Category: News

THE New Quay/Bellharbour branch of Fine Gael was championing the cause of Shannon Airport at the party’s Ard Fheis at the weekend.

Speaking on the motion, “This Ard Fheis calls for the Government to develop a viable plan for the future ownership and operation of Shannon Airport over the next few months,” branch secretary Eric Keane said all executive and strategic decisions for the airport are made by the DAA.

He warned that while the airport remains under the DAA, it would be an after-thought after Dublin and Cork.

“This structure does not make com mercial sense. Shannon Airport can succeed provided it is given autonomy, which will allow for the best interests of the mid-west to be targeted and promoted. The mid-west needs an airport authority based in Shannon that can dedicate all its energy to marketing the airport and integrating with companies in the Shannon Free Zone, Limerick, Galway and beyond,” he told delegates.

“The most critical piece of infrastructure in the whole mid-west is Shannon Airport. It is essential to the mid-western economy. As we look to promote Ireland around the world to our diaspora and others, Shannon provides easy access to some of our country’s most popular tourist sites,” said Mr Keane. “If Shannon Airport is put on a sound footing, where it is able to innovate on its own, compete as it wants and recognise the true potential it has, then the whole mid-west is better off. Shannon Airport has a glorious past. It was the first airport to have a duty-free in the world; it was the first airport to get pre-clearance for passengers flying to the US. And if it can achieve the goal of having a pre-clearance for cargo going into the US, to paraphrase Michael Noonan “it will take off like a rocket”.

THE Dublin Airport Authority siphoned off the profits of the Shannon Airport inspired and headquartered Aer Rianta International (ARI) for a generation in a move that has been described as “an absolute scandal” and a major contributory factor to the current ills of Clare’s international airport.

This claim was sounded out by former ARI executive Michael Hanrahan on Friday, as he highlighted the local case for profits from the multinational arm of the Dublin Airport Authority to be channelled into Shannon.

“Everyone thinks that Shannon is losing money, but I have a different view. Shannon is making a considerable amount on money, particularly through Aer Rianta International,” said Mr Hanrahan.

“Aer Rianta International started in May 1988 – we had an initial capital of € 1.2m and that came from the surpluses of Shannon through the ‘80s. Minister Varadkar indicated that this money came from Dublin – it came from Shannon,” he added before he rounded on the DAA highjacking of the ARI brand.

“The concept that Shannon owes € 100m is to me an absolute scandal,” he blasted. “Aer Rianta International invested in Birmingham Airport and that investment was £30m sterling. That came from the surpluses of Aer Rianta International. The DAA disposed of the investment Birmingham and made a profit of € 270m.

“That went into the monstrosity they have built in Dublin Airport. All the surpluses of Aer Rianta International have gone to Dublin from the very outset. That’s about € 560m to date.

“The DAA have taken all the surpluses that they have made from profits they made on the hotels. I believe they made € 260 or € 270m from the sale of the Great Southern Hotel Group.

“Why should be Aer Rianta International be based in Dublin. The chief executive of Aer Rianta International was based in Shannon for 23 years and all of a sudden the chief executive is now based in Dublin, together with the head of finance. Shannon is just being denuded,” he added.

In response, Minister Varadkar warned Mr Hanrahan not to “forget the accumulated losses that Shannon have made in the last 15 years and what they add up to.

“You have to ask yourself what profits, when it was making profits, would Shannon have made if the Government passed a law forcing people who didn’t want to land here, to land here. If there wasn’t a law forcing people to land here the acculumated losses would be enormous, much more enormous than they are now,” he added.

STAFF shortages, overcrowding and continuous cuts have resulted in “dangerous conditions” for patients and staff at Ennis General Hospital.

Early last week one nurse was left alone to care for 22 acutely ill patients in the county hospital, while care assistants replaced nurses in vital areas of care. The under pressure staff are also dealing with overcrowding at the hospital, as 12 to 15 patients are regularly cared for over-night in the medical assessment unit.

Nursing staff have to be taken from other wards to care for patients in the unit, which was added as part of the hospital reconfiguration programme and is supposed to be closed at night. The Irish Nurses and Midwives Association described the situation as unacceptable stating “this level of care is dangerous for patients.”

Sources close to staff at the hospital told The Clare People that they are concerned for patients and frustrated that they do not have the time to care for patients the way they should and would like to.

INMO Industrial Relations Officer, Mary Fogarty explained there is an acute shortage of nursing staff at the Ennis hospital since the monitorium was put in place. This has been exacerbated by recent retirements.

“We are very concerned about the standard of care across the system,” she said. While the staffing freeze does not allow vacant nursing posts to be replaced, the HSE is employing care assistants through an agency at € 12 per hour in an attempt to fill the widening staffing gap.

“While care staff have a vital role to play they cannot replace nurses. They do not have the education or experience,” she said.

Ms Fogarty was also critical of the reconfiguration process that took 25 beds out of Ennis General Hospital without having replacement infrastructure in place. “This is a very inefficient way of managing,” she said.

LEONORA Carey said she was thrilled to be re-elected to Fine Gael’s Executive Council during the party’s Ard Fheis this weekend.

The Clarecastle woman is no stranger to the world of politics. Not only is she from the Carey family that has produced two Clare TDs to date, she has a vast experience in the world of party politics having been elected to the executive council three times.

The current vice chairperson of the Clare Constituency she was first elected to the council in 2004 while a member of Dublin Central.

As a member of the constituency of the late Jim Mitchell she worked hard to build the party in Dublin central from a constituency with one councillor to one with a TD and two councillors.

In 2007 she returned to her native Clarecastle to work as an occupational therapy manager.

Since then she has been re-elected to the national executive council with the support of the Clare branch of Fine Gael.

She was active across a range of constituencies in devising strategy and preparing for the 2011 General Election.

It is this activity that saw her succeed on to the north west section of the executive.

Ms Carey told The Clare People that she was particularly greatful to all of the Clare delegates who travelled to Dublin and supported her election.

“It is great to say you are re-elected from your own county,” she said.

Asked if she one day hoped to stand for elected office, in her home county or elsewhere, the daughter and sister of politicians, said she didn’t know.

“I wouldn’t say yes and I wouldn’t say no,” she added admitting with a laugh that she already sounded like a politician.

“I enjoy doing what I do at the moment. I enjoy developing and maintaining the party across the large area of the north west.”

TRAFFIC at Shannon Airport is now at a 15-year low with figures for 2012 so far showing an alarming loss of 20 per cent for the same period in 2011 – a hemmorhage of that if it continues will see passenger numbers decline to under 1.3m by year’s end.

This alarming decline of passenger traffic at Clare’s international airport was hammered home by Minister for Transport, Leo Varadkar on Friday as he warned once more that Shannon is on its way to being overtaken by Knock Airport and relegated to the fourth biggest airport in Ireland.

“The trend at the moment isn’t good,” said Minister Varadkar. “Shannon has less passengers now that it had back in 1997, where in that same period Knock has increased its passengers by 350 per cent. Even though both airports operate in the same country and the same economy, the trend in Shannnon is down while it’s up in Knock.

“Numbers are already down 20 in Shannon on what they were this time last year and Knock is still growing and it is only a matter of time,” Minister Varadkar warned. “The trend in Knock is upwards, so if one trend is upwards and another is downwards, sooner or later they’ll cross. It will happen sooner or later, but that’s not what I want to happen,” he added.

Minister Varadkar rejected the notion that state aid for Knock amounts to positive descrimation for the Mayo airport at Shannon’s expense, pointing to the hefty subvention for Shannon through the DAA.

“Knock does receive exchequer support and Shannon doesn’t,” Minister Varadkar admitted, “but Shannon directly receives support for the DAA group and the financial transfers from the DAA group to Shannon are nearly three times the exchequer’s contribution to Knock,” he added.

“It’s state-owned and Shannon is a huge asset and it’s very important for the region and our objective is to arrest that decline and Shannon a growth for investment and employment again.”

MOVE over men of Clare, it’s now the time of Mná an Chláir – all because for the first time in 140 years there are officially more females than males living in the county.

That’s one of the many changes to emerge in the 2011 Census of Population for Clare, details of which were revealed last Thursday by the Central Statistics Office with the publication of the first in a series of official reports on population trends nationally.

The county’s population now stands at 117,196 – the largest it has been since 1901 – with females out numbering males for the first time since 1871, with 58,898 females to 58,298 males in Clare. The number of females in the county grew by 4,098 in the past five years, while male numbers only grew by 2,298 in the same period.

THE early indications are that Clare is among the top counties in Ireland in terms of collection of the € 100 household charge, a meeting has heard.

Town manager Ger Dollard said yesterday that Clare County Council had indicated that the county is in the “upper echelons of collection of the charge”.

Responding to questions at yesterday’s meeting of Ennis Town Council, Mr Dollard said, “Clare as a county is in the upper half of the table in terms of compliance with the household charge.”

Mr Dollard told the meeting that the charge had been introduced to make up for the reduction in the local government fund.

Reports yesterday indicated that local authorities in counties where there had been a low compliance rate would be penalised by the Department of the Environment.

However Mr Dollard said the council had not received any communication or instruction from the department regarding what “might or might not happen”.

He said there was no indication yet that there would be any impact on Ennis Town Council.

Cllr Tommy Brennan (Ind) questioned whether or not a high compliance rate would result in extra money coming to Clare. He said he was doubtful this would happen, adding that the Government are “codding the people”.

Cllr Frankie Neylon (Ind) told the meeting that he had paid the charge and said he had encouraged householders to do so.

He said that Minister for the Environment, Phil Hogan, had made a “total kibosh” of the introduction of the charge.

He repeated his call for a system to be introduced that would allow hard pressed homeowners to pay of the charge on a weekly basis.

Cllr Neylon said this would allow the Government to make good on a campaign promise to look after the most vulnerable people in society.

He added, “There are people out there who don’t have it. You can’t draw blood from a turnip.”

Cllr Paul O’Shea (Lab) was also staunchly critical of the Government’s handling of the charge.

He said, “It was handled disastrously. Laurel and Hardy would have handled this better.”

CLEARING Shannon’s debt, severing the airport’s links with the Dublin Airport Authority and giving the airport a lead role in the implementation of the Government’s regional development policy hold the key to ensuring a brighter future in the mid west. That’s the Shannon Chamber of Commerce view that was articulated to the Minister for Transport, Leo Varadkar in Shannon on Friday ahead of a definitive decision on the airport’s future.

Chamber president, Damian Gleeson, in quoting traffic figures that show traffic has dropped 42 per cent form 2008 levels and that there are only an average of 42 commercial daily movements said “we need to see change at Shannon”.

“We need a busy airport capable of generating economic activity in the greater Shannon area and driving outwards to the island as a whole.

“Shannon Airport should be driven by a commercially aware autonomous Board, with international, national, and regional aviation expertise, reporting directly to the Minister for Transport,” he added.

Continuing, Mr Gleeson said it was crucial that the “ proposed autono mous structure comes without debt”, with a clean slate financially paving the way for “harnessing the support of all stakeholders in the Mid-West which would lead to energised thinking and a new impetus for taking the airport in a new direction.

“Balanced regional development is a key part of Government policy. Shannon Airport is a key economic driver for the Mid-West region and should therefore directly fit in with Government policy. With a commercially driven ethos in conjunction with no debt, adequate working capital and an improvement of its cost structure, the airport would eventually become selfsustaining,” Mr Gleeson added.

ENNIS Town Council is considering the introduction of waste byelaws to combat the problem of illegal dumping around the town.

Councillors and officials are to meet with members of Clare County Council’s Environment Section to see if the byelaws could be introduced on a countywide basis.

It follows a motion submitted by Fine Gael councillor Johnny Flynn at yesterday’s meeting of Ennis Town Council.

Cllr Flynn stated that household waste byelaws are needed, as nearly 50 per cent of Clare householders do not avail of a waste collection service. He told the meeting that the problem of fly tipping and dumping has become too prevalent in and around Ennis.

He said that 47,000 tonnes of waste are produced in Clare each year. Cllr Flynn added, “People should be responsible and should deal with their waste in a responsible manner.”

He said Ennis had been “badly affected” by fly tipping while dumping is “destroying” the approach roads into the town.

There was broad support for the proposal from all councillors present at yesterday’s meeting.

Cllr Frankie Neylon (Ind) described the motion as timely, adding that he had seen 80 plastic bags of rubbish in the garden of one house in Ennis.

Cllr Mary Coote Ryan (FG) said the amount of household rubbish being dumped is “shocking”.

Cllr Paul O’Shea (Lab) said that while byelaws might be necessary, the council had to be careful not to target people who bring their rubbish directly to the dump because they can longer afford to pay for a waste collection service.

Cllr Mary Howard (FG) said it is “dreadful” to see people dumping rubbish in fields and roads around Ennis. She suggested that in order to help people who can’t afford to pay for waste collection, the council should place public skips at locations around the town.

However there were objections to this proposal. Cllr Peter Considine (FF) said skips in town had previously become dumps.

Cllr Tommy Brennan (Ind) said that while byelaws are a good idea, he was “wary” of the proposal. Cllr Brennan told the meeting that a lot of the rubbish dumping in Ennis, is not being done by people from the town.

TWO men have apologised for their actions following scenes of “bedlam” outside a courtroom in Ennis last week.

Thomas Molloy (20) and Darren Maughan (20) were detained in holding cells at Ennis Courthouse for three hours on Wednesday after being held in contempt of court by Judge Patrick Durcan.

The court heard that both men became involved in a noisy altercation outside the courtroom as Judge Durcan presided over court business.

Following instructions from Judge Durcan, both men were brought back into the court.

He told them that he was holding them both in contempt. The two men were brought back before the court shortly after 2pm.

Referring to the manner in which the earlier incident had impacted on court business, Judge Durcan said, “It was impossible here because of the bedlam outside.”

He said the matter could be satisfactorily dealt with if both men apologised to all services involved in court business.

Thomas Molloy, with an address at 39 Park Avenue, Clon Road, Ennis said, “It should not have happened. I apologise to everyone.”

Darren Maughan, with an address at 20 Stonecourt, Drumbiggle, Ennis, said, “I apologise for the incident this morning. It won’t happen again.”

Both Mr Molloy and Mr Maughan were originally in court to face separate charges.

Mr Molloy pleaded guilty to a charge of criminal damage. The court heard that he broke a downstairs window of 8 Upper Market Street on January 1, 2012.

Inspector Tom Kennedy said the total value of the damage came to € 227. Solicitor Daragh Hassett said his client had broken the window in his girlfriend’s apartment in a “fit of pique”. He said Mr Molloy, the first person in a family of 17 to complete his Leaving Certificate, was sorry for his actions.

Judge Durcan ordered that he carry out 100 hours of community service in lieu of two months in prison. He adjourned the matter until April 25.

Separately, Mr Maughan pleaded guilty to two public order offences – being intoxicated in a public place and being a danger to himself and to others, and, to provoking a breach of the peace. The charges relate to an incident at Abbey Street, Ennis on March 10, 2012.

Insp Kennedy said the accused was very intoxicated when he was ap proached by Gardaí. Solicitor William Cahir said his client accepted his behaviour was unacceptable. He said Mr Maughan “struggles with alcohol” but now appeared to be keeping on top of the battle.

Judge Durcan ordered he carry out 100 hours of community service in lieu of two months in prison. He adjourned the matter until May 2 for the preparation of a report by the probation and welfare services. A we e k o f m o st ly dry b u t d u ll a n d fre sh we a t h e r, with te m ps we ll be lo w t h e pa st we e k’s glo rio u s sp e ll. Ra in a n d a lo t o f it , e xp e c t e d e a rly n e xt we e k.