Category: News

COUNCIL officials came under fire yesterday from councillors in the Ennis electoral area, over the poor condition of the town’s roads and footpaths. Councillors took the opportunity at yesterday’s Ennis electoral area meeting to grill senior engineering staff over a number of issues relating to roads in and around the Ennis area.

In total, councillors submitted six submissions concerning road conditions in the county capital with the issue of a footpath for the Quin Road high on the agenda.

Responding to a motion submitted by Councillor Joe Carey (FG), Senior Executive Engineer, Hugh McGrath, confirmed that construction work on a footpath that would connect the Quin Road with the Bruach na hAbhainn housing estate, would be completed in a number of weeks.

But he was unable to say when suitable pedestrian access would be provided over the railway, which was now an issue for the road design office of Clare County Council.

This prompted sceptical remarks from councillors who said that the issue had been shelved for too long.

“We seem to be welcoming this work for a long time now, I thought we were looking at this to be done last year,” said Cllr Peter Considine (FF) who added that the road design office “wasn’t the safest place to leave the proposal”. Cllr Sonny Scanlon (FG) commented that the situation was “frightening” given the amount of people that used the bridge over the railway line. Mr McGrath said that the council was considering a number of proposals including the construction of a stand alone foot bridge.

There was also heated debate over the condition of the Ballybeg road with councillors demanding to know why the situation regarding the installation of a sewerage pipe had yet to be addressed. Cllr Tommy Brennan (Ind) accused the council of refusing to meet with developers to reach a compromise over the installation of the pipe.

“It’s been thrown around like snuff at a wake. Someone from either Ennis Town Council or Clare County Council needs to bring the developers together. No one wants to take a decision,” he said.

This was refuted by Mr McGrath who confirmed that €300,000 had been set aside for development work on the road, which would only begin once the final stage of the sewerage scheme had been completed for which additional funding might be required.

He added that a structural review of roads in the Ennis area would take place once work on the Ennis bypass was completed.

A 38-year-old woman who has been involved in a rejuvenation scheme for the John Paul housing estate in Kilrush yelled at gardaí, calling them “a shower of c**** and b*******.”

The incident occurred when Geraldine Rogers, of 7 Willow Green, Kilrush, came home from a hen party to discover her car had been vandalised.

Garda O’Herlihy told the Kilrush District Court that the accused had a lot of drink taken at the time. “She told us we don’t pull the ones that need pulling,” said the garda.

She went in to her home, before she returned and screamed at the gardaí, he said.

Defending solicitor Eugene O’Kelly said his client had never been in trouble before.

He said this type of behaviour was out of character and the garda agreed with this.

“She was agitated by the damage done to her car,”said Mr O’ Kelly.

The garda said someone had thrown a stone at her car earlier in the night. Mr O’Kelly said the accused’s car had also been damaged previously. “There may have been some resentment because of the work done trying to help matters in the estate,” he said.

He stressed that his client had no animosity with the gardai and that she worked with Garda O’Herlihy for many years in the rejuvenation programme.

Judge Joseph Mangan was told the accused has no previous convictions. He adjourned the case to allow a professional report on drug and alcohol abuse to be carried out.

THE lack of customs checks on some flights into Shannon Airports is of huge concern and must be rectified, according to Clare independent TD, James Breen. He was speaking after Finance Minister Brian Cowen revealed that 17 flights passing through the airport last year were not subjected to custom controls.

Deputy Breen said that because the drug culture was a huge threat, every effort must be made to prevent drugs being imported.

“I would be very concerned. The drug culture is so large now, no chances can be taken. There has to be full cover at all times. Those drug barons know every trick in the trade,” he said.

He said various seizures of drugs in Clare in recent months must be welcomed, but warned that drugs were getting through.

“We can take no chances in our airports. There must be more cover. We have to address the reasons people are getting drugs,” he said.

Sixty five kilos of drugs were discovered concealed in luggage at Shannon last year, while 14 weapons were seized. Almost 800,000 cigarettes were seized, which is a significant increase on less than 500,000 in 2004.

A spokesperson for the Revenue Commissioners accepted that Minister Cowen’s figures were factual, but said that customs staff would always be present to deal with any “risk” flights arriving at Shannon.

He said most flights were covered by customs staff and decisions made depend on the origin of the flight, combined with intelligence.

“The vast majority of flights are covered by rostered staff (full-time employees), who work on shifts between 6am and 11pm. Some flights are covered by non-rostered staff , who work between 11pm and 6am,” said the spokesman.

He said customs officers attended flights “as required” and if any information was received which would lead to a risk, adequate action was taken.

“All flights are monitored on a risk basis. We wouldn’t check every passenger on every flight.

“It depends on where it comes from – high risk areas or suspects are monitored in particular . . . drug and cigarette smugglers would be high risk,” he added.

“We have to apply risk analysis and other information,” he said.

A spokesperson for Shannon Airport confirmed that a sniffer dog was always available.

CLARE Library is celebrating a world-first after launching its Internet Geographical Information System.

The digitized maps on the Clare County Library Website will allow users to further investigate local studies and genealogical information.

By clicking on a townland marked on a map, all related information (census records, Griffith’s Valuation, photographs, trade directories and so on) will be presented.

Clicking on a monument feature, such as a castle, tower house or round-tower, will make everything in the library’s extensive Website about each of these features instantly available.

The maps will also provide and demonstrate new relationships between existing data on the site, and users will be able to use feature-layers produced from the maps as a new search facility.

Over 6,000 images were created as ‘tiles’ from original scans of the 1842 Ordnance Survey (OS) Six-Inch maps of County Clare.

More than 2,000 townland pages, and in excess of 6,000 monument pages, were also created in conjunction with the project.

Clare County Library holds two complete sets of the first edition OS Six-Inch maps for County Clare. However, the set scanned for this online project was acquired from the O’Brien family of Dromoland Castle. The Ordnance Survey was originally established in Britain in 1791, and in 1824 the Survey established its Irish headquarters in Dublin, in order to undertake the mapping and measurement of Irish town lands.

The maps were drawn on a scale of six inches to one mile and published between 1833 and 1846. They were later revised on a county-by-county basis.

There were four OS centers in Ireland, at Dublin, Belfast, Cork and Ennis. The Ordnance Survey House in College Road, Ennis, now Maoin Cheoil an Chláir, became their local headquarters in Clare and was the centre of operations for the survey and mapping of Clare, Limerick, part of Galway and Kerry in the earlier stages of the work and, later, Sligo, Leitrim and Roscommon.

The entire survey was under the direction of Colonel Thomas Colby who realised the need, not just to produce a series of accurate and realistic maps, but also to compliment it with a separate topographical inventory of all places of interest in each county, as well as aspects of architecture and archaeology. At the time of the original publication of the OS maps, Ireland was considered to be the bestmapped country in the world.

Full details are available on the library website at www.clarelibrary.ie.

NURSES in Ennis, Limerick and Nenagh are carrying personal alarms following numerous attacks on staff in hospitals across the region and country.

The Irish Nurses’ Organisation (INO) this week confirmed that all nurses in the Accident and Emergency Departments of the Mid Western Regional Hospitals in Ennis, Limerick and Nenagh carried the alarms, while other staff could request them.

INO representative for the Mid Western Area, Mary Fogarty, told The Clare People that alarms were particularly necessary for nurses who are working after other staff had finished, making them more vulnerable.

“You could be isolated in a ward and one lash could knock you to the floor,” she said.

She said all hospitals were very public areas, with a lot of frustrated people and relatives visiting.

They were also open 24 hours a day, allowing people to come and go.

Ms Fogarty said that she hoped management would continue to review security in the hospitals, especially after incidents.

Meanwhile, the INO and the Psychiatric Nurses Association (PNA) held a meeting on Thursday last, in advance of a Labour Relations Commission conciliation conference, scheduled for April 3.

The conference will discuss eight claims which the unions have lodged on behalf of nurses and midwives.

The unions clam that it will take 21 years for this year’s honours nursing graduates to achieve the same pay as qualified and unqualified childcare workers. The unions are also calling for a 35-hour week.

In 1980, the Labour Court, stated that because of the nature of their work and the stressful environment in which it was performed, nurses and midwives should benefit from a reduced working week.

Nurses and midwives are the only

officer grades of the health serv ice who work longer than 35 hours per week, according to the INO and PNA.

In a joint statement, the INO and PNA stated their committment to maintaining industrial peace and had no intention of breaking Sustaining Progress, but would not tolerate “the no comment approach adopted by the previous Benchmarking Body in the past.”

A SENIOR Clare County Council official has refuted claims that documents were illegally removed from site offices at the Ballyduff Waste Managament facility in Inagh.

Conor Culloo, the Senior Executive Engineer at the Ballyduff Waste Management Facility, said documents concerning the Surface Water Results were being copied in Ennis, when the request was made to view them in Ballyduff Beg on Thursday March 16.

He says that the documents are not part of the Public File which the Environmental Protection Agency requires on site at all times.

In a statement to The Clare People, Mr Culloo said, “The originals of these documents, which do not form part of the Public File, were being copied in Ennis. At no time was the Public File not available for inspection or access to it denied. What happened was a misunderstanding as to what forms part of the Public File.”

Mr Culloo’s comments are at odds with those of local resident Perry Long, who said that all files, including the Surface Water Results, are required to be available at the dump at all times.

A Labour Court recommendation on the €30 million ‘survival plan’ for Shannon Airport is expected within the next two weeks.

Unions representing airport workers and the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) management met at the Labour Court last Friday and both sides made submissions on the proposed restructuring programme.

Speaking after the private hearing, SIPTU’s National Industrial Secretary, Michael Halpenny said that SIPTU’s submission centred on the company not following agreed procedures and not giving the union an opportunity to engage in the process. The DAA’s Director for Change, John Horgan said that the hearing was a private one and that the recommendation of the Labour Court was awaited.

“As it was a private hearing, it would not be proper to comment further,” he said.

Meanwhile, Fine Gael TD Pat Breen has urged the Government not to sell off Aer Lingus following the uncertainties raised recently over the sale process.

Deputy Breen, the Fine Gael spokesman on small business, said there were no compelling reasons for the airline’s sale except ideological ones.

“Aer Lingus is a strategic asset and like Eircom, its loss as a national asset would be sorely missed,” he said.

As an island nation, the reasons why Aer Lingus was formed originally in 1936 remain as valid today as back then, according to Deputy Breen.

“We would have no guarantee that a privatised transatlantic airline, having cherry-picked the Heathrow landing slots would not just fly over Ireland if there was no compelling, commercial reason to land here.

“This is particularly worrying for the Shannon region. Shannon Airport could be bypassed by all the major airlines in the event of an economic downturn.”

FOUR Ennis men have appeared in court, charged with a burglary at St Flannan’s College on St Patrick’s weekend.

Thomas McCarthy (19), Shalee Drive; Shane Miller (19), Childers Road; Brian Shannon (19), Clancy Park and Shane Moroney (18), of Circular Road are charged with the offence, under the Theft and Fraud Offences Act, on March 18.

Garda Tim Ryan gave evidence of arresting and charging Shane Millar and Thomas McCarthy, at St Flannan’s College, shortly before 9am on March 18 last. Neither made any reply after charge and caution.

Garda Stephen Dunne told the court he arrested Brian Shannon at Turnpike Road, Ennis, at 8.45am on March 18. He made no reply to the charge.

Garda Dunne also gave evidence of arresting Shane Moroney at St Flannan’s College, shortly before 9am on March 18. In reply to charge he said, “Nothing to say.”

Solicitor Tara Godfrey, who represented three of the accused, said she was applying for free legal aid. Judge Joseph Mangan suggested she make this application in writing.

The case was adjourned for a month when all four will appear again in court.

A €50 million retail park for Ennis, which it’s claimed, will threaten retail businesses in the town centre, has been put on hold by a planning appeal.

A planning consultant, acting for residents opposed to the development, say their appeal is “exceptionally important” for the town.

Last month, Ennis Town Council gave Michael Lynch Ltd., the green light to develop the 17-acre park, to be located near St. Flannan’s College.

The Lynch company claim the proposal will create 250 jobs. The 15,000 square metre development will comprise of a superstore, seven retail warehouse units and a garden centre.

A retail impact assessment has concluded that the development would “not adversely affect the

viability and vitality of the exist ing Ennis town centre or the local economy”.

However, the residents, in an appeal drafted by planning consultant Brendan McGrath, claim that the proposal materially contravenes the Ennis and Environs Development Plan 2003.

They say it’s not in accordance with the proper planning and sustainable development of Ennis.

They emphasise that it goes against the vitality and viability of the town centre, its role and character, as well as accessibility to it.

They warn that the proposed development will have a serious effect on residential amenity.

“This is an exceptionally important planning appeal for Ennis. The outcome will have a significant effect on the character of the town for the foreseeable future,” the appeal states.

Mr McGrath concedes there is “undeniably a need for new retail development in the town, but . . . a retail park incorporating a superstore at the Clonroadmore site will weaken the town centre and will have a serious effect on residential amenity . . .

“In particular, the proposal does not support the long term strategy for Ennis town centre, will cause an adverse impact on the town centre, does not ensure a high standard of access by public transport and does not link effectively with the existing town centre.”

Mr McGrath also warns that the development will seriously damage

the prospect of creating a better lo cal road environment.

A decision is due on the appeal later in the year.

THE mayor of Clare has invited the Speaker of the City Council in New York to visit her ancestral Clare home.

The invitation follows the visit by Cllr Pat Keane (FF) to the Big Apple, during which he helped lead New York’s St Patrick’s Day Parade.

The mayor has invited speaker, Christine Quinn, and her father Lawrence, who hails from Kilmurry McMahon, to visit Clare during his term in office.

Mayor Keane said there were strong indications that the visit would go ahead.

On the night before St. Patrick’s Day, Ms Quinn, on behalf of New York City Council, presented Mayor Keane with a framed proclamation.

The presentation was followed by entertainment comprising of Irish music and dancing.

Cllr Keane was one of three people to be honoured on the night, the other Irishman being highly regarded Irish actor, Milo O’Shea, who has lived in the US for the last number of years.

On St. Patrick’s Day, the mayor and his delegation were some of the honoured guests at Mass in St. Patrick’s Cathedral, before enjoying a special breakfast hosted by Ms Quinn.

Afterwards Cllr Keane, along with the Clare delegation and members of the Clareman’s Association in New York, led the New York St. Patrick’s Day Parade down Fifth Avenue.

“It is important that we continue to build and consolidate these relationships, which can only be to the benefit of County Clare and to Clare people living in New York,” said the mayor.