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Pay and expenses figures from mid- 2004 until the end of 2008 reveal that three of the six most expensive councillors in Clare came from the Ennistymon electoral area.

The six councillors have shared €§83,896.33 in total between them since mid-2004, an average of €147,316.05 per councillor.

Cllr Flan Garvey (FF) topped the list with a total of €167,511.58 in ex- penses and wages.

OT Cra (mao aio eme- ee \y EhVOmmOys Clare and received a special alloca- tion of extra expenses as a result of Wek

Some of the larger expenses claimed by Cllr Garvey include €1,515.64 for

a trip to the Milwalkee Tourism Pro- motion Conference and €1,733.34 for a twinning trip to Australia in 2007.

As well as this, Cllr Garvey, who is currently Chairman of the Board at the Institute of Technology in Tralee, received €2,829.50 for the completion of a Masters in Business hi wACLelor

Second highest earner in the area was Cllr Richard Nagle (FF) whose total of 161,255.20 includes a special allowance for his work as chair of one of the SPC.

Cllr Joe Arkins also serves as chair of an SPC and is third in the list in north Clare with a total of IRE orh Rope

The lowest total of expenses and pay in the area was to Michael Kelly (FF) at €131, 359.58 fol- lowed by Martin Conway (FG) at €133,359.58 and Martin Lafferty at €134,759.66.

Brennan crowned most costly Ennis councillor

Forum hits out at ‘anti-business’ policies

Council awaits funding for John Paul Estate works

THE husband of a woman murdered by a man who was last week jailed for attempting to abduct a child has said questions must be asked over decisions to grant him bail.

Gerard McGrath (24), was jailed for life last month for murdering Sixmi- lebridge resident Sylvia Roche-Kelly (below), in a Limerick hotel, in De- cember 2007.

At Clonmel Circuit Court last week, McGrath was jailed for 10 years for choking and falsely imprisoning a five-year-old girl who he tried to ab- duct.

McGrath, of Ballywalter, Cashel, County Tipperary, committed this offence in October 2007, just two months before he murdered Ms Ro- che-Kelly.

McGrath had previously assaulted a female taxi driver in April 2007.

MORE than 500 Clare farmers will be hit with interest charges and non- payment penalties following the Government’s decision to default on the payment of the Farm Waste Man- agement Scheme.

Farmers all over the county have taken out bank loans to fund the construction of storage facilities for farm waste following the introduc- tion of tight environmental controls in the 2007 EU nitrate regulations.

However, following the downturn in the public finances the Minister for Agriculture, Brendan Smith, has confirmed that the Government will not be able to fully fund a Govern- ment scheme to help cover the cost of some of the construction work.

These have left many Clare farmers with large bank loans that they can no longer afford to pay. It is feared in some quarters that banks will not be willing to extend more credit to farmers who cannot meet repay- ments.

“We would hope that things don’t get as bad as that. We would hope that any farmer with a decent credit history would be given some backing by the banks on this issue, especially as the banks are to blame for a good part of this situation,’ said Clare IFA Chairman, Michael Lynch.

“We will hope that the Govern-

ment will be able to help out in in- terest and charges from the bank as a result of this. The minister will be meeting with representatives from the bank later this week and the hope is that some sort of arrangement can be reached.”

More than 17,000 farmers through- out the country will be effected by the Governments failure to fully fi- nance this scheme.

IFA National President, Padraig Walshe, accused agricultural minis-

ter of abject failure and of “breaking his word” on the issue.

According to Walshe, Irish farmers who have carried out work have up to €500 million borrowed in bridging finance, which is costing them be- tween €2.5 million and €3.1 million per month.

DESPITE giving up home advan- tage, Tulla United came through a tough third round tie with Shannon Olympic at Lees Road on Sunday

morning. In a hotly contested affair, Tulla physicality saw them through a very spirited challenge from the Shannon side, who will rue not tak- ing the chances that came their way.

Tulla just about shaded an even first

half with Keith Lenihan and Alan Brigdale both failing to capatalise on good openings.

The vital breakthrough came with just over half an hour on the clock. A corner from the right was flicked

on well at the near post by Andy McMahon. Keith Lenihan then got a touch to the ball, which was goal bound when Olympic keeper Kieran McCarthy fisted the ball into his own net.

Olympic will have been dissap- pointed not to go in at half time on terms with Paul O’Connor shoot- ing wide when one on one with the Neale

Olympic had the better of much of the second half with Ricky Collins making a number of quality saves to keep the Shannon men at bay. The best chance of the half fell to Donnacha Kelly whose header went inches wide.

Best for Tulla were Alan McMahon, Keith Lenihan and Denis Murphy.

THERE is enough oil and gas re- serves off the Clare coast to pay off Ireland’s nation debt several times over and lift the country out of the recession – if the Government can renegotiate contracts with multina- tional exploration companies. According to a report by the Petro- leum Affairs Division of the Depart- ment of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources there is the potential for some 10 billion barrels

of oil to be recovered off the Irish coast, with an estimated 206 million barrels of oil located in the Spanish Point field. Even at current low mar- ket prices the total value of oil at this field would come to more than €1 billion. This is just a small fraction of the overall estimated value at the Spanish Point field however, which has a known reserve of one and a quarter trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

At present exploration at the Span- ish Point field, as well as the neigh-

bouring Burren field, is being man- aged by Providence Resources.

New legislation requires explo- ration companies to pay the Irish Government 40 per cent of their oils and gas finds in Irish waters – how- ever, older fields, such as the Spanish Point, Burren and Corrib finds, only require a payment of 25 per cent.

Fine Gael spokesman for Energy and Natural Resources, Simon Cov- eney said last week that the Govern- ment should renegotiate this deal – while local councillor Martin Con-

way (FG) believes that the Govern- ment should seek even better terms or even go into the exploration busi- ness themselves.

“The least that the Government should get from these resources should be 50 per cent. You have to make projects like this viable for pri- vate companies but I think that we need to get a better deal,” said Cllr Conway.

“In terms of employment we need to maximise everything that we have. I was in Doolin over the weekend and

it was shocking the number of build- ers who are unemployed.

“We need to look at every way that we can think of for generating any jobs, whether they be low-skilled jobs or high-skilled jobs. I think that we need to look at ways that the Gov- ernment could go into partnership with oil companies and exploit the resources of the country together.”

The Spanish Point and Burren fields are located in an area known as the Porcupine Basin – located some 200 km directly off the Clare coast.

NEWMARKET Celtic edged past Bridge Celtic in this all Premier League clash on Sunday afternoon.

One of the stand out ties when the draw for the Clare Cup was made last month, there was always going to be little to choose between reigning league champions Newmarket and their predecessors, Bridge Celtic.

As such, it took a goal of immense quality to settle a tight affair in New- market. Damien O’ Malley produced a superb lob to give Newmarket the lead inside the first ten minutes.

After such an explosive opening and given the calibre of the sides in- volved, you might have been forgiven for anticipating a goal fest. That nev- er materialised.

Despite a better showing in the second half, Bridge struggled to find the spark that has been the hallmark of some of their better displays this season.

Instead they found Newmarket in stubborn mood. When you talk about calibre, it isn’t just confined to those who ply the trade further up the field.

It also refers to the men at the back. For Newmarketet, Mark O’Malley and Colm Treacy were utterly de- pendable in defence. Likewise for Bridge, Pat Murtagh can pleased with his display at centre back.

The omens weren’t too promis- ing for Bridge even before kick off. Without a natural goalkeeper, K1- eran Aherne, normally a defender,

stepped in to fill a problem position on Johnny Flynn’s team.

Within minutes of the start, Aherne was picking the ball out of then net. Though in fairness, there he was little he could have done to prevent Newmarket from taking the lead.

The ball broke on the right hand

side of the Bridge penalty area and found its way to the grateful Darren OVEN

Spotting Aherne ever so slightly off his line, the midfielder’s perfectly judged chip arced over and into the net. It was the perfect start for New- market. The home side went looking

for a second goal and with the pacy Eoin Hayes and Damien O’Malley looking dangerous, it looked a real possibility.

But Bridge stood firm, giving lit- tle away at the back and making it to half time just one goal behind.

Celtic passed the ball a lot better af- ter the break but will be disappointed not to have made more of the posses- sion they enjoyed.

Newmarket were not for moving though Bridge came close to equal- ising when Ger O’Connell’s fiercely struck free kick was well tipped over by Newmarket goalie Trevor O’Donnell.

A TRANSITION-YEAR – student from Scoil Mhuire in Ennistymon will represent the county in the All- Ireland final of the Soroptomists Public Speaking Competition later this month.

Sharon Howley will pit her wits against some of the most talented young debaters in the country at the national final after winning the re- gional heat in Tralee last week.

“Both myself and my friend Niamh Brosnan made it through to the sec- ond qualification round in Tralee and

I was lucky enough to qualify from the national finals,” she said.

“The finals will take place on the 28th of this month in Athlone. You keep the same topic throughout each round so I will be using the same speech for Athlone as I used in Tral- ee. The judges sometimes tell you to change a few bits from round to round but after Tralee they told me to keep the speech that I have.

“There will also be an impromptu round in Athlone. This means that we will be given just two minutes to prepare a speech on a subject – it can be any topic under the sun – and you

have to speak on it. Everyone gets the same topic but no-one knows un- til exactly two minutes before you go on so it is very challenging.”

Sharon qualified for the final after winning in the last round of heats Where she debated on the subject of education. “I decided to talk on the subject of education. The main phrase of the talk was that “education is what remains’ so I spoke on the underachievers in education and how the system has to change. Things have been discovered but real chang- es need to be implemented to make it a success,’ she continued.

Both Sharon and Niamh were pre- pared for the competition by Scoul Mhuire teacher Mrs O’ Flaherty.

Meanwhile, Gort Community School’s under-15 public speaking team – which includes Francis Whe- lan, Amy Quirke and Meagan Mulcair – are also through to the All-Ireland final of the Women’s Business Insti- tute public speaking competition.

After winning the local heat by speaking on the subject of the envi- ronment, health and relationships, they will now represent the west of Ireland in Trinity College on Febru- Na PACe