Category: News

CLARE County Council has been urged to press for changes to electoral boundaries after the current arrangement in Ennis was labelled a “disgrace”.

Independent councillor Tommy Brennan made the call at yesterday’s meeting of Clare County Council’s Community and Enterprise, Tourism and Emergency Services Strategic Policy Committee (SPC).

He said that the council should seek to have boundaries re-drawn now rather than leaving any proposal too late. Cllr Brennan criticized the boundaries in place in Ennis for the 2009 local election, which saw the county town divided into Ennis east and west.

He said, “Ennis should have one constituency not two. It’s a farce to put a boundary down O’Connell Street.” Cllr Brennan added, “It was a downright disgrace to have O’Connell Street split down the middle in the last local election.”

SPC members were speaking fol- lowing the release of preliminary data for Clare from the 2011 census.

Commenting on the high population concentration that exists in the ‘golden triangle’ from Ennis to Shannon, SPC chairman Richard Nagle said he found it difficult to agree with some of the statistics.

He said that if the census were carried out now, it would paint an even more “depressing picture” of the number of people living in rural parts of the county.

He said that recently 20 people, all aged in their twenties, had left two parishes in North Clare, to seek work abroad. He said rural areas that had been dependent on construction and tourism had been hardest hit by the economic downturn. “A generation is disappearing,” he warned.

Cllr Brennan said emigration is also a major feature of life in Ennis. He told the meeting that 14 members of an underage hurling team have now moved to Australia. Cllr Gabriel Keating (FG) said that 16 people had recently returned from Australia to a part of West Clare to attend a funeral.

A SHANNON graduate has been told he cannot take part in the muchpublicised Government Internship Scheme because of his disability status.

Padraic Hayes is in receipt of the allowance and therefore according to the rules of the scheme he is not entitled to get the much-needed work experience.

Under the programme, participants must be on job seekers allowance to avail of the support.

“I am getting my qualifications, but at the end of the day you apply for positions and they look for experience, and I am willing to work for the experience but because I can’t apply to get the experience I am stuck,” said the frustrated LIT student.

Padraic already has an honours de- gree in Office Management Systems and completed an ECDL course to make him more employable.

He has returned to college to do a higher diploma and said next year he will do his masters degree if he cannot find work, but he would prefer to find a job.

He has applied for numerous positions and has come close to success on a number of occasions.

In recent weeks he was second in line for a job but lost out to a candidate that had more experience.

The young graduate also registered with the Clare Supported Employment Service.

“I looked into an internship with my job coach but he found out that you had to be on job seekers allowance or job seekers benefit to qualify for an internship,” said Padraic.

Alice O’Carroll, Team Leader with the Clare Supported Employment Service, said she was surprised to discover that Padraic had no access to an internship.

“It is not right to be excluded from anything. He should have that opportunity to prove himself like everyone else,” she said.

“There is a recognition that people with disabilities should be included in the labour force, and I would like to see people with disability having access to internships.”

Fine Gael Senator Tony Mulcahy, a long time advocate for people with disabilities, described the situation as “ridiculous”.

“This is something that has to be sorted out and added to the programme,” he said.

“The Government has to take responsibility for this and I am part of that Government. The issue needs to be addressed,” he added.

A WEST Clare councillor has called on retired public servants in the county to play their part in the national recovery, saying that they are ideally suited, thanks to years of experience to put their shoulder to the wheel for the good of the county.

Fine Gael councillor Gabriel Keating has sounded out the calling by saying that the raft of public service retirements in the county should now be used to harness a recovery of the county’s economic fortunes.

“This presents an opportunity for County Clare to harness the wealth of experience amassed from their careers for the benefit of the economic and social revival of the County,” Cllr Keating said this week.

“There are a lot of people, who will be retiring this year; who have gained valuable experience in the field of Healthcare, Education, Business and Tourism and who still have a lot to offer.

“I believe that many of these retirees would love to be able to impart their knowledge and experience which they have built up over the years and would be willing to volunteer if there was a process or forum set up which would facilitate this useful exchange of ideas.”

“That is why I am calling on Clare County Council to formalise a way in which these people can contribute and participate fully in the economic and social recovery of this county,” Cllr Keating added.

In expanding on his new blueprint for economic recovery, he said that volunteerism has a huge part to play over the next couple of years. “In seeking opportunities for volunteerism we must start looking beyond the traditional roles, such as Tidy Towns or local charities,” he said.

“However, in order to fully utilise the skills which these people possess, and to make sure that we just do not end up with another ‘Talking Shop’. It is important that the process or forum which is set up is active and that the ideas and proposals which are formulated in the process are fed into Local Authority System so that they can be acted upon.”

“Whether people have retired from the public, private or tourism sectors or whether they are self-employed retirees they have a vested interest in County Clare; they live here; their children or grandchildren are living here and they have the energy and enthusiasm to contribute to making this County a better place for all of us to live and work in.”

“It is an economic reality that we are where we are, and if we are to move forward recovery has to begin at grass root level. By participating in this initiative, I believe that these individuals will be displaying the true spirit of Clare patriotism and they will be making an enormous contribution to the future of their own county,” he added.

A MOTHER took items from a jewellery shop in Ennis to pay off moneylenders, a court has heard.

A six-month prison sentence was imposed on Mary Ann Jackson at Ennis District Court on Wednesday.

Jackson (39) with an address at 35 Hyde Avenue, Ballinacurra, Limerick, had previously pleaded guilty. The court previously heard that Jackson, who has 118 previous convictions, entered Collins Jewellers, O’Connell Street, Ennis, on January 18. She took a tray of bracelets, placed them in her handbag and left the shop. The court heard that Jackson was stopped by the owner who called the Gardaí. The accused admitted taking the bracelets, which were all recovered.

Insp John Galvin told the court that the bracelets were valued at € 1,800 and were fit for re-sale.

Solicitor Daragh Hassett said his client had borrowed from moneylenders to pay for fuel for her father. He said she had taken the bracelets, as she had no way of paying the money back. He said that Jackson, a mother of one, “was under huge pressure to pay back these people”. The court heard that the accused suffers from diabetes and serious heart problems.

Judge Aeneas McCarthy noted that the accused does not have a good record. Acknowledging Jackson’s plea of guilty and other mitigating factors including the accused’s health, Judge McCarthy imposed a six-month sentence. He said the sentence is to be served concurrent to a nine-month sentence Jackson is currently serving.

ORGANISERS of a public meeting in Ennis at the weekend are hoping to tap into mounting public anger at new taxes and cutbacks to services.

Members of the public are being invited to attend ‘Organising Resistance – Fighting Against Injustice And Inequality’, which takes place upstairs in Brogan’s Bar, Ennis, on Saturday, February 18, 2pm.

Kieran Allen of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) and the United Left Alliance (ULA) will give a talk on organising protests and activism.

Opposition to the new household charge will be among the topics up for discussion, according to one of the event’s organisers, Brían Ó Cualáin.

Brían, a member of the SWP, explained, “There is a push on against the household charge. And we’re hoping this meeting will give people an incentive to come out and hopefully inspire them to get involved.

“It’s not necessarily just about the household charge. We want people to talk about the issues that are affecting them in their community. That could be cutbacks to education, a lack of facilities for young people.”

He believes more and more people are looking for a way to express their anger at a time of economic uncertainty.

He said, “It is definitely building. There is an appetite there and people are looking for ways to express their anger and change the agenda for the little people, the people who are on the margins.

“This is affecting us all. Hopefully it will help create a bit of movement and we can capitalise on that movement and anger.”

The meeting is the latest in a series held in recent weeks around the county aimed at encouraging greater protest and activism.

Brían explained, “There were around 250 people at the Old Ground Hotel for a meeting on the household charge.

“There was a meeting in Kilmihil where around 80 people attended. We had about 80 at a meeting in Shannon and there were 50 or 60 at a meeting in Scariff.”

Organisers say that the reduction in the registration fee for septic tanks following a nationwide storm of protest offers a good example of the power of grassroots activism.

However, Brían says that one of the purposes of Saturday’s meeting is to encourage people to continue to hold the government of the day to account.

Pointing to the ongoing campaign for the retention of services at En nis General Hospital, Brían says, “We know that whatever government gets back into power down the road, they will roll back on a lot of promises.”

Originally from Inis Oirr, where he was involved with the island’s cooperative movement, Brían moved to Ennis 15 years ago.

He says, “I just feel that things have got to such a stage that I’m worried about my own kids’ futures.”

Opposition to the household charge and a new regime of septic tank inspection has been the focus of intense debate at meetings of Clare County Council in recent months. Last month, members met for a special meeting called in response to concerns expressed over the implications of the scheme for homeowners.

At the meeting a senior member of Clare County Council and former Dáil TD, Cllr James Breen (Ind) called for the people of Clare to engage in a period of “civil disobedience”. Around 300 people attended a public information meeting held in Ennis just before Christmas about new septic tank charges.

CLARE’S Irish Wheelchair Association is to lose two thirds of its Community Employment (CE) funding this year.

The organisation that supports people with limited mobility throughout the county has had its funding slashed by € 16,000, from € 24,000 to € 8,000.

As many as 16 people are employed through the CE scheme providing administrative assistance to the charity as well as driving the buses, organising events and courses and providing support and assistance to the service users.

Up to now the local IWA was allocated € 1,500 for each CE participant – € 500 for training and € 1,000 for materials.

Johnny Crawford, Supervisor with the Irish Wheelchair Association in Clare, explained that this funding provided a vital role in delivering services to IWA users.

“In our context we have quite a lot of mandatory training to do, especially relating to heath and safety, manual handling, adult and child protection. We have a menu of mandatory courses to do that pretty much eats into the training budget. Beyond that if there is funding left over we offer it to people for something they want to do themselves outside of the mandatory courses,” he said.

The € 1,000 allocation is used to help fund the running costs of the office, help pay the rent, put diesel in the buses and cover other material costs.

It is through this funding, and the work of the 16 dedicated CE workers, that the IWA in Clare can provide outreach services in Cois Na hAbhana, Ennis, on Tuesday, Miltown Malbay on Monday and alternate between Kilrush and Ennistymon on Wednesday. An outreach programme is also provided in the family resource centre in Killaloe and Friday night is the social gathering for the younger people.

“Everything we do is driven by desires of service users. It is their programme,” he said.

He added the cut in funding would put added pressures on the charity’s fundraising, which has already been affected by the recession. “The loss is huge and it will affect the services without a doubt,” he said.

The CE programme is designed to help people who are long-term unemployed and other disadvantaged people to get back to work by offering part-time and temporary placements in jobs based within local communities.

CLARE County Council’s water staff was last night encouraged by some members of the council to go on strike and bring the country to a halt.

The council was reacting to news of Government plans to give full responsibility for water supply to a new national body.

Cllr Gerry Flynn (Ind) told the February meeting of the council, “I feel it is time for Clare County Council to stand up and be counted and withdraw that service.”

Fellow Independent councillor Tommy Brennan said that if every council followed suit, it would bring the country to a standstill. Electricity and power rely on water too, he explained. Without these services, the country could not function.

The majority of councillors were concerned with the implications of a new Irish Water Company, as it would inevitably erode more of the local authority’s powers and more than likely lead to job losses within its water section.

Cllr Bill Chambers (FF) led the charge that the members of the council were opposed to having its responsibilities for water maintenance and provision transferred to the new Irish Water Company.

“The last thing we want now is another quango with high-paid officials,” he said.

Father of the council Cllr PJ Kelly (FF) said he could not understand the Government making such a proposal given difficulties experienced in Northern Ireland during this winter.

“We can huff and puff about taking water from the Shannon, but if it is nationalised, they can make a canal and bring all the water to Dublin,” he added.

Former mayor Cllr Christy Curtin (Ind) said there was no indication of early consultation with the stakeholders. He also had reservations about the second phase of the process – the consultation phase.

“Are they going to listen to us or is it a courtesy exercise to appease the peasants?” he asked.

“This debate is coming too late. It would appear this is a fait de compli,” said Cllr McCarthy who raised concerns about council jobs if and when it was set up.

“By degrees we will have no function at all as councillors,” said Cllr Brennan.

County Manager Tom Coughlan said that there was a lot of uncertainty surrounding the plan. Among his many concerns was the possible loss of council assets to the Irish Wa- ter Company but with the liabilities staying in the county.

“I have serious concerns in relation to the financial statement. I have concerns the council will be left in a worse financial state at the end of it.”

He said the council is carrying a € 13 million debt balance which is mostly due to water. “I hope the liabilities transfer with the assets,” he added.

The manager said a lot was still uncertain, not least the future of the council staff working in this area.

He raised concerns about the loss of control of planning issues relating to water and a lack to democratic responsibility under the new proposal.

LOCAL authorities in Clare have less than three months to sign up to the Croke Park Agreement under which public service workers are obliged to increase their working hours.

This follows on from a survey of local authority working hours around the country which has shown that the average working week of public service working in Clare local government is one of the lowest in the country.

Staff in Clare local authorities are working just 33 hours a week, in comparison with staff in the private sector who work a 39-hour week.

This figure is shared by Meath County Council and Galway City Council. At Galway County Council, the figure is even lower with staff working 32.92 hours a week.

When contacted by The Clare People , Clare County Council that the deadline for local authority workers to fall into line with workers in the private sector is two months away.

“This is a national issue that remains outside of Clare County Council’s control as reform has been delayed due to an ongoing national dispute with unions,” said Eddie Power, Senior Executive Officer, Clare County Council.

“This point has already been made publicly by the Office for Local Authority Management (OLAM). The implementation date for the standardisation of working arrangements across the local government sector is April,” he added.

The increase in working hours that is expected to come into effect in April comes in the wake of staffing levels at Clare County Council hav- ing been reduced to just over 800 over the past six years.

In 2006 there were 1,002 people working in Clare County Council with the reduction over the past six years amounting to a 20 per cent, while payroll costs have been pared back from € 44.8m to € 36.8m in that time.

It is expected that there will be further reductions in staffing levels in 2012, while Taoiseach Enda Kenny has warned that local authority workers in all counties will have to sign up to the terms of the Croke Park Agreement.

PPS NUMBERS may soon appear on Clare gravestones instead of names if the current approach to naming roads and other public areas continue, according to one Clare County Councillor.

A plan to encourage community groups to put up their own local name signs was last night accepted by Clare County Council after a number of councillora criticised the roll-out of road numbers which they claim “depersonalise” local communities.

According to Cllr PJ Kelly (FF), the current ethos will see PPS numbers being used instead of names on gravestones in the near future.

“If this continues, we will have a time when we forfeit our own names and just go with our PPS numbers. In times to come, we will have tombstones that read ‘here lies 07235762’,” said Cllr Kelly. “And God help a man who is lost in the middle of the night and can’t find a turn-off for Crusheen or Ballinruan and he doesn’t have a computer with him to tell where the L367865 road leads to.”

Cllr Kelly also described as “discrimination” the process which sees some villages granted signs while others are not.

“I would not have my village discriminated against just because it is on a national primary or secondary road – that is discrimination against villages and I don’t think that this council should be party to this kind of discrimination,” continued Cllr Kelly.

“I sincerely hope that we join together to bring back the culture of our county and our villages.”

Speaking on the motion, Cllr Brian Meaney (GP) said that road numbers were necessary to help emergency services to locate fires and other incidents quickly.

“I fundamentally disagree with this motion and the way it is being talked about here today. There is a stark need for an all-Ireland approach to this issue,” he said.

“I know that there is a certain amount of impersonality involved with these road numbers but if someone is sitting in a centralised emergency dispatch service – maybe down in Cork – these local names mean nothing.

“I don’t care what you want to stick on stones on the corner of the road in a village, but what has to happen is that these numbers need to exist and every house should be digitally identifiable.”

LAHINCH artist Michael Hanrahan will meet with American ambassador to Ireland, Dan Rooney, later this Tuesday and present him with a one-of-a-kind painting to mark the historic visit of Barack Obama to Ireland last year.

The painting, which illustrates Obama’s famous ‘Is féidir linn’ speech in College Green last May, will be brought by Ambassador Rooney to Washington later this year where it will be hung in the White House to commemorate the historic visit.

This completes a famous hat-trick for Hanrahan after both the Queen and former Irish president Mary McAleese accepted a painting marking their famous state visit last year. Hanrahan will become the first Irish artist to have paintings hanging in Áras an Uachtaráin, the White House and as part of the Royal British Collection in Buckingham Palace at the same time.

“It really has been an unbelievable six months for me,” said Mr Hanrahan yesterday. “I was contacted by Trina Vargo, founder of the US-Ireland Alliance, and she asked me to complete two paintings – one which I am donating to the George Mitchell Foundation and another which will be going to the White House.

“The painting for the White House is taken from the famous ‘Is féidir linn’ speech which took place in College Green. The painting is in the back of the car now and I will be presenting it to Dan Rooney tomorrow morning [February 14], and the Ambassador will then bring it to the White House. Dan Rooney has Clare connections – his brother Pat Rooney has a house in Lahinch.

“It really has been an amazing six months for me. I’m not being paid for any of these works. It’s such a great honour to be able to donate these paintings.”

Michael’s rise in Irish artistic circles has been nothing short of meteoric. He came to art late in his life, having worked as a banker in both Ireland and the UK. After taking early retirement from his position in the bank, long before the financial collapse, Michael set about creating a new career for himself as a painter.

Over the last five years, the Lahinch native has gone from strength to strength – culminating in him being chosen as the only artist to be granted official accreditation for the official visit of the Queen last year.