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THE Mayor of Clare met with the Mayor of Chicago last Tuesday in a bid to strengthen business and tour- ism links between Clare and the US mid-west.

Councillor Madeleine Taylor- Quinn’s meeting with Mayor Rich- ard M Daley in Chicago’s City Hall formed part of a week-long promo- tional trip by Clare County Council to Illinois and Wisconsin.

The council delegation attended the Milwaukee Irish Fest, the world’s largest Irish culture festival, where it

conducted a promotional campaign aimed at highlighting Clare as a tourist destination.

Mayor Taylor-Quinn described her meeting with Mayor Daly, a third- generation Irish American, as ‘pro- ductive’ and added that she was con- fident it would reap benefits for the local economy.

“We agreed that the retention and development of existing air services between Chicago O’Hare Airport and Shannon was a priority for the economies of the regions served by the two airports,” she said.

“T explained how it was imperative

that assurances were sought from airlines operating out of Shannon, especially Aer Lingus, that existing services will be maintained into the GULAbD aoe

“If they are curtailed then I fear that Clare’s economy will suffer immensely with the potential loss of millions of euro and hundreds of jobs,’ continued Mayor ‘Taylor- Quinn.

Both Mayors also discussed the lat- est tourism figures showing that the number of American tourists to Ire- land has fallen dramatically — lead- ing to the first drop in tourist revenue

in four years.

The meeting concluded with Mayor Daley being invited to visit Clare in the near future.

Clare County Manager, Alec Flem- ing said he was delighted Mayor Daley had accepted the council’s invitation to meet with Mayor Tay- lor-Quinn, as part of the delegation’s promotional efforts.

“The meeting was a wonderful op- portunity for the council to showcase Clare’s economic and tourism poten- tial and follows a successful tourism promotional campaign undertaken by the delegation at the Milwaukee

Irish Fest.’

“It is anticipated that work car- ried out by the Clare delegation at this year’s festival will help build on the estimated 3,000 US tourists who holidayed in the west of Ireland as a result of our promotional campaign in Wisconsin last year,’ concluded Mr Fleming.

Over 140,000 people attend the Milwaukee Irish Fest, which show- cased Irish music, history, dance, sports and various other aspects of the Irish culture. Among the featured acts at the festival were the Kilfenora Céili Band.

A DRIVER who was arrested on suspicion of drink-driving on the Kilrush road offered a doctor his big toe to take a blood alcohol sample from, a judge was told.

James Marrinan, a native of west Clare now living at 169 Denton Road in London, failed a random alcohol

breath test at the side of the road on August 24, Ennis District Court heard.

When he was brought to the Garda station he agreed to a specimen of blood being taken for analysis but offered the doctor his big toe for the test. Garda evidence was that when the charge was read to him Marrinan said, “I didn’t refuse’.

He pleaded guilty before Ennis District Court yesterday to refusing to provide a sample.

The court heard that the 49-year- old, who works for a London local authority, wanted to apologise to the court.

Judge Leo Malone imposed a four year driving ban and fined him ©400 which had to be paid on the spot.

CLARE motorists are getting free NCT’s with the Ennis testing centre snowed under by requests for tests.

There is currently a waiting list for NCT appointments in Ennis and a back-up team has been brought in to keep the tests rolling over.

But delays of more than four weeks in giving applicants a test appoint- ment are resulting is some drivers getting their tests free of charge, in line with NCT policy on customer os at (een

Drivers who ring the national test appointment line are being told that there are no appointments available in Ennis and they have to join a can- cellation list.

A spokeswoman for the NCT ex- plained that the policy is “to try to give people a test within four weeks of their requesting an appointment. If we can’t do that, we give a free test.”

The spokeswoman said that the av- erage lead-in time for a test is three weeks.

“People are given appointments

and if they don’t confirm those ap- pointments within a specified time, then they automatically fall. Our call centre opens at 8am and the first thing they do is re-distribute any test appointment which have not been confirmed.”

The spokeswoman said that while there does not seem to be a specific problem with Ennis, the back-up team which is brought on board to have the test centre working seven days a week is currently in situ in OE

“We have a core team and an non-

core team, who will work late eve- nings and weekends when the need arises. Not every centre has an non- core team, but Ennis does, as does Limerick,’ the NCT spokeswoman Cr AKOR

Since January | this year, the En- nis centre has carried out a massive 11,438 full tests.

This does not account for cars which returned for second tests that only involved one detected fault.

Of those cars which take the test in Ennis half fail and half pass, the figures show.

LAURA O’Donovan from Ardnacru- sha is in the running to be selected as Ireland’s most curvaceous woman.

She qualified to represent Clare in the national final of the Simply Be CiiaAmmceyseelcsiseyrmmUueN(Onmm stl mmole held at the Radisson Royal SAS in Dublin on August 31 after she was picked from thousands of applicants in the Limerick heat of the competi- tion

Simply Be.ie launched their search to find Ireland’s most curvaceous woman ‘Simply Be Curvy’ in April, looking for women size 14 and over who love and celebrate their curves

to enter. After three heats and from the thousands of entries 28 finalists were chosen.

The winner will become an in- stant cover girl, gracing the cover of Simply Be.ie Spring/Summer 2009 catalogue. She will also win €1,000 worth of SimplyBe.ie clothing and accessories, a holiday to the value of €1,000 plus €500 spending money and a modelling contract with one of Ireland’s top modelling agents.

A panel of celebrity judges includ- ing Caroline Morahan, Celia Hol- man Lee and Brenda O’Donoghue will choose the winner from the 28 finalists. As well as one to one inter- views with the judges, the event will

take the finalists to the catwalk to model Simply Be.ie autumn/winter range 2008. Each of the girls will be trained by model agent and former model Celia Holman Lee.

Ireland’s only dedicated on-line home shopping company for curvy women, Simply Be.ie was estab- lished to keep women looking stun- ning with no fuss – no communal changing rooms or unflattering lights and mirrors, just the comfort of their very own home.

A 35-YEAR-OLD German national with a previously clean record who bought a car with a dud cheque, has been in jail since June 18, a judge heard.

Klaus Scheel, originally from Sch- wenningen, pleaded guilty to issuing cheque which would bounce.

Judge Leo Malone heard that he wrote a cheque for €6,000 and gave it in exchange for the second hand car. He then left the area and couldn’t be contacted when the cheque bounced,

Ennis District Court heard.

Gardai traced him and arrested him.

His solicitor, Tara Godfrey said her client “has never been in trouble be- fore. He arrived here 18 months ago with his wife and child and his job was at some distance from his home. He was running out of money and needed a car and used the cheque to buy it. He is most remorseful and he has been in custody since June 18.”

Judge Malone heard the car was recovered. He imposed a one-month jail sentence backdated to July 22.

CLARE County Council could face a large compensation claim over its decision to refuse planning permis- sion for a ©50 million retail park ad- jacent to the Ennis bypass.

That’s the view of Green Party councillor Brian Meaney who said that the 2000 Planning and Develop- ment Act provides for compensation claims to be paid out.

The developer in question, Stephen Harris purchased the 48-acre site zoned commercial for €18 million in 2005. However, in spite of the com- mercial zoning, the application can- not proceed because of flooding of

the site.

The Planning and Development Act allows for individuals to secure compensation if a decision by a local authority reduces the value of land.

Cllr Meaney said the council should be concerned as there was now a new dynamic with climactic conditions.

“Planners should be very wary of granting any development in the flood plain even if a flood relief scheme is put in place. We have to protect the population living in residential areas of Ennis that are prone to flooding.”

Cllr Meaney also urged the council not to repeat the mistakes made in drawing up the current Ennis devel- opment plan.

He made the call after the second retail park was refused with flood- ing considerations to the fore of both decisions. Along with the Harris project, the council last year refused planning for a retail park at Quin Road to Sean Lyne and Noel Connel- lan when flooding also featured as a reason in the council’s decision.

The decision throws the county’s retail strategy into further disarray with the ruling guaranteeing contin- ued leakage from Clare into Limer- ick and Galway for the purchase of bulky goods.

Refusing planning permission to the Harris application which was two years in the planning process, the

council stated that the site was locat- ed on the lower Fergus floodplain.

The planner’s report stated, “Until such time as flood relief works are completed, these lands remain as flood plain. To permit development on lands currently functioning as a flood plain would not be in the inter- ests of sustainable development.”

Mr Harris was seeking permission for a retail warehouse park, a mo- tor sales village, a Travelodge ho- tel, drive-thru restaurants, storage and distribution. The developments were to provide over 30,000 m2 in commercial floorspace including 15,300m2 in retail units.

CLARE Lifelong Learning Network has created a unique partnership ap- proach that could act as a model not only in the field of further education but wherever two or more groups work together towards a common exer

That was the reaction to the net- work’s award for public service ex- cellence from former Taoiseach Ber- tie Ahern. The Clare network was one of 20 winners from 183 projects put forwards for the awards process.

Clare VEC chief executive George

O’Callaghan described the award as a great honour and reflected great credit on the officials involved in developing the network. They are Aobhan Haverty, head of the Clare adult education service; Ann Knox, community education facilitator and Mike Ryan, Clare co-ordinator of the Back to Education Initiative.

The network, which is sponsored by the County Adult and Commu- nity Education Service, has over 100 members involved in education in the county.

They include the VEC, family re- source centres, community develop-

ment projects, the county council, the county development board, schools, Clare Youth Service Ltd., ADM- funded projects, FAS, ‘Teagasc, Brothers of Charity, Shannon Devel- opment and community groups.

Members are collaborating on improving the quality of adult and community education provision in the county, including joint planning, up-skilling providers and tutors, use of new technologies and provision of progression routes for learners in- cluding provision at third-level.

An essential tool for the network 1s information technology. So the web-

site www.clarelearningnetwork.org includes a notice board of upcoming events and a special learners’ forum for adult learners to communicate with each other.

At least nine elearning centres are now operating in rural communi- ties throughout the county, while a central database is used to register learners and track their progression.

Clare’s management information system gives immediate access to up to date information on the learning of 5,000 learners in the county. It is a powertul information management tool that gives managers and policy

makers access to the most immedi- ate information on which to base de- cisions and policies.

The system is replicated nationally and has been taken up by several vocational education committees around the country. It possesses the potential even to facilitate the De- partment of Education in national decision-making based on real time information.

The system also helps promote equality in the sense that programme co-ordinators can immediately see the gaps in provision or in progres- sion.

A FORMER Clare women’s sup- port group worker has been awarded €20,400 after claiming she was dis- missed and replaced by someone on half her wage.

Avril De Carteret, Druminalough, Peterswell, County Galway took her claim for unfair dismissal against Clare Women’s Network Limited, Clonroad Business Park, Ennis to the Employment Appeals Tribunal.

The tribunal heard that the claim- ant was involved in the organisation which provides support for women, from it’s inception in 1992. She in1- tially did voluntary work for the or- ganisation and was first on the pay- roll in 1999 for about two to three hours per week. This increased over the years to 15 hours per week in 2002. She was one of three part-time workers sharing the running of the organisation. In 2002 the claimant’s job description was formalised. Her job title was office manager/project administrator. It was mainly ad- ministrative work with some co- ordinating responsibilities.

In 2005 a review of the work and structures of the organisation took place and Ms de Carteret was made

redundant. The management com- mittee offered her the job of part- time administrator on 15 hours per week. The claimant was also to be invited to apply for the position of full-time co-ordinator. On Septem- ber 22, 2006 the management com- mittee offered the claimant either the equivalent of six months loss of sal- ary for the hours she would be losing if she took up the position of admin- istrator or, alternatively, redundancy.

She took redundancy and was paid €10,000 redundancy payment. The position of part-time administrator for 17.5 hours per week was eventu- ally advertised at a lower hourly rate than the claimant had been getting.

She applied for the position but, although she was short-listed and in- terviewed, she did not get the job.

Ms de Carteret told the tribunal she felt a situation had been “concocted” to get rid of her and to get a junior worker to do her job for much less money.

The tribunal determined unani- mously that Ms deCarteret was un- fairly dismissed.

A witness for Women’s Aid “did not respond in the negative” to the suggestion that the organisation had “got rid of” her.

GALWAY developer, Stephen Harris who purchased a flood plain for €18 million may be forced to cut his loss- es as there is no government funding for a flood relief scheme which would allow him proceed with his plans to develop a retail park on the land.

As this photograph provided by Clare County Council shows, much of the proposed 48-acre site has

reently been under water and Ennis Town Engineer Tom Tiernan said that there is no money to implement a €14 million flood relief scheme for the area.

Planning permission for the €50 million retail park development was refused by Clare County Council last week because of the flood risk and the lack of sewage infrastructure in the area.

Mr Harris purchased the lands from

Clarecastle man, JJ McCabe in 2006 as the 48-acre site was zoned com- mercial in the Ennis and Environs Development Plan.

However, the sewage issue relating to the site may not be resolved until 2012 and a resolution to the flooding may not be found until much later as it is dependent on the development of the €14 million flood relief scheme.

Prospects of a short to medium- term solution are also bleak with Mr

Tiernan stating that “given the cli- mate we’re in and the approach of government to the funding of new projects, it will be very difficult to find huge support for such a project and it is very difficult to feel positive about it.”

Asked if this would be the case if the flood relief scheme was given 1m- mediate approval, Mr Tiernan said it would take three to four years before it could be completed. The €14 mil- lion project would create a situation where the River Fergus would drain out to sea more effectively and not as much of the flood plain would be re- quired for flood water.

A number of issues have yet to be resolved including environment, le- gal and flooding considerations.

Mr Tiernan said that it may be suitable for a Special Contribution Scheme whereby developers would fund the scheme.

In a late submission to the council, Mr Harris’s consultants appeared to be under the misapprehension that the local authority was proceeding with the flood relief works.

The submission stated that while the site constitutes part of the exist- ing floodplain of the River Fergus, the proposed flood alleviation works being undertaken in Ennis and the lower catchment of the Fergus would render the land “superfluous to flood storage requirements.”

A TOTAL of 48 procedures were cancelled at Ennis General Hospital between January and June of this year.

There were no recorded cancella- tions at the Mid Western Regional Hospital Limerick during the same six-month period or in St John’s Hos- pital Limerick.

Neighbouring hospital, the Univer- sity College Hospital Galway also had a clear record.

Nenagh General Hospital, a hos- pital in the mid-west that shares a similar history to Ennis and many of the same fears regarding a possible downgrading, had 11 cancellations.

The largest cancellations have been in Cork University Hospital with a staggering 945 cancellations.

The Dublin hospitals also recorded a large number of cancellations with the Mater Hospital badly hit with 756 cancellations.

The figures were released by Fine Gael whose spokesperson has claimed that the 15,000 operations cancelled in 2007 could be exceed- ed.

Deputy Damien English (FG) said, “This worryingly high figure indi- cates that the 2007 figures will be re- peated or even exceeded. Cancelled operations have a real impact on patients, postponing important pro- cedures, prolonging pain and delay- ing investigations which may lead to early detection.”

In the first five months of this year, an average of 256 patients were on trolleys in A and E each day accord- ing to INO figures.