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Funding not exactly flooding in for victims

LEAVING cert students are being urged to look at the agri-food sector when deciding what to put down on their CSO form with the sector be- ing branded as a central part of the new smart economy and one of the leading areas which will help lead Ireland out of recession.

Agri Aware last week launched a

new campaign to help show inter- ested students where they can go to find a route into the industry. The campaign, which is called ‘Food Routes — Your Guide to Agriculture and Food Courses’ includes a the booklet and website and has been compiled with the help of Teagasc and the ASA (Agricultural Science Association).

“This is a great time to consider

a career in this area. With exports worth over €8 billion, the agri- food industry has been indentified as key to the economic recovery of our country and of huge strategic importance for food security,” said Agri Aware Chairperson, Mairead oay

“T encourage any student with in- terest in industry to check out this resource. A fulfilling career is read-

ily available for hard working and enthusiastic graduates.”

According to the Head of Educa- tion at Teagasc, Paddy Browne, the new resource will help students and teachers alike to get useful informa- tion about agri-food industry.

“Never before has there been so much debate on agri-food related issues such as climate change and food security — it is a very exciting time for the industry, with equally exciting opportunities available in Ireland and around the World,’ he said.

Meanwhile, Clare TD and Junior Agriculture Minister, Tony Killeen (FF), has reminded growers across Clare that the closing date for re- ceipt of applications for the third round of the grant aid scheme for the development of the horticulture sector is February 19.

“This aid, which is set at 40 per cent (50 per cent in the case of young farmers) of total eligible capital in- vestment, will fund projects in com- mercial horticultural production carried out during 2010,” he said,

“The scheme covers all horti- cultural sectors – protected crops, nursery crops, field vegetables, soft fruit, apples, beekeeping and in limited circumstances mushrooms – and is aimed at assisting growers to efficiently produce high quality products in what is now a very com- petitive market.

‘There is a need to sustain exper- tise within the sector and maintain production capacity to maximise volume and food security.”

FIANNA FAIL county council- lor Pat McMahon has called on the Minister for Transport to revise his view on funding for damage caused to roads during the recent bad weather.

Minister Noel Dempsey has said that additional money will not be made available to local authorities to repair roads damaged in recent weeks. How- ever, his party colleague, Councillor Pat McMahon said the statement is “outrageous” and has called on the minister to rescind it.

The Newmarket-on-Fergus council- lor made the comments during a de-

bate on roads at a meeting of Shannon area councillors last week. He said the minster was “irresponsible” to make such a statement.

“He’ll have to rescind that state- ment. That’s outrageous. He consist- ently amazes me,” he said.

Cllr McMahon said the minister had shown “naivety” in his attitude towards local government.

Independent councillor Gerry Flynn said there were problems on roads where surface dressing was in place. “Tt really highlights the idea of sur- face dressing and is it value for mon- ey? .. It has been a complete waste of taxpayers’ money,” he said.

“Local people were prisoners in

their own homes. The local roads and footpaths were impassable,” he said.

The mayor of Shannon, Councillor Sean McLoughlin (FG) asked would money be set aside to repair the roads where potholes have become a domi- nant feature. “Will the council be de- manding special money? I think the council should demand money. Every road you drive on has potholes,’ he ene

Independent councillor Patricia Mc- Carthy said, “It would appear liquid poured on the roads is not suitable. There isn’t a road in the town or sur- rounding area that isn’t without a pot- hole. The concrete roads are literally falling to pieces.”

‘Whatever review 1s going on has to take into account the centres of popu- lation. It’s not simply a rural isolation. It’s an urban isolation,’ she said.

Fine Gael Councillor John Crowe said that in the past, the roads in the Shannon area were “exceptionally good, but very, very good roads are deplorable at the moment. There is a major, major job to be done.”

Councillor Tony Mulcahy (FG) said, “We were too late dropping grit. The locations we dropped it in seemed to work. It isn’t feasible to have 20,000 workers in the county working on it,” he said.

He acknowledged the excellent work put in by council employees during

the cold snap. “The council don’t have the manpower and resources to grit every footpath in the county. We have to take individual responsibility too,” ltemcrs BCG

Senior Executive Engineer with Clare County Council, Eugene O’Shea said the type of material used on some road surfaces was not suitable given the “unprecedented” weather. He said that a more permanent finish would be desirable “but it comes at a cost and you can only do so much.”

In relation to funding, he said that the county engineer has asked each area council for a list. This will be submitted to the Government and funding will be sought.

THE Government should shelf capi- tal projects such as the Gort/Crush- een bypass in favour of funding emergency works on Clare’s belea- guered road network.

That is the opinion of north Clare County Councillor Martin Conway CSCO Mays loe- lionel ela onmerr ime lexomcee per potholes around the county will cause a Serious accident if they are not addressed immediately.

With reports coming in of potholes,

many more than a foot in depth, around the county, Cllr Conway says that quick action is needed in order to avoid a tragedy.

“We have a situation where the roads have deteriorated dramatically over the last number of weeks. We need Clare County Council to carry out an audit on the roads that have been damaged, put together a costing on how much it would cost to bring these roads back to the former stand- ard and we need to present that to Government,’ he said.

“A special fund needs to be estab- lished by the Government to fund this work. Even if a capital project, such as a bypass, needs to be put on hold so that this work can be fi- nanced, then that needs to be done.”

With the local authority budget in the poorest state for many years and funding from central government continuing to be cut, it seems likely that Clare County Council will not be in a position to fund repairs with- out outside help.

“We are already in a situation where

Clare County Council has seen a cut of around 10 per cent in it’s road budget already. We are in a situation at the moment where the budget has been cut for roads by around 30 per cent since 2007. This means that we have to focus on what is the absolute priority and there are roads in every corner of Clare which are 1n a critical condition at the moment,’ he contin- aren

“Motorists are now contending with an obstacle course when driv- ing on the county’s roads. People

are swerving around these potholes to ensure that they don’t do damage to their cars and unfortunately this could very easily lead to a death on our roads,” he said.

“People unfortunately don’t have the chance to drive with any level of comfort or security on the roads. They are watching their cars, they are watching for damage and this is just not good enough in a modern society.

“Even in a recession this is not an acceptable situation.”

PASCHAL Carmody is to be retried on charges of defrauding terminally ill cancer patients, after the High Court cleared the way for the case to go ahead.

Last week, the court rejected claims by Pascal Carmody (61), of Bal- lycuggaran, Killaloe, that there had been a delay by the DPP in bringing the charges against him.

The High Court dismissed the claim that Mr Carmody’s right to a fair trial has been prejudiced by the unavailability of a witness, a former patient who has died.

The charges relate to 2001 and 2002. Mr Carmody went on trial at Ennis Circuit Court in 2008. The jury returned not guilty verdicts on six of 17 charges and could not agree a ver- dict on the 11 remaining charges.

Separately, at Ennis District Court on Friday, Mr Carmody was refused leave to appeal a conviction imposed in the district court in Killaloe in Jan- VF Na Yae0 Oe

His lawyers said that while it was unusual to make application after such a length of time had elapsed, the circumstances were “unusual.”

“Mr Carmody was embroiled in se- rious litigation since then. He hasn’t

had a chance to put his mind to mat- ters. In relation to what happened to Mr Carmody as a result of these charges, he was investigated. He was Struck off,’ said his barrister. He said Mr Carmody wanted the opportunity to “attempt to clear his name. In the

interests of justice and in the intere- stof his constitutional rights, I’d ask you to allow him to at least attempt to appeal.”

He said that immediately after the conviction in 2003, the Fitness to Practice committee began to inves-

tigate his client. That case went to the High Court and then criminal in- vestigations began and these are still ongoing.

‘He hasn’t had a chance to consid- er these applications. He feels he was wrongly advised on that occasion

and there were defences available to him that he did not avail of.

“There has been a lot of publicity surrounding Mr Carmody in the last number of years and in those circum- stances, he has not turned up in court today,” said his barrister.

However, state solicitor for Clare, Martin Linnane said this was, ac- cording to the Irish Medicines Board (IMB), “an abuse of process.” He said Mr Carmody had pleaded guilty to 11 charges – in January 2003 – in relation to the manufacture for sale of certain medical products without permission from the IMB.

“The IMB is of the view it is seven years since this case. He pleaded guilty,” he said.

Judge Joseph Mangan refused the application. He said it was unprec- edented, in his experience, for an extension to be sought, some seven years after a case was heard in the district court. “Even if I reject Mr Linnane’s submissions, I still have no evidence to support the conten- tions made by counsel. The applicant has chosen not to attend court today to substantiate any of the grounds. . . He’s not here to support his applica- tion,” he said.

Value tempts potential homeowners

THE people of Kilkee are getting their say in the design of a newly improved library and theatre for the town.

As it approaches its 50th birthday the Sweeney Memorial Library in the seaside town is to undergo a make-over that will see it trans- formed into a modern day public IPTOUSI Ae

The redevelopment of the library into a theatre and enhanced library is currently at the brief development stage, and local people will have their say online and through public

submissions in the near future.

Public involvement in the process has been welcomed by Cllr Gabriel Keating (FG) who said it was im- portant that the community was in- volved.

Cllr Pat Keane (FF) told the Kil- rush Area meeting that the develop- ment of the building was a long time in the making. “We are three or four years trying to develop it.”

Cllr Keane raised concerns that Some of the €460,000 donated for the project by the Kilkee Civic Trust may have been lost due to a down- turn in investments, but was quick to add that such development work was

also much less expensive in the cur- rent climate.

Senior Executive Engineer Cyril Feeney informed the meeting that this initial stage of the development process was about “formulating re- quirements, objectives and accom- modation and working with ideas ahead of the formal appointment of a design team.”

Clare County Council architects have already been in consultation with the county arts officer and the county librarian to decide on some of the functions of the new library.

Among the functions proposed for the building is a ground floor library

space with scope for an enhanced li- brary service of all age groups and users, a first floor IT library space Nee Mr DOs. C0 loyialeyi me: Bucr.e

A theatre space with a stage and seating for up to 100 people that will include a film facility will also be part of any final design, as will a first floor multi-function room for use by re

The completed building will con- sist of two floors accessible through lift facilities.

Both theatre and library will be de- signed to work independently of one another, but will share core facilities such as toilets and exhibition area.

ENNIS Town Council does not ex- pect to start or complete any social houses this year – despite the fact that numbers on the housing list have in- creased by 35 per cent over the past year.

Figures supplied by the council show that numbers on the housing list increased by 235 from 671 to 906 between December 2008 and De- cember 2009.

The council completed 62 social houses in 2008 but no homes were completed last year and the indica- tions are that none will be completed over the next 12 months.

The council also confirmed that it has had six affordable houses on the market since 2008 and they remain unsold in spite of the cost being cut from €175,000 to €150,000.

Mayor of Ennis, Cllr Frankie Ney- lon (Ind) said yesterday that he does not expect any new social homes to be completed in Ennis over the next five to Six years.

“There is a lack of activity because the council does not have the money from Government to buy new land or start new schemes. That is not hap- pening and won’t happen for another couple of years and by the time the council does acquire land for hous- ing, it will be five or six years before a new social house 1s built.”

Clir Neylon also called for special EU funding to meet the housing re- quirements of the non Irish nationals

on the list and pointed that there are over 300,000 empty homes through- out the country with a sizeable number in Ennis.

Cllr Brian Meaney (Green) said that the National Assets Manage- ment Agency (NAMA) could provide a substantial part of the solution by allowing developers’ unsold houses be used to address the lengthening housing list numbers.

“There are a lot of empty houses

out there, but the Government should be prudent in not bailing out devel- opers.”’

Stating that there was “a dire need for housing in Ennis’, he added that the numbers on the housing list did not represent the true housing need as people seeking rent allowance must first be on the housing list.

Dismay over swerage delay

CONCERNS over possible injuries to birds in Lough Derg from a new seaplane service have prompted Clare County Council to seek a sci- entific assessment of the plan.

Last year, Harbourair Ireland Ltd announced plans for a _ seaplane service aimed at tourists for the west of Ireland. The company lodged ap- plications with planning authorities in Galway and Clare to allow it land a seaplane in Lough Derg, Galway city docks and the main harbour serving Inis Mor.

The Clare plan attracted wide- spread local opposition, prompting company director Ronan Connolly to comment, “We are not planning to land a jumbo jet here.”

The chances of the venture start- ing during the 2010 tourist season receded yesterday when the Clare Council sought a scientific assess- ment on the impact service will have on birds in Lough Derg, which is a Special Protection Area under the EU Habitats Directive.

According to a submission lodged by the Department of the Environ- ment, Lough Derg is of importance for both breeding and wintering birds and supports a nationally im- portant breeding colony of Common

Tern and is also home to Whooper Swans, Cormorants, Mallards. Coots, Lapwings and Goldeneyes.

Seeking the assessment, the Coun- cil stated it had regard to the site being adjacent to an Special Protec- tion Area on the shoreline of Lough Droge

“Concerns arise that birds are like- ly to be disturbed and possibly in- jured by the operation of seaplanes in Mounsthannon Bay.

“Under the EU Birds and Habitats Directive, there is an obligation to prevent significant disturbances of these and other species and of their habitats and breeding of resting places

“Concerns arise that the develop- ment may have a negative impact on fish species at this location and the assessment should comment on the effect — if any — that the develop- ment as proposed may have on ex- isting species and stock levels.”

Reacting to the council’s request Mr Connolly said the information requested was not too onerous and not the full Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) that the company had feared.

He admitted that the request for further information made starting up services this summer “a more distant prospect”.