Category: News

STIFFER penalties should be imposed on people who commit air rage on board flights, according to pilots’ union IALPA.

IALPA (Irish Airline Pilots’ Association) spokesman Conor Nolan was speaking to The Clare People in the wake of a one month sentence being imposed on a Polish man, for his antics on board a Centralwings flight into Shannon last Friday week.

Szczepan Drzewiecki, drank almost a full litre bottle of vodka, before hitting out at other passengers.

He tried to break the window of the plane, as it flew from Warsaw to Shannon.

The father-of-three, who was travelling to Ireland to start work in the construction industry, pleaded guilty to three offences.

He admitted being intoxicated on board the plane, engaging in abusive behaviour on the plane and failing to cease engaging in abusive behaviour, when requested to do so by a crew member, contrary to the Air Navigation and Transport Act, on March 24.

The Inspector, Tom Kennedy, said this case was “above and beyond the circumstances outlined in previous cases.”

The court was told the maximum term that could be imposed – for the offences before the court – was four months.

“Why didn’t he get four? That would be our question. The penalties there should be imposed,” said Mr Nolan.

“There doesn’t seem to be a sufficient deterrent to people to do this [commit air rage],” he said.

He also said “more specific aviation legislation” should be enforced, to address the issue.

“A judge has to deal with an air rage prosecution, as he would some row outside a chipper and it doesn’t necessarily represent the seriousness of it.

“There have been serious prosecutions, but they have not led to air rage convictions per se”.

He said that quite often, alcohol was consumed before boarding an aircraft.

“This needs to be looked at. We want everybody in the chain to be vigilant at all times. It’s an issue that needs to be addressed industrywide,” he said.

This was echoed by Drzewiecki’s solicitor, William Chair, who told the court that while he didn’t wish to excuse his client’s behaviour in any way, that “airline crews should be looking out for signs such as my client displayed.”

Centralwings, which commenced its route between Shannon and Warsaw in November, declined to comment on the incident, despite requests from The Clare People.

THE MONEYPOINT power plant is at the centre of another industrial row today after a subcontractor at the plant tried to send five Polish workers home.

One of the men – a TEEU shop steward – was the “whistle blower” who revealed recently that Polish workers were being paid just €5.20 and hour to work on the €350 million refurbishment programme at the power station.

The men were working for ZRE Katowice, one of the main subcontractors on the Moneypoint site.

They were entitled under the Registered Employment Agreement to be paid €18.97, plus premium rates for overtime.

The company told the men that their contracts of employment were not being renewed.

When the union became aware that the 26-year old shop steward and his four colleagues were to be flown home from Shannon at 5pm yesterday, it intervened.

TEEU Regional Secretary, Pat Guilfoyle said that after successfully intercepting the workers, the union secured a commitment from Lurgi-Lentjes, the main contractor on site, that it would instruct ZRE that the rights of the men to remain in Ireland must be respected. The ZRE workers are to meet today to hold a strike ballot on the company’s actions. The TEEU secretary said that as far as the union was concerned, “this is a straight forward case of victimisation of trade union activists.”

There is also strong support among workers in the power station for the five and TEEU shop stewards are meeting tomorrow to assess the situation. The union has asked for a meeting with ZRE, but the company said the earliest it could meet would be Wednesday.

The ESB said it was dealing with the situation as a matter of urgency.

ENNISTYMON woman Aloma McKay is in the running to become one of the most powerful women in rural Ireland.

She is campaigning to become the president of the Irish Country Woman’s Association.

Mrs McKay, who has been a member of the Ennistymon guild of the ICA since 1992, will be up against Peg McMeel from Dublin and Carmel Dawson from Carlow, when the voting takes place later this month.

Mrs McKay believes that a number of challenges in her life have prepared her for the election campaign and her responsibilities as president, should she be successful.

“It is a difficult and demanding position, but I enjoy a challenge,” said Mrs McKay, who came to live in Clare, in 1989.

“We were only here for six months when my husband died and left me with six young children in a foreign country.

“I am also a team player and I work well with others.”

American by birth, she settled with her family in the Ennistymon area. She hopes to use her cosmopolitan background to help improve the image of the ICA, which has, in some quarters an image of being old fashioned.

“The people who have negative images of the ICA, or who think that it is old fashioned, are usually people who have never been involved in it,” she said.

“We now live in a multicultural country. Ireland is moving with the times and the ICA is moving with it.”

Aloma has held many offices, both locally and nationally in the ICA. She served as secretary of the Ennistymon branch from ‘92-’95, chairman of the National Arts Committee from 2001-2003 and the Federation President between 2000 and 2003.

THE future of essential infrastructural requirements in Clare will largely be determined by the data collected in the forthcoming Census.

That’s according to officials from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) who have begun issuing forms to households, institutions and businesses around Clare ahead of the Census on April 23.

“The statistics gathered from the Census are essential for detailing the requirements for health care, education and employment. The greatest strength of the census is the provision of detailed population figures at local level. These help to identify such things as the demand for hospitals and schools and it is of vital importance that we have all our people counted” said Kieran O’Loughlin, a field supervisor for the greater Ennis area.

About 1.5 million census forms are expected to be sent to homes throughout the State. In the Ennis area, it is expected that the forms will be sent to around 6,000 households, but precise figures are unknown.

Every person residing in the State on the night of the Census must be included in the form. This includes people staying with friends or relatives, staying in institutions, hotels and on board vessels. Householders and those responsible for institutions, must complete the forms in respect of every adult and child present on census night.

Not only will the census determine the demographic make-up of the population, it will also chart housing and employment trends. The forms will be translated into eleven languages and for the first time ever, will feature specific questions about a persons’ ethnic and cultural background. Census forms are also available in Braille and audio formats.

The census is the first since 2002, which recorded a population of 3.9 million, of which about 6 per cent were foreign nationals. Officials have predicted that the results may show that up to 10 per cent of the population are foreign nationals.

AFTER more than eight years of campaigning the Doolin Coastguard finally looks set to receive a new base of operation.

Discussions between the Office of Public Works (OPW) and a local land owner are moving into the final stages.

According to Matty Shannon of the Doolin Coastguard, the exact location and size of the site has been finalised. He is confident that work on the base will commence in the near future.

“It has reached the final stage of discussion between the OPW and the landowner,” said Mr Shannon. “The site has been finalised and we also know the size of the base.”

The Coast Guard’s new facilities came up for discussion is the Dáil last week following a parliamentary question by Clare TD, James Breen (Ind).

Responding to the question, Transport Minister, Martin Cullen said, “I regard the provision of a new station house for the Doolin coastal unit as a very high priority.

HEROIN is gripping the people of Clare at an alarming rate with more than 100 people using the drug and half of these, addicted.

Addiction counsellor in the midwest, Mark Campbell said more than 50 people in the county were receiving counselling, as a result of heroin over-dependency.

“In the last 12 months there has been a significant increase in the number of addicts. Fifty people in Clare access this service. There are at least 100 users of heroin in Clare. All of those might not be dependant. The 50 who come here would have a dependency,” he said.

Mr Campbell, who has worked in Clare for four years, said the problem had become increasingly prevalent in the past two years.

“There is quite an increase in the number of users. It is more available now than it was two years ago,” he said.

“It becomes the main thing in people’s lives and can tear families apart. All addicts think about is their next fix,” he said.

He said the symptoms experienced by heroin addicts were comparable to the flu, but were “100 times” worse.

“Everybody who uses heroin isn’t necessarily an addict, but for those who become addicted, it becomes a physical dependence and they would do almost anything to get their hands on it.”

According to Mr Campbell, addicts range from their mid 20s to their mid 30s. The majority are males.

He said teenagers tended to fear the dangers of heroin, whereas some older adults did not have such qualms.

He believes they delve in the drug, out of curiosity. Good family support can help wean people off it.

“It is very much to do with curiosity. They like the effect and then try it again . . . and again. People who depend on alcohol tend to develop a dependency on heroin,” he said.

GORT could face into an economic crisis unless a second entrance to the town is built into the new bypass, a public meeting has heard.

Some 200 people attended the meeting, which was organised by Grace (Gort Regional Alliance for Community and Environment).

It saw senior executives from National Roads Design Office, Galway County Council and the road’s designers answering questions from the floor.

“Most people left the meeting feeling very frustrated with the no, no, no response that they got,” a spokesperson for GRACE told The Clare People . “Our only option now is to prepare a submission to the Environmental Impact Statement.”

The deadline for such submissions is May second and if successful a representative from GRACE will be allowed to make his/her case for the second entrance, at an oral hearing.

“There will be a real bottle neck getting in to and out of the town. Mentally, if people have to go out of a town the same way that they come into the town, it will stop people from coming in at all,” continued the spokesperson.

“There is also a serious concern over the safety of pedestrians in the town, especially of Crowe Street and around O’Sullivan’s Hotel.”

A campaign has been in place in Gort concerning the proposed bypass since 2000. Initially, the focus was on increasing the bypass from a two carriageway road to a duel carriageway. However, the focus switched in

2002 when a new set of plans pro-

vided for a dual carriageway but left

only one entrance/exit to Gort.

Heroin, one of the most feared illegal drugs, has taken a grip in Clare, according to top gardaí.

Detectives have disclosed that the drug has spread to rural parts of the county.

They’ve even established that the average age of heroin addicts in Clare is 31 years old.

The local Garda drugs team has reported a big increase in the number of heroin seizures this year.

Members of the Clare Garda Divisional Drug Unit say that addicts are spending an average of €50 a day to feed their habits.

“It’s the speed at which people become addicted to heroin that is the most frightful aspect of it. Undoubtedly it is the most dangerous drug available to the people of Clare,” said Detective Garda Seamus McMahon, of the Clare Garda Divisional Drug Unit.

He said heroin, at €25 a deal was now cheaper than a €50 gram wrap of cocaine.

Clare people are getting their supply of the drug by travelling to Limerick and Dublin, and in some instances Galway or Cork.

“There is a perception that by smoking heroin, it won’t do any harm and that you won’t get addicted to it. This is not correct . . . heroin is an addictive substance and the likelihood of somebody kicking a heroin habit successfully is quite remote. Heroin addicts would have had a history of abusing other drugs, before using heroin,” he said.

Generally, users initially smoke heroin, before they start to inject.

“People who would normally have an objection to using needles and wouldn’t contemplate injecting any type of drug are using needles to inject heroin,” he said.

“The average age of people we know who are addicted to heroin is 31.5 years. This leads us to believe people are getting into abusing heroin, knowing what it is capable of doing,” he said.

“There is no urban/rural divide when it comes to heroin. Naturally enough, the majority of heroin users would be centred around Ennis, broadly speaking. We would be aware of people having difficulties with heroin all over the county,” he said.

“Heroin will feature on the seizures for 2006. It is too early to say what sort of an increase we will have this year, but we will have a significant increase,” he added.

“We are appealing to people not to try heroin as it could be that one time that would get you addicted and risk a lifelong addiction,” he said.

A CHURCH on the former site of Our Lady’s psychiatric hospital has been mooted as a possible location of worship for people of different religious faiths.

At yesterday’s annual monthly meeting of Ennis Town Council the suggestion was put forward that the use of St Mary’s Church should be explored as one option by members of religious organisations in Ennis who don’t have a suitable location to practice worship. A dispute between developers and the local community was recently settled with the agreement of a four year lease that safeguarded the future use of the building.

Councillors were debating a motion submitted by Councillor Taiwo Matthew (Ind) which requested that Ennis Town Council provide a designated area within the town where members of different religious affiliations could gather for worship.

“I am aware that there is a church on Our Lady’s. Ennis is a fast growing town with different cultures and races. If we are to look at extending the town boundary we need to take into account community development as well. There have been some cases where people have complained about people using houses to worship.”

The motion wasn’t passed but councillor’s advised that religious groups should identify a suitable location and engage in the pre-planning process. Director of Services with Ennis Town Council, Tom Coughlan stated that land for community use has been designated, but that it would be unwise for the council to engage in site acquisition when they weren’t aware of the exact requirements.

Councillor Peter Considine (FF) and Councillor Johnny Flynn both expressed their support for the use of Our Lady’s as a temporary location while Councillor Donal O’Beara (GP) said religious groups should prepare a submission for next year for a variation to the Ennis and Environs Development Plan.

AT LEAST ten members of a drugs gang were trying to peddle narcotics in an Ennis pub on Friday night, when undercover gardaí raided the premises.

A total of 75 ecstasy tablets were seized and four Dublin men arrested.

The Garda operation was part of an ongoing initiative, aimed at combating suspected drug dealing in licensed premises in Ennis.

“We believe at least 10 people were targeting this premises. It was organised,” said Ennis Superintendent, John Kerin.

Plain-clothes gardaí mingled with the crowd late on Friday night and bought a number of illegal drugs.

Reinforcements were called to the scene. The four Dubliners who were arrested under Section Two of the Drug Trafficking Act, were taken to Ennis Garda Station for questioning.

They were released on Saturday afternoon. A file is being prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Two of the men questioned are in their 20s and two in their 30s. The Clare People has learned that one of the four currently lives in north Clare.

Gardaí believe that a number of others were involved in the operation.

Supt Kerin said the Garda operation had been going on for some time.

“This operation has been going on for a number of months. We are pleased with how it went,” he said, adding that gardaí would be “looking to serve a closure order within a week” on the premises in question, unless the “house is in order.”

“We will have to be satisfied that drugs are not sold in there again,” said Supt Kerin.

In a separate, unrelated development, a small quantity of cannabis resin was seized by gardaí in Shannon on Saturday evening.

A car, occupied by two Limerick men was searched and the drugs were found.