Category: News

VISITING restrictions remain at two Ennis hospitals with four cases of the winter vomiting bug reported yesterday.

Two cases of the highly contagious infection were detected in the Mid-Western Regional Hospital in Ennis yesterday, with a further two cases suspected at St Joseph’s Hospital, Ennis.

The Health Service Executive Mid- West Region first confirmed an outbreak of the virus in the Ennis hospitals eight days ago.

Eleven cases in total were confirmed among patients at the time. These patients have since recovered.

The winter vomiting bug is described as a community infection. Outbreaks in hospitals are thought to simply be a gauge or reflection of what is happening in the community.

“Attendance at the Accident and Emergency Department should only be if absolutely necessary,” said a HSE spokesperson.

Out-patient, day care services and routine hospital admissions are not affected by the restrictions however.

CLARE County Council have given up the fight for the land sought by Limerick City Council in the proposed boundary extension, just weeks before the issue is to be decided.

That is according to one Limerick city councillor who said the Clare local authority has been negligent in their responsibility for the south east of the county.

Limerick City Councillor John Ryan (Lab) told The Clare People that Clare County Council have given approval for planning permission for houses in the Corbally area with no consideration for infrastructure, schools, roads or child safety.

“It shows Clare County Council have given up the fight on this one,” he said.

“If they were interested in stopping an extension of boundary they would have invested in it (the area).”

Accusing the Clare council of having “no regard for people who are going to be living in that area”, he said that he had received numerous complaints from people about the state of the roads from outside Corbally, towards Clare.

Should the boundary be extended, the Limerick City councillor said that plans could be put in place to link the Dublin and Ennis roads, and therefore ease traffic through the city.

He said while Limerick has plans for such a link it would mean going through County Clare.

Members of Clare County Council remain defiant, however, that not an inch of Clare will be given over to Limerick City.

A decision on the Clare-Limerick boundary extension will be decided long before the first whistle is blown in this year’s Munster championship, and county jerseys bought for the coming season.

The Minister for the Environment and Local Government Dick Roche has promised to have a decision made within weeks on the controversial proposal to move the county line.

An application from Limerick City Council to extend its boundary into Clare and Limerick city is currently with the Minister. The Minister met with the Limerick Manager on Friday before meeting a deputation from Clare County Council.

“It is a matter of weeks before I issue the determination. I am going to make the determination. I am not going to play it safe politically and do the cute thing and kick it off to some commission. I don’t think that is the way to go,” he said.

“I understand fully the passion that people in this county have, as they do in other counties, about their place.”

PAYMENTS to consultants working on Clare County Council’s €32 million Cliffs of Moher visitor centre pushed the council’s overall consultants’ bill to over €5 million last year.

In figures released to The Clare People through a Freedom of Information request, the council confirmed this week that the council paid out €5,275,131 to consultants last year.

The biggest winner was Corkbased architectural firm, Reddy O’Riordan Staehli, for designing the award-winning visitor centre at the Cliffs of Moher.

The council confirmed that last year, the company received €834,499 in fees for the project. Last year’s payment brings to €1.437 million the amount the company has received to date for its work on the scheme.

Another company working on the Cliffs project to scoop one of the highest amounts was Dublin-based Martello Media Ltd, receiving €579,320.

The company is developing for the visitor centre, 16 major audio visual installations that include a walk through “float off the cliff-top” virtual reality experience that caters for groups of up to 100 people.

The payments of €5.275 million represents a 11% increase on the €4.719 million paid to consultants in 2004.

Along with the consultants involved in the development of the Cliffs of Moher visitor centre, the big winners were engineering firms and architects.

The list released by the council shows that 78 firms and individuals received the €5.275 million.

The top ten firms received payments totalling €3.675 million. Along with the companies involved in the Cliffs project, Jacobs Babtie received the second highest amount at €691,953; RPC MCOS Ltd €284,896; Nolan Ryan Partnership €257,732; Brady Shipman Martin €251,816, Dermot and Sean Merry €216,763; Ove Arup & Partners €190,668, White Young Green €186,836 and Ove Arup & Partners €181,500.

Some of the region’s other top architectural firms feature in the payments. The records show that Murray O’Laoire Architects received €115,699, Byrne O’Donnell Scully Architects, €86,597; Paddy Coleman & Associates received €74,902 and Thomas McGahon architects received €55,771.

AN EAST CLARE man has hit out at claims by Clare County Council that a new electronic scanning system has speeded up the process of applying for planning permission.

The use of the new system has resulted in more than half of the planning applications received by the local authority in December being ruled invalid.

But the council has defended the system saying that it speeds up the process in the long run.

An angry Killaloe man, who has been trying to sell a site, told The Clare People that this had not been his experience.

“The people who want to buy my site applied for planning permission on it and were told 24 hours before the reply period expired that their application was invalid and they would have to start again. These people applied on December 14 and they were told on January 15 that there was a problem with the application and they would have to go back to the start. Even allowing for the holiday, that’s a whole month and just one day inside the period they had to have a site notice up. And that was just to tell them the applications wasn’t valid. If that’s speeding things up, I’d hate to see the council’s system on a go-slow”, the landowner said.

He asked not to be named so as not to identify the site in question, but added that he was “very frustrated not just because the site is being sold subject to planning permission, but also for the people who are trying to get a house built. I can’t see any reason for that kind of a delay.”

The planning office received 90 applications during the month of December . Of these 49 were ruled invalid.

Twenty five were deemed unacceptable due to mistakes in the newspaper advertisement, 14 site notices were inaccurate, 35 drawings were invalid, 18 had problems with maps and 17 other applications had miscellaneous problems.

December was the first month that all applications were scanned.

Previously, staff would phone the agent who applied on behalf of a client, to let them know if there were mistakes and this allowed the agent to resubmit a valid application.

But the scanning system automatically register applications and rejects as invalid any which have mistakes.

A COROFIN Manor House has been sold for a figure believed to be over €3 million.

Clifden House, which is located eight miles outside the north Clare village, was sold last week by international estate agents JacksonStops.

The early Georgian house is located on a 12 acre wooded estate and overlooks Lake Inchiquin. It had been the subject of intense interest from three English bidders since it went on the market last summer with a guide of €1.75 million.

The property was sold by Jim and Bernadette Robson, who had been operating it as a family run guesthouse for the last number of years. They purchased the then run down property some thirty years ago and restored it painstakingly to its former glory.

The Corofin property is the lat est in a series of high profile sales that have taken place in the area in recent times. Indeed, Jackson-Stops also sold a Tipperary mansion to an American businessman for €4 million last week.

“In my 40 years in the business, I have never seen the market as buoyant as how it is now,” said Philip O’Reilly, Managing Director and owner of Philip O’Reilly Ltd in Ennis.

“We have more than 2,000 people looking for a house in Ennis right now while there is also a report of huge prices being paid for specialist propertys around the county.”

Mr O’Reilly believes that it is the IT sector that is driving the housing market at the moment.

“The IT industry is what farming was in Ireland 20 years ago,” said Mr O’Reilly.

“ It is the barometer of our success and there is great confidence in it at the moment. Low interest rates and things like that are contributing factors but it is the IT sector that is the real driver.”

Clifden House was the birthplace of the pre-Raphaelite painter Frederick William Burton, whose family originally built the property. The water colourist was born in the house in 1816 and enjoyed a career as an artist before he took up the position of Director of the National Gallery in 1874.

The house boasts home grown organic fruits and vegetables from the walled garden and farm, as well as a wide range of trout and pike fishing. Other attractions include horse riding, hunting and walking.

CLARE Vocational Educational Committee will seek legal advice after receiving a report of the inquiry into the involuntary resignation of the organisation’s first ever female chief executive officer.

The report, prepared by the Department of Education and Science, examined the functions of Clare VEC and the events surrounding the resignation of former CEO Padraigín Uí Riordáin in 2004.

Following a private meeting held last Wednesday, Clare VEC issued a statement saying that any future consideration of the report would be deferred until legal advice had been sought from local authority solicitor, John Shaw.

“Following the resignation of the then chief executive officer, Padraigín Uí Riordáin, County Clare Vocational Education Committee requested the Minister for Education & Science to establish an inquiry.

“The report of the inquiry has now been forwarded to the committee. At a special meeting of the committee in private on Wednesday evening, it was decided to defer consideration of the report for a period of time following legal advice,” said the statement

The Department of Education and Science launched an initial investigation into the workings of Clare VEC in 2004, following the involuntary resignations of both Ms Uí Riordáin and Ms Teresa Lineen, the former principal of St Michael’s College in Kilmihil, who left her post in 2003.

That investigation was heavily criticised at the time by Fine Gael T.D. Pat Breen, who claimed it had been botched. It was subsequently terminated by the Minister of Education and Science, Mary Hanafin, as problems had arisen regarding the terms of reference.

A new investigation with expanded terms of reference was then initiated, and headed up by retired assistant chief schools inspector, Turlough O’Connor. His report was delivered to the Minister in January. Ms Uí Riordáin announced her resignation in July 2004 at a stormy meeting of the board of Clare VEC. She was replaced as CEO by former Kerry football goalkeeper Eamon Fitzgerald. He has since left the post.

RESIDENTS from two counties are to unite to fight the decision on where to situate a new crossing over the Shannon.

Angry residents from Killaloe and Tipperary are to meet on Wednesday night to plan a campaign to oppose work going ahead on a location, which would see the route pass less than 200 meters from historic Clarisford Palace.

Residents say that the route chosen will cause maximum damage in terms of the town’s amenities and residential considerations.

People in Killaloe have already met to discuss their concerns and opposition to the plan, as have residents in Ballina. Now the two groups are to come together to plan an orchestrated campaign of opposition.

One person involved in the Killaloe campaign said that at least part of the group’s action would be to highlight the potential damage to historical monuments.

“There is a lot of history and heritage being vandalised by this bridge,” the resident said.

“People here tell stories of how noone ever starved in Killaloe in the famine because the Bishop fed people who came to the walls of Clarisford Palace. And there is a plan to put one of the pillars of the bridge in the canal. There are records of barges drawing Guinness form James’s Gate to Clare going back two centuries.”

The objectors say they are also concerned that this route will bring traffic too close to St Anne’s Community College, putting pupils at the school in danger.

It is likely that people from a third local authority may become involved, as a second bridge downstream from O’Briensbridge and Mountpellier in Limerick is also on the cards as part of the plan.

Local Councillor for Montpellier, Noreen Ryan (FF), said that the bridge decision “was anti-democratic from the start. This has done nothing but veto any possibility of getting a proper crossing which that serve the whole region.”

Killaloe councillor, Tony O’Brien (FF), has said that while a decision is welcome to end uncertainty, the bridge will not totally alleviate traffic problems in the lakeside towns.

“What is needed is a proper plan for the town to charter economic development and a bypass,” he said.

The route was chosen following a study of route constraints, commissioned by three local authorities; Clare, Limerick and Tipperary North County Council. It is expected that the new route will be finished in March.

A BUSINESSMAN who dismissed a woman working for him, was subsequently assaulted by four of her relations in Liscannor.

Convicted at Ennis District Court were brothers Michael (33) and Joseph (28) Malone, of Ballyvislane, Liscannor and brothers Martin (35) and John (29) McNamara, of Tarmon west, Kilkee.

They appeared in relation to two separate incidents at Liscannor filling station in July 2005.

The Malone brothers denied assaulting the owner of the business, Michael Cahir, and the McNamara brothers denied assaulting him, causing him harm. All four also denied a charge of criminal damage.

Michael Cahir, a native of Ballyduff, Barefield, said the Malone brothers went into his shop on the evening of July 15.

“They came in demanding a P45 for Michael’s wife, who I had dismissed several months previously,” said Mr Cahir.

He said he did not give them the P45 and they started spitting, kicking, insulting and threatening him. He claimed he got “several” blows and Joseph Malone tore his t-shirt.

Two days later, on July 17, Mr Cahir said the McNamara brothers – related through marriage to the Malone brothers – caught him from behind, “flung” him and threatened him.

He said they punched and kicked him and Martin McNamara headbutted him. John McNamara struck him once and the two brothers threw him out over the boundary wall on his premises.

Gda Michael Burke went to Michael Malone’s home on July 15 and said there was a strong smell of drink from his breath.

“He denied assaulting Michael Cahir but admitted there was pushing and shoving,” said Gda Burke.

One woman who was working at Mr Cahir’s filling station when the Malones entered said there was some pushing and shoving going on at the door of the shop and when her boss went back in to the shop, his t-shirt was torn.

Another employee of Mr Cahir was working on July 17 when the two McNamaras approached her boss.

She said Mr Cahir was lying over the wall and two men were holding his shoulders. She said Mr Cahir’s t-shirt was torn but she did not see him being hit.

A woman who lives close to Mr Cahir’s premises, said she heard a ‘racket’ on July 17. “Mr Cahir jumped over the wall into the field,” she said, adding that she did not see any blows.

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.”

A Kinvara based organisation could put forward a single-issue candidate in the 2007 General Election if their campaign to secure sewage treatment for the town is ignored.

The development follows a protest from the group, Cairde Cuain Cinn Mhara, last week, which saw a toilet being strapped to a raft and launched into Kinvara Bay.

Last week’s protest is the latest in a series of activities undertaken by the group since they first began to campaign for sewage treatment facilities in 1999. Indeed, the group threatened to put forward a candidate in the local election at the time, prompting Galway County Council to give them a guarantee that a system would be put in place.

However, according to Richard Broad of Cairde Cuain Cinn Mhara, plans for the facility have been passed between the Department of the Environment and Galway County Council for the last seven years, with little or no progress being made.

“Almost 70,000 gallons of waste goes directly into the bay each day,” said Mr Broad.

“This is just 75 yards from the harbour and it does not wash out to sea. When the weather is calm you can see faecal matter floating in the bay.”

Cairde Cuain Cinn Mhara have collected some 1,000 signatures from local residents, calling on Department and Council officials to press forward with the project. Officially, a scheme is earmarked to begin construction in 2007, but sections of the local community have serious doubts over this date.

“The feeling is that the political process has let us down,” continued Mr Broad. “It could be well into the next decade before it is built. Unless it is fast tracked, there is no chance of it being up and running before 2009.”

While the group has not yet decided what action to take next, a spokesperson would not rule out the possibility of staging another election bid.