Category: News

A MOVE by Shannon-based pharmaceutical firm, Schwarz Pharma to shut down production for a three month period last year in response to local concerns over air emissions contributed to an overall loss of €34 million for the company in 2005.

According to accounts filed to the Companies Office, the Germanbased firm suffered an operating loss of €11.4 million following a profit of €5.9 million in 2004.

In March 2005, the company suspended production that could give rise to emissions exceeding the levels in its Integrated Pollution Control (IPC) granted by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

In February of this year at Ennis Circuit Court, the company pleaded guilty to a series of environmental breaches resulting in them being fined €152,350 including costs.

According to a statement accompanying the company’s accounts: “The outgoing year was a year which saw a number of events come together to account for the loss incurred, namely production downtime associated with plant shutdown from March to June of 2005 in order to implement new environmental emissions control systems and a sales reduction from the discontinuance of a number of product lines.

“In addition significant development and launch costs were incurred for a number of new products launched during the year.”

The accounts show that the parent company has contributed €150 million over 2004 and 2005 and that significant investment is needed “to ensure the company has adequate capacity and upgraded infrastructure to manufacture and supply the new products going forward.”

The accounts show that the company’s turnover was down from €42.8 million in 2005 to €35.4 million in 2004 and the cost of sales increased to €38.1 million in 2005 from €31.7 million in 2004.

The overall loss of €34 million is due to €8 million in interest payable and other charges, and €17 million towards a non-operating expense.

The loss of €34 million has resulted in the company’s retained profits of €32 million at the start of 2005 becoming a loss of €2.5 million at year end.

The accounts also show that the numbers employed at Schwarz Pharma reduced from 222 to 180 at the end of 2005 with the staff costs being reduced from €11.6 million to €10.3 million in 2005.

The accounts also show that the value of the company’s intangible assets increased from €377 million from €222 million in 2004.

CAMPAIGNERS are likely to seek an injunction preventing the ESB from pressing ahead with the construction of a controversial phone mast in Ennis.

The injunction was one course of action discussed at a public meeting held in the Eire Óg clubhouse last night. The meeting was organised by a group opposed to the siting of an 80 foot telecommunications mast at an ESB substation in Clonroadmore.

It now also seems likely that campaigners will have to compensate the ESB as a result of seeking a judicial review of An Bord Pleannala’s controversial decision to grant planning permission to the ESB.

According to campaigner Noel Mulhaire, the ESB had sought an agreement from residents that they would be compensated if the planning decision was found to be valid. The case is not expected to be heard before the High Court for another six months and the cost of pursuing the action is likely to cost residents upwards of €100,000

Last Wednesday the ESB served a seven day notice of its intention to commence construction work on the mast saying that concerns over the timescale of the legal action had forced them to move.

Speaking before last night’s meeting Mr Mulhaire said; “After what happened last week we’re going to up the ante”

THE dominance of Kilrush crime during the recent sittings of the Circuit Court in Clare does not reflect reality, according to a solicitor based in the town.

The overwhelming majority of cases heard over the past month dealt with crime in Kilrush and surrounding areas.

The trend, according to a senior Garda source, underlines the fact that west Clare is “the crime capital of the county.”

During the sittings, two young men were jailed for three years each for arson – one incident occurred near Kilkee and the other in Kilrush – another was jailed for four years for damaging cars in Kilrush. A young man was handed down a three-year sentence for dangerous driving causing the death of two Kilkee girls, at Carrigaholt.

Another man was given a suspended sentence for throwing a block through a neighbour’s home in Kilrush, as part of a dispute.

Two trials that took place during the Circuit Court sittings resulted in acquittals for Kilrush accused.

Superintendent Joe McKeown said the jail sentences handed down at the Circuit Court should remind people that crime will not be tolerated in Kilrush.

“I think it sends out a message to people that if they commit crime and are caught, they will be facing hefty sentences,” he said.

However, Kilrush-based solicitor Eugene O’Kelly pointed out that the trend during these Circuit Court sittings didn’t necessarily reflect reality.

“The recent court list included quite a number of cases from the Kilrush area that for one reason or other got backed up over a long period of time.

“The fact that the cases have come together is more coincidental than proof that Kilrush has a monopoly on anti-social behaviour.

“I accept there are problems, but we should not just look at the court statistics, but at the underlying factors of deprivation, unemployment and social exclusion,” said Mr O’Kelly.

“The gardaí, the social services and Éirí Corca Baiscinn are all working now in a very co-ordinated way to tackle these issues and that is positive.

“Great work has been done in the John Paul Estate in rejuvenating community spirit,” he said.

“I do think matters are improving. There is a decrease in the number of public order matters in the District Court,” he said.

ALTHOUGH the famous west Clare railway has been defunct for over 40 years, it is at the centre of Clare County Council’s refusal of planning permission for a holiday home development on the outskirts of Lahinch.

Two years ago, Tom O’Keeffe of Roslevan, Ennis lodged plans with the council to construct 20 holiday homes at Creg, Lahinch. This was later reduced to twelve.

However, the council has refused planning permission on three grounds , one of which is the number of the homes that would be built over the line of the west Clare railway. That would be in conflict with the North Clare Area Plan 2005.

The plan states that developments should only be allowed on or adjacent to the west Clare railway, which will not conflict with or restrict the recreational potential of the line.

However, developer, Tom O’Keeffe through his planning consultants, Corey Stevens and Associates has expressed incredulity at his plan being turned down due to the presence of the old west Clare railway line.

An appeal to An Bord Pleanala states: “It is hard to reason how this can occur as the railway line no longer exists from the bridge abutments at the subject into Lahinch.”

The appeal goes on: “ We also contend that it is meaningless to exclude the area of the railway line from the proposed development as the land cannot serve any other purpose.

Mr O’Keeffe has told the board that he is willing to forgo the development on one home that is located on the defunct railway line, if he is granted permission for the remainder of the development.

Folklorist and author of ‘Walking in the Tracks of the West Clare Railway’, Eddie Lenihan said: “A lot of damage has been done to the west Clare railway so why have anymore. It would be a disgrace to do so.

“I’m sure that ways will be found to overcome problems that seem insurmountable now in getting parts of the west Clare up and running again.

Mr Lenihan however expressed that the policy in the North Clare Area Plan to protect the west Clare has come too late. He said: “An awful lot of the line is gone already.”

The 27 mile line from Ennis to Miltown Malbay was closed in 1961, when it was making losses of £23,000 per annum.

A decision on the appeal is due next year.

THE need for multi-lingual warning signs and more information for the non-national community about the dangers of fishing off the west Clare coast was highlighted again this weekend following the tragic death of a young father off Doonbeg.

The 27-year-old Latvian man was swept into the sea by a large swell at Blue Pool, leaving his distraught wife and eight-year-old son to look on in terror.

The young family, who have lived in Athlone for two years, were fishing on the ledge when the tragedy occurred.

Clare County Council had destroyed an access route to the area more than 10 years ago, as up to nine people had lost their lives there during the previous two decades.

According to Manuel di Lucia of the Kilkee Marine Rescue Service none of those who died in the Blue Pool had been local, and all had been visitors to the area.

“Non-nationals and visitors to the area who plan to go fishing off the Loop Head peninsula or anywhere along the west Clare coast should seek local advice as to safety,” he said.

Cllr Madeleine Taylor-Quinn said, “It is imperative that multi-lingual signs are urgently erected in areas dangerous for fishing.”

Sunday’s tragedy followed the drowning of father-of-four Piotr Bedzlowitz the previous week off Tullig near Cross.

The Kilkee Marine Rescue, Kilkee and Burren Sub-aqua Club, the Doolin and Kilkee Coastguards, the Civil Defence and the Garda underwater unit were completing the morning search for the 35-year-old’s body, when at 1.30 pm they were called to the scene of the Doonbeg tragedy. Just 15 minutes later the Kilkee Marine Rescue lifeboat under coxman Kieran Deloughry found the Latvian man’s body. His remains were brought to the Kilkee Marine Rescue Centre where local priest Fr Donagh O’Meara administered the last rites The man’s distraught wife then identified the body before it was removed to the Mid Western Regional Hospital for a post-mortem examination.

Meanwhile, the Ennis Lions Club will fly the wife and brother of Tullig drowning victim Piotr Bedzlowitz to Ireland this week.The bereaved family are to visit the site where 35-year-old Piotr was swept into the sea, and meet with the local rescue groups that tried to recover the father of four. The club are also planning a fund raiser to help the two families that lost their loved ones.

MEMBERS of Clare County Council have expressed concern at the authority’s creation of a new job to accommodate a highly paid senior official returning early from a yearlong leave of absence.

In January of this year, County Manager, Alec Fleming signed an order allowing the council’s Director for Housing, David Timlin to take a year of unpaid leave, which is a frequent occurrence in local authorities.

However, the council has circulated councillors with a statement to state that Mr Timlin has now returned to the council and “has been assigned to a number of projects, cross-cutting in nature, which require special focus at a senior level over the next few months”.

Once he took the the year off, senior official, Josephine Cotter Coughlan was put in charge of housing. She will remain in place until early in the New Year when Mr Timlin will reassume responsibility for that area.

In the meantime, Mr Timlin’s responsibilities are to include “technical issues” relating to the council’s new €27 million HQ that is currently being constructed by Michael McNamara & Co. Mr Timlin will also be responsible for “the development and roll-out of risk management systems and processes as required by the council’s Insurers, IPBMI Ltd”.

However, senior council member, Cllr Patricia McCarthy (Ind) said yesterday: “The council is supposed to have five Directors of Service. Does it now have six Directors arising from Mr Timlin coming back early?”

The salary scale for Directors of Service range from €84,465 to €99,823.

On Mr Timlin being employed to oversee “technical issues” in relation to the council HQ, Cllr McCarthy said: “If the council did not have the capacity to deal with these projects at the outset, they shouldn’t have taken them on.

“Why was this appointment made at the start of the new civic offices building, rather than in the middle of it. This is very unusual.”

“Is there provision for allowing employees return early from a yearlong leave of absence and if so, is this a one off or will everyone be catered for? I would be worried about the precedent that this appointment will set.”

Cllr Brian Meaney (Green) said: “I would be concerned that it appears that a job has been created for Mr Timlin before his year is up. Where will the funding for this come from and will it impact on other areas as the council is finding it difficult to even partly meet requests for funding?”

STACEY Haugh was just 16 when she and her younger brother Karl left their family home and walked to the local chip shop in Kilkee on an October evening, three years ago. There they met their friend Lorna Mahoney (13) for what would, sadly, be their final evening together.

Ennis Circuit Court heard that Stacey’s mother Brigid’s “whole world came to an end,” when she got the dreadful phone call on the night of October 17, 2003.

She went to the scene of the crash. Stacey had died and Karl (now 14) had sustained critical injuries.

“I could not bring myself to go to the mortuary as I felt Karl was going to die too. I was in a state of shock,” were Brigid’s words, contained in her Victim Impact Statement.

Brigid was torn between burying her “beautiful, vibrant” daughter or travelling to Dublin to visit her son, who underwent emergency surgery.

The heartbroken mother remembered her daughter as a teenage girl who loved music, dressing up, cooking and walking.

Brigid has struggled with her life since the tragic accident and she has been left facing a life sentence. “Life has been a struggle since,” she said.

Lorna’s mother Geraldine Mahoney told the court her daughter was a “bright, bubbly, Mammy’s girl, the youngest of five.”

Lorna was “in love with life” and aspired to become a vet.

“Bye Mum. I love you,” were her final words to her mother at 7.30pm that evening. Two hours later, she was dead.

“No doubt Mr Naughton coerced Lorna and Stacey into that car.

“The fear Lorna felt in that car will haunt us for the rest of our lives,” she said,

Mrs Mahoney then addressed Naughton. “Lorna and Stacey asked you to slow down but you chose to ignore them. Why?” she asked.

“What puzzled us was that the accused was granted bail for the second time after absconding the first time. We felt abandoned by the legal system,” she added.

“We have gone from a close knit family to a group of individuals struggling with our grief. We live with the memories because that is all we have left,” she said.

The court heard that the parents of the two girls disputed suggestions that the accused had been going out with Stacey, while his friend had been going out with Lorna.

CLARE County Council has expressed “serious reservations” over plans to construct a €50 million retail park on the outskirts of Clarecastle.

Earlier this year, Galway developer Stephen Harris unveiled a €50 million master-plan for a series of developments on a 48-acre site near the village of Clarecastle.

The 48-acre site was purchased last year from Clarecastle man JJ McCabe for over €18 million and is zoned commercial under the 2003 Ennis and Environs Development Plan.

Now the council has requested a raft of further information on the scheme, and has expressed serious concern at the retail impact of the development, its impact on traffic flows and volumes in the area and on the flooding regimes of the area.

The council points out that the Retail Impact Assessment (RIA) fails to take into account several other retail developments, including the Curley Development, Kilrush Rd, the Westgate Development, Kilrush Rd, a retail warehousing plan for Shannon and Clonroadmore Business Park.

The council has also requested Mr Harris to factor in the Gort Road mixed-use development in Ennis and the proposed Lyne/Connellan retail development south of Ennis.

The authority points out that, in the layout for the current development, little effort has been made to avoid areas of ecological value and the main fen area will be impacted directly.

“Within the overall 48-acre site, it would be possible, through the consideration of alternatives, to avoid major habitat losses.”

The council says that a comprehensive flood risk assessment for the entire area development and surrounding areas is required and should be based upon supporting detailed data to establish and assess these risks.

Plans lodged to Clare County Council by Mr Harris show a retail warehouse park, a motor sales village, a travel lodge hotel, drivethru restaurants, storage and distribution, and a petrol station for the 48-acre site at Skehanagh, Clarecastle.

Planning permission is only being sought for the retail park at this time in the south-east quadrant of the site.

SÍLE deValera is looking forward not back, albeit with a bit of trepidation, a tiny bit of sadness but most of all with excitement.

Come the next election, the woman who has dedicated three decades of her life to politics can look forward to fulfilling ambitions of a normal social life and looking at politics with an objective eye.

As the Junior Minister at the Department of Education prepares to step down from her position on December 8, she said that resigning was not as big a decision as deciding not to run in the next election.

The Clare TD told The Clare People that she suggested the step down to the Taoiseach last November when she told him she was not running in the next election.

The former Minister for Arts was first elected to the Dáil 30 years ago.

As she approaches 52 years of age, she has few regrets about the 30 years of sacrifice she has made for her career.

“I would have liked to have gone into more study. I was elected at 22 and maybe if you could plan to go in at 30 you could build a life outside before entering.”

She admitted, however, that her early years in politics gave her opportunities that she may not have otherwise had if she made her way into that career later in life.

Come next summer, she will leave that life behind to fulfil her educational ambitions.

The grand-daughter of Eamon deValera already holds a degree in history, politics and psychology, a higher diploma in history and is a postgraduate in career guidance. She is a qualified psychologist.

“There will be a certain amount of sadness. I have been in Clare for 25 years, and represented Clare for 20 years in February.

I will continue to keep all my contacts in Clare. It has meant too much to me to cut all those ties,” she added.

Minister de Valera laughs as she recalls how some TDs now approach her with a wry smile as they tell her how they envy her life change.

“I look forward to a life I can plan and I am looking forward to privacy. I found it hard to plan a private life. I am very lucky to have friends. I have often promised to meet up and find I can’t at the last minute.

“It (politics) is very tough and I can say that now. It is all-consuming time-wise,” she added.

CLARE County Council has paid almost €7 million to three landowners, including the Killaloe Diocesan Trust, for the provision of the long-delayed €25 million sewage treatment plant to serve Ennis.

The council has also confirmed that an additional €436,212 has been paid on auctioneering, legal and surveying fees as part of the project – these fees relate exclusively to land acquisition.

Last year, the council overcame a vital obstacle in proceeding with the works after objections to the ComOVER 100 companies throughout the Shannon region have signed up for a unique waste reduction project involving wanted and unwanted pallets.

‘The Pallet Exchange’ – an 18-month pilot project officially launched this week by Supply Network Shannon – will result in thousands of pallets being reused by participating companies in Limerick City, Shannon and counties Limerick and Clare.

The main objective of The Pallet Exchange is to address the imbalance that exists between companies requiring to source pallets and companies with excess pallets. A central clearinghouse has been established in the Shannon region to facilitate the storage and subsequent reuse of pallets.

Already, a number of companies in Tipperary and Kerry have expressed an interest in joining The Pallet Exchange program, Mr Whelan concluded.

Supply Network Shannon (SNS) is an open sectoral network of engineering and elecpulsory Purchase Order (CPO) were withdrawn.

The council was seeking to CPO a total of 20 acres: 17.41 acres from the Killaloe Diocesan Trust and 2.6 acres from local landowner, Peter Anthony Liddy.

After the CPO was first published, the Diocesan Trust sold the site as part of a 35-acre plot to Crystal Partners Ltd, which is operated by Ennis businessmen, Sean Lyne and Noel Connellan.

Prior to the CPO going to hearing in September of last year, the council withdrew the CPO after negotiations

with the parties resulted in the council

agreeing to purchase a greater site than

the 20-acre site – it has now agreed to

purchase 23.86 acres.

As a result of the larger portion of

land now purchased, the Killaloe Di-

ocesan Trust has sold, according to a

spokesman, “a very small portion of

land” to the council that was not within

the original CPO area.

The council in response to a Freedom

of Information Act request from The

Clare People confirmed that €6.83

million has been paid for the site,

though declined to state how much has

been paid to each landowner. tronics sub-supply companies located in the Shannon region. Since being incorporated as a limited liability company in 1999, SNS has introduced a number of initiatives aimed at reinforcing the Shannon region’s position as a world-class source of sub-supply products and services.

According to Maurice McLernon, Chairperson of SNS, “The Pallet Exchange is designed to benefit all sub-supply companies in the region, regardless of size or activity. The uptake so far has been very encouraging and is indicative of the benefits of collaborative networks.”

Further information on The Pallet Exchange is available on www.snshannon.com. Companies wishing to participate in The Pallet Exchange should contact Dick Whelan at 061329744/086-8198188 or email dw@almir.biz.