Category: News

CLARE savers will bring a massive €80 million in cash into the county when the first of the SSAI accounts mature this year.

That’s according to findings from a Bank of Ireland study on how much people will have to spend and what they intend to do with it.

But people who have saved for the last five years could lose a huge chunk of their investment if they don’t remember to fill out the necessary form for the Revenue Commissioners.

Presenting the findings of the survey, conducted among 400 Bank Of Ireland customers, Ennis branch manager, Rose Hally, warned that the forms “must be filled out in the three months leading up to the end of the month in which the fifth anniversary of the account falls. Otherwise, Revenue will tax the entire balance at 23 per cent.”

The bank’s research also discovered that a massive 112,635 of a total of 120,000 SSAI holders came on board with the scheme at the last minute.

And equity-based SSAI accounts performed extremely well, the bank found.

The bank is launching its own new products for those with cash to invest when the SSAI’s mature.

These include a special bonus investment plan, in which the bank will continue on the 25 per cent payment on investments for six months.

Other products are a combined lump sum deposit and savings account and an alternative lump sum deposit option, offering a three to five year savings plan free of DIRT and a two year bond offering a 6 per cent fixed rate.

At the launch, Ms Hally said that the research showed that 74 per cent of customers had no previous regular savings prior to the scheme, “and 80 per cent intend to continue saving on a monthly basis when the scheme ends. It has had a very beneficial effect on saving habits.”

THE four accused men denied assaulting Michael Cahir and denied causing criminal damage. In court, they said they did not threaten him and went to his premises seeking the P45.

Referring to the first of the two incidents, defending solicitor Eugene O’Kelly, said the Malones did not kick or punch Mr Cahir.

“You pushed Joseph and Michael Malone at the door of the premises. Joseph lost his balance, he reached out to hold his balance and in the process tore your shirt,” said Mr O’Kelly to Mr Cahir.

Mr O’Kelly said the McNamara brothers were “motivated by their desire to assist their sister.”

“These are decent rural folk. They didn’t set out to get themselves in this situation,” said the solicitor.

Michael Malone told the court he had three drinks in a public house before he went to Mr Cahir’s premises. He said he asked Mr Cahir for his wife’s P45 and was told to leave.

When asked by Inspector Michael Gallagher what he thought of Michael Cahir, Michael Malone said, “I think he is the lowest type of a c*** that ever came into the parish of Liscannor.”

After hearing five hours’ evidence, the judge convicted all four men of assault.

He dismissed the charge of criminal damage against Michael Malone and Martin McNamara and convicted Joseph Malone and John McNamara of criminal damage to Michael Cahir’s t-shirt.

He ordered the McNamaras to pay €2,500 compensation each and fined both €500.

He ordered Joseph and Michael Malone to pay €1,000 compensation and fined them €350 each.

He also fined Joseph Malone and John McNamara €250 each for the criminal damage charge and ordered both to pay compensation.

He ordered all four to pay €212.50 witness expenses and fixed recognisances.

“The reason I am not adding custodial sentences is because they have no previous convictions. If they had, I’d have no hesitation in sending all four to prison,” said the judge.

A YOUNG man who stole a car in Ennis, crashed it into a wall a short distance away, “destroying” it in the process.

Christopher Dobbin (22), of John Paul Avenue, Ennis, committed the offence, at Cusack Road, Ennis, on August 21, 2004.

Inspector Tom Kennedy told Ennis District Court that the stolen vehicle was valued at €1,000 and was effectively destroyed in the accident when it hit a wall.

The court heard that Dobbin committed two offences under the Public Order Act, at Fahy’s Lane, Ennis, on November 16, 2003.

He was also convicted of stealing a slab of Heineken, valued at €17.99, from Deasy’s shop in Clarecastle, on July 31 last.

Defending solicitor Tara Godfrey said the three incidents were alcohol-related.

Inspector Tom Kennedy pointed out that the car was crashed into a private wall which had to be repaired, at a cost of €2,200.

Judge Leo Malone convicted Dobbin of drink driving and fined him €250. He banned him from driving for two years. He fined him €200 for driving without insurance.

He adjourned the case of stealing the car for four months, for payment of the cost of the car and repairing the wall.

He said if the compensation was paid, he would impose a fine. If not paid, he would sentence Dobbin to three months in jail.

Minister for the Environment and Local Government Dick Roche has promised to sit down with Clare County Council to “break any log jams”, in the implementation of the county’s long awaited water and sewerage schemes.

During a visit to Ennis on Friday, the minister asked the council officials to carry out an examination to establish “how they will bring schemes back within the financial parameters” set by the department.

He vowed to be flexible in dealing with the ongoing problems with water and sewerage schemes.

Describing as “nuts” the need for continuous boil notices in a town the size of Ennis, the Minister said that his department would support the interim solution.

“It is an issue I want to see resolved. I understand exactly why it is in the difficulty it is in, but I am interested more in a solution,” he said.

During his visit he also met with councillors and the county manager.

He said he recognised that there were water and sewerage schemes in county Clare in difficulties, which a €200 million water and sewerage programme for the county, could address.

“I said to the county manager that I would be very flexible with that. If there are schemes that are in the 2007 . . . category that can be brought forward I’d be flexible bringing them forward. If there are some that are stuck in 2006 for whatever reason, maybe to do with foreshore licences or whatever else . . . we will be as flexible as we can.

“I want to see the money spent, I want to see the water schemes in, I want to see the boiling notices a thing of the past.”

Meanwhile Clare County Councillor Christy Curtain said that schemes such as that proposed for Mullagh and Quilty, had already completed the whole process and there should be no more delay in getting it started.

Minister Roche approved the contract documents submitted by Clare County Council for the final two elements of the Newmarket on Fergus Water Supply Scheme and for the extension of the Lisdoonvarna Water Supply Scheme to Ballyvaughan.

This will allow the Council to invite tenders for these contracts, with an estimated cost of €5.5 million and €5.6 million respectively.

MEMBERS of Ennis Town Council were left waiting by the two leading figures in Clare GAA this Monday, who were to brief them about plans for Cusack Park.

County board chairman, Michael McDonagh and secretary, Pat Fitzgerald, pulled out of the meeting nearly a half an hour after they were due to be in the council chamber in Waterpark House.

Councillors were told by way of a letter last Thursday that the chairman and secretary of the GAA board would give “a briefing session” on Cusack Park’s future.

“The chairman and secretary of the Clare County Board of the GAA will attend to brief the members of the potential development of Cusack Park. I would be obliged if you could arrange to be in attendance,” said the Town Clerk, Eddie Power’s letter.

This meeting was arranged after it was revealed by The Clare People last week that a consortium made up of businessmen Noel Connellan, Sean Lyne and Bernard McNamara had made a sensational offer to take Cusack Park over from the county board.

The consortium pledged to deliver a 42,000 capacity stadium on a 15-acre site on the Quin Road within 18 months of receipt of planning permission from Clare County Council, in return for possession of Cusack Park, which would then be redeveloped as a shopping centre.

However, when the county board officials failed to show, the Mayor of Ennis, Frankie Neylon, had to apologise to members.

“I have to apologise for bringing you in here at 3pm,” he told the monthly meeting. “We were supposed to be joined by our friends from the county board, but as you now know they didn’t arrive to address the meeting as they were supposed to,” added Mayor Neylon.

Fianna Fáil councillor, Tom Glynn, who grew up adjacent to Cusack Park on Francis Street then asked the meeting, “did we get any reason why they failed to show”.

In response, Mayor Neylon said “you know as much as I do Tom, they just didn’t arrive.”

When contacted by The Clare People on Monday night, board chairman, Michael McDonagh apologised for the no show.

“I take responsibility. We are going to meet them at a later date, once we get in all the proposals for Cusack Park. The matter will be debated and everyone will hear what we have to say,” said the chairman.

MORE and more children as young as seven and eight are being put through rigorous beauty regimes in the run up to their First Holy Communion, according to reports received by The Clare People .

It is not uncommon now for Holy Communion children to have fake tans and make-up applied for their big day, with use of sun beds being reported in extreme cases.

And while tanned holy communicants are the exception rather than the rule in Clare, Ennis beauticians are reporting a growing trend in requests for fake tans and leg waxes for children as young as 10 and 11 years old.

Ennis beautician Martina Costelloe said that she has been approached by mothers of children of Confirmation age, requesting eyebrow re-shaping, waxing and other beauty procedures. With the wide availability of tanning products in shops and chemists, Ms Costelloe says this can also be done at home.

The Ann Levy’s Health and Beauty beautician also confirmed that she knew of cases where children of Communion age had their “tan done”.

She lays the blame with parents, who she says are taking their own vanity out on their children.

Ms Costelloe said that she, like most of her peers, refuses any beauty procedures on girls and young teens, unless there is an unnatural facial hair growth and the child herself has a complex about it.

Demands for hiring hotels, booking limousines and purchasing not one, but two outfits for the day, are also coming from the school yard to already pressurised parents, adding to emotional and financial stress.

The Catholic Church in Clare is attempting to take the focus off the commercialism, with a new programme for First Holy Communion.

“Do this in memory” started as a pilot scheme three years ago and now runs throughout the Diocese of Killaloe. It helps parents with the spiritual development of their children.

Diocesan Advisor of Primary Catholic Schools, Fr Maurice Harmon, told The Clare People that it was based around the Eucharist and parents had the option of becoming involved in 10 Sunday Masses as part of the programme. Each parent also receives information to help prepare their child for Holy Communion and back up what they have learnt at school.

“It’s the child’s day and this can so often get lost in the affluence of the society we live in,” said Fr Harmon.

A DOCUMENTARY shot secretly on a tour bus in the Burren last Summer, received its world premier at the Burren Spring Conference in the Ballyvaughan School of Art over the weekend.

The documentary, entitled

, was shot by the Director of the NUI, Galway Huston School of Film, Rod Stoneman. It takes an undercover look at the Burren as seen through the eyes of the package tourist.

It raised a number of questions about the quality of products on offer in the Burren, the nature of mass tourism itself and the effects that this form of tourism had on an area like the Burren.

“The first thing that struck me was that the tour guides had a more substantive and well formed knowledge than I had expected,” said Mr Stoneman. “I had thought that there would be far more anecdotal but they did have some good clear information.”

The documentary follows a tour bus through Kinvara, Ballyvaughan, Fanore and Doolin before making its first stop at the Cliffs of Moher. The tour then takes the tourists to the Poulnabrone Dolmen before finishing up at the Ailwee Caves.

“I was really surprised that the tourists arrive here with very little knowledge of the area and without any real sense of where they are,” continued Mr Stoneman. “Despite the speed of their tour, they do seem to get a feel of the area.”

The documentary prompted lively debate at the Burren College when it was shown on Saturday afternoon. A large crowd, including three local tour guides, discussed the impact that large-scale tourism had on the area and whether the industry should be subject to greater regulation.

One of the documentary’s comments came from an Australian tourist at the Cliffs of Moher. When asked about the effects of visitors, she replied, “just look at what is going on out there”, referring to the massive construction work involved in the Cliffs of Moher Interpretative Centre.

There are no plans currently in place to bring the documentary to a wider audience. Stoneman has had success in the past as executive producer of the multi award winning documentary, “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,” as well as numerous feature film and shorts.

IRELAND’S most high profile Muslim has appealed for calm within the country’s growing Islamic community, as outrage over the publication of a cartoon lampooning the prophet Mohammed stretches into a second week.

Dr. Moosajee Bhamjee, who created Irish political history in 1992, when he became the first Muslim elected to Dáil Éireann, has hit out at the cartoons that were published last week in a Danish newspaper.

However, the South African born Muslim is supportive of what he calls, “the majority Muslim view” of a peaceful reaction to the publication of the Prophet Mohammad cartoons.

One of the offensive cartoons was published in The Irish Star , the editor of which is Quin man, Gerry Colleran. Dr. Bhamjee has urged Muslims to react by starting a letter writing campaign.

“By peaceful means is the proper way to react to this controversy and is to use freedom of speech to voice anger at this ridiculing of the Muslim religion,” Dr. Bhamjee told The Clare People .

“Reacting with violence is not good. This is an emotional outburst from Muslim fundamentalists, who feel that their religion has been ridiculed. It has been ridiculed but it should not be met with violence.

“Muslims in Ireland should write to the Danish Embassy expressing their outrage at the way in which their holy prophet has been branded a terrorist by this cartoon. They should also write to An Taoiseach,” added Dr. Bhamjee.

The former Labour TD claimed that the decision of The Star to publish one of the cartoons was very unhelpful and that this highlighted the need for the establishment of the long-mooted Press Council.

“I would go so far to say that it was silly and stupid on the part of The Star . It could affect multi-cultural relations in Ireland,” concluded Dr. Bhamjee.

PLANS to transform Ennis’s skyline with a €20 million apartment block overlooking the River Fergus are facing fresh opposition.

Ennis-based firm, Paddy Coleman & Associates, has expressed concern over the proposal by Galway company, Briarlane Development Ltd.

The plan provides for a new pedestrian bridge across the River Fergus to the Abbey Street car-park in Ennis, adding to the four vehicular bridges already in use in and around the town centre.

The new proposal – in common with the application turned down by An Bord Pleanala last July – seeks to transform the Ennis skyline with a six-storey apartment block.

The six-storey building will be arranged around a central podium, while the development also includes a plan to develop a 30-bedroom hotel and 58 apartments.

The plan also includes eight commercial units and 238 car-parking spaces along with one three-storey and one two-storey block.

In their submission however, Coleman & Associates argue that the proposed development does not respect the scale, proportions, designs and architecture of existing neighbouring structures at Bank Place, Bindon Street, or Harmony Row.

It goes on: “Furthermore, the massing of the proposed development would detract from the existing Bank of Ireland building which is a protected structure. New buildings proposed for Architectural Conservation Areas should reflect the scale, proportions, design and materials of the existing structures.

“Clearly, the applicant has made no attempt to comply with a policy of the Ennis and Environs Plan in relation to conservation, as the proposed development does not conserve and enhance the character and appearance of the ACA. It is imperative that new buildings to be constructed within an ACA be faithful to the scale, character and detailing of the existing development.”

In relation to the Bank of Ireland building, Coleman & Associates state: “The proposal would be unsympathetic with and detrimental to the character, appearance and integrity of the Bank Building resulting in an incongruous and visually obtrusive addition to the conservation area of which it would form a part.

“The town does not have many buildings as fine as this bank building. The council must ensure that all of the features and views of this building are protected and that any development of the site that is granted permission is complementary or subservient to it from the point of view of visual impact.”

The submission by Coleman & Associates follows concerns expressed over the plan by Cllr Donal O’Bearra. A decision is due on the application later this month.

CLARE’S INTO District Representative, Declan Kelleher, has expressed disappointment at the reluctance of the Department of Education to increase the number of grants for building expenditure in the case of small and medium sized schools.

In January of this year, the Department announced that 54 primary schools could proceed to early architectural planning for major projects, but none of these were in Clare.

Just last week, the Department announced that 12 Clare primary schools would benefit from improvements under the summer works scheme.

These were Coláiste Mhuire, Harmony Row, Ennis; Ennistymon Vocational School, Ennistymon; Shannon Comprehensive School, Shannon and Kilrush Community School, Kilrush

These works include improvements to toilets, roofs, windows and electrical matters.

At a meeting between the INTO and department officials in Tullamore the teacher’s union asked for a further extension to the scheme and sought to highlight the dire conditions of playgrounds in schools throughout the country.

“Children need safe, secure and well designed playing areas and this is still far from the situation which obtains in many primary schools in Clare and elsewhere. There was also a chronic shortage of PE Halls throughout Clare and this is taking from the emphasis which should be placed on PE especially during the winter months,” Mr. Kelleher told The Clare People.