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JUST as business owners sometimes fear accounts, any accountant will tell you of the nightmares they expe- rience when a client arrives close to tax return deadline day with a basket full of receipts and cheque stubs.

With the right support, you can make the tax system work for you – minimise your tax burden and sched- ule payments in a way that suits your cashflow requirements.

It is advisable to get solid tax advice at least once every year to make sure your enterprise is on the right track.

Among the reputable accountancy firms who will be happy to advise on the regulations and requirements are Niall C Garvey & Co, 12, Carmody Street, Ennis; O’Halloran & Co, Mill Road, Ennis; FDC & Associates, 8, Carmody Street Business Park, En- nis, Murphy Accountancy, Inis Si- oda, Shannon and Michael Neylon, Ennis Road, Miltown Malbay.

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

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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

IT WAS in memory of a Dub, who made Miltown Malbay his adopted home and final resting place, that hundreds gathered in the Bellbridge, Spanish Point at the weekend.

In the singing workshop specifi- cally aimed at encouraging young people to become involved in tradi- tional singing at the Clare Festival of Traditional Music, Tom Munnelly’s spirit over Saw a new generation in- troduced to a part of Irish culture he held so dear.

It was after the world-renowned folk song and folklore collector died last year following a long illness, his friends and family decided to re- introduce the festival to west Clare after an absence of six years.

It was under the stewardship of the late Mr Munnelly the festival origi-

nally ran in Ennistymon for 13 years and for a further two years in the Belbridge Hotel in Spanish Point.

Shortly after Tom passed away in August 2007, friends and fam- ily started work on relaunching the festival, in what they felt was a fit- ting tribute to his life and work. The singing workshop for younger people was the brainchild of Roisin White, the chairperson of the festival, as a fitting tribute to Tom.

“Getting young people involved in traditional singing is a very difficult task, as our culture has changed so much in the past 50 years, but Tom always took enormous pleasure in inviting young singers down to En- nistymon to take part in the week- Xe F

‘He understood that younger peo- ple could be intimidated by the close-knit community of ‘estab-

lished’ singers, particularly if they didn’t know anyone involved in the world of traditional singing.

“The Singing Workshop for Young People is our way of recognis- ing Tom’s work in that area, and of continuing his work of encouraging young singers,” said Annette Mun- nelly, Secretary, Féile Amhranaio- chta an Chlair.

The Dublin native who made Mil- town Malbay his home for almost 30 years was laid to rest in Ballard Coilatoa

The 63-year-old folklorist, recog- nised for compiling the most com- prehensive collection of traditional folk songs in Ireland, had numerous credits to his name.

Mr Munnelly was prominent in the Dublin folk scene of his youth, and found his niche as a collector of songs through his work with Univer-

sity College Dublin’s Irish folklore department.

It was his passion for recording and collecting traditional songs that brought him to Clare in 1978, where he set up home.

The adopted Clare man soon be- came involved in the local art and festivals.

Not only was he chairman of the Clare Festival of Traditional Singing he played a strong role in bringing the Willie Clancy Summer School to prominence, and was a founder and chairman of the Lahinch Folklore School.

He received an honorary doctorate from NUIG.

Mr Munnelly served on the Arts council from February 1986 to De- cember 1988 and was a board mem- ber of the Irish Traditional Musical Archive.

AN Bord Pleanala has given the go- ahead for a wind-farm that will meet almost half the energy needs of an east Clare company.

Located near the village of O’Callaghan’s Mills, Olympus Diag- nostica secured planning permission earlier this year for the 200 high ft turbine which will be the third wind- farm erected in the county.

The company will use the entire output from the wind-turbine and have stated that their decision was prompted by spiraling energy costs which make financial planning more eluenceueim

The decision was appealed by Mr and Mrs JP Murphy of Rosslara, O’Callaghan’s Mills who claimed that the proposal would be at vari- ance with the Clare County Develop- ment Plan and the East Clare Plan.

They did not accept that the devel- opment would not impact negatively on the local bat population and in the

absence of substantive evidence that there would not be negative impact, the precautionary principle should apply and permission should be re- fused.

In relation to the bat population, the Murphys stated that the proposal to fit ultrasonic scarers to discourage bats at risk was not proven as a suc- cessful mitigation intervention and there were question marks over the viability and availability of the pro- OOo MOU UC RED Roe

In his assessment, the Bord Pleana- la inspector stated: “In this case an established industrial user seeks to provide sufficient power from a re- newable energy source to cater for its base load electrical needs. I consider this to be an inherently desirable ob- jective, and something to be encour- aged if there is not direct conflict with soundly based policy objectives for vulnerable landscapes.”

On the visual impact, he con- cluded that “the erection of a single wind turbine as proposed would not

detract from the landscape. If per- mitted and developed it should ap- pear as no more of less than a crisply presented utility structure in the rural landscape and would not seri- ously injure the visual amenities of the area.”

The inspector noted that the devel- opers would not proceed with the ul- trasconic scarers for bats.

The appeals board gave the propos- al the go-ahead, stating that having regard to the nature and scale of the proposed development and the pro- visions of the development plan for the area, the proposed development would not seriously injure the ameni- ties of the area or of property in the vicinity and would not adversely af- fect the natural heritage of the area.