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THREE Kilrush Town councillors gave up their conference money to ensure that the cost of applying for a parking permit in Kilrush did not increase by 100 per cent.

The decision followed a suggestion from the father of Cllr Jack Fennell (Ind) that the council consider giving up the conference fund and the may- oral bonus to spare the rate payers a three per cent hike and those paying parking permits an increase in ad- ministration costs of €10.

While the rate increase of thee per cent was passed, former mayors and chairpersons Cllr Fennell, Cllr Stephen O’Gorman (FF) and Tom Clyne (Ind) agreed to give back their conference allocation for the remain- ing six months of this council to re- tain the parking permit cost at €10.

“-€18,000 allocated to this council is going to seminars and conferences around the country. They should be eliminated for a period of two years. The ratepayers are paying for that. I have never seen a report back from one of those conferences,” said Cllr Fennell.

‘I propose the mayors give up their bonuses for a year or two,” he added, claiming that it would save the coun- cil between €3,000 and €3,500.

“T agree,’ said Cllr O’Gorman.

“You would Stephen, you have a

job,” said Cllr Collie Sweeney (Ind). Cllr Fennel’s proposal lead to a heated debate in the chamber, a de- bate that ran one and a half hours over its allocated time. Cllr Tom Prendeville (FF) accused

members of the council of looking for cheap headlines.

“IT am calling the bluff of people here looking for cheap headlines. Anyone who wants to put up their 2,000 (conference allocation) do it

now,’ he said.

He also asked for members to say if they wanted to give up their gratu- ity for the year, or eliminate the grant for retiring members.

“T don’t want any headlines,” added Cllr Prendeville.

Cllr Marian McMahon Jones (FG) said it would be an ideal situation not to increase the rates as business in the town was bad this Christmas with early sales in most shops.

She suggested that money be taken from the civic office fund. Earlier this year €213,000 was taken from the revenue budget and put into this capital programme.

‘Times were better then and no one could foresee what was to happen,” said Cllr McMahon Jones.

“We could look at taking it out of capital and putting it back into rev- enue and put things on hold for 12 months.”

Cllr Prendeville said, “23 per cent of this budget goes on promoting this town and it 1s very easy to make cheap shots,” he said.

Town Clerk John Corry told the members that the three per cent in- crease in rates was the minimum necessary to maintain the town’s os ATs Gone

CLARE GAA clubs are set to avail of over €300,000 under Munster Council club development grants, it has been announced by the provin- cial ruling body.

The announcement of the alloca- tion for the council’s 2008 budget shows that Clare clubs lodged a total of 47 applications to the provincial council, just one short of Kerry who lodged the most applications.

However, Cork clubs received the highest grants with a total of €574,944 allocated.

The council’s budget in this area arises from 40% of it’s gate receipts throughout 2008 and the council allocates grants up to an approved maximum in various categories.

These include field purchase, dress- ing rooms, floodlighting, pitch drain- age, stands, embankments, dug-outs, First Aid accommodation, Medical Room, car park facilities, score- board, netting, boundary and playing pitch fencing, purchase of mowers, hurling walls and pitch sanding.

Under the scheme, school grounds also benefit while in addition to the club funding, €484,570 was allocat- ed to ongoing major county ground developments.

“Comhairle na Mumhan acknowl- edges this wonderful work that is being undertaken by clubs with the approval of 40% of gate receipts for club development while a further 15% of the gross gate receipts is returned in ground rents to the grounds that hosted games this year,” a spokes- person for the council told The Clare People.

“This means that overall Com- hairle na Mumhan gives back 55% of its total gate revenue for develop- ment work.”

According to the latest figures, in the last five years the council has committed almost €9 million to De- velopment Grants in the province. Central Council has committed €2.6 million to clubs in the Munster in ad- dition to this, in the same period.

FINANCE Minister Brian Lenihan has dashed hopes that the Govern- ment may abandon its new air travel tax stating that the air sector already has preferential treatment.

In response to a series of Dail ques- tions on the new €10 tax, the minis- ter said he has tried to be as fair as possible in looking at areas for ad- ditional tax revenues. He said that fuel used by commercial airlines was

completely exempt from tax, so it al- ready had considerable preferential treatment. He said the new air travel tax will come into force from March 30 next year

“Ireland is not unique in regard to applying a tax on air travel. A number of countries within the EU apply similar taxes including the UK, France and the Netherlands, as do Australia and New Zealand. The proposed rates for the Irish air travel tax are not unreasonable both for

shorter and longer journeys, when compared to rates in other countries.

“It should be recognised that tour- ists will only be subject to the tax on their return journey. The additional €10 or €2 in the context of a much larger purchasing decision involv- ing travel, hotel expenditures etc. shouldn’t have much of an effect on tourist numbers.

“I appreciate the airline industry continues to go through a difficult period. However, this difficult trad-

ing period has, in addition to weak world economic activity, been largely driven by a massive spike in oil pric- es. Oil prices have now halved from the all-time high prices experienced earlier in the year.”

On his recent visit to Shannon, Ryanair chief executive, Michael O’Leary described the new air travel tax “as an amazingly stupid and re- gressive measure’.

“By all means have €10 taxes in Dublin, but you are not going to

be able to support traffic at Knock, Shannon and Kerry with €10 flat tax particularly during winter. We don’t Oppose a visitor tax over the short term in principle, somewhere some- how we all are going to have to pay a little bit more tax.”

However, Mr O’Leary said that it 1s fundamentally wrong that a person flying business class paying €3,000 – €4,000 paying €10 tax and an or- dinary Joe paying the same out of Shannon.

IF variety is the spice of life, then biodiversity is the very fabric of life and the Clare Biodiversity group of the county council is celebrating the Banners rich heritage of plants and animals with a new website.

The new Clare Biodiversity web- site, 1s a central information point for biodiversity in Clare, linking up other organisations working in biodi- versity, biodiversity events, projects and competition, and gives useful information on how to help the en- vironment.

Biodiversity is the variety of all life on earth from the largest whale to the smallest micro-organism, includ- ing human beings, along the way. The website incudes information on how we can help stop the decline of biodiversity, with good advice about avoiding insecticides and herbicides in the garden, having a compost heap, recycling, using public trans- port, walking or cycling to save on fuel, turning off sockets to save en- ergy, feeding birds in the winter and buying local and/or organic foods.

The website, which is also as Gaeilge, has information about the various biodiversity initiatives and projects in Clare as well as sections on habitats, competitions, video clips, action plans, news and events, biodiversity areas, and links to other organisations involved with environ- mental concerns.

The site is designed as a tool for schools, groups, individuals and families who want to know more about taking care of the rich variety of life in the county.

The new site can be found at www. clarebiodiversity.ie

Among the projects which the Bio- diversity group has carried out in Clare are the mapping of habitats in the county and a survey of the Clare wetlands.

Approximately a third of County Clare has been mapped on a field-by- field basis and put into digital format and a desktop survey to accumulate all the information available on the wetlands of County Clare was car- ried out in 2008. This information is now accessible in digital map for- jeatelm

Robin has, in previous years organ- ised fairs in The West County and Buratty, but this was the first time he had something going literally on his doorstep.

The lovely thing about shopping for antiques is that “whether some- one has a tenner to spend or twenty thousand, there’s always something affordable.” said Robin.

And with more than a dozen deal- ers putting out their stalls, there was plenty of fun for bargain hunters and treasure-spotters.

Lovers of contemporary Irish art had a treat at specialist, Louis Walshe of “Treasures’ stall, where there were originals on offer with prices starting at €400. Irish art dealer, Robert De- lahunty was also on hand and with a stall full of “fabulous and fantastical clocks” timepiece dealer, Michael Cunnane kept business ticking over nicely.

For the princely entrance fee of €3.50 bargain hunters were wafted along with steaming mugs of mulled wine and the delights of all things ancient and venerable.

Describing the event as “small but exclusive,’ Robin said it was “nice to have something close to home for people to browse, or buy Christmas presents or add to their collections.”

It was a small event in terms of the Luxury Collection fair in October in the K Club, where the glitteratti gathered to see Boodles diamonds, a €20 million collection of jewels from Sotheby’s or the full range of classic Bentley’s and Harley David- sons.

But good things come in small par- cels and there were plenty of small parcels carried away from the Lake- side that will be treasured as much as any sparkler when they are opened on Christmas morning.

Ronan Judge & Andrew Hamilton

PEDESTRIANISATION of the main shopping streets, Sunday shopping and late night opening are some of the measures being introduced next week in an effort to boost Christmas shopping in Ennis.

The town centre will be traffic free on Saturday 13, Saturday 20, Sunday 21 and Wednesday, December 24 from llam to 6pm.

The main retail outlets will be open for Sunday shopping on December 14, 21 and 28 while there will be late opening on Thursday 18, Friday 19, Monday 22 and Tuesday, December 23. Shops will reopen after Christ- mas on Saturday, December 27.

Ennis Town Council and Ennis Chamber are encouraging custom- ers to park n’shop on the pedestri- anised days by parking in the town

centre public car parks and walking to the car-free areas of Abbey Street, O’Connell Square and O’Connell Nisteem

On pedestrianised days, access can be gained from Francis Street by turning right onto Lower Abbey Street and into Abbey Street car park – making it easy for traffic to circle the town centre to get to any destina- tion.

In addition to the town car parks, the Holy Family School and Ennis National School will be opening their car parks at a cost of €3 per day.

Details of the availability of park- ing and access for traffic on pedes- trianised days are outlined in the at- tached map.

THE significance of next Saturday for Munster increased dramatically this weekend on the back of their 25-19 defeat against Clermont at the Stade Marcel Michelin.

Now, the return game in Thomond Park could prove crucial as Sunday’s result threw the Pool One table wide open with Sale and Claremont now fighting it out with Munster to head the table.

For Clonlara’s Marcus Horan — who scored his side’s only try on Sun- day — Saturday will also be a major personal milestone, as he will have scaled a half-century of Heineken Cup appearances.

And according to Munster captain Paul O’Connell, Munster will need every single player firing on all cyl- inders in Thomond Park if Munster are to overtake Sale on top of the pool table.

“We did get a bonus point on Sun- day and that might be very important for us or it mightn’t count for any- thing if we don’t turn up next week,’ he said.

“But we’re still in with a great chance. It’s going to be a massive game next week, though and it was disappointing to lose on Sunday. Every game in the group is now im- portant because we’re only half way there.”

Speaking of Munster’s poor per- formance in the second half, he said the side failed to make a serious 1m- pression at times.

“If you concede the gain line in rugby you’re going to be chasing your tail. And we did that once or twice and they punished us.”

A FUND of €250,000 is being set aside for members of Clare County Council who fail to get re-elected in next June’s local elections.

A number of long-serving council- lors are in line for a ‘golden hand- shake’ of around €35,000 if they don’t get re-elected next year.

The bumper pay-off is revealed in the council’s draft budget for 2009 where County Manager, Alec Flem- ing has provided the €250,000 fund of ‘retirement gratuities’ for council- Keyace

The fund puts an additional finan- cial burden on the council at a time when it is letting temporary staff go, cutting back on community grants and increasing rates on businesses throughout Clare.

Councilllors such as Cllr Christy Curtin (Ind) and Cllr PJ Kelly CFF) with more than 20 years experience could receive around €35,000 each if they are not re-elected in next June’s local elections.

The two — who will be scrapping for one of the six seats in the down- sized Kilrush electoral area — said they have no aspiration to avail of the pay-off next year.

The membership of the council has a high attrition rate and in the 2004 local elections, ten of the 32 council- lors didn’t make a return.

Cllr PJ Kelly said: “The casualty rate has been high each time since I was elected. When I was first elected in 1974, there were 13 casualties. The manager must not be expecting a good number of us back.”

Cllr Curtin said that the fund “‘is

miniscule when set against the coun- cil budget of €118 million”.

Former Clare mayor, Cllr Patricia McCarthy (Ind) said the Council 1s obliged to make provision for the payments.

Cllr PJ Kelly said: “I didn’t become a councillor in 1974 for the expenses. The only expense then was £5.22 a month. The gratuity payments have been paid agreed by the minister and I’m sure that no councillor has retire- ment is mind who is going for elec- tion next year.”

Cllr Christy Curtin (Ind) said the payments are “recognition for long service from long serving mem- bers. It will be the people in the final analysis who will judge if council- lors are worth it. With the local elec- tions coming up, everything is up for analysis.”

A 93-YEAR-OLD woman died in hospital after she fell and hit her head at a nursing home in Liscannor.

Winifred Agnes Keane had been staying at Dominic Savio Nursing Je Covet eeMNlomUUS lo KcOm-limlees (elon tal fall last December.

The proprietor of the nursing home, Desdemona Smith, told Ennis Coro- ner’s Court that Ms Keane moved in on December 5, 2007 and was trans- ferred to Ennis General Hospital on January 14 last. She was mobile and alert during her stay at the nursing home.

At 7.20pm on the evening of Janu- ary 14, Ms Keane was found lying on the bathroom floor and had sustained a laceration to the left side of her

head. She was seen by a doctor, who arranged for her transfer to Ennis General Hospital for further treat- ment. However, she later died there.

Pathologist Dr Stephen Finn car- ried out a post mortem examination on Ms Keane’s body at Limerick Regional Hospital. He concluded that the cause of death was haemor- rhage as a result of the fracture of the symphsis pubis.

Coroner Isobel O’Dea said it was quite clear that Ms Keane, a widow, had suffered an accidental fall. She said she was extremely impressed with the evidence from the proprie- tor of the nursing home.

“It was very sad for Ms Keane to die so suddenly after the fall when she was waiting for further medical treatment,’ she said.