Category: News

A 24-YEAR old Clare victim of child sex abuse has called on Fine Gael deputy, Pat Breen to apologise for his “crass insensitivity” in tabling a Dáil question enquiring into the possible early release of a convicted sex offender.

Last week, Deputy Breen caused a political storm after it emerged that he lodged a query into the possible early release of 74-year old bachelor farmer, Joseph Nugent who is due to complete his jail term in February 2008.

In his reply, Justice Minister, Michael McDowell ruled out the possibility an early release given the circumstances of the case.

Deputy Breen came under fire from party general election running mates, Cllr Madeleine Taylor Quinn and Cllr Joe Carey and in response, Deputy Breen accused them of making a political football out of the controversy.

But the 24-year old sex abuse victim says that Deputy Breen should apologise for the crass insensitivity in putting the question down in the first place.

“Did he not realise the negative impact and message tabling the question sends out to victims of sex abuse? No leeway should be given to sex abusers and instead of asking if this person should be released early, Deputy Breen should be asking for an extension to his sentence”.

“In this case, there were two male victims and the man received concurrent sentences. These sentences should have been consecutive. Why are people like Deputy Breen then asking questions about why they should be let out early?”

Arising from her own case, the 24-year old wrote to a number of Oireacthas members and councillors in Clare and said she didn’t even receive an acknowledgement from Deputy Breen’s office.

She said that she only received responses from Minister for State, Tony Killeen, Justice Minister, Michael McDowell and Cllr Brian Meaney in relation to the letter she circulated.

“I was furious when I read about the Dáil question being asked. The perpetrator didn’t even acknowledge the damage he caused.”

Deputy Breen was unavailable for comment last night. However, last week, he defended tabling the question, stating that he was not making representations on behalf of Mr Nugent and wouldn’t be in favour of an early release in the case.

He said that he was aware that Mr Nugent was a sex offender, but wasn’t aware of all of the facts in relation to the cases.

THE Government’s decision to require Romanians and Bulgarians to gain permits to work in Ireland, even after both countries become full members of the European Community next year, has been described as “offensive” and “discriminatory” by a spokesperson for the Romanian community in Clare.

It is estimated that there are in the region of 200 Romanian nationals living in Clare at present, while the numbers of Bulgarian nationals is believed to be much lower.

“There are about 20,000 Romanian immigrants in Ireland and, while most are located in Dublin, there are thousands all over the country, including in Clare,” said Cezar Gaman of the Romanian Society of Ireland.

“We are quite offended by the decision and we hope that the Government will change its mind. We believe that it is very discriminatory compared to Polish people and people from other countries.

“It is not very realistic in any case because it will be impossible to police.”

The Immigrant Council of Ireland has also criticised the decision, describing it as “politically motivated” and accusing the Government of failing to take account of the positive impact that foreign workers have had on the Irish economy.

“Freedom of movement of workers is one of the key fundamental freedoms for EU citizens,” said a spokesperson for the immigrant council. “It is therefore essential that hard evidence and rational policies inform fundamental decisions such as the right of EU citizens to work in Ireland.”

THE judge who sentenced a young man to three years in jail for dangerous driving causing the deaths of two young Kilkee girls said the accident was “waiting to happen”.

Ennis Circuit Court heard that David Naughton was “rallying around” Kilkee, in the minutes leading up to the tragic crash which claimed the lives of Stacey Haugh and Lorna Mahoney, at Moyarta, Carrigaholt, on October 17, 2003.

Judge Con Murphy said there was “more than ample evidence that this young man was involved in a campaign of dangerous driving. It wasn’t just inadvertence that caused this DAVID Naughton is a young man who has lived “an extraordinary unstructured life,” deprived of family support from a very young age.

His sentencing hearing heard he has had little or no support from his parents who had separated. This was taken into account by the judge, in imposing sentence.

His barrister Martin Giblin said an “apology was not within his range accident, but a campaign of a long stretch of dangerous driving.”

Naughton (18), with addresses in London and Galway, was just one week short of his 16th birthday when he purchased an Opel Kadett car in Galway for €60.

He then drove to Kilkee with friends, picked up Stacey Haugh, her brother Karl and Lorna Mahoney, and headed for Carrigaholt. Naughton was driving, a friend was in the front, while Stacey, Karl and Lorna were in the back of the car.

Naughton overtook a car “very aggressively” between Kilkee and Carrigholt, at a speed of up to 80 mph.

He was unable to take the bend and of social skills,” and “running away was the result of a panic attack he suffered” in the aftermath of the accident.

Mr Giblin said Naughton had always denied driving dangerously, never set out to kill or injure anybody and now accepted he must be punished.

Naughton was born in the UK, where he had spent most of his short life.

He was brought to Westside House, hit a wall at Moyarta, Carrigaholt. The car crossed the road and hit a ditch on the opposite side. The girls lost their lives in the severe impact, while Karl was taken to hospital for emergency surgery. He survived. A short time earlier, gardaí received a complaint that Naughton was driving dangerously, at 60 mph, around the carpark of the Kilkee Bay Hotel.

Naughton told gardaí that he had been travelling at 55 mph and was blinded by lights of an oncoming car. Naughton – who had previously lived in Kilrush – said he had been driving in fields since he was 12.

Prior to the fatal accident, Naughton had no previous convictions. a unit for homeless adolescents in Galway by the social services in the UK, in June 2003, just four months before the accident.

Naughton’s father is from Galway, while his mother has spent some time living in Kilkee.

The court heard that Naughton had claimed he was sexually assaulted by a relative in the UK at a young age and that he had shown “clear signs of suicidal ideas” since the accident.

Mr Giblin said that while the famiThat subsequently changed, as he has since been convicted of a number of offences in the UK. His barrister Martin Giblin, SC, said the two girls asked Naughton to take them for a drive, but according to their families, he pressurised them into getting into the car.

“They weren’t grabbed by the scruff of the neck and thrown into the car,” said Mr Giblin.

Judge Murphy said the case was “most harrowing” and was on the “graver scale” of dangerous driving causing death. The three year sentence was backed to July 26, when Naughton was extradited from the UK to Ireland. lies of the deceased might believe he had run away to avoid the charges, the reality was he was “incapable of dealing with the stresses of what he had done, because of his upbringing.”

“He lacks the social skills to apologise. He doesn’t know how to do it. He ran away because he couldn’t cope.”

He said it was accepted that a 15year-old should not be behind the wheel of a car. “It’s like putting a loaded gun in his hand. Tragedy is bound to happen,” he said.

Several psychological reports relating to Naughton were presented to the court, one of which stated that he did not receive the necessary assistance from the social services, because he was “moving backwards and forwards” from the UK.

Another report stated that Naughton had a “vivid” recollection of the crash which killed two girls who he referred to as his “friends”.

He has had nightmares about the accident and never intends to visit the location of the crash.

Naughton had a clean record before he fled to the UK, but has since amassed a number of convictions.

His barrister said his behaviour was “post accident reaction for offences he wasn’t in the habit of committing before the accident.”

CLARE farming leader, Joe Carrick, has called for stiffer sanctions to be put in place against people who break the speed limit – including a system of fines based on income.

The Clare Macra na Feirme president also called for a graduated licence system which would only allow inexperienced drivers behind the wheel during daylight hours and would place an automatic ban for provisional drivers caught speeding.

“You should be fined in relation to what you earn,” said Mr Carrick. “A fine of €80 can mean the world for some people, but it is nothing at all to others. If you look at business executives, flying around from meeting to meeting, they would put down an €80 fine as a business lunch. It means nothing to them. You only ever have a driving test during the day time. I think that they should have tests at night time, or bring in a licence that only allows inexperienced drivers to drive in daylight hours.”

Speaking after a special road safety workshop organised as part of the Macra National Conference over the weekend, Mr Carrick also called for driving to be introduced as a subject in secondary schools.

“You have to learn from someone and education in schools is the best place to reach everyone. When you first get your provisional licence, you start to learn all of these bad habits. And then you try to lose them again before your test.

“Education would help people not to pick up the bad habits in the first place.

“If you are on a provisional licence and you are caught speeding, I would be in favour of an automatic ban. A car is not a toy, it is a deadly weapon and should be treated as such.”

Macra na Feirme launched a national road safety proposal last week calling for major overhauls to the current system.

“It is a big big problem. If you look at that village last week, there were five people killed out of a village of 200,” continued Mr Carrick. “A minute of madness can cause a lifetime of agony. That village will never get over that tragedy.”

Macra na Feirme have also proposed the introduction of a trainee license, which a person would be required to get before graduating to a provisional. This would involve young drivers only being allowed to drive while accompanied by a qualified driving instructor. After the completion of five lessons, the learner driver would then be eligible to apply for a provisional license.

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.

DRUGS seizures in Miltown Malbay and Killaloe over the past five days have been described as “significant” by gardaí in Clare.

Five hundred ecstacy tablets and a small quantity of cannabis, along with a stungun, were seized at an apartment in Killaloe on Friday night.

Some of the haul was recovered in the apartment, and the rest was located outside the dwelling. A man in his 30s was questioned at the scene. The drugs have been sent for analysis and a file is being prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Meanwhile, €1,000 worth of cannabis resin, a cannabis plant and a quantity of unidentified tablets were seized during searches of a business premises and two homes in Miltown Malbay on Thursday afternoon.

A 22-year-old man was arrested at the business premises and detained at Ennistymon Garda Station. He was released without charge later that night. A file is being prepared for the DPP, while the drugs will be sent to Dublin for analysis.

“This was part of an ongoing initiative, under Operation Anvil, the operation investigating crime and drug-related activity,” said a Garda spokesman.

Both searches were carried out by local gardaí, along with the Clare Garda Divisional Drugs Unit and the Garda Dog Unit from Limerick.

Separately, a man was found in possession of a bag of cannabis, at Twomilegate, Killaloe, on Thursday night. A 19-year-old woman was questioned, after a quantity of cocaine was seized in Sixmilebridge on Saturday night.

WATERWAYS Ireland is carrying out a series of inspections to ascertain whether cruise boat companies are complying with by-laws which prohibit the dumping of toilet waste into canals, rivers and lakes.

The move follows recent claims that a leading Irish cruise boat company told a customer to dump the contents of their on-board toilet into the River Shannon. Waterways Ireland has also said that this was the first complaint of its kind it had received but that it immediately launched an investigation. Clare County Council has also initiated a probe of the claims.

A Waterways Ireland spokesperson said the complaint was the first of its kind to come to their notice and an investigation was initiated immediately. They had also instigated a phased programme of inspection of vessels to ascertain the extent of non-compliance with the by-laws. However, Waterways Ireland said it would not necessarily prosecute the company at the centre of the allegations.

“If a customer is found to have breached the by-laws, Waterways Ireland would advise them of the breach. If the company rectifies the situation, Waterways Ireland would deem the matter settled. If the situation isn’t rectified then we would consider taking the matter further,” the spokesperson said.

According to the Shannon Navigation by-laws, “A toilet fitted to a vessel shall be so constructed and fitted as to prevent polluting matter from being discharged or passing into the navigation”.

Waterways Ireland provides pumpout facilities at some locations along the Shannon, others are provided and maintained by the relevant local authorities at other sites along the river.