom house in Shannon is between € 500 and € 550 per week but, in the last number of months, people have been told that they must ask their landlords to bring the rent down to between € 450 and € 475,” he said.

“The landlords cannot bring down the cost because they have mortgages and other charges to pay.”

He said he was approached by a number of people who will not be able to afford their rent and fear homelessness.

The town and county councillor said the housing issue was further compounded as the local authority and HSE is now “totally reliant on the private sector to provide homes as our (the council’s) capital funding was removed.”

He said, “Clare County Council will take house clusters as part of the Rental Accommodation Scheme, but it seems reluctant to take just one house.”

THE loss of two branches of AIB in West Clare will have a devastating affect on local businesses. Kilkee businessman John Nolan said that the closure of the Kilkee branch is another impediment to businesses in the town. As a result of the bank’s closure, business people who carry out their business with AIB will now have to travel to Kilrush every day to lodge cash. He said that there is too much of a risk in leaving money on the premises overnight so they will have to make the 28-kilometre drive daily. A mobile unit muted for the town would not work as different businesses need to lodge cash at different times of the day, he explained. “Personally, I think it is very bad for the town at the moment to see the bank go at a time when other businesses are struggling,” he said. Mr Nolan now fears that the town’s only remaining bank – Bank Of Ireland – will close its branch too, leaving the seaside town without a banking institution. Meanwhile, business people in Kildysart will face a 63kilometre round-trip for their business transactions. Eddie Michaels, owner of Centra, said the town’s people are not very happy about the loss of the bank. “It is a very important service, especially to older people. People feel this is another service taken away. People are generally not happy,” he said. The business man added that he did not believe the mobile bank would be adequate for businesses trying to lodge cash, so business owners would have to travel to Ennis for their banking. “This is another obstacle that we have to get over, and we will have to,” he said optimistically.