Category: News

A MAN and a woman bravely fought of a hatchet-wielding raider who broke into a business on the Kilrush Road in Ennis last week.

The incident occurred between 6pm and 6.15pm at Coote’s Shop last Thursday (December 15) when two men wearing balaclavas entered the premises. One of the men was brandishing a hatchet and the other was carrying a blue bag.

A woman working behind the counter was threatened and told to hand over money from the till.

The woman used a sweeping brush to fight off the intruders who caused damage to a number of items in the shop including the cash register and credit card payment machine.

An elderly shop employee, who was in the rear of the premises, came to the assistance of the woman and together they managed to force the intruders from the shop empty handed. The woman did suffer bruising to her arm during the incident.

A Garda spokesman explained, “The commotion was heard by an employee in the back and he entered the shop to see what was happening. The raiders were very aggressive and assaulted both employees who were injured as a result.”

He continued, “The man with the hatchet kept banging it off the counter and damaged the till and some charity boxes. The culprits fled empty handed running out the backdoor towards Eire Óg hurling pitch”.

Gardaí have released a picture of blue bag left by the raiders at the scene. They are appealing with anybody who might recognise the item or have information about the break in to contact Ennis Garda Station at 065 6848183.

Gardaí are also investigating a robbery that took place at Lakeview Stores in Ballyalla on Friday (December 16).

At around 9.35pm three men entered the premises. One man was carrying a knife. They knocked the owner to the ground while two of them stole the till and then fled on foot out the door. The owner was not injured. The raiders are described as follows (1) Wearing a balaclava, 5’ 8”, strong build, carrying a knife; (2) Tall slim build, late teens; (3) Very small, around 14 years-old. Slim build, wearing a blue jacket.

A car was parked about 200 yards away facing out at the housing estate of Radharc na Lacha with the inside light on. Gardaí believe the raiders left the scene in this car.

THE Green Party’s newly appointed spokesperson for European Affairs, Clare councillor Brian Meaney, has hit out at European leaders for fiddling while the Euro burns.

The Ennis-based councillor was named on the party’s new-look front bench by party leader Eamon Ryan last week and believes European leaders need to step up to the plate and really tackle the Euro crisis.

“I am appalled, I am standing back stunned to see what is going on with- in the political structures of Europe at the moment. They are still only tinkering around the edges. The Euro is in a total crisis – it is a currency without a treasury or any institutions that support it and the powers that be think we can just tinker around the edges,” he said.

“We are in a position where there should not be a question whether there should be a referendum or not, the true reform that is needed is so great that it would require a constitutional referendum in Ireland. I do think that people do understand the benefits of our participation in Europe and they will vote to continue it.”

The Green Party have also outlined how the party plans to recover from loosing all of its six representatives in Dáil Éireann in February’s General Election.

“We are a policy orientated party. But the changes will come in how these policies are brought to the fore. I thing you will see a more pragmatic and realistic party who are going to follow policies that are achievable,” said Cllr Meaney. “I don’t like the approach that this government has taken to climate change and we are going to bring forward policies that will challenge the mainstream political thinking. I think we will be able to bring something that will have a deeper relevance for the people.”

One of the party’s first stated aims is to double the number of local Green Party councillors in Ireland in the 2013 local elections. The new front bench contains only two members who have served as a TD or Senator for the party in the past – party leader Eamon Ryan and Ciarán Cuffe.

CHANCES of a white Christmas taking place in Clare this year have melting away with meteorologists now predicting that Christmas Day could be as much as 25 degree hotter this year than it was in 2010.

Temperatures at Shannon Airport reached an Arctic minus 11.7 degrees on Christmas morning last year with the latest predictions now forecasting a balmy 11 to 13 degrees for the big day this year.

The last hope for a white Christmas in Clare would seem to hang on a cold-front which is expected to travel over the country on Thursday. This front is expected to be cold enough to generate some snow but it is thought to be very unlikely that the front will be able to last until the big day arrives.

Despite average temperatures for December currently well below the monthly average – the final 10 days of 2012 are expected to be well above the seasonal average.

“The cold weather over the past week has also brought the mean temperature in Clare down to 5.4 degrees, though this remains considerably lower than the mean temperature of 0.7c recorded in the same month last year.

The mean temperature for Decem- ber is normally a much milder 6.3c. We will see a dramatic rise in temperatures during the last 10 days of December,” said Connolly native and founder of Irish Weather online, Mark Dunphy.

“The total accumulated rainfall at Shannon Airport for December has already almost exceeded the average monthly rainfall of 99mm. This compares to 26mm recorded during the entire of December 2010.”

Clare County Council have also recorded a significant drop in river levels over weekend and have reduced the flooding alert level.

The Cliffs of Moher was also forced to close for a time last week due to high winds.

At 11.30am on Tuesday morning last the risk level at the Cliffs was changed from yellow to red – meaning that visitors were advised not to travel to the Cliffs.

THE global birthplace of duty free in Shannon has received a € 1m upgrade. The investment at The Loop at Shannon will be completed next month.

This is due to a redevelopment of the Shannon Airport retail facility by the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA).

The development on the site where Dr Brendan O’Regan founded the world’s first duty free experience in 1947 includes an upgraded perfume and cosmetics area, a new dedicated Irish whiskey store, an Irish Memories souvenir outlet, a new concession giftware store from Glenaran and an area devoted to selling Irish food, including a range of artisan products.

“This investment will radically improve the retail offer at Shannon,” said DAA Retail Director, Paul Nee- son. “Shannon Airport was the birthplace of international duty free and we are delighted to be improving the spiritual home of airport shopping. Following this significant investment, the new retail area in Shannon is much brighter and offers our customers a much more pleasant shopping environment.

Shannon Airport Authority (SAA) Chairman Brian O’Connell welcomed the investment.

“From its earliest days, Shannon Airport has always prided itself in providing a uniquely memorable visitor experience for air travellers. Customer satisfaction is the be all and end all of our daily business and this € 1m investment by the DAA will ensure Shannon’s traditional welcome in our attractive new retail facilities will continue into the future,” he said.

The new 900 square metre Shannon retail area is being delivered in three phases. Work started on the revamp in September and the project will be fully completed early next month.

Shannon’s new perfume and cosmetics area will offer consumers the leading international brands at significant discounts to downtown prices, while Glenaran Irish Market stocks a range of Irish crafts including handmade sweaters, fashion items, crystal and jewellery.

One of the features of the new development at The Loop in Shannon is the opening of the new Irish Whiskey Collection outlet, a sister shop to the award-winning version at Terminal 2 in Dublin Airport that has already boosted whiskey sales there by 30 percent.

“The Irish Whiskey Collection is designed to be a living shrine to Irish whiskey, which is one of this country’s greatest exports,” said Mr Neeson. The new outlet in Shannon will carry a wide range of whiskey brands and is designed to cater for both the whiskey enthusiast and the casual shopper.

COUNCILLORS at last Thursday’s budget meeting of Kilrush Town Council have described the nine per cent cut in central government funding to council as an attempt to “squeeze the life” out of local government.

The cut, which was announced in September, amounts to a € 40,000 reduction in the budget for Kilrush Town Council – or the equivalent of a seven per cent rates increase.

According to local council and former Mayor of Clare, Tom Prenderville (FF), the cuts are mak- ing local authorities more and more irrelevant.

“Local government was always on a life support scheme but I think, at this stage, the life has been squeezed out of it. The money has been pillaged from this council,” he said.

“When you look at a reduction of nine per cent in the funding that we are receiving, that amount to more than € 40,000 which would allow us to reduce the amount that we have to collect in rates by more than seven per cent. I wonder are we in this council becoming irrelevant? Are we just going to be a rubber-stamp for the decision made by central government.”

Cllr Prenderville made the comment as part of a debate about the 2012 council budget. The draft budget accounted for large reductions in both the Community, Sports and Recreations and the Entertainment and Arts budgets.

The budget calls for a reduction from € 20,000 to € 8,186 in the Community, Sports and Recreations Budget and a reduction from € 8,026 to € 4,143 in the Entertainment and Arts budget.

The councillors asked for between € 5, 000 and € 6, 000 to be reduced from these cuts in order to provide for a number of schemes in 2012.

“The community grants have such an impact on our community at as a whole and we should do everything we can to help them. The arts bodies have also been hit and people are not buying art anymore,” said Mayor of Kilrush, Ian Lynch (FG).

“We need to look at where we can find some money to help these people.”

A number of calls were also made to retain the budget for the annual community awards.

“The awards were well received by everyone who was there and the publicity that we received in the newspapers last week, money could not buy. We are talking about fantastic voluntary organisation, there is no profits being made by these guys,” said Cllr Paul Moroney (Ind).

“We want to take from the most vulnerable in society -the elderly and the young – it won’t happen while I am at this table. We need to find this money from somewhere else.”

Funding for these projects will be decided at the January 3 meeting of Kilrush Town Council as no decision could be reached at last week meeting.

CLARE County Council services will be seriously affected in 2012 if income levels from the collection of rates that have been in the Draft Budget are not reached.

This worry has been sounded out by Clare County Manager Tom Coughlan this week in his financial report to councillors which has proposed to leave rates for the coming year at 2011 levels.

Mr Coughlan has confirmed that despite his admission of the fact that there “is an increasing level of vacant rated properties in the county” there will be no decrease in the rate that will remain at 72.99.

The decision not to cut rates for hard-pressed business had been blamed on the Government cut-backs that has seen Clare’s share of the Local Government Fund decreased by 5.45 per cent for 2012.

And, the county manager has warned that only by projecting for a greater level of efficiency in the running of the council’s financial affairs has the local authority been able to avoid increasing rates levels in 2012.

“Due to the fact that the household charge is being paid into the Local Development Fund and in the light of the continuing reduction in local government funding and income from local services, it has not been possible to provide for a decrease in rates in this Draft Budget,” Mr Coughlan has revealed.

“It is proposed to meet the ongoing reductions in funding through achieving efficiencies, as in previous years, and consequently an increase in the level of commercial rates is not provided for.

“The issues of a reduction in rates has been considered at a number of council meetings during 2011, and the consequence of such a reduction would have made clear to the elected members at those meetings,” added Mr Coughlan.

However, in acknowledging the hardships being endured by ratepayers, the county manager has pledged a flexible approach when it comes to collections during 2012, albeit the money will have to be collected to ensure that there will be not cutbacks to council services earmarked for the year.

“Clare County Council is acutely aware of the financial difficulties which our ratepayers are experiencing,” said Mr Coughlan, “and we are committed to adopting a practical approach in terms of facilitating ratepayers.

“However, I must emphasise that if the council does not receive the income which is identified in this budget, the maintenance of the levels of services which are planned in 2012 would be impacted,” he added.

KILRUSH Town Council is set to ramp-up the number of inspections it undertakes on local authority housing in the town for 2012 – in an effort to reduce the amount of money currently being spent on repairing council houses.

At last Thursday’s annual budget meeting in Kilrush the local authority approved a plan to reduce the annual allocated for social housing repair from € 45,000 in 2011 to € 40,000 for 2012.

This reduction has been budgeted, in part, to take account for a number of major repairs currently being made by Kilrush Town Council to their stock of local authority houses.

The council has also decided to adopt a strategy of increasing the number of housing inspections taking place to local authority houses in an effort to reduce the amount of damage done by tenants in local authority houses.

According to Mayor of Kilrush Ian Lynch (FG), the council would hope to reap the benefits from this year’s capital expenditure in years to come.

“This year we will more proactive on making sure that houses are properly maintained. We would hope that we will see the benefit from this next year,” he said.

Kilrush town clerk John Corry confirmed that there will be an increase in the level of inspections of council houses in Kilrush in 2012 and that more staff had been delegated to the housing sections to help with this.

He also confirmed that the local authority was having a more difficult time in collecting rent from council property as a result of the recession.

In total Kilrush Town Council has allocated € 270,000 to be spent in the Housing and Buildings Section for 2012 in addition to € 40,000 to be spent on house repairs. They have also budgeted for just over € 300,000 to be raised in council rents locally in 2012.

ENNIS Town Council is to spend an additional € 45,000 in street cleaning activities next year.

Town Manager Ger Dollard explained that the closure of the Ballyduff Beg landfill facility would impose an extra cost on the council.

In a report at last night’s annual budget meeting, Mr Dollard stated, “The council operates a very exten- sive street cleaning arrangement to ensure that the streets throughout the town area achieve a litter free status. This is important in context of the annual Tidy Towns competition and in the consideration of other competitions such Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL) league. The closure of the Clare County Council landfill site at Ballyduff Beg presents difficulties for the overall management of waste collected through street cleaning and other activities of the council.

“The unavailability of landfill at Inagh results in the council having to enter into alternative arrangements to ensure waste collected from its various activities is properly managed, segregated and ultimately disposed of, or recycled, as appropriate. This imposes an additional cost to the council and I have found it necessary to provide further sum of € 45,000 in the budget for 2012 over that pro- posed for 2011.”

The council has also made a provision of € 20,000 to cover ongoing maintenance costs of CCTV.

Mr Dollard stated that CCTV had proven very beneficial as a deterrent to anti-social behaviour and as a protection to people and property.

He continued, “During 2011, substantial progress was made on linking many of the CCTV networks to the system operated by An Garda Síochana. Such an approach increases the benefit to be gained from the overall system. The equipment utilised, however, is continually evolving technology and does require improvement and upgrading from time to time. It is necessary, therefore, that the council make provision for the ongoing maintenance costs that arise on CCTV. Accordingly a provision of € 20,000 has been made in the draft budget.”

KILRUSH Town Council have given themselves just 36 hours to come up with a solution to a € 24,000 hole in the local authority’s budget or face the possible closure of Kilrush Town Council.

Councillors were unable to pass the 2012 budget at last Thursday night’s meeting of the local authority and were also unable to schedule a follow-up meeting before the evening of January 3, 2012.

The council is statutorily required to pass a budget within 21 days of being presented with the draft budget – meaning the council must have a balanced set of figures for 2012 in place before January 5.

This leaves the council just 36 hours to find a way pass the budget and little or no wiggle room to defer a decision on January 3. It is not clear what would happen should the local authority be unable to pass a budget before the 21 day deadline but in theory all operations undertaken by the council could be brought to a halt.

The € 24,000 hole in the budget came as a result of call by councillors for a number of cuts to arts and community schemes to be reversed and a cut of two per cent to the local rate by introduced. A second proposal for a rates cut of one per cent would mean a hole of € 16,000 in the budget, while the restoration of a number of arts and community projects by themselves would leave a budget deficit of between € 5,000 and € 6,000.

The difficulty began when local councillor Tom Prenderville (FF) suggested that a one per cent rates cuts would be of benefit to local businesses.

“We know that business people are struggling this year and they will not be able to pay their rates next year. If we continue like this we will erode our rates base because people won’t be able to stay in business,” he said.

“I think, as a gesture, if we were to reduce out commercial rate by one per cent it would send a message to business people that we are on their side.”

This sentiment was shared by Cllr Mairead O’Brien (Ind) who said that she would prefer a two per cent rate cut for 2012.

According to town clerk John Corry, the two per cent rate cut would result in a rates reduction of just € 2 per week for the vast majority of businesses in Kilrush – 201 of the 241 businesses.

When asked how the money could be raised they suggested cuts to the tourism development and promotion fund, savings made from the reduced cost of maintaining council houses and a possible increase in revenue from planning applications.

“Everything comes with a cost, we are looking at a reduction of € 17,000 in next year’s budget as a result of the introduction of free parking, it will be very difficult to find a one per cent reduction,” said town manager Nora Kaye.

“At the moment we have just under 74 per cent collection in rates – there are a lot of people now on a phased payment and they will not have their rates paid by the end of the year. I think that it will be a very difficult task to find € 16,000, never mind to find € 24,000.”

CONSTRUCTION work on the long awaited final section of the Ennis Inner Relief Road is expected to begin in early 2012, a meeting has heard.

Loan charges on the project have been budgeted at € 240,000 for 2012. The figure, contained in Ennis Town Council’s annual budget, is to meet costs arising on land acquisition and construction.

In a report, Town Manager Ger Dollard explained that limits placed on borrowing mean the final section of the road could not be completed in 2011.

He continued, “These difficulties were resolved and the council is now in a position to proceed to construction for this section of the road. Tenders have been invited, and, at this point it is expected that that work will commence in early 2012. The redevelopment of Madden’s Furniture premises has now been completed which facilitates the completion of this long-awaited piece of infrastructure for the town.

It is anticipated that € 175,027 will be spent on local roads general maintenance works in 2012 with a further € 660,000 on general im- provement works.

Public lighting operating costs are expected to hit € 402,000, while maintenance and management of car parks will cost € 80,000.

The budget estimated that the council will receive € 1,324,000 in income from parking fines and charges next year.

In the area of housing and building, Mr Dollard states that the council has six casual vacancies, four of which are allocated and will be ready for occupation in the coming weeks.

He continued, “The remaining two require more significant repairs and will not be available for letting until 2012. Works to vacant houses have focused on achieving standards within short timescales to ensure periods of vacancy are minimised.”

He added, “In line with Government policy the council is leasing eight houses on the private market for social housing – the full cost of which is borne by the department and negotiation are ongoing in relation to other accommodation.”

“The council’s contribution under the abovementioned schemes comes from capital receipts rather than the revenue budget.”