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that this was the fifth time the sewers in his six-year-old house have been blocked due to rainfall since he moved in there years ago.

On Wednesday last water in the sewers close to his home reached the top, so he was unable to flush his to1- oi

“With all the rain I thought this might happen so I flushed one of the toilets and the water came up to meet me, it had no where to go.”

Two days later just one of the three toilets in the house could be used and then not very often, according to Pe- om

During the torrential rain he had five adult guests from France and two children staying at his home.

“It was very hard to have to tell them that they could not flush the toilets or that they should go to the pub,” he said.

The washing machine and dish- washer were also out of bounds.

Peter said the direct translation of the name of the estate is brown mash and he believed he would be living in

just that if the flooding continued.

Shannon County Councillor Ger- ry Flynn (Ind) believes not just the heavy rainfall caused the flooding in Shannon but an infrastructure defi- ole

“Thousands of homes were built and the people that bought them now can’t flush their toilets. “The writ- ing has been on the wall for years. We knew if we had major floods we were in trouble. The drainage system just cannot cope,’ he added. “If it is a thing that we cannot sustain a few hours of torrential rain without all this damage it is terrible,” he said.

He said that a council policy of in- sisting that houses are built below road level was further exasperating the problem.

Meanwhile a Clare County Coun- cil spokesperson said that Shannon coped well compared to other areas in the country hit by similar rainfall in the past week.

As workers travelled home some roads had to be closed and diversions put in place including at Minister’s Cross. “Land adjoining roads was discharging water so quickly that the drains could not cope,” he said.

From 4.45pm on Wednesday two See Seige Seitalmecanee ees e nis and Shannon fire service worked until midnight relieving flooding, putting up signs and distributing sand bags. The council contractors responsible for the pump houses – Response Engineering – worked all yen rea

THE Health Service Executive has given a clean bill of health to a Crat- loe-based nursing home – but only after an earlier inspection produced a critical report on aspects of its op- eration earlier this year.

After an unannounced inspection in March, the HSE found that best practice was not being implemented in a number of areas in the operation of the 40 bed Sancta Maria nursing home at Cratloe.

The report found that the deficien- cies appeared to be due to insuffi- cient staff numbers, but also reflect- ed inadequate supervision of work

practices.

However the HSE report concluded that the inspection team considered that the nursing home had a good standard of management.

The report found that on the day of inspection, several beds were made up with stained, crumpled and untidy linen and recommended that those beds to be remade using fresh linen.

“Accommodation in some _ bed- rooms was quite congested, making cleaning, nursing duties and circula- tion in those rooms somewhat diffi- cult. A redistribution of beds within the home is recommended.”

The report suggested that “a suffi- cient number of competent staff are

on duty at all times having regard to the number of persons maintained and the extent of their dependency”’.

This followed the inspectors dis- covering that care attendants do the laundry in the nursing home.

‘This is inappropriate, as it reduces their availability to residents: their role should be solely in providing di- rect patient care. Many areas within the nursing home, particularly in the older part of the building and the kitchen, were poorly and inadequate- ly cleaned.”

The HSE recorded that the previ- ous inspection in August of last year found the nursing home to be “sub- stantially compliant with current

nursing home inspectorate regula- tions at the time of inspection”.

A spokesman for the nursing home said that the building was undergo- Thovcmmaet-y(O) Mm Kos AUDMOyEJevON(oUO MEI ME ROCoMmBD Dele of the HSE inspection earlier this year and has since had two inspec- tions where the HSE found it to be fully in compliance.

He said that all the requirements from the first HSE report this year had been complied with.

‘Before the March inspection, we never had a breach. This is a family run home and we maintain the high- est of standards. We get a lot of re- peat business and if families weren’t happy, they wouldn’t return.”

MEN and women from Clare who fought in foreign conflicts will be honoured and remembered at a cer- emony in Ennis next month.

The event is being organised by the Wild Geese, an organisation that seeks to highlight the sacrifices made by Irish soldiers in conflicts through- out history.

Plans are being made for a wreath laying ceremony, followed by a pa- rade, to be held in September.

In all 528 men and women from Clare have fought and died in for-

eign conflicts. The majority of those would have served with the Brit- ish Army while it is estimated that around 100 Clare people served with the United States military.

The ceremony will also recognise the important contribution made by Irish soldiers to United Nation peacekeeping mission in Lebanon and other conflict zones.

Organisers hope that the upcoming ceremony will provide those who fought an opportunity to share their experiences.

Ennis native and Wild Geese mem- ber, John Shanahan explained that

the organisation aims to acknowl- edge, what he believes, is a part of Irish history that people aren’t too familiar with.

‘These men paid the ultimate sac- rifice and that has often gone un- noticed. Its something that a lot of people wouldn’t be aware of, the sacrifice Irish soldiers have made in wars. People mightn’t agree exactly with what people have done but as a strictly non-political organisation, we are trying to tell a story from a soldier’s point of view”’.

Shanahan said that the organisation also seeks to help soldiers and fami-

lies to re-adjust to life after war.

“It can be difficult for people when they come back and we want to get the message out there to families, that we are available to provide help and assistance. Unfortunately, there isn’t much talk about this in Ire- land”. He added, “What many peo- ple mightn’t understand is that there were a lot of reasons for people en- listing in armies. If you look at the history, Irish men would have joined the British army because they had to. A lot of these guys had families to support and there were very few jobs around at the time”.

NEW JOBS are on the way for Shannon in a welcome good news announcement from a Smithstown even er DENA

Bolgers, a leading supplier of fabri- cated products from has completed a €4.5 million expansion and plans to increase it’s workforce by 25 per cent by the end of 2009.

The firm recently completed the building and commissioning of a second production facility at their base in Smithstown. Capital expend- iture on the investment was €4 mil-

lion which has brought total invest- ment on their Shannon site to €10 million.

Currently, Bolgers employ 75 peo- ple. It is forecasted that this will increase to 85 people by the end of this year and to 100 by the close of paulo?

The firm contributes in excess of €2.5 million per annum to the local economy.

Jan Bolger, the firm’s joint manag- ing director, said the move will allow them to launch a range of new serv- ices, including laser-profiling.

“Our success is a result of anticipat-

ing and responding to our customers’ needs and keeping our organisational capability aligned with the market.”, he said.

Bolgers have a turnover of €10 mil- lion, with approximately 87 per cent made up of export sales. This is up from 60 per cent in 2006. In the last two years, the acclaimed fabrication company has more than doubled in size. At present, they are experienc- ing strong growth in export markets, particularly Northern Ireland and the 1S

In March this year, Bolgers became the first European fabrication com-

pany to receive Silver Certificate for Caterpillar’s Supplier Quality Excel- lence Process (SQEP).

Caterpillar introduced this stand- ard in response to rising warranty costs. As a result, the company in- troduced the SQEP standard for all international suppliers.

Currently, Bolgers is the only Eu- ropean fabrication supplier to be recognised by Caterpillar with its ‘silver’ level certification.

“This 1s a tremendous achievement due to the hard selection criteria in place”, a spokesman for the company said.

WEST Clare has seen little commer- cial development under the current area development plan during a time of national prosperity.

According to Eilis O Nuallain, from the Forward Planning Section of Clare County Council there was a lack of applications for commercial planning permission since the area plan was enacted in March 2003.

“Within a period of growth it is strange that we didn’t get more com- mercial applicants within the settle- ments,” she said.

The planning expert was addressing a special meeting of the Kilrush area

councillors called to address the new west Clare area plan. The new plan must be adopted by March 2009, and the draft in place by September 25.

“It does seem that west Clare is not capturing what it should given its ad- vantage,” said Ms O Nuallain.

She told the councillors as part of her research she examined all of the planning permission requests in west Clare to see where the pressure points were.

“In situations where there was no pressure is it worth having land zoned?” she asked.

There are 36 settlements and five clusters in west Clare.

“If a cluster has not preformed or

developed in the period of a plan we need to discuss it. Leaving is as it is not doing any good,’ she said.

Cllr Christy Curtin (Ind) asked for a document outlining all the flood planes and storm drains in the area to be provided before the councillors agreed to any new plan.

Rezoning of land was also an issue of concern to council members.

“We need to take a serious look at what is zoned. There is land out in Cree that will never be sold and there are areas trying to develop,’ he said.

Director of Services and Kilrush Town Manager, Bernadette Kinsella assured the councillors that the plan would be the “members plan” and

the council officials would imple- ment it “whether we agree with all of it or not”’.

The west Clare area is now invited to have its say on the 2003 plans and how it worked or more importantly didn’t. On August 26, 27 and 28 council officials will be in Kilkee, Kildysat and Kilmhil to meet with the public to discuss the old plan and how the 2009 plan may work more SLUGS AUU DAY

People are invited to “drop in” be- tween 7.30pm and 9pm at locations yet to be organised and to make sug- gestions.

A draft plan will then be drawn up and the plan will go on display.

A NEW youth group in Ennis aims to assist young people to resist out- side influences and establish their own values.

That’s the message from the lo- cal Baha’i community members of whom started a two week project in Ennis at the weekend.

The aim is to make junior youth groups more widely available.

These groups, which are open to young people aged twelve to four- teen, are an initiative of the Baha’i

Faith and are a core activity offered worldwide by the Baha’is as a service to humanity.

Young people from County Clare and other parts of Ireland gathered to undertake training in running a Junior Youth Group and as part of their training they will invite the lo- cal Ennis Junior Youth to participate in some short taster sessions with the objective of setting up a regular Junior Youth Group starting in Sep- tember.

The materials used in junior youth eroups are Baha‘ inspired but are not

specifically religious. Through study of the materials, service projects and other activities the groups are de- signed to empower young people to express themselves and to see them- selves as transformers of their own characters and of society.

Junior youth groups have been in1- tiated in all parts of the world, meet- ing with great success in diverse locations from Ennis to Mongolia to Australia. Fourteen year old Jani Song from Perth in Australia, who participated in a junior youth group, had this to say, “When you’re in high

school, you see the popular, or cool group and they often take drugs. You see people drinking or doing other sorts of stuff. And you kind of just want to do it because you want to fol- low the crowd.”

Anyone interested in finding out what a group is like, introductory sessions will be hosted during the second week of the project at Cois na hAbhna, Gort Road, Ennis in the afternoons. For further information on participating in the junior youth group, contact Maria McNamara at 086 3613162.

IF YOU are a shower-time singer or a office canteen comedian, the time has come to hang up that hairbrush microphone and get your hands on detom usted maenbetce

After organising a number of suc- cessful gigs earlier this year, the Shannon Gigs Club has decided to turn it’s attention to giving amateur local artists their big break.

At present the club is organising a Open Mic nights due to take place in the next couple of weeks.

The night has been organised to give locals artists a forum to play and per- form, and offer first time performers the chance to try their luck 1n front of a small and friendly crowd.

“What we really want to get off the eround is create a forum for local people to get up in front of a stage and give it a go,’ said event organiser Frank Sadlier.

“We are looking for all kinds of entertainers; people who can sing, musicians, comedians, anyone who would like to have a go at entertain- ing a crowd in any way.

“We are going to host them in the Back Bar of the Old Lodge Hotel which will be a nice location for any- one looking to get up on stage in front of an audience for the first time. It’s a nice cozy venue, not too small and not so big that it would make anyone who wants to perform too nervous.

“We’d like to see 1t become a very relaxed event, where people can bring a few friends along to cheer them- selves on and have a good night.”

Anyone interested in taking part should check out www.shannongigs. com for more information.

The Shannon Gigs Club would like to speak to all interested performers before the event and people will not be allowed to perform on the night without first registering.

“What we really want in a non- competitive outlet for local talent. But who knows, maybe someone who plays at the gig might get popu- lar with the locals and go on from there. Anything could happen,’ con- tinued Frank.

“We will be back to gigs later in the Autumn but for now we will be doing the Open Mic and see how it goes.”

THE Department of the Environ- ment has made a late intervention in a bid to prevent a proposed €50 million retail park on the outskirts of Ennis from proceeding.

It was thought that the way was clear for the contentious €50 mil- lion planning application by Stephen Harris to proceed after a report con- firmed the disappearance of a rare protected butterfly, the Marsh Fri- WUUC-DMYape Keyed mM elomSI Ken

After two years deliberating on the application, Clare County Coun- cil is due to make a decision on the plan proposed for a 48 acre com- mercially zoned site at Skehanagh, Clarecastle.

However, the Department of the Environment has made a last ditch move to stop the retail park from proceeding after telling the council that it is recommending that “plan- ning permission not be granted”.

Already, the council has favoured the Harris proposal over a rival planning retail park for the Quin Road area which was refused last year.

However, in its new submission, the department states that the ap- parent recent loss of an important population of the Marsh Fritillary in this area, which 1s possibly linked

to the failure of mitigation measures associated with the nearby Ennis by-pass, is a matter of serious con- cern that has yet to be investigated and pursued by the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS).

The department goes on to state that the reports provided do not ad- dress adequately the serious con- cerns raised in respect of key nature conservation issues at the site.

“The proposed development is lo- cated in an area of active floodplain associated with the River Fergus and floods significantly. It is located close to the Lower River Shannon Special Area of Conservation (SAC) and a flood assessment of the site and the proposed development, tak- ing into account cumulative effects of other development, is lacking.

“The proposed development will result in significant biodiversity losses in terms of wetland habitats of ecological value and invertebrate populations, including permanent losses of local extinction of the EU Habitats Directive species, the Marsh Fritillary butterfly.

“Permitting the development would be contrary to the aims of the EU Habitats and Birds Directive and would be contrary to the proper planning and sustainable develop- ment of the area,’ the department submission concludes.

I HAVEN’T test driven many Citro-

en cars in recent years, but when I do they have been motors to remember. The C6 stands out as sheer luxury; the C4 Picasso is remembered for all that glass at the front and Citroen’s first SUV, the C-Crosser which was launched at the end of last year, is also a massive motor.

Last week I was testing the new C5 and straight away let me say that without a shadow of a doubt this car oozes class. Externally it looks really cool thanks to those beautiful front headlamps and inside it’s so roomy and comfortable. The rear end 1s also very attractive.

When you sit in the first thing that strikes you is the impressive array of slave controls on the steering wheel. They are not really on the wheel, but incorporated into a separate section that doesn’t move with the wheel.

Right in front of you get a digital speedometer, so no excuses for get- ting any penalty points.

Then you notice how comfortable the driver and front seat passenger seats are. They literally hug your posterior. Unfortunately you cannot see out over the bonnet and have to use your judgment when parking, but like most things in life you get used to it.

All good ads create a bit of con- troversy. And Citroen’s ad for the C5 where they say that the C5 is ‘Unmistakeably German, Made in

France, had the bloggers on over- drive. I haven’t seen the ads on Irish television, but you can of course

check it out on You Tube. We are all supposed to be Europeans now, yet there is no better way to start a row

than compare traits from different oles aloe I liked the line from the brochure

which simply stated ‘Passion meets Logic.’

I drove a diesel model and it was very quiet. There is plenty of room for five adults and the boot is huge. It would I feel be ideal for taxi drivers or even for chauffeuring work.

The car was awarded a five-star Euro NCAP rating, making the C5 one of the safest cars on the road. You get up to nine front, side and curtain airbags plus a specially cre- ated torso-shaped bag for extra safe- ty. In the Dynamique model I drove you also get a host of extras includ- ing 17 inch alloy wheels, fog lights, auto wipers, etc.

It really is a beautiful looking car and would I think look well in any driveway.

Prices start at €27,850 for the 1.8 petrol, while the price of the 1.6 diesel version I drove has dropped to €29,850 from July 1. Citroen say they are the lowest CO2 emissions manufacturer, yet the C5 is rated at the C Road Tax Band which is €290 per annum. Still I suppose it’s not bad for such a large motor.

Overall a most enjoyable drive. In the words of the old song ‘C’est si bon.’

HOMEOWNERS in Clare are being urged to come together to slash the cost of rising energy bills.

Under the second phase of the home energy and saving scheme, any eroup of homes can come together to form a cluster – for instance via a residents’ association or a property management company.

Landlords with multiple dwellings can also apply. Third parties, such as local energy agencies or building contractors, can also gather a group of participants to form a cluster. The scheme has already been taken up by 1,000 homes in north Tipperary, Limerick and Dundalk. The next phase, which has just commenced, is open to 500 homes across Ireland.

All homes may have home energy

assessments carried out and an en- ergy saving report will be provided. The assessment is available from all registered energy assessors. This will cost the householder €100. Ap- plicants who apply in a cluster basis are eligible for grants of up to 30 per cent to a maximum of €2,000 per home from Sustainable Energy Ire- land (SEI).

“Its definitely worth it for home- owners,’ explained Vinnie Blake of the Ennis-based National Energy Assessors (NEA) Clare.

He continued, “In normal cases getting work like this done to make homes more energy efficient would cost around €500 per home. Under the scheme, when homes come to- gether, its only €100.”

Recently opened in Ennis NEA Clare offers a range of services for

the local market, including: building energy rating (BER) certificates, en- ergy audits, air tightness testing and thermal imaging.

According to Mr Blake, a former senior environmental engineer with Limerick-based subsidiary of the US multi national, Analog Devices, “the energy challenge which faces every home and business owner is becom- ing critical to how we run our homes and businesses.”

Meanwhile local Green Party councillor Brian Meaney has called for industrial parks in Ennis to be designated as carbon free zones as part of an overall strategy to attract foreign investement and re-invigor- ate industry.

“We are on the cusp of the third industrial revolution,’ said Cllr Meaney.

“The escalating cost of fossil fuels and the acknowledged ‘peaking’ in production have kick started an in- vestment cycle in renewable energy of enormous proportions. Analysis in any of the [Irish business media of venture capital funding in the US and Europe clearly demonstrates that the mobile investment capital is con- centrated in the renewable energy and energy efficiency sectors.”

Councillor Meaney added, “It should also be borne in mind that while there is no history of solar manufacturing or development in Ireland, if you breakdown the con- stituent parts, we have extensive silicon fabrication and optics exper1- ence with the like of Analog devices and Vistakon; these are core skills that would be vital in attracting new investment.”