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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.

The right advice from an impartial professional can be the difference between success and failure. That’s why a Chartered Accountant is the logical choice if you want to negoti- ate a clear path through the labyrinth of the modern business world.

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

The services and expertise they can offer your business include in- terpreting data; preparing manage- ment tools such as forecasts and productivity improvements; audits; advising on financial planning; de- veloping new management strategies and the structures that support them andrisk management.

Chartered Accountants in public practice have the skills, knowledge and experience to improve your business practices – and the profits of your business – in areas you might never have considered.

Imagine the benefits you could re- ceive from a thorough and efficient review of gross margins, or how your debtor turnover affects your cash flow, or how much it is really cost- ing you to support your stock levels. Your Chartered Accountant can be your business partner for the long haul, continuously adding value to

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-

nancial jargon” and explain the prin- ciples of business finance.

The Institute is also holding con- ferences 1n Dublin, Cork and Gal- way throughout November entitled ‘Members in Business”. The goal of the one-day events is to provide participants with key updates in im- portant areas of Financial Reporting, Tax and Commercial Law, as well as other topical issues. The cost of at- tending is €500, less 10 per cent for ICAI members.

YOUNGSTERS taking part in the Mountshannon based Alpha Project were getting a chemistry lesson last week which had nothing to do with fusty diagrams of molecules and eve- rything to do with real life.

Instead of watching dust motes dance in the classroom, the five stu- dents were out in the field, building a limestone kiln, learning about the chemistry involved in producing lime and also getting a lesson in traditional craft and history into the bargain.

“Traditionally, cottages were paint- ed with lime and lime was also used in mortar for buildings. It’s been

replaced now with cement but lime was a much more breathable sub- stance and more ecofriendlly”, said Alpha Project development officer, Caroline Kelly.

To learn about the versatile mate- rial which our grandparents would have used, the youngsters first built a lime-kiln from wattle and daub which they collected and made them- selves, under the expert eye of tradi- tional craftsman, Bernard Graves, who travels the world teaching crafts which are all but lost.

Having collected the ash for wattle and the wood to make charcoal in the Tuamgraney Community Woodland, the students were given limestone by McGrath’s quarry in Tulla. They lay-

ered the lime and charcoal, heated it to 900 degrees which left quicklime then slaked it with water to produce lime.

“They are anxious to use the lime and we will be doing some painting with it as well as letting some mature to make mortar’, said Caroline.

The project was funded by the Her- itage Council.

The Alpha project provides educa- tion through experience and the five students who took part in the lime kiln building have already gained Fetac certification in six subjects af- ter three years on the project.

“these are the first group to ask us to continue their education. Usually, when they reach 16, the students go

to do their Leaving Cert’, said Caro- line.

Established for seven years, the Alpha Project has put many students through and into the world of further education and work and they have just been awarded a research grant.

“We will use it to see where our students have gone and what has happened with them, so we will have a better picture next March’, said Caroline.

EXPERIENCE told in the end. That added touch of guile and know-how that two previous All-Ireland titles have given Laois champions The Harps. Their inter-play was slick, their movement elusive but some- times it is the smaller things that prove the difference in a tight con- test. For instance over a dozen times throughout this decider, The Harps got themselves out of trouble when surrounded, by dropping the hurley and handpassing to another player. In contrast, when Kilmaley were pre- sented with a similar predicament, nine times out of ten, their players opted to try and strike and invariably they were blocked down.

Those little differences are all part of a learning curve for Kilmaley who were only competing in their first national final and pride was just as evident as disappointment at the final whistle as manager John Carmody shrugged off the rain to reflect on his players’ performance.

“On behalf of Tommy Keane, Pat Lynch and myself, we were abso- lutely proud of the girls. Every time they have taken the field this year, they have fought to the last inch and they did the same today. Going into injury time, we were still only a puck of the ball behind but it just wasn’t to be today. They were just that small bit ahead of us.

“I suppose when you are playing teams like this, that you don’t see every week, it may take ten or fifteen minutes to get to grips with a side. We made moves and they worked and we stormed into the game. We had a tremendous last ten minutes of the first half and we felt that at half- time we were in a great position, not having hurled well, to be going in on level terms. But you have to credit the Harps because we threw every- thing we had at them in the second half but they just seemed to have that bit extra on us.

“We had a few half chances just af- ter half time that just went narrowly wide and you never know, if we had

gone ahead or got that point up, we might have seen a few mistakes in their game. But they got the scores and pushed home.”

Still with County and Munster hon- ours already secured, it has been a real whirlwind adventure for Carmo- dy and his side this year and he en- visages a bright future for his young Kilmaley side.

“Ya it’s been a great year. We are county and Munster champions and we only beaten by a puck of the ball in an All-Ireland final so they are a young team and hopefully they will stay committed and improve as time goes on.”

In a year of firsts that reaped so much, coming back even stronger will be a bigger test of this side in the coming year.

A FIVE-FIGURE sum of money and valuable pieces of jewellery, stolen during a spate of burglaries in Ennis over the past two months, have not yet been recovered.

This revelation emerged in the case of an Iranian refugee who is charged with three counts of burglary and one of handling stolen property. A total of 55 homes in Ennis were bur- gled between September and last week, prompting a major garda in- vestigation to be sprung into action. Jewellery, valued at €100,000, was recovered last Saturday week, as part of Operation Ennis, which was set up to investigate the matter.

Ali Reza Velayati (39), of Avondale, Kilrush Road, Ennis, 1s accused of

four alleged offences, on four sepa- rate dates in October and November.

The burglary charges relate to houses at Tobartaoscain, Ard na Gréine and Limerick Road, Ennis. Jewellery, valued at €1,950, was taken from one of the houses, while jewellery, worth €500, was taken from another house.

He is accused of handling assorted stolen jewellery, at Oakwood Drive, Ennis, on November 8 last.

Defending solicitor Daragh Has- sett was granted free legal aid for his client, who he said is a refugee. However, an application for bail was refused, after gardai objected.

Inspector Tom Kennedy said the charges in court formed “part of a whole plethora of charges relating to the burglary of 55 private residences

in Ennis between late September and November.”

‘He has been interviewed in rela- tion to all of these offences. While we have not brought charges in rela- tion to all of those, we are consulting with the DPP,” he said.

Mr Hassett said his client has been in Ireland for the past six months, having previously lived in China, under a refugee programme. He said the accused could not return to either Iran or China and effectively had “nowhere to go”.

‘He is not at flight risk, if that’s the State’s concern,’ said Mr Hassett.

However Inspector Kennedy dis- puted this and said the accused was at “enormous flight risk. His position in the country is very tenuous.” He said if bail was granted, there would

be concerns that the defendant would disappear.

“Despite the fact that a huge amount of property has been recovered, there is still a huge amount of property outstanding,” he said, adding that the State would be concerned the ac- cused could turn this into an “asset for himself.”

Detective Sergeant Michael Molo- ney then told the court that the “more valuable pieces of jewellery’, along with a five-figure sum of cash, were still outstanding. Dt Sgt Moloney said that the accused’s wife was no longer living at their address at Avondale.

“He has no direct links to this country. He is here on a travel docu- ment as opposed to a passport, under a refugee programme. I don’t believe he will turn up for a subsequent hear-

ing (if granted bail),” he said.

Mr Hassett said that his client’s wife is heavily pregnant and was staying with a friend, as she did not want to stay at their home on her own. He said his client could not leave the jurisdiction without the rel- evant documentation. However, Dt Sgt Moloney replied, “We all know if you want to leave the jurisdiction it can be done.”

Inspector Kennedy said that back- ground checks were still being proc- essed in relation to the accused. ““The State has a responsibility. There is overwhelming evidence against the accused,’ he said.

Judge Joseph Mangan refused bail and remanded the accused in cus- tody to re-appear in court later this month.