Category: News

SEVEN arts venues throughout the country have joined together to form a new organisation, entitled Nasc, in an effort to support and develop touring Irish theatre.

Nasc (meaning link or knot) was an idea first mooted by Katie Verling, Director of Glór Irish Music Centre in Ennis. It has received a considerable vote of confidence with news that each venue is to receive €16,000 additional funding from the Arts Council.

The collective is made up of the Riverbank Arts Centre in Newbridge, Pavillion in Dun Laoghaire, Dunamaise Arts Centre in Portlaoise, Backstage Theatre in Longford, An Grianán in Letterkenny, Siamsa Tíre in Tralee and Glór Irish Music Centre in Ennis.

The group first met last September to discuss the absence of a touring initiative in the Arts Council’s strategy and the difficulties for touring theatre companies in Ireland.

“In Glór we were finding it difficult to receive quality, audience driven theatre, so we talked to other venues experiencing similar problems,” said Verling.

“We decided to make a joint application to the Arts Council because we knew they had recently commissioned a report on touring.

Our hope is to get audience-driven theatre of a very high quality, which will attract audiences in all our areas, so that we know every year in a Nasc tour that we will be getting a particular type of show that will suit the seven of us.”

They are currently in negotiations with a number of Irish theatre companies. Anyone wishing to contact Nasc should do so through Katie Verling, at Glór Irish Music Centre, Ennis, or email kverling@glor.ie.

TRIBUTES were paid yesterday to the hard work and dedication of the students and staff of Clare Youth Services, at the organisation’s certification ceremony.

Close to 300 people attended the event, where over 100 students received National Certificates from a range of educational and training bodies including FETAC, Clare VEC, FÁS and Fáilte Ireland. It is the first time in over three years that the ceremony has taken place. Minister of State for Labour Affairs, Tony Killeen TD, presented the certificates at the event, which took place in the Old Ground Hotel, Ennis.

Through the provision of courses in vocational and educational training, Clare Youth Services aims to give students a chance to attain Junior and Leaving Certificate qualifications away from a mainstream educational setting.

It encourages young people and adults alike to sample different technical areas and to develop personal and learning skills in mathematics, information technology and communication through the nationally-recognised FETAC scheme.

Monday’s ceremony formally recognised the achievements of the students and also the committed efforts of the service’s many co-ordinators, instructors and volunteers.

Mr Killeen acknowledged the achievements of all the recipients and stated that programmes such as FETAC provided an essential service for those alienated by mainstream education.

“If anyone has had negative experience of the formal education system, I would hope that the courses that you have taken under the auspices of Clare Youth Services have given you a different view,” said Mr Killeen.

“We need to have a flexibility in work and educational programmes which is something that has become enormously important in Ireland,” he added.

Dr Sean Conlan, Adult Education Organiser with Clare VEC, said that the principle of lifelong learning must be one taught from an early age and added that, “Today should be another step on the lifelong learning journey”.

THE most senior member of the Health Service Executive has admitted the health services in Clare and across the mid-west are under developed.

For years, lobby and protest groups across the county have been outlining the sheer lack of sufficient services and treatments for seriously ill patients, as well as outlying the neglect felt by the people of the Banner county.

This week, the health service finally put its hands up, when the CEO of the HSE, Professor Brendan Drumm, told the first meeting of the Regional Health Forum West that patients from Clare, Limerick and North Tipperary were travelling to Dublin for treatment because services in the area were under developed.

“Having no neurologist in Limerick is a classical example of how we under

ten motivated internal criticism rather developed the mid-west. It should be

than what was best for the patients. sorted out,” he said.

“Do you want to go to Dublin, or de-

cism no doubt and you will do too, I velop services in the mid-west?”

suspect, for engaging in the process,” Telling the councillors representing

he told the new members of the health nine counties along the western sea-

forum. board that the HSE wanted input from the grass routes level, he said the new

HSE are councillors Pat Daly (FF), health service should be about what

Bill Chambers (FF), Joe Cooney (FG) was best for the patients.

He warned that industrial issues of“We are going to suffer a lot of critiClare’s four representatives on the and Brian Meaney (GP).

First to address the historic meeting from Clare was Councillor Pat Daly who said little had been invested in Ennis General since the 1940s. He asked when the €20 million development at the hospital was likely to begin.

Councillor Joe Cooney asked if funding was in place for a CAT Scan unit at the hospital and highlighted the ongoing concern about the ambulance service in Scariff.

Ambulances, according to Professor Drumm, would be one of the first areas that the HSE would concentrate on.

Councillor Brian Meaney told the professor “We feel you are a good guy despite what is being said in Clare. I know you are not about taking our hospital.”

He told the HSE chief that it was felt that resistance was necessary in Clare, as it was successful in saving the hospital on previous occasions.

“I would appeal to you to afford the hospital development committee a meeting with you at a time and location of your suiting,” he added handing him a copy of the eight questions the committee had previously nailed to the door of the HSE.

Professor Drumm also told the meeting it would be impossible to meet everyone in the system over every issue.

“CAN we provide a service that is up to the highest standard as closely and conveniently as possible? Rather than saying we can close up, lets see first what we can build up.”

The words of Professor Brendan Drumm in response to a query about whether he was going to implement the Hanly Report on health services and the effect that would have on hospitals in Ennis, Nenagh and Limerick.

The question, on the lips of everyone concerned about the future of services at the Mid-Western Regional Hospital Ennis, was not posed, however, by Clare County Council’s four representatives at the first Regional Health Forum, West.

It came instead came from North Tipperary County Councillor Dr Joe Hennessy (FF) who said, “All reforms will be bought into if they (the public) have A and E service within reasonable time.”

Prof Drumm told the meeting that he was not sure Hanly was the issue.

He did say, however, that like the doctors’ after hours service, he suspected that hospital services would not remain the same.

“Expanding the A and E will not solve the problem,” he warned the assembled councillors.

“We can build bigger and bigger A and Es and I will guarantee you we will be back in this room with the same problem again in five years time.”

People waiting for diagnoses or tests, he said, took up many of the beds in hospitals.

Therefore, Professor Drumm argued, hospital services and consultants’ hours should not stop at 6 pm.

“There is no reason why Galway (hospital) are not doing ultra sounds tonight,” he said.

“60 per cent of work comes in between six in the evening and nine in the morning, when there are no consultants.”

He also outlined the processing problems where people were referred to hospital by their GP, going through A and E. This resulted in people on trolleys for up to a minimum of three to four hours alone, Prof Drumm argued.

Instead, he said, more responsibility should be given to what he described as the “most skilled clinicians – GPs”

“What we have to do is build up primary care.”

He also pointed to the Orthopaedic Hospital in Croom as a very effectively run hospital, catering for one form of treatment.

“It does not get blocked up during the night dealing with other issues,” he said.

THE failure by the Department of the Environment to provide the infrastructure to allow for the growth of Clare’s towns and villages is the biggest disappointment of outgoing Clare senior executive planner, Graham Webb’s time in Clare.

During his five years in Clare, Mr Webb was the architect of Clare’s various County Development Plans that envisaged the Department providing the infrastructure for Clare’s towns and villages to prosper.

Speaking in a personal capacity, Mr Webb said, “All the settlements are zoned which means we should be able to start making the arguments to have the infrastructure put in place to support growth in those settlements.

“Unfortunately, the council has been let down by the Department and the funding hasn’t come forward. That is the biggest disappointment. The failure of the Department to recognise that Clare has a particular problem due to its rural location and that it can’t meet the same numbers and figures per capita in relation to costing that you get on the outskirts of Dublin.

“The whole policy structure from central Government is to build up settlements, to show that you have a critical mass of people in those settlements and we will give you the infrastructure to support that.

“You are not going to get people to move into settlements where there is no basic infrastructure and try as we may as planners to encourage people to do that, if they have got the money and the wherewithal to live outside those settlements, they will do.

“That is the rule of thumb they tend to use, so we are always on a back-foot trying to put forward the case.

“If you can’t get the population back up, you can’t get the funding to put the infrastructure in, so you will have shops and schools closing down, because you don’t have the population to support those services.”

Mr Webb was also involved in the development of a tourism initiative, Clare Live the Life. He believes it has “huge potential and it could lead to re-branding of tourism in Clare, because at present, tourism is a bit lost in Clare. It is a bit unclear who and how it is going to be promoted”.

Mr Webb said he was “hugely sorry to be leaving Clare at all. I don’t tend to stay long in a job because I find that you peak and you’re delivery falls away.”

A CLARE TD is warning that “a crisis” is developing concerning the decentralisation of Enterprise Ireland staff to Shannon.

It has been revealed that just 19 existing employees of the national jobs creation company have indicated their willingness to transfer to Shannon out of a total staff of 300 needed to make the move a reality.

Numerous residential and business developments have gone ahead in Shannon on the understanding that there would be an influx of business from the Enterprise Ireland decentralisation process.

Deputy Pat Breen (FG) has called for Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Micheal Martin to clarify the transfer arrangements to be put in place for Shannon Development staff, who would find themselves redundant after Minister Martin announced the removal of their enterprise support function last year.

“Minister Martin has already spoken of ‘developing the indigenous enterprise base in the region’ and I am calling on him to utilize the skills base that exists with Shannon Development by enabling the personnel specialised in enterprise support to use their skills in Enterprise Ireland.”

Replying to a Parliamentary Question tabled by Deputy Breen, Minister Martin said that the number of applications for transferring to Shannon received from within the civil and public service, including his own department, amounted to 33, giving an overall total of 52 people, but that it was “too early to comment definitively on a timescale for the transfer of Enterprise Ireland’s headquarters to Shannon”.

A 13-acre site owned by Shannon Development is under negotiation as Enterprise Ireland’s proposed headquarters.

Deputy Breen said: “This figure is far short to the numbers and the quality of personnel required to run an effective national development agency.

“With just 19 of the existing Enterprise Ireland staff willing to relocate, the agency will be facing a crisis of appropriately-qualified personnel if immediate plans are not put in place and the uncertainty removed over Shannon Development changes.”

Deputy Breen added that a similar crisis was developing within the Irish Aviation Authority where 100 staff were due to transfer to Shannon under the Department of Transport’s decentralisation plans.

Transport Minister Martin Cullen said just two employees had indicated a wish to move and 11 expressions of interest had been received from external applicants.

Meanwhile, just 93 applications have been made out of the 779 posts moving to Limerick under the Revenue Commissioners banner.

CLARE County Council is not granting planning permission to any development in a number of Clare’s towns and villages due to inadequate infrastructure.

That was the claim made by the chairman of the Council’s Planning Special Policy Committee (SPC), Councillor Richard Nagle.

Cllr Nagle said that the council must look at interim solutions to allow the planning difficulties be overcome.

“No one had the right to make unilateral decisions on planning and the council should not be trying to hinder development.”

Councillor Martin Lafferty (Ind) said, “I’m very despondent over the amount of villages that have sewerage systems in place. I saw a list provided by the council that shows that out of the county’s 70 towns and villages, 39 to 40 had no sewerage.

“We are light years behind having a proper infrastructure in place. I was more than surprised to see the number of towns and villages that don’t have schemes in place.”

SPC member, Padraig Haugh said, “It is terrible that you would have towns and villages releasing raw sewerage.

The council’s Senior Planner, Liam Conneally said that the council was working towards interim solutions towards the provision of waste water treatment plants in relation to a number of developments.

MEN and women from County Clare are travelling in their droves to Galway to take part in a Fight Club style boxing tournament. White Collar Boxing is the brainchild of former Irish Olympian, Cathal O’Grady, who claims to have received a number of enquiries from Clare people about taking part in the Galway event.

This is only the second event of its kind to take place in Ireland, the other been staged in Dublin last year. It is designed to allow office workers a means of using up their excess energy as well as getting in touch with their primitive side.

“The philosophy is very similar to a fight club,” said Mr O’Grady. “The men are liberated mentally by the experience. Fight clubs were underground cult organisations whereas this is safe and structured. The primal attraction is very real though.”

The competitors are put through a rigorous ten week training process in which the average participant will lose a full 13lbs.

When their training is complete they each take part in a Las Vegas style boxing tournament in front of their family and friends.

Interestingly, the Galway event seems to be drawing a large response from women as well as men in the Clare area.

“We have had a number of people enquiring from Clare already,” said Mr O’Grady. “There are also a lot of women showing an interest which didn’t happen in Dublin. It seems to be something just in the West. There must be more of a spirit in the ladies out there.”

Like Fight Clubs, white collar boxing aims to improve the mental and physical health of those who take part in it.

“Our slogan is ‘when 9-to-5 is not enough,’” said Mr O’Grady. “A lot of people are stressed at work and are searching for something to identify with. This can give them a purpose to their lives again.”

Fighters use 18oz gloves and headguards for increased safety while fighters are carefully matched in age, weight and experience.

“Since it first began in 1988, there has been no reports of serious injury,” continued Mr O’Grady. “People have to go back to work the following day and they can’t do that with a black eye.

“It is very real, but well supervised.”

Training for the Galway event will take place in March with the tournament scheduled for June.

More information can be found on www.whitecollarboxing.ie.

WEST Clare is lending its support to the fight to ensure a 24-hour consultant-led accident and emergency service remains at the Mid Western Regional Hospital Ennis.

A new group, “West Clare Friends of Ennis General Hospital”, emerged from a public meeting on the future of the county hospital last Tuesday.

A spokesperson for the new group told The Clare People , “There is intense anger that the Hanly plan remains Government policy in West Clare.”

He said there was a lot of support for the long running “Ennis General Hospital Development Committee” and more than 20 people had signed up to be part of the new grouping in the West.

The West Clare Friends of Ennis General Hospital will get its first outing at the St Patrick’s Day parade in Kilrush. The group is inviting representative from 20 West Clare parishes to march with them behind their parish banners on March 17 next. Leaflets outlining the group’s concerns are also to be distributed on the day.

In the interim, letters from the West Clare hospital lobby group are to be sent to the Taoiseach, Tánaiste and CEO of the Health Service Executive, Prof Brendan Drumm, voicing West Clare’s concerns at being so far from an A and E, should the services in Ennis be down graded. They will also ask the health trinity of Ahern, Harney and Drumm to sign a letter confirming the status of the hospital.

“We need to know what services will be available in the long term and if we will have a consultant-led A and E in the future,” the spokesperson added.

THE media gathered in the de Valera heartland this weekend, in search of the last woman to continue the name of the political dynasty in Clare politics.

Just hours after the Taoiseach told her constituency on Clare FM of the party’s traditions “that if somebody is not running in the next election and they hold a ministerial office . . . before the election they bow out”, junior minister Síle de Valera arrived smiling through tight lips.

On Friday night, she avoided answering questions on the issue and by Saturday she had decided she just was not going to talk at all to the growing media force.

Instead, she issued a brief statement through her department saying that she “had a job of work to do” and “intended on completing it”.

On Saturday, she moved through a scene reminiscent of student elections merged with an Árd Fheis, on her way to the “Education” workshop, again lips sealed except for her customary hello.

Having arrived in the conference hall quietly alongside her ministerial colleague Mary Hanafin, a round of applause was called for the outgoing TD by Clare County Councillor Cathal Crowe, on his taking of the podium.

With business out of the way, Eamonn de Valera’s granddaughter left the hotel.

And so it was for others to comment on the “controversy”.

Those who would not speak on the record said it was badly handled, or signalled she should go, mainly so they could have a nice job.

Who needs one political dynasty replaced by another Haughey dynasty, when there is a job up for grabs?

Those with a more secure senior ministerial job had nothing to lose by praising their outgoing party colleague.

Minister Dick Roche described the situation more as a debate rather than a row, referring to the Taoiseach’s genteel nature when dealing with such issues.

Minister Michéal Martin believed that the appointment of ministers was “ultimately the prerogative of the Taoiseach” and described his Clare colleague as “a fine representative”. And finally the Taoiseach arrived.

At the informal press conference, he too was remaining tight-lipped about his comments the previous day.

So when Minister de Valera arrived back to the West County Hotel, what could they do but kiss and make up.

He told her the gathered press “were worrying about us”.

With the pictures out of the way, all seemed well, if it wasn’t for the panic stricken look on the chief Fianna Fáil press officer’s face as the press overheard “the conversation” between the pair.

And so as the Fianna Fáil party celebrated into the night it became apparent this woman was not for moving…just yet!