Category: News

IN ONE of her final engagements before resigning as Tánaiste, Mary Harney praised Clarecastle’s highly skilled workforce after officially opening a new €5.4 million state of the art laboratory, at the Roche Ireland facility.

Ms Harney said the presence of a skilled labour pool, along with the company’s close community ties, were central to Roche success.

“The flexibility and commitment of the Irish workforce attracts companies like Roche to Clare and the mid-west. As people in Clarecastle know well, you don’t have to be in a big city to compete in big markets”

Managing Director John Liddy said, “We are fortunate to be well served by excellent schools and third level institutions in this region.”

The Clarecastle site was established in 1974 by thxe Syntex corporation and was acquired by Roche in 1994. Since then, Roche has pumped €200 million into the Clarecastle site which now produces final products and intermediaries for a wide range of health care products. The plant currently employs 240 people, 75 per cent of whom have third level qualifications. Mrs Harney said this figure underlined Roche’s importance to the region.

“We are very much moving into an era of fourth level education. The Government plans to double the amount of PhD holders so we continue to develop our knowledge based economy”

She was joined at the opening by the Chargé d’Affaires of the Swiss Embassy, the honourable Mr Ernst Balzili, Dr Jan van Koeveringe, head of Roche worldwide pharmaceutical manufacturing, Mayor of Clare Flan Garvey and Mayor of Ennis Joe Reidy.

SERIOUS concerns were raised last night about about Clare’s economic future within an enlarged Enterprise Ireland.

Former Clare TD Madeleine Taylor-Quinn was critical of the Government decision allowing the State company take over from Shannon Development, claiming Clare would have to compete for industry with more counties, as part of the enlarged agency.

The Fine Gael general election candidate said responsibility for the area should not be transferred to Enterprise Ireland in its current format.

She argued that the Shannon Free Airport Development Company Organisation (Shannon Development) was effective as an instrument of regional development.

“The Government have done another u-turn. It seems that there is no logical planning within the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, and jobs within SFADCO (Shannon Development) and throughout the region are being treated in a haphazard manner.

“Why is this Government intent on dismantling all the structures in this region that are vital and essential to the future development of the area?” she asked.

“It seems to be the case of divide and conquer, while the region and county becomes the sacrificial lamb,” Cllr Taylor-Quinn said.

Shannon Development was remaining tightlipped yesterday evening as news broke that the IDA was no longer to take over its mandate in the Shannon Free Zone.

When contacted by The Clare People , the development company said it had no comment to make on the minister’s apparent change of heart, or his decision to sign over its responsibility for home grown industry to Enterprise Ireland on December 31.

CLARE County Council is making moves to provide relief to entrepreneurs unable to afford massive rents for commercial spaces in Clare’s rural towns.

At the Council’s Special Policy Committee on Economic Development yesterday, chairman, Richard Nagle (FF) said that rents up to €100,000 a year are being sought from young entrepreneurs.

Cllr Nagle said: “They cannot afford these leases and that is why the Council has moved to make sites available.

Senior Planner, Liam Conneally said the Council passed a motion at its July meeting to acquire land in towns to provide sites to facilitate the start-up of small business. As a result, he has since been liaising with area engineers in the electoral areas in a bid to identify sites and the Council has also been in contact with Shannon Development to establish where vacant commercial space exists.

“The council wishes to work proactively in this issue and that includes adding lands to be zoned for commercial use. Purchasing lands will be a matter for the council,” he said.

SPC member, PJ Ryan asked was the Council proposing to subsidise the rent or sale of sites.

In response, Director for Economic Development, Bernadette Kinsella said the council was at an early stage in this process and a funding mechanism had to be decided.

Cllr Patrick Keane (FF) said: “I can’t envisage the Council subsidising sites. The Council doesn’t have the funds. It is not the Council’s job to provide subsidies. The Council can zone the land for commercial use”.

Cllr Nagle – who brought the motion before the Council’s July meeting – said that to charge €100,000 a year was totally impractical and occupied industrial sites were needed to keep small towns alive.

“The only way sites can be leased is that if they are at a reasonable cost. What we are talking about here are one and two-person businesses,” he added.

THE grief-stricken Royal Russian Circus opened in Ennis on Thursday, for the first time since one of its performers lost his life at a show in Scariff.

More than 300 circus fans visited the big top, which was the scene of the tragic accident just over a week before.

Vitaly Kharapavitski fell to his death as he performed the last trick in a comic air balloon act with his wife, Sasha.

The tragic Belarusian acrobat joined the circus last April with his wife of just one year. The 26-year-old was buried last week in Minsk.

The 35-member staff of the Royal Russian Circus was apprehensive about the first night’s performance, but all went to plan, according to the circus spokesperson.

Wayne Courtney said the show “went well in front of a very responsive crowd”.

He said that the circus was happy with the 300-strong attendance in the big top that holds a maximum of between 450 and 500 people.

The circus continued in the Ennis Showgrounds at Drumbiggle on Friday and Saturday, and finished with two large shows on Sunday before moving on to Galway.

Last week, Mr Courtney told The Clare People that performers risked their lives every time they stepped into the big top on show night, but there were very few accidents.

“While nobody was talking about their fears, I am sure that the accident was playing on the minds of the other trapeze artists,” he said.

PRIMARY school principals across Ennis yesterday railed against the reliance by the Department of Education on prefabs to address continuing accommodation difficulties for students.

A Clare People survey of Ennis primary schools found that there are over 1,000 school children being accommodated in 44 prefabs in the town’s schools.

The survey found that there are currently 16 prefabs in place at Ennis National School, 11 in place at Cloughleigh National School, eight prebabs at Ennis Educate Together, seven in place at the CBS primary school and two at the Holy Family School, where planning has recently been secured for a third.

School principal of Ennis Educate Together, Sean O’Comfhaola, said yesterday, “The lack of planning for the education of children now and into the future is criminal.”

Mr O’Comfhaola said, “We are at this site since 1998 and have not made any progress for a new school. There are two sites zoned for school use in the Ennis Development, but they are not available.”

Mr O’Comfhaola was supported by INTO spokesman, Declan Kelleher. He said, “Anyone who would have witnessed the growing numbers enrolling in Ennis schools over the past 15 years would have seen the demands that were being placed on Ennis schools. Why weren’t these demands acted upon?”

He said, “Someone, somewhere in the planning of primary schools in Ennis, stands indicted. It should never have got to this and there is a huge amount of catching up to do as the Ennis area has been totally neglected.”

At the CBS primary school, there are seven prefabs in place and school principal Br Liam de Roiste said, “I believe, economically speaking and from a common sense and forward planning point of view, that the prefabs are a terrible waste of precious money. If we want the best education for our children, it should be done in proper buildings, not prefabs.”

School principal of Scoil Chriost Ri, Pat Hanrahan, said, “Half the staff at the school here are in prefabs. There is no question of building a new school on this site. The site was never adequate.”

As Mr Hanrahan was speaking, the school was taking delivery of another prefab for the coming school year. He said, “We are hopeful that the school will have a new school building on a new site in time for the 2010 school year.”

THE Lahinch Community Council has targeted the Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell, and President Mary McAleese in a desperate appeal to end antisocial behaviour in the town.

In a strongly worded statement sent to hundreds of public representatives and the Garda last Friday, the community council described a situation where “people urinate, defecate, vomit and have sex” on the streets of Lahinch in the early hours of the morning.

The statement outlined the community council’s belief that the escalation of the public order problem in the village had resulted in a downturn in tourism with weekend golfing tourist particularly affected.

“Golf tour operators are saying that they will not place business in the village on weekends because of the debauchery they have witnessed on the streets,” the statement reads.

“Some people make more and more money while others see their businesses wither and die. The people who just like to play golf, enjoy the beach with their families and drink responsibly no longer want to come to Lahinch.”

The statement has prompted a sizeable response, with a number of public representatives already showing their support for the community council.

“We have received responses from the Department of Justice and a number of other agencies claiming that they will look into the situation,” said Mary Comber of the community council.

“Madeleine Taylor-Quinn contacted us, offered her total support and said that she had already made representatives to the Director of Services at Clare County Council, Clare Garda Chief Superintendent Liam Quinn and the Minister for Justice.”

According to the Community Council, the level of antisocial behaviour in Lahinch has increased dramatically this summer.

“Our windows are broken on a regular basis and our doors kicked in . . . our cars are deliberately and casually vandalised almost every night during the summer and large groups of drunk people roam the streets, lanes and promenade until the early hours of the morning, shouting and roaring, terrorising and intimidating anyone who tries to reason with them,” the statement continues.

The community council have also requested that a moratorium be placed on new holiday homes being built in the village until the situation has been resolved.

A SISTER of the principal of the Ennis Holy Family Senior School was the only Ennis resident, along with her husband, to voice opposition to rezoning that allowed the relocation of Ennis National School.

In all, Clare County Council received five submissions relating to its plans to rezone lands at Ashline, on the fringes of Ennis, to facilitate the relocation of the national school.

Submissions came from the Holy Family Senior School, the Department of Education and the Killaloe Diocesan Trust.

However, a fifth was lodged by Catherine and William Sweeney of Tobartaoscain, Ennis.

It emerged yesterday that Ms Sweeney was a sister of Ennis Holy Family Senior School principal, Margaret Cooney. The senior school is strongly opposed to the proposed relocation.

In their submission, Ms Sweeney and her husband point out that the present Ennis National School site will be lost to primary education in Ennis and that the present site is in a central location.

The Sweeneys also state that the present site is within convenient walking distance for many pupils and that its loss would lead to more traffic congestion and inconvenience, as pupils would require transport.

Ms Sweeney told The Clare People : “I have no problem with the national school relocating as long as the school’s existing site remains a site for a new school.

“The Department of Education has pointed out that the current national school site is a perfectly viable site for a school.

“The site is a fantastic resource and that it might be lost to the town of Ennis is the main reason we lodged our submission.

“There has been an enormous increase in children seeking places in Ennis schools and it would be very short-sighted if the National School site was lost to education and it would be a long-term loss for Ennis town.”

Ms Sweeney said that her decision to lodge the submission with her husband to the council was “not connected” to her sister’s job.

She said: “I am a very independent person and I am surprised that more people didn’t make submissions.

Ms Sweeney said that she and her husband were, “very, very interested in education.

We are both teachers and from our time in Dublin, we saw the effect that schools moving out of areas can have on those areas.

“It can change the dynamics in other schools and change the ethos and balance and I would hate to see that balance being lost.

However, in response to the Sweeney submission, Executive Planner, Bill Sansum said: “The present site is not necessarily lost to education as education remains as appropriate use in Proposal Site (the current Ennis National site) in the Plan.

“It is understood that a high proportion of pupils currently travel by car and this would be likely to remain the case at Cahercalla until such time as local bus services are introduced and a local community develops in the area.”

AS the election approaches, the Government parties are marking out territory and nowhere more so than in Clarecastle this week.

Just two days before she resigned as leader of the PDs and Tanaiste, Mary Harney was greeted by a picket made up not just of concerned citizens but politicians, including members of her Government partner’s party.

Fianna Fáil Senator Timmy Dooley joined in the protest organised by the Ennis General Hospital Development Committee to highlight concerns over the delay in the development of the hospital.

Asked if it was a conflict of interest in standing at the picket line as a member of government, Senator Dooley said, “It was in showing support for the development of the General Hospital that I stood with the non-aggressive ligatures.”

But there is a doubt as to whether Ms Harney agreed with Senator Dooley’s assessment as she said during her tour of Roche, “I, like Mayor Garvey, was quite taken with the colourful lampshades. They reminded me of a previous Government and, if my Oireachtas colleagues keep protesting the way they were, it could be the colour of a new one.”

Senator Dooley referred to the remarks as “tongue in cheek”.

Other comments made by the Minister were not taken in such a lighthearted manner however.

Comments by the minister questioning if the organised protest was an “animal welfare lobby or what”, led to an angered reaction room the hospital development committee.

PRO for the group, Councillor Brian Meaney, argued that while Minister Harney “may want the hospital to go to the dogs, the people of Ennis are not animals.”

He claimed the comments caused great hurt to the people on the protest, “many who owe their lives, or the lives of relatives, to the accident and emergency service in Ennis General Hospital.”

THE town of Ennis was described as an “educational black-spot” yesterday by a school principal as it emerged that up to 25 children are without a school in the town due to lack of space.

Making the charge, school principal of the Ennis Educate Together school, Sean Ó Comfhaola revealed that in the past week he has had to turn away between 20 and 25 children searching for a school in the Ennis area.

“This is an emergency situation. They are mostly foreign children and are not just junior infants, but kids looking for school places in first, second and third class. A few of the children have been back to us a second time after not finding a place elsewhere in Ennis,” he said.

Mr Ó Comfhaola said, “One of the toughest things I have ever had to do as principal was in the past week where a young Brazilian girl and her mother came looking for a place for the girl.

“The mother had no English, so it was up to the daughter to ask for a place in first or second class and I had to say ‘no, sorry we’re completely full’. She said that she had been around to every school and getting no place. I couldn’t tell the mother where to go, there is nowhere where they can register and as a result, we don’t know what has become of these people.

“The parents from eastern Europe come from a system that is quite organised and they can’t understand why there wouldn’t be schooling for their children,” he said.

Commenting on the situation, Fine Gael TD, Pat Breen said, “Everyone has a right to be educated and to be facilitated with a proper education, so it saddens me to hear that there are children going without one.”

THE show must go on for the 35 shocked staff of the Royal Russian Circus as they prepare for their first performance since the tragic death of their colleague in Scariff last week.

Vitaly Kharapavitski fell to his death as he performed the last trick in a comic air balloon act with his wife Sasha. More than 300 people, the majority of whom were children, witnessed the accident.

A spokesperson for the circus, Wayne Courtney, told The Clare People that performers risked their lives every time they stepped into the Big Top on show night.

The circus folk have not slept for nights as they have been coming to terms with the horrific death of the quiet and friendly performer, he added.

The tragic Belarusian joined the circus last April with his wife of just one year. The couple were making plans to take a year out to have a baby but, instead, on Sunday, Sasha along with grief-stricken family members, buried 26-year-old Vitaly in Minsk.

Back in Ennis, the late performer’s colleagues were setting up in the Showgrounds in Ennis and researching their acts in an attempt to overcome the trauma of the previous week.

“I would hate people to think that we didn’t care,” said General Manager and spokesperson for the circus, Mr Courtney, “But we have so many staff and we have all the animals to feed and care for.”

“It is the same as a factory or shop or any other business, you have to open up again.”

The Royal Russian Circus postponed the weekend shows scheduled for Ennis and are now preparing to open the Ennis performance on Thursday.

“The last few days have been like coming out of a haze. Nobody could sleep,” said Mr. Courtney.

“This is the first time they (circus staff) have experienced something like this. It has never happened in the living memory of any of the people here.”

“In my recollection, there have been broken bones but no fatalities.

“This is amazing when you take into account the number of dangerous acts.”

Mr Courtney said had the young performer fallen three or four seconds later he “would have been out of the position” and probably got away with a few broken bones.

The circus spokesperson said while no one was talking about their fears for the next performance, he was sure that the accident is playing on the minds of the other trapeze artists.