Category: News

GARDA services in Clare face one of the largest upheavals in the history of the force early next year when the number of Clare gardaí who have retired since the recruitment embargo will force a major restructuring of services throughout the county.

The number of guards retiring from the force since the ban on new recruits was introduced will reach 37 in March of 2012 – with no guards being replaced and only one being transferred into the county.

Speaking at last night’s Joint Policing Committee meeting in Sixmilebridge, Clare Chief Superintendent John Kerin said that all of the major Garda stations in the county were safe from closure but could not comment on the future of smaller, rural stations. The Chief Superintendent did admit that law enforcement in Clare would have to undergo a major change in the months ahead.

“Last year, 18 gardaí retired in Clare and there was no recruitment. This year we lost one garda, sadly, through illness and five others have retired so far. We have seven who have indicated that they will retire before Christmas and another seven or eight who will retire early next year, before the end of February. The people who are retiring are hugely experienced and valuable gardaí.

“I can’t tell you exactly what is gong to happen but there are going to be changes, there is no doubt about that. We have to provide a professional police service with less resources than we have had in the past. Later on this year or next year, the whole situation is going to have to be looked at, especially in late February or early March. We will have to see what is going to happen.”

Ennis Superintendent Peter Duff has been tasked with the job of saving money in the Clare area and it was stressed that no decisions on any station closures have been made yet.

Meanwhile, the crime figures in Clare for the first nine months of 2011 have shown a reduction across the board in most categories compared to the same time in 2010. Robberies are down 40 per cent, sexual offences are down 15 per cent and public order offences have also been reduced.

“There is no doubt that the public order reduction has been caused by the economic recession – people don’t have the money to go out that they once had,” said Chief Supt John Kerin. “But that said, we are satisfied with the figures and satisfied that we are working hard to tackle the situaton. Having said that, there is still the equivalent of a burglary a day in County Clare.”

PARKING, or the lack of, is never far from the debate when the health of businesses in Ennis is being discussed. And last Tuesday’s meeting to discuss proposed changes to the Ennis and Environs Development was no exception.

The issue arose when former Mayor of Ennis, councillor Frankie Neylon (Ind), claimed he hadn’t been able to secure free parking for his ‘Super Tuesday’ initiative because the President of Ennis Chamber of Commerce, John Dillane was not in the country.

Super Tuesday took place in Ennis earlier this month. Cllr Neylon put forward the idea as a means of promoting local businesses and encouraging shoppers into the town.

Speaking in the Old Ground Hotel, Cllr Neylon claimed he had wanted parking charges to be suspended for the day. However, he said that when he raised the matter with officials at Ennis Town Council he was told a decision could not be taken because Mr Dillane was in China. This claim was immediately rejected by both Chamber Vice President Brian O’Neill and Chamber CEO Rita McInerney.

Speaking last Wednesday, Ms McInerney confirmed that while Mr Dillane had been away on holidays at the start of September, he returned to the town on September 3, three days before Super Tuesday.

She explained, “He [Mr Dillane] was never contacted about anything to do with free parking and neither was I.” Ms McInerney also confirmed that Mr Dillane had not been in China at the time. The discussion prompted further calls for changes to the system of parking charges in Ennis, which businesses say is essential to bringing more shoppers to the town centre.

Ms McInerney said the introduc- tion of free parking in Limerick city in the lead up to Christmas last year had been a “huge success”. She said councillors had already started calling on Limerick City Council to repeat the policy this year. Aoife Madden, Chairperson of Ennis Development Forum, claimed the high cost of parking is turning shoppers away from Ennis. Addressing local councillors, she said, “If ye can bring down the cost of parking it would bring the people back into town.”

A RECRUITMENT firm in the midwest is bucking the trend and has 200 jobs to offer in multinational companies. CareerWise Recruitment has recruited two new members of staff to cater for a surge in vacancies. The company currently has 200 vacancies on its books as employers in the mid-west are struggling to fill the positions.

An increase of vacancies in the multinational sector has led to an increased flow of business in the midwest. Company director Joe Robbins told The Clare People that the skills required by the various companies in the IT, engineering, pharmaceutical and food sectors are not available. His company deals exclusively with multinational companies.

Mr Robbins said that Ireland is a nation of two economies – one in turmoil and generating job losses, the second buoyant and unable to fill vacancies.

“Food is having a tremendous comeback. We can’t get the people,” said Mr Robbins, who lives in Sixmilebridge and operates a business in Ballycasey, Shannon. “Back in 2001, the tech bubble burst and career guidance teachers were telling people not to do IT or electronics. We had a gap of four to five years when people didn’t study IT or engineering. There is no-one to fill the jobs at the moment. The science graduates are not there to fill the jobs,” he said.

Mr Robbins has companies in the mid-west, Cork, Galway and the Midlands on his books.

“The high skilled graduates are not there. It sounds amazing when 440,000 people are unemployed,” said Mr Robbins. “Building, retail and pubs and nightclubs have had drastic losses but the multinationals have been doing well,” he added.

He said that the companies are receiving numerous applications, but the required skills are not available.

“They don’t have the skills set. We are not getting the right people. There is a shortage of skills and a shortage of people doing science,” he said.

“Despite current job loss announcements, multinational companies are still very much open for business, and recruiting,” he said.

“We are actively updating our database of suitable candidates and are seeking a very broad spectrum of capabilities ranging from management accountants; mechanical design engineers; senior system administrators; human resource generalists; production team leaders; test, software and materials engineers; a senior technical scientist; we need to find people to fill a lot of vacancies.

“It sounds unreal in a time when job loss announcements seem the norm. It’s not the exception that some companies are recruiting; it’s a reality that a large number of multinationals have jobs to fill. Perhaps it’s time to summon some of our emigrants home; we’re doing an executive search to find the right people,” said Mr Robbins.

THE development of a world class tourism attraction would bring more people to Ennis and offer a boost to the town centre, a meeting as heard.

That was the view of John O’Connor of Custy’s music shop who claimed the lack of a major tourist attraction is hurting Ennis. Mr O’Connor, who was a founding member of the Shannon Wings campaign that attracted 5,000 online messages of support for Shannon Airport, was speaking at public meeting in Ennis last week.

Mr O’Connor said there were sociological and economic reasons behind people’s decision to spend money at large shopping developments rather than in city / town centres.

He said that in his view the other issue affecting Ennis was the lack of a “major tourism attraction”, which he said would ensure people spend time in the town centre.

Relocating the Irish Cultural Pavillion to a two-acre site adjacent to Ennis Garda Station and the Franciscan Friary has been put forward as the type of initiative that could bring more tourists to Ennis.

The pavilion plan, which was one of the most popular attractions at Expo Park in China, was suggested by Cllr Johnny Flynn (FG). Cllr Flynn recently asked Ennis Town Council to identify a suitable site in advance of making an application to locate the building and its exhibition permanently in Ennis.

According to a report by former Town Clerk Eddie Power, the site could be considered for major cultural / heritage attraction.

The report states, “The lands are zoned ‘Commercial 1 Town Centre’ in the Ennis and Environs Development Plan 2008-2014 as varied, where it is the policy of the council to allow for a broad range of facilities and services which fulfill a function as a focus for both the community and public transport.”

The report continues, “In this respect the lands are open to consideration to a variety of uses, residential, office, retail etc.

This would include a tourism / cultural venture having regards to the proximity of the site to the Franciscan Abbey.

“Development restriction may apply with regards to the impact any development would have on the adjacent Franciscan Abbey to the west of the site. Archaeological examination would be required,” Mr Power adds.

Mr Power states the lands are being offered for sale at a price “reflecting their commercial development”.

The report concludes that subject to issues surrounding access and traffic management being satisfactorily resolved, “it could be considered a suitable location for a major cultural heritage attraction”.

THE announcement that Shannonbased technology support firm Sykes Enterprises is to shed up to 75 of its works will bring to over 800 the number job losses in the Shannon Free Zone over the past two years as Clare’s unemployment levels reach crisis level.

The jobs losses at the call service company that employs over 50,000 worldwide represents the third time in the last three years that the company that it has sought to downscale its operations here.

The latest round of job losses for Shannon brings to 855 the number that have gone over the past two years – a domino effect that has seen some of the Free Zone’s leading em- ployers shed sizeable numbers of its workforce. The darkest period in Shannon’s jobs history was started in July 2009 when Element Six, formerly De Beers Industrial Diamond Ltd, announced a closure of its Shannon operation with the loss of 370 jobs.

The company blamed “the high cost of operating in Ireland” for its decision to end manufacturing at its plant that was one of the Free Zone’s biggest employers since being established there in 1963.

In October 2009 telecoms firm Technotree shed 80 jobs at its Shannon plant, while in the same month GE Money let 50 of its staff go. A further 207 jobs were lost on ‘Black Thursday’ in October 2010 – 107 at Shannon Aerospace and 100 at scientific publisher Elsevier, while 80 jobs were lost at Shannon insurance firm Lloyds Banking Group in February of this year.

Figures secured by The Clare People reveal that in 2010 there was a net loss of 461 jobs at the Shannon Free Zone, while from a five-year period from 2003 to 2008 there were the figure stood of 250 net job losses.

These contrasting figures hammer home the extent of the hemmorahage of jobs from the county’s flagship industrial base, with the latest round of job cuts coming in the same week as government figures revealed that 15 jobs had been created in the county from the Dell European Globalisation Fund that was established for the region in 2009.

Sykes established in the Shannon Free Zone in 1987 and at its peak of operations employed 380 at the facility, which is one of the company’s 80 global centres.

Sykes’ biggest growth phase came in 2006/2007 when it was one of the fastest growing companies in the mid-west region, with the company’s general manager for Europe, Colin Mitchell saying at the announcement of 100 new jobs, “Sykes Shannon has invested several million in equipment; furniture and fittings and leasehold improvement over the past ten years. This expansion, whilst increasing head count, will also provide an additional revenue flow to the Irish economy in terms of employer/employee contributions, and local spend on professional services, telecommunications and general domestic expenditure.”

PROJECTED figures about consumer spending and population growth in the Ennis area contained in the Mid West Retail Strategy have been described as “cuckoo”.

The criticisms were aired at a meeting organised by Ennis Chamber of Commerce to discuss the proposed variation to the Ennis and Environs Development Plan.

Cllr Flynn told the meeting that the Mid West Retail Strategy, which is to be adopted under the proposed variation, had “seriously overestimated” spending levels, the impact of internet shopping and the amount of retail floor space required in Ennis over the lifetime of the plan.

According to the strategy, Cllr Flynn said, € 33 million was spent by tourists in Clare last year with € 28 million of the total figure being spent in Ennis.

Describing the figures as “absolute rubbish”, Cllr Flynn said the strategy did not take into account the impact of the economic downturn on busi- nesses in Ennis.

“They are absolute cuckoo figures on population and spend,” the Ennis town councillor added.

He said the Mid West Regional Authority, the body that drew up the strategy, had based their assumptions on 75 phone interviews.

He said the catchment area for Ennis businesses had been estimated at 53,000 people. Cllr Flynn said the strategy had been drawn up to save Limerick City.

He explained, “The information is based on assumptions and estimates that are flawed.”

Cllr Flynn told the meeting that he had seen an article in a pet industry publication concerning the problems of businesses in Ennis. “Even the dogs in the street know,” he added.

Businessman Peter Moylan (Ennis Cash Company) said there had been a steep decline in the number of tourists visiting Ennis over the past three years.

Cllr Pat Daly (FF) said Ennis town centre is “decaying”, adding that parking is a big issue.

THOUSANDS of top-quality, high tech jobs could flow to Clare over the next decade following a new approach by the IDA which will see the M-18 marketed as a technology corridor.

This new approach will see Limerick, Shannon, Ennis and Galway marketed collectively as a place for investment for high tech foreign companies. According to the Western regional manager of the IDA, Jim Murren, this approach could have massive implications for Ennis and Shannon – as both will be seen as close enough to attract skilled employees from the large university populations in Limerick and Galway. The plan is conditional on the completion of the M-18 Gort to Galway bypass which would see a full motorway connection through Clare from Galway to Limerick.

“It is all about reaching a critical mass. The type of companies that the IDA are trying to attract to Ireland now are looking for critical mass and for the universities, the institutes of technology and the companies to be interacting with each other,” Mr Murren told The Clare People .

“When the M-18 is completed Limerick and Galway will be linked like never before. There is already a strategic alliance between the two universities and I would expect to see a lot of development along that corridor. This has happened before in other countries where you have seen individual towns located between two gateway locations benefit greatly from development. This is my ideal on the matter and how it could be developed.

“There is a lot of potential for somewhere like Ennis of this technology corridor become a reality. The companies would see Ennis as a place where they could recruit from both Limerick and Galway – and attract people from both ends of the talent pool.”

The completion of the M-18 is seen to be a critical step towards the creation of the western technology corridor. The BAM Balfour Beatty consortium were chosen as preferred bidders to complete the € 500,000 motorway but contracts drafted last year were never signed. The NRA is reportedly in contact with two groups in an effort to get the motorway back on track

“The final section of the motorway is very important. The completion of this would make a huge impact on the ability of people to commute and communicate between the two places. It is very very important. Road infrastructure in the places that we are competing with is taken as a given by investors. So we are at a serious disadvantage to begin with,” continued Mr Murren. “There is a herd instinct with these companies they want to be located close to other companies where the expertise is. So we could see an extension of the biomedical companies that have been such a success in Galway to other high technology companies.”

A MAJOR breakthrough in the teaching of the Irish language for infants has been heralded this week thanks to an innovative idea pioneered by a primary school teacher in Ennis.

Séonaidh Ní Shíomóin, who teaches in Gaelscoil Mhíchíl Cíosóg on the Gort Road, is the author of a groundbreaking new series of Irish language books called Ár Scéalta which have been released by the publisher Coiscéim and distributed nationwide.

Dublin-born Ní Shíomóin has taught in Gaelscoil Mhíchíl Cíosóg since 2004 and came across the idea of a series of illustrated Irish language starter book when she realised there was a gap in the market.

“It can be hard on some parents trying to help their kids read in a language they can’t understand,” Ní Shíomóin told The Clare People . “That’s why the pictures in this book are so important. The story can be understood by looking at the pictures or reading the Irish text so that child and parent can have an easy, enjoyable reading experience through Ireland’s native langauge.”

Apart from being released nationwide, the books will also be distributed in Puerto Rico in Spanish translations.

The illustrator, Karen Dietrich has vast experience in dealing with minority language childrens books, has been co-operating with Ní Shíomóin to create these vibrant and colourful children’s picture books.

This new series will be aimed at making a fun, cool and enjoyable way for children aged four to seven years to read with their parents. There will be ten books released in the first series with two more series to come.

“I got the idea for the story when I saw how much love children seem to have for their pets. The story follows a boy and his dog on some funny and whacky adventures,” she revelaed.

“This is the first series of three to be launched this week and will be available for purchase from Carroll Education Ltd. and all local bookshops,” Ní Shíomóin added.

FIFTY years on from Che Guevara’s visit to Kilkee, the artist who met him in the West Clare town and drew the iconic image that’s known around the world is handing copyright back to the revolutionary’s family.

Jim Fitzpatrick, who gave the keynote address to the inaugural Che do Bheatha festival in Kilkee over the weekend has told The Clare People that “copyright for the image belongs to the Guevara family”.

In February, Fitzpatrick first revealed his intention to launch a legal bid to finally secure copyright of his image of Che Guevara, that was in- spired by a chance meeting the artist had with the father of the Cuban revolution in Kilkee.

“I disliked the commercial use, that’s why I have taken the copyright back,” Fitzpatrick revealed. “I never sought royalites for it. It is not about commercial usage, it is about remembering someone who was executed very brutally and who was a prisoner of war at the time,” he added.

“Che’s flight was grounded in Shannon and his driver brought him on a trip to the sea and he came into Marine Hotel where I was working,” revealed Fitzpatrick of his famous encounter.

“After getting a copy of Korda’s photograph of Che I created my own image of Che for Dublin-based magazine Scene . It was a call to arms – it was pretty violent. It was like Pearse’s speech about the blood and wine of the battlefields. I was so frustrated that I sent it to different magazines, but I couldn’t give it away. Publishers didn’t want to know. I made the image copyright free for the simple reason that I wanted it promulgated as worldwide as possible because I felt this man had a message.”

The Che do Bheatha festival celebrating Guevara’s visit to Kilkee in 1961 was launched by Cuban ambassador to Ireland, Teresita Trujillo on Friday, while festival organiser Tom Byrne secured a replica of the 1939 Norton 500cc motorbike that Guevara travelled across South America on in the early 1950s and inspired his book The Motorcycle Diar ies .

The ambassador stayed overnight in Kilkee on Friday, appropriately in Room 2 of the Strand Hotel, where Guevara stayed in 1961, while she also viewed and signed the guestbook that Guevara an his entourage signed 50 years ago.

“The festival was a brilliant success,” said Tom Byrne. “It was different and great for Kilkee to remember Che, with large images of him all over town and on one of the seawalls as well. It was unique,” he added.

AN ENNIS psychotherapist whose recovery from a brain injury was aided by her work on the Feldankrais Method says the therapy is now providing support to children and adults with disabilities in Clare.

Bernadette Kenny, co-ordinator of Tara Healing Arts Centre (Ennis), is one of the practitioners in Ireland of the Feldankrais method. The centre opened last year and provides a range of movement based therapies and counselling to children and adults.

The Feldankrais method uses movement and function as a gentle non-invasive aid in learning to learn. Bernadette explained that new research and neuro-science has validated the 60-year-old method, which has its own research in the USA, UK and Germany. “My work is scientifically based. It’s just not fully out there yet,” she said.

According to Bernadette the Feldankrais method benefits children and adults with special needs through improvements in walking, language and cognitive development as well as behaviour.

Bernadette has worked in the area of psychotherapy and counselling for 30 years and holds a four-year qualification in the Feldankrais Method. Originally from Ennis, she previously worked in youth services in London. She also spent two years working in Dublin at St Michael’s House, an organisation that provides community-based services to people with intellectual disabilities.

She is currently completing masters at the University of Limerick in Feldankrais and Dance therapy and how they can support learning of children with special needs.

Bernadette had reason to turn to the Feldankrais Method. Four years ago when she suffered an angioma (brain injury). She lost her speech and stability but by applying the lessons she had learned throughout her career, Bernadette made a full recovery.

She recalled, “It helped moderate and kept brain working and learning.”

According to Bernadette interest in her work as increased among parents who have been hit by the withdrawal of State supports for children with disabilities. She said her ultimate aim is to establish Tara Healing Arts as a non-profit organisation. “Everyone has the right to treatment.”

Bernadette will hold a talk about the Feldankrais Method at the Auburn Lodge, Ennis, on Friday, October 21, at 8pm.