Category: News

THE BISHOP of Killaloe, Dr Willie Walsh has hit out at people from wealthy backgrounds indulging in drug taking.

Speaking in Ennis last Friday, Dr Walsh said the drugs culture was not confined to areas of deprivation and there was a growing number of people using drugs in the more wealthy parts of society.

“We use the word ‘recreational’ in relation to drug taking but drugs really are not recreational at all. They are destructive and the people using drugs in the better off areas are contributing to the violence we have recently seen in Dublin.”

“There is no doubt that there is a very serious growth in violence in society and this is very often related to justice issues. Take our prisons for example where the vast majority of prisoners come from areas of deprivation, particularly in our cities.”

“When you speak about violence, you have to speak about justice as well.”

Dr Walsh’s comments come against the background of a doubling in size of the Clare’s drugs unit in recent months with substantial drug seizures being made in a number of locations in the county.

Dr Walsh cited the statement on violence released by the Bishop’s Conference last Thursday.

“Our social fabric is being torn apart by a culture of violence that leaves people dead on our streets and gunned down in their own homes. Our society seems to be growing numb to human loss and suffering as yet another murder or assault is reported, another family devastated by a road death, and certain housing estates, themselves the subject of poor planning and inadequate maintenance, are constant reminders of the destructive culture of violence on an almost daily basis.

“Fundamentally, our society needs a moral revolution to replace a culture of violence with a renewed ethic of justice, responsibility and community. New policies and programs, while necessary, cannot substitute for a recovery of the old values of right and wrong, respect and responsibility, love and justice,” Bishop Walsh concluded.

THE BISHOP of Killaloe has stated that the proposal to reduce the age of consent to 16 almost puts pressure on 16 year olds to start engaging in sexual activity.

Bishop Willie Walsh said that the proposal to reduce the age of consent to 16 was sending out the wrong message to young people still in school, in school uniform and was almost putting pressure on youngsters to engage in sexual activity.

Dr Walsh was responding to the Joint Oireachtas Committee report on Child Protection which recommended that the age of sexual consent be reduced from 17 to 16 years.

In a joint statement on Thursday, the country’s Catholic Bishops expressed their alarm over the proposal and speaking at a function in Ennis on Friday, Dr Walsh said that the appropriate age of consent was 18.

“We have a law against children under the age of 18 buying drink, buying cigarettes. People aren’t allowed to vote until they’re 18 and we see 18 as a figure accepted by society which marks the passage into adulthood.”

“The reality is that not every teenager of 16 or 17 is involved in sexual activity. A lot are but a great deal aren’t and lowering the age of consent would be unfair to those young people who are not sexually active.

“We would be almost putting pressure on them to have sex, that somehow they haven’t grown up unless they have indulged in sexual activity. One of the mistakes is that we think that young people mature at an earlier age these days. I think the opposite is true.”

“I am very conscious of the dilemma that many parents are facing to give moral guidance to their teenage children. Then a law comes out and undermines the authority of parents in this area and sends out the wrong message. Sexuality is something very precious, mysterious, extraordinary, wonderful and anything that trivialises that is highly dangerous.

“We are not asking people to legislate according to Catholic teaching, we are asking people to look at this from a human point of view and look at it very seriously.

“I believe that if you ask parents of teenage children what do they believe is the appropriate age of consent, the vast majority would say 18 instead of 16. Many parents are struggling with these things and they are entitled to the backing of the law.”

Dr Walsh expressed concern that the Government was being steamrolled into changing a law, just because it is being broken.

BISHOP Willie Walsh has urged Travellers to become involved in social issues directly affecting their own lives.

Speaking in Ennis on Friday, Dr Walsh said that often in the past he would have found himself doing something for Travellers or to the Travellers when he was not fully aware of their needs.

Dr Walsh was launching a new Traveller newsletter as part of the implementation of a three year strategy for co-ordination of public services to the Travelling community in Clare as part of National Traveller Focus Week.

The strategy aims to strengthen the culture and self-governance of Travellers in Clare, while enhancing their quality of life and identifying gaps in the current provision of public services.

After hearing of the various initiatives being undertaken within the Traveller community, Dr Walsh said the meeting was a revelation and there are so many positive things going on.

“Very often in life, we seem to focus on the problems and see that such a problem isn’t soluble and we forget about all the things that are being done.”

Dr Walsh urged people from both the Traveller and settled communities to speak to each other more in order to break down the prejudices that exist in each community.

“One of the constant difficulties between the Traveller and settled communities is very often lack of awareness or lack of knowledge of each other, that we don’t communicate together or simply talk to each other or get to know each other better”.

On the high unemployment rates and lower life expectancy in the traveller community, Dr Walsh said: “There is no doubt, there is a long way to go, but up until now, we thought very little about anything except accommodation.

“In fairness to Clare County Council and I would have been critical, they have made extraordinary progress in recent years, having made that progress with accommodation and now the new challenge is to move onto the employment and healthcare challenges.”

He said the Traveller strategy was a very welcome and important initiative. Very often public services were not well co-ordinated and one group didn’t know what another was doing. This led to a duplication of services and caused unnecessary confusion and waste.

IT is the sense of freedom that Síle deValera is looking forward to most. To be able to decide to go to the cinema on a Thursday or meet friends on a Tuesday at short notice is the simple, but until not unattainable pleasures, that the retiring TD has to look forward to most.

For the next five or six months however it will be business as usual in the constituency as her diary is dictated by a busy political schedule.

Speaking to The Clare People just the day after she stood down as Minister of State at the Department of Education and Science, Deputy deValera was slightly hoarse from one of the many winter colds in the air and as busy as ever.

She was conscious of easing the slight aliment quickly as that night she had a Cumann function in Spancilhill and a women’s lunch the following day.

Despite the slight hoarseness however the former minister sounded happy and jovial and completely at ease with her decision to retire from politics.

She described how fortunate she felt and how she looked forward to a new life.

“I am lucky in a way as a lot of politicians don’t get the opportunity to decide when they are leaving politics.”

Working as a TD for the next five to six months is the “nice part of it all” she said very much at ease with the change in her life.

The former Minister for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands maintains that making the decision not to run in the next election was the biggest decision.

“Working for nine and a half years as minister and then minister of state there is a weight lifted off my shoulders today. With the office there is a sense of obligation and duty and I feel I have done that,” she said.

When asked about the “warts and all” book on political life she plans to write, the 52-year-old breaks into a hearty laugh.

With 30 years of politics, including the Lynch, Haughey and Ahern eras, the impoverished 1980s and the prosperity of the late 1990s under her political belt, publishers and political nerds are already drooling at the thought of such memoirs.

Her voice retains the mirth as she describes how she got yet another phonecall from a publisher shortly after telling a radio programme she already had a number of publishers interested.

Deputy deValera has already begun writing the book and “thinking about it’”.

“Over the last 30 years since I first went in to the Dáil there have been a lot of changes. The state of flux in the late seventies and eighties and the poor economy.”

“People who were not TDs in the late 1980s and early 90s are lucky to have only experienced the good times of telling people how good things are going to be.”

Deputy deValera is also conscious of the fact that there are very few women in the Dáil and 30 years of political change does not seem to have changed that fact.

Once fully retired, Síle deValera is looking forward to planning life for herself and having a social life, but she is adamant that she is not complaining about the political life she had.

It is just time for change.

“I hope to have another career as something else,” she said referring to her continued study of psychology.

DRIVERS caught speeding are being advised to read their fixed charge notices carefully, or they may find themselves before the courts.

The Head of the Clare Traffic Corps, Inspector Moynihan, was speaking to The Clare People after one man claimed in court that he wrote an incorrect driver’s licence number on the fixed charge form, in error, and subsequently received a summons.

The man told Ennis District Court last Friday that he put the number from the outside of his driver’s licence on the form. He should have written the number from the inside of his licence.

The fixed charge notice processing centre at Capel Street in Dublin did not recognise the number and issued him with a summons.

Inspector Moynihan said, “A few people are getting caught. If people read the notice they receive, they should not get a summons. It points out on the form what to do.”

A driver who is caught speeding is given 28 days to pay the fine. If it is not paid within 28 days, a notice is issued and if the fine is still not paid after 56 days, a summons is issued.

Inspector Moynihan said since the introduction of the fixed charge notice system last April, the number of people caught speeding in Clare has increased.

This has also coincided with the enlargement of the traffic corps in the Clare Division. Six new members have been added – bring the numbers to 20 – while another six will be added before the end of next year. A new traffic corps has also been set up in Killaloe.

Meanwhile, there has been a 94 per cent increase in the number of people arrested on suspicion of drink driving, since the introduction of random breath testing on July 21, compared with the same four and a halfmonth period last year.

Since the start of the year, there has been a 75 per cent increase in the number of drivers arrested for alleged drink driving – 458 so far this year, compared to 264 last year.

Several garda checkpoints are mounted every day and “less than 10” drivers have been arrested on suspicion of drink driving the morning after drinking alcohol the night before.

“Every area of the county is showing a big increase in the number of arrests,” he said.

The level of garda manpower previously afforded during Bank Holiday weekends is now available throughout the year.

“This level of enforcement is now the same all year round and will continue throughout the year. Random breath testing has been a great aid to us,” he said.

A SHOPLIFTING charge against a 60-year-old woman has been dismissed, after her solicitor said the layout of an Ennis supermarket “lacked clarity.”

The comment was made in the case of a woman who had filled her trolley, before walking out past the last point of payment and onto the Dunnes Stores Mall, on O’Connell Street, Ennis. She claimed she had intended to pay for the items. A BRAZILIAN man, accused of indecent exposure near a girls’ school in Ennis, has been further remanded in custody.

Hamilton Abrenhosa (29), of 54 Cregaun, Tobartaoscain, Ennis, is facing four charges of indecent exposure in Ennis. He was arrested on November 30 last.

Two of the alleged offences occurred at Tulla Road, Ennis, another is alleged to have happened at College Road – close to Coláiste Mhuire, an all girls secondary school – while the other incident allegedly took place at Harmony Row. The alleged offences relate to four separate dates during November.

When he initially appeared before Ennis District Court last Friday week, bail was refused, after gardaí expressed a fear that he may not stand for trial if he was granted bail.

Gardaí had also objected to bail based on the seriousness of the charges, while they said further enA 40-YEAR-OLD man is facing charges, arising out of a garda surveillance operation into alleged drug dealing at a licensed premises in Ennis earlier this year.

Patrick Anderson, of 72 Springdale Road, Raheny, Dublin 5, is charged with possession of ecstacy tablets, at AN Ennis solicitor has said it is not acceptable for the Minister for Justice to keep a person in custody, pending deportation.

Chang Loon, of Henry Street, Kilrush, appeared before Ennis District Court, arising out of an incident in Kilrush on November 6.

He was charged with driving without insurance and an immigration offence.

He was previously remanded in custody after gardaí expressed reservations about the validity of his

The accused, Jarolava Metlickova, of Ard na Gaoithe, Ennis – who is originally from the Czech Republic – denied stealing groceries, valued at €540.98, on January 28 last.

Paul Smith told the court he was employed by Dunnes on the date in question.

He said the defendant was seen with a trolley full of shopping, near the fruit and vegetable section.

She put items from the lingerie, flowers and household section into her trolley, before walking out – past the last quiries have to be carried out in relation to the case.

Defending solicitor Tara Godfrey said her client has lived in Ireland for the past four years, and is married with one child. She said he is a driver and earns €500 per week.

Mr Abrenhosa is also charged with an immigration offence, in that he failed to inform officials within 48 hours of his arrival in Ennis.

Inspector Kevin Moynihan told Ennis District Court on Friday last that a file on the matter is being prepared and the State was applying to remand the accused in custody for a fortnight.

Defending solicitor Tara Godfrey did not object to this application. Judge Joseph Mangan remanded him in custody to re-appear in court on Friday week. an Ennis pub on March 31 last. He is also charged with possession of ecstacy, for the purpose of sale or supply.

Inspector Kevin Moynihan told Ennis District Court last Friday that gardaí put an operation in place, to investigate alleged drug dealing on the premises. passport. Gardaí were subsequently ing to this. satisfied with the passport and he was remanded in custody, pending guilty to driving without insurance deportation. in Kilrush. “He has spent a month in

Last Friday, Ennis District Court custody. He has served his sentence was told that the Minister for Jusin relation to that matter,” said the tice has signed a deportation order, solicitor. requesting the deportation of the accused. there was an issue over the accused’s

Loon has 15 days to object to this. address. “I need an address to give to The court heard an application from the Minister for Justice as to where he the State to further remand the acis going to reside,” said the garda. cused in custody for a month, to ascertain if he wished to object. it’s acceptable the State or the Min-

However, defending solicitor ister can keep someone in custody Daragh Hassett said he was objectpending deportation.” point of payment – on to the O’Connell Street Mall.

“I saw her when she was at the fruit and veg and followed her out of the Mall,” said Mr Smith. He stopped her outside Claire’s accessory shop on the Mall.

Defending solicitor Tara Godfrey said her client had money and had intended paying for the goods.

“She was phoning her son, asking him to collect her, that she had done her shopping,” said Ms Godfrey.

Mr Smith replied, “The woman During this operation, plain clothes gardaí purchased drugs from people inside.

36 ecstacy tablets were seized from the defendant and money was found on him, afterwards.

“It is alleged he travelled from Dublin solely for the purposes of dealing,” registered as a non-national in the He said his client has pleaded Irish State. Mr Hassett said his client came here, through Dublin airport but the garda said that could not be proved. Garda Morgan O’Donoghue said time on Friday. Garda O’Donoghue later told the court he had ascertained an address for the accused, in Kilrush. He was granted bail, pending his deportation.

Mr Hassett replied, “I don’t think tached, including that he reside at the named address and that he sign on regularly at Kilrush Garda Station. walked out with the goods without paying for them. I was doing my job.”

Ms Godfrey said there were “no clear lines of boundary in relation to where you stop.” Mr Smith replied, “It is the last point of purchase.”

The solicitor said, “My client felt she hadn’t left the store until she walked out onto O’Connell Street,” but Mr Smith said, “That is not my interpretation of it.”

Ms Godfrey said the manner in which Dunnes Stores is laid out “lacks a clarity. . . There must be a reasonable said the inspector.

Judge Joseph Mangan said he was declining jurisdiction in the District Court and the case will go forward to the Circuit Court.

Mr Anderson did not appear in court and a bench warrant was issued for his arrest. The garda said Loon has never The case was adjourned for some A number of conditions were atdoubt.”

“From her experience, this hasn’t happened at Tesco. I would submit there must be a doubt in the mind of the court,” said Ms Godfrey.

Inspector Kevin Moynihan, prosecuting, said, “Dunnes Stores are not on trial here. She passed the last recognised place of payment. She has admitted to being in Ennis for two years and had been in Dunnes Stores previously. I submit the case has been proved.”

Judge Joseph Mangan dismissed the charge. KILRUSH man Anthony Kelly has been sent forward for trial to the Central Criminal Court, accused of murdering nightclub bouncer Brian Fitzgerald in Limerick, four years ago.

Mr Kelly (49), of Cragg House, Kilrush, appeared before Limerick District Court last Tuesday, where the Book of Evidence was served.

His solicitor Eugene O’Kelly said in court, “We were given the understanding there were hundreds of statements. I see there are about 50 statements, most of them from gardai. I see the tainted testament of a man who has already been dealt with.”

Mr Kelly, who is currently in custody, will apply for bail in the Supreme Court on Friday. A MAN who served as a priest in west Clare has pleaded guilty to indecent assault charges in Waterford.

Con Desmond admitted indecently assaulting a boy six times in the early 1980s. He is a former principal of the De La Salle boys’ national school, Stephen Street, Waterford.

He was living in west Clare when he was arrested in relation to this case. He is to be sentenced at Waterford Circuit Court next week. AN EGYPTIAN national, accused of extorting €100,000 from an Ennis businessman, has been returned for trial to Ennis Circuit Court.

Essam Eid (50), with an address in Nevana, US, is also charged with burglary and handling stolen property, at Westgate Business Park, Ennis, on September 25 last. The Book of Evidence was served last week.

PUBLIC confidence in the ability of Clare County Council engineers to deal with Ennis’ water quality problem has reached a new low, Monday’s monthly meeting of the local authority heard.

Ennis area councillors Brian Meaney and Joe Carey hit out at the council’s efforts to solve the drinking water problems that have beset the county capital in recent years. Both have called for new measures to address the problem, Cllr Meaney (GP) backing a curb on future development in Ennis and Cllr Carey (FG) calling for the introduction of a voucher system for those buying bottled water.

“The people of Ennis are very angry,” warned Cllr Carey. “And they have a very low degree of confidence in the water service. They are spending between €20 and €30 a week on water and have being doing this for the past two years. It’s unacceptable.

“Ennis is one of the fastest growing towns in Europe and it doesn’t have a clean water system. It’s shocking and it’s not on. I’ve proposed in the past about getting another source of water, but that was not listened to.

“Now the issue is dragging on and public confidence is at a very low ebb. I want assurances about when the boil notice will be lifted. There should be a voucher system in place for people who are spending €20 to €30 a week,” added Cllr Carey.

“We’re in a most appalling situation with the water in Ennis,” said Cllr Brian Meaney (GP). “There is very little confidence with what’s being done with Ennis’ water.

“Maybe we should look at the development of the town – if we took a stance that there would be no additions to the water supply, then we might see motivations coming where there would be a sufficient response to the water quality problem,” added the deputy mayor.

Responding, county engineer Tom Carey said “modifications to the system are a very significant step towards the removal of the current boil notice in the near future.”

A boil notice was placed on water in Ennis on November 24.

PROPERTY developers will be forced to carry some of the financial burden in providing sewerage schemes around Clare, it was revealed at Monday’s council meeting.

Responding to a motion put forward by Cllr Christy Curtin (Ind), County Engineer Tom Carey revealed he had been informed by the Department of the Environment that the exchequer is no longer prepared to fund “nonresidential” sewerage schemes.

The definition of “non-residential” properties includes future housing developments as well as commercial properties. The specific details of who will foot the bill for future housing developments is unclear but property developers and Clare County Council will have a role to play in meeting these expenses.

“I’d like to think that my report is more positive than reports in recent times. There has been some significant movement – we have come close enough to starting construction and quite a number of schemes will be underway in 2007. We are starting to catch up but it does appear that some schemes are moving faster than others,” said Mr Carey.

“If there are situation where the affordability issue is a problem and environmental issues demand it, then the costing issue is not set in stone. There are still affordability issues, we are working on them and being as innovative as we can – but they will have to be, to some extent, developer-driven.”

Responding to the new “polluter pays” approach, North Clare councilor, Martin Lafferty (Ind), expressed his disappointment at the unit costings system and commented that he wanted to see “reality on the ground, never mind promising things that never appear”.

CLARE County Council has been asked to prevent housing developers in the county from converting crèche facilities in large housing estates into residential units.

At Monday’s December meeting of Clare County Council, North Clare councillor, Joe Arkins (FG), accused property developers of taking advantage of planning regulations in relation to the provision of childcare facilities.

Developers are required to provide childcare facilities in developments of 75 housing units or larger but Cllr Arkins expressed his worries that this arrangement is being abused.

“The developers look for €1,000 a week rent for the crèche building or offer to sell it for one or two million,” said Cllr Arkins.

“They then apply to Clare County Council for a change of use for the crèche facilities and state that they have proved that there is no need for the facility.”

These “contrived vacancies” were heavily criticised by Cllr Arkins who called on the council to decline any submission for change of use for these crèche facilities in all cases.

“They probably designed it in such a way as to make it easier for them to be converted back to apartments,” continued Cllr Arkins.

“There should be no changes in use whatsoever as long as deficiencies in the childcare system still exist.

“It should not be tolerated for a developer to look for exorbitant rents for these facilities,” Cllr. Arkins concluded.

CLARE County Council planners need to be given a short course on Irish history, telling them that British rule ended in the 26 counties as far back as 1921, a former chairman of the local authority stated this week.

Councillor PJ Kelly (FF) launched a scathing attack on the council’s planning department at Monday’s monthly meeting of the local authority, accusing planners of breaking the law when turning down house building applications around the county.

“We have planners in this county using a British document, the Queen’s Highways Agency document, that was never adopted by this council to turn down planning applications,” blasted Cllr Kelly.

“This is wrong,” added Cllr Kelly brandishing a copy of the Vehicular Access to All Principle Trunk Roads document. “This document was never adopted by Clare County Council, but it’s now a case where we apply the Queen’s rules to the disadvantage of people here in Ireland. Are we working outside the law? That is the serious question that has to be addressed here.

“Using this document is an open admission that something that is not a policy is being used as a policy when it comes to planning. There is a contradiction here and it has to be said that we are way beyond the law in using documents that have not been approved to refuse planning applications.”

Cllr Kelly has been a trenchant critic of Clare County Council planning practices for a number of years, particularly when it comes to championing the cause of those who wish to build once-off houses.

He concluded by calling on the council executive to take planners aside and teach them some Irish history.

“When are we going to let them know out in Westgate (Clare County Council planning office) that the Brits left Ireland 85 years ago? It shows how out of touch they are out in Westgate.”