Category: News

CLARE politicians have appealed to their Limerick city council colleagues to withdraw their application to extend the city boundary into Clare, in light of a statement from Minister Dick Roche during the week.

The Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, said he was not convinced that an expansion of the city boundary into Clare was an option, “given the attachment of the people in the area affected to their county”.

The minister was responding to an application by Limerick City Council to extend its boundary into counties Clare and Limerick, an application that has been opposed by the two county councils.

“As a first step, I propose to invite the three (Limerick city, Limerick county and Clare county) managers to meet with me, to see if a suitable process can be put in place.”

Senator Brendan Daly (FF) has now also called on the city council to withdraw its application to extend into Clare.

“There is no point in following this application, when the Minister has said it is not an option,” he said.

The senator said that if the application was withdrawn, it would show goodwill between Limerick City and Clare County Council, allowing a good working relationship to develop for the benefit of the people living in the 1,621 hectares in Clare under dispute.

Meanwhile, Fine Gael Deputy Pat Breen has accused the Minister of “fudging” the issue.

“The Minister has taken a long time to deliberate on this. He said at the Ógra conference that he would make a definite decision. I believe he has now fudged it.”

While welcoming the Minister’s indication that the boundary should not be extended into Clare, Deputy Breen said, the issue had “not gone off the agenda unfortunately”.

Limerick City Manager Tom Mackey told The Clare People that he expected to get notification of the meeting with the Minister and two county managers shortly.

Minister Roche said there were a number of options which should be explored by the three councils.

“These range from increased cooperation on a voluntary basis, formal co-operation/service provision across existing boundaries, possible changes to the boundaries between the two Limerick authorities, right up to novel institutional arrangements, which could apply across the whole metropolitan area – for example in the area of planning.

“I strongly believe however, that the maximum consensus on such issues should be arrived at locally, in advance of any direction from central government,” he added.

CLARE County Council has granted planning permission for a €40 million development that is set to transform the village of Clarecastle.

The council has granted planning to Tom Lavelle and Adrian Callanan for 92 new homes, 25 commercial units and a crèche on Clarecastle’s Main Street.

Clarecastle member of Clare County Council, Bernard Hanrahan (FF) said, “The development will bring the heart back into Clarecastle. The village’s Main Street has suffered in recent years with shop closures, but this development will bring life into the village.

Councillor Hanrahan said that the proposed development “will make Clarecastle more like a town, but we don’t want to lose its village identity, but this is a very progressive development”.

“Progress in Clarecastle has been held up because there has been no bypass, but that is all about to change.”

The decision by the council coincides with plans being lodged by CLS Crystal Partner Ltd for 219 residential units at Clareabbey, Clarecastle.

The development includes 72 semidetached homes, 21 terraced homes, 22 townhouses and 104 apartments in three residential blocks.

Cllr Hanrahan said, “It is inevitable and welcome that these lands around Clareabbey are to be developed because of the ease of access on to the Ennis bypass.”

The zoning of large parcels of land for residential housing in and around Clarecastle and the provision of infrastructure through a Serviced Land Initiative (SLI) has made the area a target for developers.

Allied to the zoning is the opening of the Ennis by-pass next year which will open up further areas of land and make Clarecastle a more attractive place to live with the by-pass marking the end of grid-lock in the area.

In relation to the Lavelle/Callanan development, the Council granted planning permission having regard to the area zoned as a local service centre and the high quality layout, design and finishes at an important gateway.

It granted planning permission having regard to the nature, scale and intended use of the site, the policies of the County Development Plan and pattern of development, it will not seriously injure amenities and not be prejudicial to public health.

The Council state that the development will not have a significant negative impact on the area.

A SHANNON-based garda has appeared in court, accused of committing a public order offence.

Garda Pat Keating (33), with an address at Woodlands, Cahercalla, Ennis, is accused of engaging in disorderly conduct, at Shannon Knights carpark, Tullyvarraga, Shannon, on March 13, 2004.

At Ennis District Court last Friday, solicitor Daragh Hassett, acting as agent for Garda Keating’s solicitor, said he was seeking a date for the case to be heard.

“It will take at least three hours. There will be a very lengthy cross examination,” said Mr Hassett.

Inspector Michael Gallagher said the State was ready to go ahead with the case. He indicated that there would be twelve State witnesses. Mr Hassett said there would be at least three defence witnesses.

Mr Hassett said the accused had only received five statements from State witnesses and would be seeking statements from the others.

Inspector Gallagher said the accused should liaise with the superintendent in Kilrush on that matter.

The case will be heard later in the month.

ONE of two teenagers accused of involvement in a crime spree in Kilrush last week has claimed he has been threatened in a detention centre.

The 17-year-old said he was threatened in St. Patrick’s Institution, where he was been held in connection with damage to two houses and four cars in the John Paul Estate.

His solicitor asked Ennis District Court last Friday that his client be transferred to another place of detention.

The teenager, who cannot be named because of his age, and his co-accused, John Casey junior (19), of Crawford Street, Kilrush, are both charged with six offences, arising out of alleged incidents, after 2am on April 4.

At Ennistymon District Court last Wednesday, gardaí successfully opposed bail for the pair, because of the “seriousness of the charges”.

Both appeared again at Ennis District Court on Friday, where solicitor, Eugene O’Kelly, detailed the claim made by the 17-year-old.

“We are consenting to a remand, but we are requesting that he not be sent to St. Patrick’s Institution . . . He has been threatened on numerous occasions,” he said.

He told Judge Joseph Mangan that his client had made several complaints to the governor there and he was told to bring it to the attention of the court.

“If there is a problem with St. Patrick’s, I can’t administer St. Patrick’s. If you conceive that your client has problems, you can communicate with the Minister. If that is not satisfactory, you can go to the High Court,” said Judge Joseph Mangan.

He remanded the accused to St. Patrick’s Institution and refused bail for Casey.

In opposing an earlier bail application last Wednesday, Detective Garda Michael McDonagh said John Casey did “not have regard for law and order in Kilrush.”

“I believe Mr Casey is capable of approaching a witness. I have no doubt about that,” he said.

“The injured parties are in a vulnerable state. For their own safety, we would strongly object to Mr Casey getting bail here today,” he added.

Defending solicitor, Tara Godfrey, said her client, who was unemployed and lived with his mother, had “never been convicted of threatening or attempting to tamper with a witness.”

Both accused will appear again in court later in the month.

A CLARE punter has scooped almost €700,000 tipping the top 10 national hunt horses for the season.

Brian Munnelly, a meteorologist at Shannon Airport, placed a €16 bet in the UK ‘totetentofollow competition’ winning €689,000 after the Grand National on Saturday.

Ironically, it was a horse with strong Clare connections and winner of the Grand National, Numbersixvalverde that helped the 60-year old to scoop the prize.

Speaking from his home in Shannon town last night, Mr Munnelly said: “I was leading the competition going into the Grand National and didn’t have any horse running in the race, but the man coming second had backed ‘Hedgehunter’, which of course finished second in the race to Numbersixvalverde.”

If ‘Hedgehunter’ had won the National, Mr Munnelly would have lost out but in the end, he won by one solitary point after leading the competition since Christmas.

The single man said that he intends to use the majority of the winnings to buy a property in Dublin where he has spent most of his life.

Due to retire later this year, the Wexford-born man said: “I have spent 30 to 40 years of my life in Dublin and I’m looking forward to returning there when I retire.”

“I don’t expect any big change to my life. I won’t be going too wild with my winnings and buying big cars or anything like that.”

He said he plans to settle on the northside of Dublin where his parents hail from. “I won’t be too ambitious in the home I will be purchasing.”

Mr Munnelly found out that he had won the competition 20 minutes after the Grand National. He said: “I did not have a horse in the National so I was sweating,” he said.

The champion tipster put his success down to luck and a lifetime of watching horse racing.

“I have been going to Cheltenham for the last 35 years and I watch a lot of racing and I’ve got a lot of knowledge from it, so it’s time it paid off,” he said

Advising would-be punters, Mr Munnelly said: “Do your research and be lucky.”

The ‘totetentofollow’ works in a similar way to fantasy football with contestants picking 10 horses to follow throughout the season.

Each horse picks up points for winning races with bonus points available for winning prestigious races such as the Cheltenham Gold Cup or the Grand National.

Among Mr Munnelly’s successful tips were Irish pair War of Attrition and Brave Inca, winners of the Gold Cup and Champion Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival last month.

CLARE County Council is to lodge an application with the Department of the Marine for up to €2 million in funding to allow it extend Doolin pier and dredge the local harbour.

The council says the works are necessary in order to upgrade the increasingly busy Doolin harbour, where four ferry operators are located in the peak Summer months.

The Department of Community, Gaeltacht and Rural Affairs has already committed to providing substantial funding to the €4 million project, according to County Engineer, Tom Carey.

Minister Eamon O’ Cuiv’s department could provide up to €2 million for the scheme, if matching funds are found. Mr Carey said the remaining shortfall was too much for the council to bridge, so it would apply instead to the Department of the Marine.

Mr Carey said that the council had been unsuccessful in the past in persuading Marine to provide the funding, because the department’s main focus lay with fishing harbours.

But, Mr Carey said that the council would be stressing the importance of the facilities at Doolin to the local fishing industry.

“We are hoping that the department will revisit their earlier decision,” said Mr Carey.

Mr Carey said that the council had already spent €120,000 on a geo-technical survey to see how the safety problems identified in transferring passengers from the pier to the ferry boats, at medium and low tides, could be addressed.

He said that progress had also been made on plans to progress visitor facilities for passengers at Doolin. He said these would cost in excess of €1 million.

In addition, some improvements had been made to plans unveiled eighteen months ago to establish a terminal for all companies operating out of Doolin.

“We are continuing to work on the plan and have had some fresh thoughts which have improved the proposals.

“We now hope to show these proposals to the people on whose lands we hope to locate the building. The Office of Public Works (OPW) has also entered the fray with their plans to build a station for the local coastguard unit, so there is a good bit happening in the background.”

Mattie Shannon of the Doolin Community Harbour Co-op welcomed the council’s initiative.

“Unfortunately, the Council has been refused by the Department of the Marine before, but now there are six fishing licenses that could operate out of Doolin. This issues needs to be pushed more.”

MUCH needed shower and toilet facilities should be in place in Lahinch by the beginning of the 2007 tourist season according to local Fine Gael Councillor, Martin Conway.

The town has been lacking in toilet facilities for the last number of years and plans are in the pipeline to construct shower facilities along with new toilets on the promenade, in a area believed to be close to the Seaworld building.

These plans are in response to the growing number of surfers who come to the village each week. With the numbers travelling to Lahinch to surf each week currently estimated to be in the region of 300 people, it has become big business and the town where three surf schools and a surf shop ow operate.

The toilet and showers facilities will not only allow bathers and surfers to wash after the water but it will also allow surfers to clean their equipment after surfing and protect it from the expensive damage that can be incurred from the salt water.

“Surfing is now big business for county Clare with thousands of people coming from all over the country to surf in Lahinch, winter and summer. Lahinch is benefiting enormously from surfers who come 52 weeks of the year,” said Cllr Conway.

“In the region of €90,000 was collected in car parking charges alone last year and a significant amount of this revenue was generated from surfers. It is shameful to think that they cannot even have a cold shower after coming out of the water.”

The news has also been welcomed by Tom Buckley, owner of the Lahinch Surf Shop.

“We have been looking for facilities like these for year,” said Mr Buckley. “Every time a politician came knocking on the door during an election we mentioned it but noone seemed to take any notice.

“It is about time that Clare County Council start to put some of the money that is raised from parking along the promenade back into the town.”

Cllr Conway has also expressed his hope that the facilities will be delivered sooner rather then later and also commented that shower facilities are needed in other beaches such as Spanish Point and Fanore.

“More and more local people from the parish and from all over county Clare are surfing on a regular basis and it is embarrassing that no showers are available,” concluded Cllr Conway.

THE Minister for Transport, Martin Cullen, has rejected the findings of a recent IBEC survey that the “Open Skies” aviation deal could result in companies exiting Clare and the Mid-West region.

He said he could see no reason why companies in the mid-west would be forced to relocate as a result of the new regime.

“The additional access to the US, as well as the increased numbers of US tourists into Ireland, will greatly benefit Irish tourism, aviation and business links generally in all parts of the country,” he said, in response to a Dáil question from Clare TD James Breen (Ind).

Minister Cullen rejected a further call from Deputy Breen to carry out an economic impact study into Open Skies.

In a survey published by the employers group last month, one in five companies based in the Mid-West said they would consider exiting Ireland, if there was a substantial reduction in flights arising from the forthcoming Open Skies arrangement.

Open Skies is due to commence in November, with the ratio of Dublin/ Shannon flights to the US, changing from 1:1 to 3:1 in favour of Dublin before an outright Open Skies regime starts in April 2008.

According to the IBEC report, the 30 per cent drop will cost the tourist sector along the west of Ireland €75 million each year and result in a 10 per cent drop in airport revenue.

Twenty five companies surveyed agreed that a substantial reduction in US services at Shannon “could trigger decisions to relocate the company from Ireland.

“A serious reduction in connectivity could, in the medium to long-term, affect future investment, with knockon implications for employment and the sustainability of facilities in the west,” the report states.

The Shannon Airport Authority (SAA) is anticipating a 30% drop from the existing 700,000 passengers on transatlantic routes.

Management of one of the largest companies in the Shannon Free Zone, US owned Avocent International employing 150 people, warned that access problems on US routes would effect future commitments to Irish operations.

BANKING competition in Ennis has moved up a notch with the official opening today of the Bank of Scotland.

And while the move received a warm welcome from the Chamber of Commerce’s, its Executive Officer, Rita McInerney has called for more support through the planning process to ensure that retailers are encouraged into Ennis to balance big chains like the banks.

Ennis is the 11th branch to open of the 46 branch network that the Bank of Scotland intends to achieve over the next year. This will be the first

completely new retail banking net work in more than a century.

The new bank will operate longer than usual opening hours, starting at 9am Monday to Saturday and staying open until 5pm on weekdays and noon on Saturday. Ms Chrissy Quinn, Head of Retail Banking at Bank of Scotland said the banks is “delighted to officially open the Ennis branch” and she thanked the Mayor of Ennis, Cllr Frankie Neylon, for agreeing to perform the official opening.

Rita McInerney said that the Chamber “welcomes the opening of the bank. It shows confidence in the economy of Ennis as a regional town.”

But Ms McInerney expressed the Chamber’s concern “that a good balance between retail and services be kept. The bank is in a good location, as it is close to existing banks, but we would be concerned that more retail businesses be encouraged to come in and keep the town centre alive.”

The Chamber’s CEO said that the organisation would like to see greater assistance given to prospective retail businesses at the planning stage.

“We need good pre-planning meetings, with proper note taken of what is discussed and agreed. Retailers thinking of investing in Ennis need to know what restrictions might apply in terms of things like site and architecture. We need to keep the balance between services, chains and individual retailers,” she said.

The Ennis branch is managed by Ciara Flynn, who is joined by Diarmuid Kelly, Mortgage Advisor and staff Claire Keane, Suzi McMahon, Mary Gilmore and Pauline Casey. Head of Retail Banking at the Bank of Scotland, Chrissy Quinn, said that customers “will see and experience a real difference.”

MORE than 200 women in Clare are estimated to have opted for elective Caesarean sections last year.

According to the Tánaiste and Minister for Health Mary Harney, 44.8 per cent of Caesarean sections performed in the country’s public hospitals in 2005 were elective.

The Minister was responding to a question by Clare Deputy James Breen (Ind).

She informed him that a new collating system, allowing separate classification of elective and emergency sections, was not available before 2005.

Last month The Clare People revealed that 27 Clare women who gave birth in the National University Hospital Galway, opted for an elective Caesarean section.

One in three Clare women giving birth in the Regional Maternity Hospital, Limerick also had a caesarean section. But it is unknown exactly how many were classified as emergency and how many were elective.

According to the Perinatal Statistics for 2002, the Caesarean section rate in Irish hospitals increased by 72 per cent in less than a decade. In 2005, 30 percent of births in the Regional Maternity Hospital, Limerick were be c-section.