Category: News

THE extent of the collapse in property prices around the county has been hammered home this week, after industry sources have claimed that a three-storey house in Kilrush has been for sold for as low as € 20,000. The Clare People has been told that a house on Moore Street in the west Clare capital was sold for this knockdown price as the drop in property prices reaches new lows in the county on the back of the economic recession.

When contacted by The Clare People on Monday, the selling agents for one house on Moore Street said that it hasn’t been sold for € 20,000, but that there was an asking price of € 60,000 on the property.

However, other industry sources have confirmed that a sale price of just € 20,000 has been agreed for one house on the street, which boasted five bedrooms, a garden and rear access.

Such a price would represent a 20year low for a house price in Kilrush and puts the town well ahead of the national average when it comes to the depreciation of property values.

Only last February, it was revealed that house prices in the county had dropped by up to 40 per cent in the past five years, figures that now put the decline of the county’s housing market ahead of the national average as calculated by the Economic and Social Research Institute.

The ERSI house prices index revealed that prices had fallen nationally by 38 per cent since 2006, while outside Dublin the drop was 8.1 per cent for 2010.

Figures secured by The Clare People showed that the rates of depreciation were higher again in Clare, with many houses across the county having dropped back as far as 2001 prices.

THE familiar site of the old Clare Library delivery van will soon be a thing of the past as the organisation was this week granted funding for a replacement vehicle.

Over the last number of years, the van has transported tens of thousands of books and other materials between Clare’s 15 libraries, making it possible for people in even the smallest rural libraries to have a full selection of reading materials.

Clare Libraries was last week granted € 40,000 in funding for the purchase of a new delivery vehicle, which library officials hope will prove as useful as its predecessor.

“Most people will be familiar with the library van which is always on the go, moving books from one library to another. The old van was a great service to the libraries over the years and made the service which we were able to provide much better,” said Frances O’Gorman, Senior Executive Librarian with Clare Libraries.

“If someone wanted a book in Ennistymon, let’s say, and it wasn’t available, then the van would transport what they needed from Ennis or whatever library had the book. So it allowed us to offer people a large amount of services, even in smaller places.

“We have 15 libraries around the county so this new van will certainly be kept busy.”

The € 40,000 was part of a national allocation of € 5.8 million announced by the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government last week.

TALKS between management and staff at the Cliffs of Moher Visitors Centre broke down yesterday at the Labour Relation Commission (LRC) with both parties now being sent to the Labour Courts to resolve the ongoing dispute.

The dispute, which led to nine days of strike action by SIPTU members at the world-famous visitors centre, is centred around worker payment and status.

The SIPTU members claimed that they should have the same terms and conditions as employees of Clare County Council, while management at the facility argue that the centre is a private company owned by Clare County Council, and that the workers are not entitled to equal status with council workers.

Industrial action was suspended at the Cliffs of Moher on Friday last when both parties agree to attend a meeting of the LRC. The standing down of industrial action came as SIPTU had threatened to escalate the strike action, serving notice of plans to begin a second picket at the offices of Clare County Council.

This dispute follows a ruling of the Labour Court in 2010 which instructed Cliffs of Moher Centre Ltd to give the centre’s employees the same terms and conditions as council employees.

Clare County Council have argued that the centre will not be in a position to continue operating with the same level of staff should they be forced to improve staff pay and condition. The Clare People contacted both the management of the Cliffs of Moher Centre Ltd and local SIPTU representatives in relation to this but neither party was in a position to comment on the situation at this stage.

UNEMPLOYED people in east Clare are missing out on job opportunities because of the lack of a frequent bus service to Limerick city, it has been claimed.

A Clare barworker living in Westbury – who asked not to be named – told The Clare People that he has missed chances to get back to work because there is no later or early public bus service.

“I was recently diagnosed with a medical condition which means that I can’t drive at the moment. It’s not something that would stop me working, but I can’t risk being behind the wheel. In my line of work, there’s no good expecting to work nine to five,” he said.

A bus runs to Ardnacrusha, stop- ping at various areas along the way, six times a day but the service finishes at 6pm.

The Westbury man has six years’ experience and good references. He has applied for a list of bar jobs, but says he is hampered each time by the fact that he can’t get to and from work at times outside the bus schedule.

“There’s a bit of extra work going at this time of year and I was hoping to take advantage of that. In fact, I was almost certain of being taken on for a few hours at weekends in a place the far side of the city but then I discovered it would mean taking a taxi home every time. It wouldn’t make any sense financially.”

Local Labour councillor, Pascal Fitzgerald said that he wants to see an hourly bus service connecting areas like Westbury, Parteen, Meelick and Ardnacrusha with Limerick city.

“I’m going to be asking Bus Éireann what they can do. This part of Clare has a big population and is growing. There is plenty of demand for a more frequent bus service,” he said.

Cllr Fitzgerald added that the service would boost employment prospects for east Clare people as well as allowing people to travel into the city to do business, socialise and shop and would improve matters for people who are stuck for lifts.

“I live in the area and I regularly stop to give lifts to people who are thumbing. It’s not a safe situation, escpecially when you see young people, teenagers trying to get a lift” he said.

CLARE County Council has turned down a planning application for a € 50 million windfarm at Shanovogh near Miltown Malbay. This represents the second time in a year that the promoters of the windfarm project have had an application turned down by local authority planners.

In handing down its judgment, the planning authority said the “noise generated” by the wind turbines and development itself would “seriously injure the amenities of residential property” and “depreciate the value of property”.

Planners also ruled that the development would “pose an unacceptable risk to water quality standards”, while also noting that it was “not satisfied that the proposed development will not negatively impact on species and habitats in the area” and finally concluding that the project was “contrary to the proper planning and sustainable development of the area”.

In May, McMahon Finn Wind Acquisitions Ltd lodged an application to build a windfarm on a site that’s two miles away from the West Clare Renewable Energy project on Mount Callan, the green light for which was given by Clare County Council last August.

The application was for a windfarm comprising of six turbines with a height of 85 metres and was submitted to local authority planners by Cian Ó Laoithe Architects.

Last year, Clare County Council invalidated plans submitted by McMahon Wind Ltd for a 12-turbine windfarm on the same site, while a decision date on the new planning application is due in mid-July.

The second application for a windfarm development in the county falls within the guidelines of the Clare County Council wind energy strategy that has set a working target of 550 MW of wind energy to harnessed in the county by 2020.

Between 2000 and 2010, 22 applications for windfarms were lodged with Clare County Council, with one of the first projects to be given the green light being in 2002 when the ESB were granted permission for a nine-turbine € 20 million renewable energy farm at Moneypoint.

Last December, An Bord Pleanála rejected an appeal by An Taisce against a Clare County Council decision to allow Hibernian Windpower to construct a windfarm incorporating 11 turbines of approximately 2500kW capacity each, at Boolynageragh, Lissycasey.

The development site, which is three kilometres north of Lissycasey, will have total rated electrical output of 27.5MW.

The Mount Callan project is set to be the largest community-owned windfarm development in Ireland and is a € 200 million project that aims to create 300 jobs during the construction phase.

CLARE County Council has invited members of the public to submit any observations or representations concerning a number of road closures planned to accommodate the staging of Michael Flatley’s ‘Lord of the Dance at the Cliffs of Moher’ this September.

The world-famous music and dance extravaganza is expected to attract as many as 20,000 tourists to north Clare this September.

The local authority have served notice that they intend to temporally close sections of the R478 – from its junction with the L5148 at Ballysteen to its junction with the R479 Doolin Road at Garrihy’s Cross – on September 1 and 2.

The road will still be open to local traffic and all other traffic is asked to use the N67 between Ennistymon to Lisdoonvarna throughout the restrictions.

The current plan is to close the road on both days between 3pm and 1am the following morning. It is expected that the event will have a number of spin-offs for the tourism industry in the county and if successful, could become the first in a series of concerts hosted at the Cliffs of Moher.

The concert will come just five weeks ahead of the D-Day in the Cliffs of Moher’s bid to become one of the new Seven Wonders of the World and could provide a welcome springboard for that bid.

Tickets for the event, which is being organised by MPO Promotions Limited, are currently available from Ticketmaster outlets and can also be purchased in person from the Cliffs of Moher Centre.

The show itself will feature 40 precision dancers acting out the mythical Irish folk story of a battle between Don Dorcha, the Lord of Darkness, and the Lord of Light, also known as the ‘Lord of the Dance’.

Local musicians Michael O’Connell and Hugh Healy, as well as special guests, folk legend Finbar Furey and the world-famous Kilfenora Céilí Band, will share the finale with the ‘Lord of the Dance’ troupe at the top of the Cliffs of Moher.

Anyone who wishes to make a submission on the proposed road closure is asked to contact the Roads Department at Clare County Council before Friday, August 5.

ALCOHOL and alcohol addiction is playing an increasing role in the suicide rate in County Clare, with a growing number of suicides in the county having some connection to alcohol abuse.

That is according to the Clare spokesperson for the Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) who told The Cla re People yesterday that alcohol is a major contributing factor to many suicides in Clare.

“Alcoholism is a killer disease; even the World Health Organisation (WHO) now recognise it as the third biggest killer on the planet and a lot of those deaths are through suicide,” said the Clare spokesperson for the AA, who asked not to be identified.

“Alcohol is a depressant and, if you drink a lot of it, can become very depressing. That is why a lot of people who become an addict also have suicidal tendencies. The biggest problem with alcoholism is the denial, both from the alcoholic themselves and their friends and families.

“This allows the situation to get worse and worse and worse until eventually it gets too much and suicide or attempted suicide is the way out for some people.”

There are currently 24 AA meetings taking place at different locations throughout Clare every week, evidence that no part of the county is unaffected by alcoholism abuse.

According to Ruth*, a recovering Clare alcoholic who contemplated taking her own life last year, the connection between alcoholic abuse and suicide in Clare is increasing.

“The amount of deaths that I have heard about through [alcohol] overdose and alcohol-related suicides is more than I’ve heard about through illnesses and natural causes. And that is despairing,” says Ruth.

“I have gone to funerals and I have seen how the children of someone who has done that [committed suicide] have reacted. But I can relate to what that person would have felt. I felt like my children would have been better off without me.

“I remember when I was at the Bushypark Treatment Centre, there was a lad in there in his early 20s. When I heard of this young man’s suicide, the thing that I remember most is the look on the counsellors’ faces at Bushypark. It was like they had lost one of their own.”

Anyone who feels that they might have a problem with alcohol can contact the local branch of the AA in confidence on 061 311222. To read about Ruth’s struggle to overcome her alcoholism and the help she found at the Bushypark Treatment Centre, turn to page 29.

A BANK account has been set up to support the families of the striking workers at the Cliffs of Moher Centre as industrial action enters its second week at the landmark tourism site.

The striking workers have refused any donation from the public up to this point but, due to a large number of collections being organised around the county, they have established an account to manage funds coming in.

Industrial action has been ongoing at the Cliffs of Moher since last Thursday. The row centres around pay and working condition for the SIPTU members who believe that they should have the same status as employees of Clare County Council. Cliffs of Moher Centre Ltd is a private company which is owned in full by Clare County Council.

“Nobody is a winner in a strike situation. We are doing a good job of keep morale up but I think it goes without saying that everyone would prefer to be back working as normal,” said local SIPTU rep Tony Kenny.

“We have had a lot of people asking where they can donate to the workers. We have been refusing this up until now but a number of collections have been held in different work places around the country and we have set up an account to deal with this.

“The workers are not being paid while they are on strike but instead they are given strike pay by the union – which is a very small payment. It is just enough to keep people going.”

Meanwhile, management at the Cliffs of Moher have denied that anyone has been charged improperly at the centre since strike action began.

As a long established public right of way exists at the Cliffs of Moher, a € 7 charge is applied to visitors who uses either the parking facilities of the interpretive centre. However, a number of bus divers have refused to pass the picket line and instead dropped tourists on the side of the road. These tourist were charged on entering the facility, even though they did not park on site.

A spokesperson from the local authority confirmed that a number of busses had decided not to use the parking facilities but the people in these buses were charged for viewing the exhibitions.

The spokesperson said that the council was “not aware of anybody who wished to exercise their right to use the public right of way and was charged for doing so”.

A 60-YEAR-OLD Clare teacher who has pleaded guilty to 14 sexual offences against a teenage girl will be sentenced next month.

The man who, cannot be named for legal reasons, appeared at Ennis Circuit Court yesterday.

The defendant had previously admitted to 10 charges of the sexual exploitation of a child and four charges of the defilement of a teenage girl between September and November 2009.

Detective Sergeant Michael Moloney told the court that the girl, who was 15 when the offences began, outlined a series of incidents to Gardaí.

He said that the majority of the incidents had occurred in the classroom, with one incident taking place at the home of the accused while his wife and children were gone away.

Counsel for the State, Stephen Coughlan BL, outlined to the court how many of the sexual offences were committed behind a timber cabinet in a classroom.

A series of incidents read out in court described how the accused touched the girl and asked her to perform acts of a sexually explicit nature.

On another occasion, the court heard, the accused picked the girl up in his car and brought her to his home.

He told her that his wife and children were away. Mr Coughlan said that after the accused started to take off his clothes, he received a call from his wife.

The accused committed further sexual offences at the classroom on the day of his 60th birthday.

The man was seen alone in a classroom with the girl by a caretaker. On another occasion, he was also seen alone with the girl in a storeroom by another teacher.

The teacher described seeing the accused with the girl as “embarrassing” as teachers should not be alone with students in “such a confined space”.

Detective Moloney said that CCTV had corroborated the movements of the accused in the school during the period when the offences occurred.

He said that the accused had sent “extremely inappropriate” and “sexually explicit” text messages to the girl. The girl was described in court as an intelligent and keen sportswoman.

Counsel for the accused, Michael Collins BL, said his client had expressed his deepest regrets and apologies to the family. He said the man would be placed on the sex offenders register and would have to live with the shame and disgrace of his actions for the rest of his life.

Judge Carroll Moran imposed reporting restrictions, saying neither the injured party or the school should be identified.

He adjourned sentencing until September 26.

A NEW community church will open its doors to both English- and Portuguese-speaking Christians in Gort next month, in an effort to help establish positive relationships between the local Irish and the large Brazilian migrant community.

A number of incidents of race-related antisocial behaviour have been reported in Gor t in recent months and the economic crisis has led to increased tensions between the Irish and Brazilian communities.

The new church will begin in Gort from August 14 and will offer both English and Portuguese services, as well as a number of community events and services designed to help bring the local population together.

“It is important that we reach out to the English-speaking people and let them know that they can become part of this church. We want people from all communities to mix together and mingle more,” said Reverend Sebastian Baptista.

“It is natural for people to want to mix among their own people, that is fine, but there also needs to be integration between the different peoples. There is a cer tain discrimination between all communities.

“It is natural for people to mix with thei r own people but if that is all they do, then it inevitable that there will be discrimination. As people learn to work with each other, then their attitudes can change very quickly.”

The church is open to anyone from any Christian faith, with services in English set to take place on Sunday mornings from 11am while Portuguese services will take place from 7pm on Sunday evenings.

One of the key aims of the new church is to establish a number of non-church-based activities which will help bring the community into the centre.

“We want to reach out to the community. We have a ver y big building here and we want to work with people like the community centre to organise events for people. We want to give the youth here another option instead of being out on the street doing things that they are not supposed to be doing,” continued Reverend Sebastian Baptista.

“Religion in the church is great, but if you look at the scriptures you see Jesus out there mixing with the people. It is not just about what is happening inside the four walls of the church – it is about what happens out in the community.”

The church is located at Warehouse Unit 1 on the Kinincha Road in Gor t.