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THE FIRST sod has been turned on a building project that will become a place where the very young and older people can enjoy each other’s company.

After being allocated a government grant of £616,000, and finding a site beside Raheen hospital, the Brig- it’s Garden Community Childcare Project in Tuamgraney turned the first sod for work to begin on their purpose-built facility on Friday.

The community childcare facility took on the name when “in February 2000 we decided to open a space to meet the needs of very young chil-

dren in need of care out of the home’, a spokesperson for the facility said.

In temporary premises over the past eight years more than 100 children, between the ages of six months and five years have been catered for at the facility, which aims to do much more than babysit.

“We have the children outdoors every day for two hours or more. They come dressed for the weather. It’s important for them to get fresh air and exercise – they sleep better at night and they eat better and it’s important for their development”, the spokeswoman said.

Over the years, carers and commit- tee members realised that many chil-

dren don’t have as much contact with grandparents and older people as in previous generations.

“Coming to this site, with Raheen Hospital right beside us, we fulfil our vision of bringing older people into the lives of the young. We have plans for a vegetable garden as well as an orchard on the land. With the help of local organisations like Seedsavers and CELT, we will plant a heritage orchard and woodland. We envision our neighbours from Raheen coming to sit and work in this garden”, the spokeswoman said.

The building itself 1s based on a tra- ditional east Clare farmhouse, which will be pleasing to both young and

old. “The idea is to create a, a place of nourishment, peace and joy. Real activities of baking, cooking, clean- ing, mending and decorating will be a central focus. Gardening work and outdoor time will also be a major fo- CTS

To create a building which will be a healthy space to be in, we are building with clay blocks, a natural, healthy, breathable material with no toxicity. These blocks have a low impact on the environment while offering high thermal and sound in- sulation. We hope to have the build- ing up by spring of 2009, opening to new children in September °09”, she added.

SUNDAY was a busy day for Kilmi- hil folk – the ladies who have blazed a trail to the All-Ireland final were up with the worm as they trained in Doonbeg; come mid-afternoon the men folk had St Finbarr’s in their sights at St Michael’s Park; in be- tween one of Kilmihil’s great players of the past was hoping to guide Crat- loe to a famous first ever minor title.

Colm Collins did just that as the labour of love that is his promotion of underage football in Cratloe came of age when the club scored the most significant win over their scant foot- ball history.

The manner of the win left Collins, who won minor, under 21 and senior

medals for Kilmihil in their golden period that straddled the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, stuck for words at the NGF

‘IT don’t know what to say,” was his first reaction. “I just want to catch my breath, wait a minute” he added before being spirited away to ex- plain away Cratloe’s ascension to the throne of minor football in Clare.

But before he could be taken away, Collins paused for a few seconds and inhaled everything around him – the sight of players and mentors from other Cratloe teams streaming on to the pitch to offer congratulations to him and his team.

Club chairman and former Mayor of Clare, Patrick O’Gorman; former club chairman Jack Chaplin; Col-

lins’ own son and county senior star Sean; Railway Cup football winner and a legend of the game in Cratloe, Kilmihil and wider county beyond Martin Murphy; Michael Considine and James Murrihy from Kilmurry Ibrickane who were county minor selectors with Collins in °08; parents of the players; many others too.

They all wanted to toast this fa- mous day for football in the parish. And, Collins, his fellow selectors Jerome Deloughrey, Ger Lawlor and Alan Neville deserved it. It was them and their players’ day.

“Tt’s great for the players,” said Col- lins when there was finally a bit of calm around him. “They’ve worked very hard for this and we’ve put in a great effort at underage over the past

few years. It’s a huge thing to win a minor championship and great for football in the club.

“Tt was a tough game and we knew that Ennistymon were going to be very hard to beat. I think the winning of the game for us was when Liam Markham went up in the forwards near the end. I can’t claim credit for the move, but that’s what won it for in

As Collins talked, everyone in blue started to drift towards the dressing rooms and scan upwards to the bal- cony where Bord na nOg Peil officer Joe Kelly had begun the process of handing the championship trophy over to captain and one of the heroes of the hour Liam Markham.

“The fact that Ennistymon won the

title last year means that no one will begrudge us this year,’ added Col- lins before casting his mind forward to the future of football in Cratloe.

‘There are a lot of very good young footballers in Cratloe and I think the basis is there to have a good senior team in a few years.”

In other words, this minor title could be the start of something that could turn out to be special. That’s for other days though – now was for celebrating what they’d achieved al- usreKehe

Meanwhile, for Kilmihil/Cratloe folk like Collins and Martin Murphy there was always the game against the “Barrs over the road to think about.

Another game to win.

this week, “Cusack Park will have to be redeveloped if Clare wants to have a county grounds that passes heath and safety requirements into the future. That could cost anything between €5 and €10 million, be- cause it should be done right. With county board finances stretched, it

will be hard to raise money like that is arecession”.

In May 2003 the county board submitted plans to Ennis Town Councu’s planning department to redevelop Cusack Park. They were seeking permission from the plan- ning authority to “demolish the ex-

isting southern stand and construct a new stand complete with press/tv fa- cilities withing roof and ground floor accommodation of dressing rooms, toilets, first aid and hospitality, also a two story administration building to include gym, meeting rooms, dress- ing rooms and a café”.

The redeveloped Cusack Park as envisioned by the county board would have have had 6,000 seats and a capacity of 30,000 as well as an up- graded playing surface.

Permission to carry out these rede- velopment works was granted on De- cember 4, 2003, giving the board five years from that date to redevelop the ground that was opened in 1936.

That planning permission runs out in just over two weeks.

Meanwhile, Ennis Town Council member Frankie Neylon has told the county board this week, “if they don’t want to develop it, Ennis Town Council will gladly take it off of their JaF:NeV@ Kom NO OT-UOMCIER OFT Mm WaCoAm Ye DOL Om UITG! we’ll look after it.

“We’ll develop it as a municipal park and if they want it for the hurl- ing or the football, we’ll let them use it,’ the former Mayor of Ennis added.

THE region’s waste management plan is now redundant following the confirmation that two private com- panies are pursuing thermal treat- ment technologies that were not in place when the plan was originally adopted.

That’s the view of Cllr Brian Meaney (Green) who made his com- ments after Regional Waste Co-ordi- nator, Phillipa King confirmed that two private firms are pursuing forms of thermal technologies in the Lim- erick area.

She confirmed that the technolo- gies being pursued were not around when the plan for Clare, Kerry and Limerick was adopted in 2006.

One plan is only at pre-planning stage, while the Regional Waste Of- fice has raised questions over a Ssec- ond proposal to meet the criteria laid down for thermal treatment.

Cllr Meaney said the waste plan needs to be reviewed as soon as the review ordered by Environment Min- ister John Gormley into the national waste strategy takes place .

“The current plan is redundant by its irrelevance. One indicator of ir-

relevance is the thermal treatment proposals by the private sector are taking place outside of the thermal treatment aspect of the plan and the direction from the Minister that ther- mal treatment is to be removed from waste plans.”

The presentation by Ms King also confirmed that there are less house- holds engaged in refuse collection in Clare last year than there were in paul etes

The number of Clare households signed up to the service is 57% or 21,290 compared to 22,285 or 58% of the 38,210 total in 2006.

However, the county boasts the highest recycling rate in the region at 35% compared to Limerick city (23%), Limerick county (29%) and Kerry (23%) and the regional aver- age of 28%.

Ms King’s presentation also con- firmed that at current filling rates, the landfills in the region have a lifespan of seven more years.

The capacity in the region is 1.324 million tonnes and that the current capacity is 765,000 tonnes, while the plan review states that there are 50 closed landfills in the region.

However, Ms King anticipated that

the lifespan of the landfills will be longer when organic waste is divert- ed from landfill.

Clare County Council along with other local aurthorities are aiming that 20% of households have segre- gated organic collection by Septem- ber of next year and that by December 2010, 40% of housholds must have a segregated organic collection.

The amount of household waste is currently down 3%, uncollected household waste is down 50%, Con- struction and Demolition Waste down 6% and Commercial waste up Ce

TODAY more than ever, you need Someone you can rely on for sound business advice and to minimise business risk.

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Your Chartered Accountant is a multi-skilled business professional whose knowledge of best business practices can help you succeed.

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your business.

Employing a Chartered Account- ant is your assurance that you are dealing with a highly qualified pro- fessional who is up-to-date on the latest business issues and is commit- ted to ongoing professional educa- tion. Investing in the expertise of a Chartered Accountant will give your organisation added insight and di- rection for years to come.

Accounting has been defined as “The art of recording, classifying, and summarizing in a significant manner and in terms of money, trans- actions and events which are, in part at least, of financial character and 1n- terpreting the results thereof.”

Financial accounting is one branch of accounting and historically has involved processes by which finan- cial information about a business is recorded, classified, summarised, interpreted, and communicated; for public companies, this information is generally publicly-accessible. By contrast, management accounting information is used within an or- ganisation and is usually confidential and accessible only to a small group, mostly decision-makers. Open-book accounting aims to improve account- ing transparency. Tax Accounting is the accounting needed to comply with jurisdictional tax regulations.

Auditing is a related but separate discipline, with two sub-disciplines: internal auditing and external audit- ing. External auditing is the process whereby an independent auditor ex- amines an organisation’s financial

statements and accounting records in order to express an opinion as to the truth and fairness of the finan- cial statements and their adherence to Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), or Internation- al Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), in all material respects. In- ternal auditing aims at providing information for management usage, and is typically carried out by em- ployees of the company.

Accounting scholarship is the aca- demic discipline which studies the theory of accountancy.

AS members of the O’Brien’s Bridge community prepare to unveil their new riverside heritage garden they have also revealed that the develop- ment of the loop walks in their vil- lages have attracted visitors from all over.At a time when most small vil- lages are bemoaning a lack of visi- tors, community effort has produced an attraction which sees the pubs and restaurants in the twin villages doing brisk business every weekend.

And so impressive are the three loop walks that Failte Ireland and Shannon Development are publicis-

ing them internationally for walking holidays and short breaks.

“One weekend recently 100 people sat down in a restaurant in the vil- lage and they were all members of a walking club, here to enjoy the loop walks”, said Mick Murtagh, Chair- man of the Community Council.

With the rapid decline in angling, the former mainstay of east Clare tourism, Mick said the O’Brien’s Bridge community picked itself up ‘to replace one source of tourism in- come with another. It was community effort and funding from Clare Coun- ty Council which has researched and put the work into developing these

walks and that has really paid off in terms of visitors and revenue for the area.” The walks are designed so that people can walk for one, two or three hours as they choose and key to the attraction which sees visitors com- ing from all over Ireland and from abroad is the tranquil nature of the loops, Mick believes.

“The whole length of the walk is by water and there is no traffic noise, only the birdsong and wildlife and the flow of the water. It’s really back to nature’, said Mick.

According to Failte Ireland, walk- ing is now one of the most popular outdoor pursuits.

The latest development in the walk is the Riverside garden with a herit- age section and a fascinating display of old farm machinery, mostly donat- ed by a local man, Sean Ryan.

“We’ve restored the old naviga- tional wall and the mill wall so it’s a semi-walled garden and we have a heritage plants section. This is a real community initiative which has been a huge success. It’s brought visitors from far and wide and replaced what was once the back bone of tourism here, the angling. An initiative which has come from the local community has turned a loss situation around and come up with a winner.”

SPEAKING at the Clare County Board meeting on Tuesday, Jim Nash, Chairperson of the Cusack Park Committee said the failure of the proposed sale of the stadium has cost the developers money.

“The Clare County Board expected nothing but it has cost our develop- ment partners money,” he said. “They had taken certain steps with property adjacent to Cusack Park and looking back, 1t was a bad decision.”

He added that Clare GAA will re- main at Cusack Park for the imme- diate future and proposed that the board develop the stadium, particu- larly the playing surface.

He went on to state that the com- mittee had worked hard to ensure the deal went through, but said he felt the situation had now stalled.

“Without re-zoning we don’t have anything to sell and that’s the posi- tion. At this stage, you could say nothing gained but nothing lost. There are no damning contracts out there. There has been no expenditure on the part of the GAA. We’ve only given our time to this project and there has been no financial exposure to Clare GAA.

“Pat Fitzgerald and myself went to every councillor and representa- tive to see if we could get the vote in favour of the re-zoning but it just wasn’t to be.”

He added that he felt the committee had served the board and delegates well and honourably.

“But the long and short of it is that the re-zoning was refused. It was a vote taken by the councillors and we just weren’t successful.”

Speaking on Tuesday, some del-

egates refused to accept defeat. “It’s not completely finished,’ said Clare- castle delegate, Bernard Hanrahan. “If a suitable site 1s found within the town then we can get a material con- travention.”

However, Michael Curtin, a mem- ber of the Cusack Park Committee said that the group had already given it their best shot.

“The reality is we have business leaving the town and we had an op- portunity to get some serious devel- opment in Ennis. Young people are leaving the county and we’re heading back to the ‘80s.

‘“Shopkeepers in Ennis will tell you the red jersey of Munster is the big- gest selling jersey. So this decision defies logic and I can’t understand it. We’re disappointed for the Gaels of Clare and the business people of the oo) tna ae

THE benefits of pre-clearance are:

For passengers: It will save time and potentially save money.

e Shannon and Dublin are the only European airports that will have full pre clearance facilities on offer to passengers.

e The US currently has no plans to introduce pre-clearance elsewhere in Europe.

e Once the new pre-clearance fa- cilities are in place US bound pas- sengers out of Shannon and Dublin airports will have uninterrupted pas- sage through US airports on arrival. e All customs, US immigration and agriculture clearance will now be completed before passengers leave Ireland.

e Flights from Shannon and Dublin airports will be treated like domes- tic flights in the US. Passengers will have no need to undergo further time consuming checks in any US air- jour

e Passengers will now be able to

check their baggage through from Shannon and Dublin to their final destination in the US even if this involves two flights with different airlines.

¢ Domestic airports are generally cheaper for airlines to use and this should be reflected in the ticket price – meaning potentially cheaper flights for customers.

For airlines: Faster aircraft turnaround which saves money.

e Transatlantic airlines using Shan- non and Dublin will now be able to fly into less congested and less ex- pensive domestic terminals at US airports. This means easier access to aircraft stands thereby minimis- ing the time between touchdown and passengers exiting the aircraft.

e Airlines will now also be able to offer passengers easily accessible on- ward connections.

For Shannon Airport and the mid- west region:

Shannon will be the first airport in Ireland to offer full pre clearance

facilities. This will give the airport authority a unique selling point in its marketing campaigns to attract new airlines to service the airport.

e The introduction of pre-clearance will be particularly useful in the ef- forts of Shannon Airport to retain and promote transatlantic services.

e Pre-clearance will provide the op- portunity to promote the mid-west region for high worth tourism from the US with the strong selling point that on the return leg all US clear- ance requirements would be dealt with before departure.

e Pre-clearance has the potential to Open up other economic benefits for the Shannon region particularly for firms dependent on the US market.

For private aircraft:

e Pre-clearance is also being intro- duced at Shannon for private US bound aircraft. Shannon will be the only airport in Europe to offer this service to private aircraft owners.

e Shannon can expect a significant increase in private aircraft landing to avail of the facility.

KILRUSH Superintendent Michael Comyns met with the members of Kilrush Town Council on Thursday last to discuss the future of the Joint Policing Committee (JPC) in the OD e0r

The Kilkee native told the mem- bers that they would drive the suc- cess and workings of the committee as the council makes up the biggest group in the 17 person committee.

JPCs have been set up nationally in accordance with the Garda Siochana Act 2005, which provides for such a committee in each local authority administrative area.

The purpose of these committees is to provide a forum where a local authority and the senior Garda of- ficers responsible for the policing of that area, with the participation of Oireachtas members and community interests, can consult, discuss and make recommendations on matters affecting the policing of the area. It is intended that the committees will be co-operative in nature and will Operate with the minimum of for- mality.

“One of the most important parts of the committee 1s the people from the community and people from the vol- untary organisations. The best thing is to pick from the widest spectrum

such as the youth group and older people,’ the newly appointed super- intendent advised.

“You can only have three from the voluntary and community sector. This is very small for an area like Kilrush so it 1s important to pick from a broad spectrum,” he added.

‘The town council will have a huge influence on the joint policing com- mittee. The biggest thing is that this is not a blame game,” he said.

“Things will go wrong but if every- one pulls together hopefully we will get it right.”

Supt Comyns told the council that the committee can have a huge input into law and order in the town.

“If there is a public premises acting outside the law we can discuss it here and we can send someone from the joint police committee to object to the licence,” he said.

While most committees are to be made up of three Oireachtas mem- bers, Kilrush will have just one due to the number of TDs in the constitu- ency.

Councillor Christy O’Malley (FF) pointed out to the meeting however that none of the four TDs in Clare could be considered local to west OE cer

The cost of this new committee is to be borne by the council and it must hold a public meeting once a year.

IF YOU don’t employ a dedicated ac- countant, a designated person within your company may wish to under- take some training in the area. The ICAI runs subsidised business skills courses relevant for start-ups in con- junction with Government-sponsored training body, Skillnet.

These operate under the name “SME Growth Skillnet” and ICAI members and non-members can at-

tend. Basic Bookkeeping — Part One takes seven hours and takes students through the bookkeeping cycle from source documentation to preparing a trial balance. Next comes Basic Bookkeeping — Part Two, also last- ing seven hours. This module builds on part one and explains how to prepare financial statements from the trial balance. There is a shorter course too (3.5 hours) called Finan- cial Awareness for Administrators aiming to “dispel the mystery of fi-

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