Category: News

AN Ennis-based businessman believes he can reduce the HSE’s exorbitant taxi bill by as much as 40 per cent.

It was revealed at the HSE West’s Regional Health Forum Hospitals’ Committee that as much as €677,000 was spent on taxis bringing non-emergency patients in the Mid West to hospital during the first 10 months of this year.

Now Bus Slánte’s Seán O’Shaughnessy says he has proposed a solution to the local HSE that could reduce that bill by more than €270,000.

Bus Slánte currently services the Mid Western Regional Hospital Ennis, St Joseph’s Hospital Ennis, Shannon Health Centre, the Maternity Hospital Limerick and the Mid Western Regional Hospital Limerick three times a day with an open bus service.

The company plan to add the Orthopaedic Hospital in Croom to the service early next year.

The service is open to patients and the general pubic.

Mr O’Shaughnessy explained that many people with disability or mobility difficulties also use the service for going to Limerick as they can access it easily.

He is proposing that the service can be expanded and used by the hospitals in Clare and Limerick for ferrying non-emergency patients to other hospitals in the mid west for tests – a service that is currently costing the taxpayer hundreds of thousands of euros.

The service would be free to those availing of free travel and could cost just €5 per head to others.

Mr O’Shaughnessy has suggested that taxis could be used to bring patients from rural areas to one of the urban centres and Bus Slánte could then pick them up there.

He said taxis are currently bringing people to hospitals for tests and waiting for them while they are treated.

All the while the cost is increasing.

“There will be no inconvenience to the person (with the new service).

“The only change to the current service is that people would have to change on to the bus,” he said.

Bus Slánte currently has one bus in service and another on the way.

Should it be successful in convincing the HSE of the merits of this idea, it plans to add two more to the fleet, and also hopes to secure charity status.

Clare Representative to the HSE Mid West Regional Forum Cllr Brian Meaney (GP) believes that Mr O’Shaughnessy’s proposal could help reduce the spiralling costs to the health services.

CLARE musician, Mike Hanrahan, has resigned his position as chairman of the board of the Irish Music Rights Organisation.

Hanrahan’s was one of two resignations from the Board after a disagreement with other board members. Quitting along with him is vice-chair and music executive, Barbara Galavan.

According to sources, their resignations follow a series of rows over what direction IMRO should take for the future.

Hanrahan has been IMRO’s chairman since 2000 and Galavan has been vice-chair for almost sixteen years.

It is understood that both had had a number of disagreements with other board members in recent months.

The organisation polices copyright and collects royalties from places which play music publicly.

The Clare musician is internationally recognised as a songwriter and a guitarist. He has released a number of solo albums and has played with bands including Tumbleweed and Stockton’s Wing.

As well as producing solo albums, he has been heavily involved in writing and producing for Dubliners singer, Ronnie Drew over the last ten years.

THE DOOLIN Coastguard Unit yesterday confirmed that surfers have made contact in a bid to improve safety measures for surfing near the Cliffs of Moher.

Mattie Shannon said that one of the five surfers who was surfing off the Cliffs of Moher last month when two refused assistance from the Irish Coastguard has made contact to discuss improved safety measures.

“It was agreed that the Coastguard Unit would be notified if the surfers would be going out surfing again and that they would be contactable by VHF radio,” he said.

On November 24 last while engaging in tow-in surfing of the 30 ft Aill na Serracht wave off the Cliffs, two surfers got into difficulty with a third on the shore and they all refused to be winched to safety by a winchman from the Irish Coastguard Helicopter in an rescue effort involving 40 people.

Mr Shannon described the decision by two of the surfers not to accept assistance from the coastguard as “very foolish”.

The latest move comes after the surfers who refused assistance were warned that they could face fines of up to €2,000 each.

Irish Coastguard Service search and rescue manager, Eamon Torpay confirmed that they intended to take action against the surfers concerned.

“We are looking at provisions of the Irish Maritime Safety Act and are consulting with Gardai, Irish Water Safety and the local Water Safety Officer,” he said.

Mr Torpay said that the surfers’ actions “were irresponsible and showed a lack of respect towards the rescue services”.

Last Thursday, the Irish Marine Search and Rescue Committee (IMSARC) described the surfers’ behaviour as ‘completely unacceptable’. They claimed the surfers “refused assistance from the helicopter, because the crew would not recover their surfboards. Eventually the surfers were rescued by the Doolin Coastguard boat and transferred to the Aran Islands lifeboat”.

“During the attempted helicopter rescue, the pilot and crew displayed exceptional airmanship and courage in manoeuvring the aircraft into position to carry out the rescue. They were operating close up against the cliffface and succeeded in lowering the winchman on a 260-foot cable to recover the surfers who had become stranded on rocks below.”

Along with Gardai and the Dept of Defence, the committee is also made up of representatives from the Irish Coast Guard HQ, Naval Service HQ, RNLI HQ Ireland Aircorps HQ and Irish Water Safety.

PLANS have been lodged with Clare County Council to construct a substantial park ‘n ride facility in Liscannor for the €31.5 million Cliffs of Moher Visitor Centre.

The plans by the Mermaid Partnership form part of the first signs of a private sector involvement in the visitor centre which is now nearing completion. The outline planning application is for the construction of a park ‘n ride facility with a retail development which will consist of five buildings and 352 underground car-parking spaces and 10 bus-parking bays.

The site located on the northern side of the R478 in Liscannor village is zoned for park and ride facilities in the North Clare Area Plan.

John D Flanagan of the Mermaid Partnership confirmed that outline planning is currently being sought from the Council.

“The Council’s decision will dictate when an application for full planning permission will be submitted. A timeframe on an approximate start up date for the proposed park and ride service to the Cliffs of Moher will be made once such an application is submitted. We are anxious to proceed with the proposed development as early as possible.”

“The overall proposal has the potential to contribute hugely to the overall development of the tourist sector in Clare while creating considerable employment opportunities in Liscannor and the north Clare area.”

North Clare councillor, Martin Conway (FG) said he was supportive of the application, provided that it met all the criteria.

“Park ‘n ride for the Cliffs of Moher is the way to go. When you look at the poor quality of road structure around the Cliffs of Moher, anything that will reduce the volumes in terms of traffic is a welcome development.”

“The development of a park ‘n ride facility at Liscannor is also fulfilling another objective of spreading the benefits of the new visitor centre around north Clare. It will benefit Liscannor and I would be hopeful for park and ride facilities at Ennistymon, Lahinch and Doolin”, he said.

A decision is expected on the application in 2007.

THERE has been a dramatic increase in the number of cases of Chlamydia, gonorrhoea, and syphilis in the western region, including Co Clare.

Overall figures for HSE West however – an area that encompasses the old Western, Mid-Western and North-western regions – saw a reduction in the number of STIs reported last year, down 16.4 per cent to 2,721. Drops were reported in ano-genital warts down 18 per cent to 1,040, non-specific urethritis down 46.7 per cent to 626 and herpes down 7 per cent to 91.

While the overall number of STIs may have decreased health experts believe that the observed decline could be masking an underlying trend that continues to rise.

There has been a dramatic increase in reported Chlamydia up more than 30 per cent to 817; gonorrhoea was up 34.2 per cent to 51 and syphilis up 85 per cent to 37.

These figures could be the tip of the iceberg however.

Brian Neeson, Health Promotion Functional Manager with the Health Service Executive said, “The figures around a disease like Chlamydia can be misleading because many cases go undetected – about 70 per cent of women and 50 per cent of men will show no symptoms of Chlamydia – and the same is true of gonorrhoea (up to 86 per cent of women and 55 per cent of men are asymptomatic. We cannot be certain how many undetected cases there are so we would ask people to have a check up with their GP or in a STI clinic if they are sexually active.”

Mr Nelson advices that a condom is the best protection and encourages people “to carry condoms as sex is unplanned on many occasions”.

Research into the attitude of people in Ireland towards sex uncovered a clear trend of decreasing condom use across all age groups.

In 18 to 24 year olds the most common reason cited for non-use of a condom was alcohol or drug use (20%), while 18 per cent claimed no contraception was available, 16 per cent said sex was unplanned and 15 per cent did not consider it.

Provisional figures from the HSE also show that slightly more than eight out of ten STIs reported are found in people aged between 20 and 39. The majority of reported STIs – 63.6 per cent – are found in the 20-29-age bracket.

ENNIS Chamber of Commerce has given a cool response to Ennis Town Council’s decision to raise commercial rates for the forthcoming year.

While welcoming the increased level of funding for the promotion of Ennis, the chamber fears the rate rise is not good news for small businesses struggling to compete with large scale developments.

Members of Ennis Town Council last week approved the 2007 budget which provided for a 4.8 per cent rise in commercial rates.

In his report Town Manager Tom Coughlan stated the rate increase represented a “slight decrease on the on the rate of increase in 2006”.

But according to the CEO of Ennis Chamber of Commerce, Rita McInerney the rise is an extra and unwelcome financial burden.

“Even if it is low, no business wants to rates go up. Its twice the annual rate of inflation, which is predicted at 2.4 per cent for the coming year….These are extra costs being placed on businesses. Our priority should be to encourage the individual uniqueness of the town. We need a mix of multinational and local shops, independent traders should not be squeezed out.”

She also revealed that some local businesses may refuse to pay water rates after recent problems with the Ennis water supply.

“We think a rebate scheme for businesses in Ennis should be looked at. It was placing a lot of extra costs on businesses, whether they had to buy in ice or water for just cleaning food. Some of them may go as far as withdrawing paying water rates. They are paying for a service but are not able to use it.”

€65,000 has also been allocated in the Budget for the promotion of the town while a further €20,000 is to be given to the Promote Ennis group.

In order to build on the Tidy Towns success of recent years, the council has set aside €100,000 for the enhancement of lanes in the town.

These initiatives have been welcomed by the chamber along with the decision not to increase car parking charges.

“There was a lot of positives in the budget. The money for the lanes is very welcome, it is something that the president John Madden has prioritised and is something that has repeatedly come back in the Tidy Towns reports.”

A PRIEST who was savagely attacked at his home in Parteen over eight years ago says he would ‘certainly’ use a gun to protect himself against criminals.

Fr Liam Kelly (71) was stabbed nine times as he lay in his bed at home, in May 1998, and says he was ‘left for dead.’ He used a hurley to fend off his attackers – two young men from Limerick – but is now considering getting a gun, as protection.

He was speaking to The Clare People in the aftermath of the Pádraig Nally trial – the Mayo farmer was last week acquitted of the killing of John ‘Frog’ Ward, after he said he was gripped by fear and believed Ward was going to burgle him.

Fr Kelly says he was glad that Nally was ‘exonerated.’

“I am all for being armed and being able to defend yourself. If a man is threatening your life, you are entitled to have a cut at him,” he said.

Asked was he considering getting a gun, he said, “I certainly am. I would certainly use it in self-defence.”

“It is important to be safe in your own home. I know a number of priests who have a gun in the house and I would consider that too. I would do what I could to defend myself. I have to go to so much trouble every night, to close up Fort Knox, putting on the locks,” he said.

Commenting on the debate on selfdefence which was central to the Nally case, he said, “There is a thin dividing line. I firmly believe you are entitled to defend yourself. At what cost, I don’t know.”

Fr Kelly, a native of Ballynanty, is now semi-retired and lives in Limerick city.

Meanwhile, Acting Chief Superintendent in Clare, John Kerin, said substantial garda resources are being deployed to rural parts of the county, with additional gardaí being allocated to Newmarket-on-Fergus, Tulla, Sixmilebridge, Lahinch and Miltown Malbay in recent weeks.

“We are rolling them out as the manpower increases. People have never seen more activity in rural areas,” he said.

He said recent increases in resources, allocated to the traffic corps and the drugs squad, regularly patrol rural parts of the county.

THE PARENTS’ council of Seamount College, faced with the threatened closure of their children’s school, have come up with facts and figures supporting their case that the school should be given a reprieve.

The parents carried out an extensive analysis of the second level educational needs in the Kinvara area and, a spokesman said, their conclusion “is that to lose Seamount College, a quality school with an existing educational infrastructure, will be a catastrophe not just for the community but also for the wider area”. Meanwhile, the school principal is understood to have made an appeal to the trustees, the Sisters of Mercy, not to close the doors.

The analysis carried out by the parents included looking at the latest Census results which confirm the strong population growth in the area.

They also took into consideration existing and future planning permission. “Permission has been granted for 1,216 dwellings within six miles of Seamount College in the last five years and there is enough High Density Residential Zoned Land within 1km of Seamount for another 1200 houses.

“Already within the primary schools of the area, before any of these new houses are built, there are over 450 children that will require education over the next few years,” the spokesman said.

“Neighbouring schools in Oranmore and Gort are at, or near, capacity. We believe that there is a moral and political imperative that we in Kinvara and its environs are afforded the same opportunity that other communities have enjoyed – to move from a single sex school to a modern mixed model to cater for all the children of the catchment. The answer to our educational requirements is not to bus our 500 children out of our catchment across catchment borders to neighbouring schools that are already at or near capacity,” the spokesman said.

The parents say that if the government’s National Spatial Strategy is promoting growth of the N18 GalwayLimerick corridor as a counterweight to Dublin, “why allow the educational infrastructure to be dismantled? Particularly in an area that rapid growth has already started”.

In support of the argument for the school, parents also point to the fact that population growth in the area was 38 per cent over the last four years. In the Kinvara catchment area alone there will be 500 children requiring secondary education by 2010.

“If you add in the three schools that have a strong tradition of attending Seamount College that number rises to 700 children,” the spokesman said.

THE population of Ennis will reach ‘critical mass’ by the year 2020 if the town boundary remains its current size, a committee heard last week.

It is predicted that at the current rate of growth the population of Ennis will hit 48,000, which is 8,000 more than predicted in the National Spatial Strategy for 2002-2020.

The issue was being discussed in relation to the proposed extension of the town boundary at a meeting of Ennis Town Council’s Social and Economic Development Municipal Policy Committee.

At the meeting Town Clerk Eddie Power said, “The population of Ennis, at the town centre and environs, currently exceeds 24,000.

“It was predicted that this would rise to 40,000 by 2020, but if the figure keeps going up it would be 48,000, which would represent critical mass.”

Mr Power added that any extension would have implications for the effectiveness of local government, the structures in place and the coherent promotion of the town.

Following a proposal from Cllr Peter Considine (FF) the committee opted not to discuss the matter further.

The deadline for submissions from members of the public passed on Friday, December 15.

In their submission to the Council, Ennis Chamber of Commerce stated that any extension would have to strike a balance between business interests and new housing developments likely to come under the stewardship of the council.

Speaking yesterday Chamber CEO Rita McInerney said,

“The last extension didn’t benefit businesses in the town. The council’s remit extended to take in more houses, but there wasn’t the same growth in business.

“There can’t be a situation where the current rate payer base is paying for an increased number of houses.

“We wouldn’t be totally opposed to it as long as they undertake a balanced analysis.”

The current town boundary extends as far as the turn for Ballyalla, past the West County on the Clare Road, past the Golf links on the Miltown Malbay Road, beyond O’Sullivan and Hansbury on the Kilrush Road and as far as Hill Crest housing estate on the Tulla Road.

In 1988 the Minister for the Environment extended the Urban Boundary of Ennis. Ennis is identified as a “Hub Centre” in the National Spatial Strategy and as such is designated as a regional growth development centre.

THE MIGRATION of Ennis business out of centre locations continues with a €10 million retail development planned for the Ballymaley area.

This follows a proposal by Keco Development for another retail development 3km north-east of Ennis.

The Ballymaley plan is for 25 units on a 13 acre site within eight blocks. The owners of the land are John Dillane of Banner Motors; Oliver Walsh of Oliver Walsh Motors; Liam Cleary of Cleary Motors and Enda O’Connor of O’Connor Engineering.

According to a statement accompanying the planning application, the development is mainly for retail warehouse use within the mixed commercial setting. Office units are to be owned and occupied by Keco Construction Ltd and Vaughan Accountants.

Keco is the main developers and will relocate from their existing base at Fountain.

A commitment to purchase pending planning has been agreed with Vaughan Accountants whose relocation is forced primarily due to lack of appropriate office space and a chronic shortage of staff and customer parking near their existing base in Abbey Street.

The statement says that Oliver Walsh and Liam Cleary Motors are to relocate from existing out of centre site as the sites no longer meet the requirements of their business. Banner Motors is to relocate the wholesale component of its existing operation on Cornmarket Street where the retail operation will remain.

The developers maintain that the proposal will not have an adverse impact on Ennis town centre but should improve the competitiveness of Ennis and the county as a whole in line with the county retail strategy.

“The development offers a high quality, purpose designed and built retail park to this important gateway; the site is well placed because of its proximity to the northern end of the bypass as a link to the rest of Ennis and beyond”.

“There is a clear need for this type of development within the Ennis Environs and this site is available in the short term to meet those needs in conjunction with other retail proposals in the area and will be instrumental in reducing the flow of bulky goods in the Limerick Metropolitan area.

Clare County Council has stated that it has ‘serious concerns’ in relation to the development from a traffic safety perspective and has put the plan on hold.