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A COMPANY that received €80,000 in grant aid from Clare County Council this year has failed to pay the council €23,012 in commercial rates, it emerged yesterday.

Yesterday, Cllr Brian Meaney (Green) called on the council to pur- sue Kilkee Waterworld for the un- Or Nem AlKone

However, board member of the company, Cllr Patrick Keane (FF) said that the rates have not been paid as the company is awaiting details as to whether it is required to pay the Teoh

Cllr Keane said, “Kilkee Water- world is a community facility and we are waiting to learn if the facility does have to pay the rates.”

Established in the mid 1990s, Kil- kee Waterworld is integral to the tourism industry in Kilkee in attract- ing visitors to the area.

Cllr Keane said that 2008 “was a very good year where the bad weath- er was good for the centre.”

Shannon Swimming Pool and Leisure Centre Ltd also receives ۤ0,000 from the council and one of its directors, Cllr Patricia McCarthy (Ind), confirmed that it has paid its rates to the county council.

She said, “We have always paid our rates. It is a substantial amount. We might not like it, but it has to be paid.”

Cllr Meaney said that the council should now pursue Kilkee Water- world and no exceptions should be

made due to fact that the company’s board has council representation on 1

Cllr Meaney said, “That legisla- tion is quite clear and community facilities are not exempt from rates. I am extemely unhappy over Kilkee Waterworld’s non-payment of the rates.”

Asked would he vote for Kilkee Waterworld not to receive the grant aid of €80,000 if he was aware that the company was not paying its rates, Cllr Meaney said, “It’s quite possible

that Kilkee Waterword needed the grant aid in order to pay the rates.”

Three years ago, Kilkee Water- world faced the threat of being struck off by the Companies Office by fail- ing to file its returns.

The cash-strapped company did eventually file the accounts, stating that it was late in filing the accounts as it did not have the required €2,500 to do so.

East Clare gearing up for St Patrick’s Day

CLARE County Council has serious concerns over plans to construct a €12 million eight turbine windfarm in an upland area of east Clare.

In December, SWS Energy Ltd lodged plans with the council for the 350 metre high windfarm to the south of the Maghera Mountain range and seven kilometres from Tulla.

In the Environmental Impact State- ment (EIS) lodged with the plan- ning application, SWS Energy Ltd claimed that the potential impacts associated with a wind energy devel- opment of this size and layout could be absorbed and accommodated without significant impairment of the existing environment.

However, the Department of the Environment told Clare County Council that the proposal “on its own and in combination with other plans and projects, had the potential to have significant effects on the Spe- cial Protection Area (SPA) and its conservations objectives.”

The Irish Peatland Conservation Council (IPCC) said it couldn’t sup- port the development as it would be adjacent to Glendree Bog Special Area of Conservation (SAC) and would negatively affect its conserva- tion status by affecting the hydrol- ogy of the site, its biodiversity and its habitat.

Numerous local objections were also lodged against the plan.

In response, the council has put the plan on hold requiring additional further information.

The council stated that, “A number of serious concerns arise in terms of the geotechnical qualities and the stability of the site and the impact that the proposed development, both during construction phases and op- erational phases, may have on this.

The council has also stated that three breeding pairs of Hen Harriers were recorded within five kilometres of the site and that this is significant from a local and national perspec- tive.

The council added that the site is a known roosting site for the Green- land White Fronted goose.

“The proposed development has the potential to have significant ef- fects on the Special Protection Area and/or the Special Area of Conser- vation and their conservation objec- tives. Accordingly, a EU Habitats Directive ‘Appropriate Assessment’ is required by way of further infor- mation.”

In its objection, the IPCC stated that, “With the aim of protecting the rare and threatened blanket bog habitat of Glendreee Bog SAC, the proposed development should not be permitted.

“IPCC would consider approval of this development to be setting a very bad example for nature conserva- tion and could compromise Ireland’s commitment to conserving not only Glendree Bog SAC, but SACs throughout the country.”

THE world-famous London Sym- phony Chorus will make it first ever Irish appearance this year when they perform as special guests of the Lis- morahaun Singers in Ennistymon.

More than 200 singers and musi- cians from the London Symphony Chorus, the Lismorahaun Singers and the City of Dublin Concert Orchestra will perform Mozart’s ‘Great Mass in C Minor’ in honour of north Clare author and poet John O’ Donohue.

The author, who passed away in early 2008, was born just beside the townland of Lismourahaun in Lis- doonvarna and was the man respon- sible for naming the choir.

The concert also marks the tenth anniversary of the Lismorahaun NTIS ESE

“This is the London Symphony Chorus’ first ever visit to Ireland and they are not going to Dublin or Bel- fast or Cork or Limerick – they are coming to north Clare,” said Archie Simpson, founder of the Lismoura- haun Singers.

“They are so excited about the prospect of singing with us – about the prospect of performing with real people and in front of a real commu- nity. I think the fact that they have decided to make Ennistymon their first ever port of call says a lot about both choirs.”

The London Symphony Chorus is one of the world’s premier choral en- sembles and already has more than

100 recordings to its name.

The Lismorahaun Singers will wel- come back some of its most high- profile exports for this concert, in- cluding Naomi O’Connell who is currently studying at the Juilliard School of Music in New York and Peter O’Donohue, nephew of the late John O’Donohue.

“John has meant a lot to the choir personally over the years. He was al- ways So supportive of us and indeed it was him who first gave us our name,” continued Archie. “When we sang in the early days, we didn’t have a name but John invited us to sing at one of his Masses and introduced us as the Lismorahaun Singers. The name just stuck after that.”

The concert will take place on April 17 in the Church of Saint Michael in Ennistymon.

Tickets, at a cost of €40, will be available from March 6 at Scéal Eile in Ennis, Crosbies in Ennistymon, Jordans in Lisdoonvarna and Moon- eys in Ballyvaughan. For credit card bookings, contact the Burren Col- lege of Art in Ballyvaughan on 065 7077200.

THERE has been a wide welcome in Clare for the announcement that In- tel will create 134 new jobs over the next four years.

Junior Minister Tony Killeen TD has described Intel’s decision to in- vest €50 million in a major expan- sion at its Shannon Free Zone op- eration as a “major boost” for the mid-west region’s information and communication technology sector.

““Intel’s decision to invest further in its Shannon operations confirms the Free Zone’s position as the flagship location for international industry in this region,” he said.

The Clare TD noted that knowl- edge was now the key to competitive advantage in smart economies.

“Growing the level of Research and Development investment by new and existing multinationals in Ireland is a key Government priority. Intel’s investment gives very real meaning to our ambition to develop Ireland’s smart economy, and is a wonder- ful testament to the highly talented skills base at Intel Shannon.”

Deputy Joe Carey(FG) TD said, “This 1s a welcome announcement, following a series of difficult closures in the region over the past twelve months. These are the types of jobs which will sustain our economy in

the future. The announcement today hints at the region’s potential for fu- ture development.”

Deputy Pat Breen (FG) said that “it is now very important for the Government to refocus their atten- tion on investing in R&D projects”. Deputy Breen went on to say that “if we invest today, we will reap the benefits tomorrow” and he is urging the Government to provide the nec- essary resources to the Third Level Institutions in this region so that they can “continue the production line of science graduates”.

Attending the formal announce- ment, IBEC Director for the mid- west region Chris O’Donovan com-

mented,

‘This is a significant investment by a successful and ambitious company, which is among Ireland’s most 1m- portant business sectors.

“The announcement today, gives a clear signal that Ireland continues to have the skills and strengths re- quired to support global technology businesses.”

He added: “The expansion was secured by Shannon Development and I want to commend the agency for their efforts in this regard. Over 7,000 people are employed in over 100 companies at the Shannon Free Zone, which is managed by the De- velopment Agency.”

TANAISTE and Minister for Enter- prise, Mary Coughlan paid tribute to the workers and the organisations in the Shannon Free Zone when she came to announce a €50 million in- vestment at Intel last week.

“It is down to the calibre of the people on this site in Shannon that they have been able to get this invest- ment…investment in our people and our skills is how we are going to re- main competitive.”

She added that the gain of up to 134 jobs in research and develop- ment are the result of the “smart economy building on the knowledge economy .

Intel will invest more than €50 mil-

lion in a major expansion, supported by Shannon Development, over the next four years, bringing the total employment to approximately 300. Congratulating Intel on theirinvest- ment the Tanaiste said, “Knowledge is now the key to competitive advan- tage in smart economies. Growing the level of R and D investment by new and existing multi-nationals in Ireland is a key Government priority. Today’s investment announcement by Intel gives very real meaning to our ambition to develop Ireland’s smart economy, and is a wonder- ful testament to the highly talented skills base at Intel Shannon.” Welcoming the announcement Vincent Cunnane, Chief Execu- tive of Shannon Development said,

“This major investment at the Shan- non Free Zone is a further vote of confidence in Shannon as a competi- tive location for high tech knowledge based investment on a global scale. We are delighted to have secured this expansion for Shannon, in collabora- tion with IDA Ireland.”

“We are delighted with the expan- Sion decision,’ commented Jonathan Walsh, General Manager of Intel Shannon. “It comes as the result of our world class track record of R and D over the last eight years, the highly developed technical market- ing competencies and also our suc- cess in attracting the highest quality research talent, domestically and in- ternationally.”

He predicted Intel “will emerge

from this downturn stronger relative to our competitors than we were go- ing into it”.

The investment is in further de- veloping leading edge 32 nanometre design capabilities for embedded processors.

Intel predicts that there will be 15 billion connected devices by the year 2015. The Intel investment will in- volve two separate R and D projects. The first is a new hardware project involving advanced 32nm _ silicon design and validation, which aims to enable the next generation of products for small- to medium-sized businesses. The second project is a software development project, which will benefit sectors including the au- tomotive and security sectors.

between June 2007 and No- vember 2008.

Police property applications in re- lation to them were made before En- nis District Court on Friday, where Judge Joseph Mangan ordered that the cars be surrendered to the Min- ister for Justice, who would decide how to dispose of them.

Sergeant Paul Slattery told the court that during one of the incidents, the occupants of the car fled the scene, leaving the vehicle behind.

“The car was hot-wired at the time,” he said.

He said he was applying to have the vehicle destroyed.

Another of the cars was seized by gardai last August, as part of an in- vestigation into a burglary, while an- other car came into the possession of the gardai in connection with a crimi- nal damage incident.

That car had been extensively dam- aged, said the garda.

The fourth car had been abandoned in January 2008 and was seized by garda

A FRIGHTENING escapade, on im- pulse, was how a judge described an attack on a van by a man wielding an iron bar, during the Willie Clancy music festival.

As a result, a three-month jail term was imposed on Shaun O’ Hare (29), who pleaded guilty to a charge of criminal damage to a motor van and also to producing an iron bar, at Spanish Point, on July 8, 2007.

Garda Ian Kelly told Ennis Cuir- cuit Court that three young men were sleeping in their van in a car- park when the accused approached. Initially he went away but returned a short time later – around lam – with bottles of drink, which he offered to

them. The garda said he banged and kicked at the van, in an attempt to ee RSME

He said the occupants of the van told him they didn’t want drink and he then broke a bottle outside the van. O’Hare – of Newtown, Clon- lara – who was barefoot at the time, jumped from the van and stood on the glass bottle that had broken.

The incident eventually settled down. However, at Yam the follow- ing morning, O’ Hare returned to the van with an iron bar and damaged the van. Gda Kelly said the damage to the shell of the van was almost €600 and this did not include dam- age to the windscreen. None of this had been paid by the accused, but it was presented to the court.

Asked what gave rise to the in- cident, Gda Kelly said, “It was a drink-related incident. Shaun O’ Hare approached these youths. I got the impression from the witnesses they didn’t want to be in his company and they were only in his company through fear.”

The court was told O’Hare has a number of previous convictions, in- cluding one for assault and some for public order.

Defence counsel Michael Fitzgib- bon, BL, said his client had no previ- ous convictions of a similar nature to what was before the court.

He said his client lost his temper af- ter his partner had pointed out his foot injury to him the following morning. He reacted “very badly and disgrace-

fully. It was in a fit of temper.”

“If there was any misfortune, Mr O’Hare was the author of his own misfortune. He dropped a bottle of beer. He stepped on it. . . He decided to take matters into his own hands,” Jntemncy-HK6b

He said the accused has acquired employment and his employer would give him a glowing reference. He said he has attended a treatment cen- tre and also attended a programme to address his anger issues.

‘He has been making trojan efforts to deal with his alcohol problem and his anger problem,” he said. He said his client recently lost his brother, in tragic circumstances.

Judge Raymond Fullam said when O’Hare banged and kicked the van,

the occupants were in fear and said it was a “frightening escapade”.

“Tt was an inexcusable and outra- geous offence. The iron bar that he wielded was, clearly with the amount of alcohol that he had, a dangerous weapon,’ said the judge.

However, he noted that a guilty plea had been entered and that the offence was committed “on impulse”.

“While these men were in fear, they didn’t suffer any personal injury, which was a blessing,” he said.

The judge said he gave a consid- erable discount for the accused’s circumstances and imposed a three- month jail term. He granted an ap- plication by the defence to postpone the commencement of that term for a fortnight.

AFTER a trial which lasted three days, a jury took less than 30 min- utes to find a Ballyvaughan man not guilty of assaulting an off-duty garda, knocking him unconscious and breaking his nose.

Brendan d’Arcy (22), of Glenfort, Bally vaughan, had pleaded not guilty to the charge of assaulting Adrian

Cosgrave in Ballyvaughan on Janu- ary 1, 2008, causing him harm.

Ennis circuit court heard various witnesses say that the accused had either kicked or headbutted Mr Cos- grave after the injured party went to remonstrate with him about his driv- bite

It was claimed Mr Cosgrave’s pas- senger was sitting on the door frame with his hands on the roof of the car

as he drove through Ballyvaughan.

Mr d@’Arcy denied that Mr Cosgrave produced his Garda ID before he tried to take the keys of the car out of the ignition.

He said in a statement to gardai that Mr Cosgrave was shouting and was very aggressive and he feared that Mr Cosgrave was about to attack him.

He agreed that he punched the in- jured party but said that he did so in

self-defence.

In the witness box, Mr Cosgrave said he and a large group of friends had gone to Ballyvaughan for the night to celebrate.

After summations, Judge Raymond Fullam sent the jury home on Fri- day and told them they could begin their deliberations on Tuesday. They returned a not guilty verdict on Tues- day morning.

A GROUP of five councillors are de- ciding the future of 25,000 people in Ennis, a local protest has heard.

Fine Gael councillor and local businessman Johnny Flynn hit out at a party colleague and four other En- nis councillors at yesterday’s march organised by the Ennis Forum.

He alleged that Tommy Brennan (Ind), Peter Considine (FF), Joe Rei- dy (FF), Mary Coote Ryan (FG) and Frankie Neylon (Ind), are controlling policies that are “anti business and anti-jobs”.

“T’m four and a half years over in that chamber. I’m sick to the teeth of listening to five people who are running this town,’ Cllr Flynn told protestors outside the offices of En- nis Town Council.

“A group of five people are deciding the future of 25,000 people. There are nine councillors, five of them hold power. They are Tommy Bren- nan, Frankie Neylon, Mary Coote Ryan, Joe Reidy and Peter Consid- ine. Those five people are deciding on policies for the last four and a half years of my experience in the cham- ber. Five people are voting and con- trolling the policies of this town.”

Cllr Flynn, a member of the Ennis

Forum, addressed representatives from 150 businesses.

Architect and Ennis Forum com- mittee member Michael Leahy told the crowd that the protest was taking place because “businesses in Ennis are tired of not being listened to”.

He said the forum was established in response to the perception that En- nis 1s “losing its status as a county town”.

Mr Leahy said increases in com- mercial rates put forward by the council in its 2009 budget were “un-

acceptable”.