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HEALTHY children as young as six have been struck down with pneumo- nia due to “third world” conditions in an Ennis National School.

Parent and member of the Board of Management Dr Aine Ni Riain stressed that the parents were not by nature a militant body of people, but they had genuine concerns for the health and safety of their children.

“This is not about a fancy looking school, this is about a school that is safe enough for children to attend,” she said.

“The building itself is grossly out- dated, it smells of damp, the clothes the children wear have to be washed because if you leave clothes in a bag overnight the smell of mould and wet that comes with it in the morning is quite disgusting,’ she said.

“My son has had pneumonia in this school, a young healthy boy along with a number of his class. They would not have got pneumonia in a different situation,’ said Dr Ni Riain, a medical practitioner. At the time the children were in senior infants.

“If we were a small company we would have been long since shut

down. I think it is disingenuous of the Government to close down small companies on the grounds of health and safety, and allow 664 children and staff to be educated in conditions that are grossly substandard and bor- derline third world,’ she said.

The parents have a number of con- cerns about the school that was con- demned by the Health and Safety Authority in 2003. It is now situated on a very busy junction, making the task of transporting the 664 children to and from school very dangerous.

It is a disaster waiting to happen ac- cording to Dr Ni Riain,

The cars of 52 staff members also have to be accommodated, minimis- ing the space for children to play.

She pointed out that access to the prefabs was by stairs which were slippery on wet days.

“We have a number of children with special needs for whom ramps have had to be built and even those aren’t safe. There is safety concerns for access to the building in all sorts of conditions across the yard,” she Crate

The parents stressed that Wednes- day’s protest was the first of many measures.

PUPILS past and present, parents, teachers and friends of Mullagh Na- tional School were in celebratory mood last week as their new school was officially opened.

This was no small feat for the west Clare village, who supported the board of management and school principal to pull of the impossible — renovate the old school and add on a new State of the art extension with as little as €600,000 from the Gov- ernment.

Through the Department of Edu- cation’s devolved schools scheme, which allocates a budget to the board of management to carry out the plan- ning and construction phase of the project, the school received real val- ue for money for its project.

Supported by fund raising locally, the school now has two new class- rooms, a general purpose room, tol- lets, shower rooms, a computer room and a principal’s office.

The school, which was built as far back as the Great Famine, also under- went the total modernisation of the old building resulting in a fabulous new large infant classroom complete with wet area and play area, resource rooms and school library.

A car park was also developed.

School authorities that opt to par- ticipate in these schemes accept devolved responsibility, authority and funding for the delivery of the projects, with the guidance of doc- umentation developed by staff in the planning and building unit and through ongoing contact with a des- ignated staff member.

Chairperson of the board of man-

agement Tim Donnellan said, “The devolving of funding to local level allows schools to have ownership of their projects.”

It also leaves the board of manage- ment and school principal with a huge workload.

The refurbished Mullagh National School, which was first officially opened on May 22 1846, with a po- tential enrolment of 270 boys and 240

girls, was opened on Monday last by INTO president Declan Kelleher and blessed by the Bishop of Killaloe Dr AAU DSTO ENE OF

“As we progress into the third mil- lennium we, in Mullagh National School feel that a vibrant future lies ahead, a future which will be charac- terised by parental, pupil and teacher interaction in setting the curriculum and structures of our collective edu- cational future. In this context we see our new extension as vital for facilitating ongoing enthusiastic en- hancement of education,” said school principal Sean McMahon.

“Mullagh National School has a long history of being open to cur- ricular and cultural projects and in- novation. Over the past few years the school has established partnerships with a school in Denmark, a school in the north of Ireland and has had French language teachers from both France and Sweden. Such initiatives have helped broaden our students’ awareness of and appreciation for in- ternational education,” he said.

SLOW Food Clare will host an evening highlighting the richness of the county’s indigenous food next Monday, July 7, at the Cahercon- nell Stone Fort and Visitor Centre in Carron. The evening, entitled “Tast- ing Irish Heritage’, will combine a exploration of the locality’s rich his- torical and cultural background with some of its rich culinary produce. The evening will include an au- dio-visual display that describes the Burren from prehistoric times and provides interpretation as to how people may have lived in Cahercon- nell ringfort. This will be followed

by a guided tour of the ringfort by Graham Hull, TVAS Ireland, and Dr Michelle Comber from NUI Gal- WENA

Hull and Comber will describe the results of recent excavation at the fort and display a number of prehistoric artifacts doscovered at the site.

This will be followed by a six course meal served family style in the visitor centre cafe featuring pro- duce from local Clare producers. The meal will include a mixed green salad with a homemade dressing and fresh croutons, spinach and citrus soup, a Selection of Clare cheeses, served with homemade breads and scones, jams and chutneys.

For their main course diners will be served fresh vegetables, all from local growers, harvested on the day and prepared simply to allow for true tasting. Featured vegetables will in- clude the potato, beetroot, baby car- rot, cabbage and spinach.

“We feel fortunate to be combining the rich heritage of County Clare, the bounty of its local produce and the arrival of students from the Univer- sity of Gastromonic Sciences who are visiting producers in the Bur- ren as part of their college curricu- lum,’ said Kim O’Shea of Slow Food Orie

‘Tasting Irish Heritage is a very unique event. All the foods served

are locally sourced directly from producers and simply prepared in order to allow the true taste to be the star of the show.”

A complete list of producers will be available on the evening with de- tails of where to find these wonder- ful foods in the future – from local farmers’ markets, home kitchens, erowers’ fields, and artisan food businesses – all in County Clare.

Booking by phone is essential, as Slow Food Clare need confirmed numbers for July 2. The event cost €30 per person or €25 for Slow Food Clare members.

For more information of to book contact Kim O’Shea at 087 9117709.

THE Chairman of the Board of Man- agement of Ennis National School has said that the Government has closed its eyes on overcrowding at the school by putting on hold a new building for the 664 children and 52 EIGER ‘At the start of the school year we applied for and got funding for two teachers – one for resource and one for language,” said David Casey. “We applied for accommodation for those two teachers and our ap- plication for funding was refused. We were told by the department in May that we hadn’t shown we had

an accommodation need for them,” ntemcy- Bee

“Now look around and you will see 16 prefabs, which to me look like an accommodation need,’ he told parents as, in protest, they took their children from the school to the streets of Ennis last Wednesday.

Mr Casey said that junior education minister Sean Haughey had argued that the teachers should either use the library or the hall. Now the library has for the last eight years been used as a full time class room for special needs, and the halla is in constant use between the classes, the choir, and the school teams. It shows complete ignorance and lack of understanding

and arrogance for anyone to tell any- one in Ennis National School to use the halla to teach your children,’ said Mr Casey.

The head of the Irish National Teachers Organisation, Declan Kel- leher, told the protest that it was “in- excusable” that the Department of Education had failed to live up to a basic responsibility.

“Nine years ago the department acknowledged that a new 24 teacher school needed to be built. Nine years later the junior infants of that era have finished their first year in post primary schools. That generation of children have been let down by a process that simply devalues primary

education and promotes the concept that these are only children between four and 12 and that they don’t really count,” said Mr Kelleher, who previ- ously taught at the school.

“Even from an economic point of view the scandal of wasting funds on short term economics by providing totally unsuitable wooden boxes for classrooms are a form of madness. It’s certainly understandable that if a school has short term accommoda- tion needs then a prefab may answer the demands for a year or so, but the provision of 16 prefabs over a nine year period and longer is testament to total state neglect as well as a complete lack of forward planning.”

IT’S never too early to start taking exercise – that was proved this morn- TPOTSMMYS [HOUMA OCommO LO Ro1Ke0 cD O(OM Gone) Maoh sions being held at the Molua Centre pre-school summer camp.

But the lively youngsters needed little encouragement to stretch, tum- ble and leap about and were only too happy to go along with the class be- ing held by the Barnardos instructor.

The camp is a community initiative

under the auspices of Clarecare and one of the first in a series which will see organised fun for youngsters set free for the summer holidays.

Next week it’s the turn of the junior campers who will have two camps, one from July 7 to July 11 and the other from July 21 to 25.

Included in their fun-filled weeks are trips to Buttercup Pet Farm, bowI- ing, a puppet show, a fancy dress par- ty, arts, crafts, fun and games as well as sports and some more “Stretch

and Grow” sessions.

The seniors’ camp for older chil- dren is being held between July 14 and 18 and their outbound adventure trips will include laser quest and bowling in Galway and a trip to the Aquadome in Tralee.

Also on their agenda are sports, fun and games, arts, crafts and drama.

The summer camps are a commu- nity initiative and, as such, cost a lot less than their commercial alterna- tives but don’t lose out on the fun

Atoaeloele

At costs of between €30 and €40, with reductions for second children in the same family, the camps are great value considering the cost of transporting the youngsters by bus alone.

‘The camps were in great demand this year. We have thirty children each week and all the places are fully booked, with a waiting list,” a spokeswoman for the Molua Centre ene e

IRISH fishermen were last week praised for their restraint and pa- tience in not reacting to the contin- ued crisis in the industry by instigat- ing a repeated blockade of Irish ports AN ICOM ereDuOOLIbuCe

Speaking at the opening at a ma- jor conference on innovation and sustainability in the seafood sector, Clare TD and Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Tony Killeen set a July 15 deadline for the European Commis- sion to deliver on a rescue plan for the industry.

Minister Killeen met with repre-

sentatives of the Federation of Irish Fishermen (FIF) ahead of opening the Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM) – BIM/Fish Ireland 2008 Conference on Innovation and Sustainability in the Seafood Industry.

“TI believe that the current very dif- ficult situation the industry 1s fac- ing makes it even more critical to identify the key steps necessary to lift the industry out of its vulnerable position where it 1s dependent on in- flexible commodity prices and thus unable to pass on its full costs.

“Tt is of the utmost importance that we take steps and work together to maximise the value and in particular the prices fishermen get at the quay-

side,’ he said.

“The Cawley strategy sets out the road-map and today’s conference served to both review progress and identify opportunities in the market for both wild and farmed fish.”

The conference also focused on aquaculture development and Min- ister Killeen identified this sector as offering potential for significant growth. He said that he was commit- ted to addressing the current chal- lenges so that the full potential of aquaculture could be realised.

The Clare TD also set out the work he was doing with Commissioner Borg and his colleagues in the Coun- cil of Ministers to get agreement for

an EU funded package of emergency measures for fishermen.

“I wish to take this opportunity to acknowledge the patience and very reasonable attitude of fishermen since our meeting in Athlone on June 13. I fully recognise that fishermen are impatient at delays in finding so- LULaCeysm Cem snomeUluKoNmOeKoKy

‘IT wish to assure fishermen and the FIF that Minister Smith and I under- stand fully their situation and will continue to work with the utmost ur- gency to secure an EU funded pack- age of measures as early as possible.

“We will continue to press the commission to deliver at the fisher- ies council on 15 July.”

THE Health Service Executive (HSE) has hired two temporary consult- ants in response to the concerns of a consultant microbiologist that Ennis General Hospital was at further risk from a C-difficile outbreak.

The HSE revealed in April that 21 patients who contracted the superbug at the hospital in 2007 had died last year.

Records released to The Clare Peo- ple through the Freedom of Infor- mation Act show that the Limerick-

based HSE consultant microbiologist, Dr Nuala O’Connell, wrote to Ennis hospital manager John O’Connell on April 9 to express her concerns.

‘“T am frustrated and deeply disap- pointed from a patient care point of view that neither the second consult- ant microbiologist sanctioned by the A&E initiative nor the recruitment of an infectious disease consultant has progressed,’ she wrote.

“Investment is needed in both hu- man resources for the acute and community settings, plus in newer diagnostic technologies, to provide

timely results, to enhance microbi- ology and infection control and pre- vention service provision to 24/7 365 days a year. HSE management needs to address same as a matter of urgen- cy to prevent further incidents of this nature from occurring.”

In response, a HSE spokesman said that a temporary consultant micro- biologist was providing two sessions per week at Ennis and a temporary consultant in infectious disease had sO MUIKC mI MIIoEe.e

Dr O’Connell made her comments in a reply to a letter from Mr Doyle

who raised what he said was a ser1- ous anomaly in the system whereby the infection control team was not notified of C-diff cases until several days after detection via computer.

Mr Doyle said: “I feel that this prac- tice creates a significant risk and may lend itself to an adverse event for the index case and onward transmission to other patients and request direc- tion notification by phone of infec- tion control.”

In response, Dr O’Connell said that the infection control queue for the in- fection control and prevention nurses

(ICPN) at Ennis was updated imme- diately when a C-diff result become available.

‘The result doesn’t even await full authorisation by either a senior scien- tist or me,” she said.

‘The lab invests much time in tele- phoning wards with important results across the network. I suggest that the wards take ownership of their results and communicate same to the ICPN so that a culture of infection control by all disciplines is engendered as it is, after all, everyone’s responsibil- AA

AN ACTION packed Féile Brian Bort: will be spicing up summer in the lakeside town all this week.

Now in its fifteenth year, the fes- tival celebrating Killaloe as former seat of the high king and the capital of the country will bring more than 2,000 visitors into the town.

“We’re focusing more this year on the community aspects and we have a great range of activities and enter- tainments planned,’ said féile secre- Va aaU 8 (Nom AOU Ikon

Some of the highlights of this year’s festival include the children’s parade. This year the theme for youngsters is the four elements.

All children are invited to come

along and join in. Costume mak- ing workshops will be going on all ste @

The parade itself will leave Ballina at 4pm on Saturday and cross the bridge into Killaloe. There will be a massive fireworks display on Satur- day night.

The fabulous Fanzini Brothers will be doing their crazy stuff over the weekend and on Friday, the Every Moment Counts youth club are or- ganising a youth music and arts festi- val between 2pm and 8pm.

A new event, along with the popu- lar dragon boat racing, will be pow- er-boat racing on the river and the Celt village will be in place with tra- ditional crafts.

On Friday evening, local producers,

the farmers’ market and restaura- teurs will be combining their talents on the green for a food fair from 6pm to 9pm. Families are invited to put away the pots and pans and sample local delights.

Daily events include the art trail and guided tours of the cathedral. Until Thursday there will be chil- dren’s costume, prop and instrument making workshops, which are all free, but parents are asked to bring along some materials.

All through the week, there are workshops including an adult learn- ers summer camp and _ traditional music workshops for all ages and levels of ability.

There are pub quizzes, pub mu- sic trails, drumming workshops for

teenagers, canoe polo, the clash of the ash, traditional Irish dancing, the féile feis and much more.

“We really want to thank all of the local pubs, businesses and organisa- tions who sponsored us and gave us support in organising the festival. We got an absolutely fabulous response from them. They have been so gen- erous and we couldn’t have had any- thing like the festival we have with- out their support,’ said Arlene.

For full details of the fun-packed festival events log on to feilebri- anboru.killaloe.ie or discoverkil- laloe.com. You can also email brianboru@killaloe.ie or call O61 374647. Information points are at the Killaloe/Ballina Family Resource Centre and Killaloe Tourist Office.

THE Irish Farmers Association last week warned Taoiseach Brian Cowen not to think about wavering from his commitment to use the Irish Govern- ment’s veto if a bad World Trade Or- ganisation deal is on the table.

Speaking last Thursday IFA Presi- dent Padraig Walshe said the deci- sion to proceed with this month’s WTO ministerial meeting was proof of Commissioner Peter Mandelson’s determination to “secure a deal at any cost”.

The IFA president said that his or- ganisation would be “maintaining its

constant vigilance” ahead of the July 21 meeting.

Meanwhile, Minister for Agricul- ture, Fisheries and Food, Brendan Smith, moved to calm farmers’ fears by speaking out against accepting a bad WTO deal.

Speaking in Luxembourg on Wednesday where he was attending the council of agriculture ministers meeting, he said that the set of WTO proposals on the table in Geneva at present were not balanced and there- fore not an appropriate basis for a o(cr-N Lm dev Rm a bE a Tos

The minister was speaking during discussions at the council, following

an update by Commissioner Fischer Boel on the current state of play of the Geneva negotiations.

‘We should not rush into a bad deal to facilitate the US administration while ignoring the very real chal- lenges ahead of food security and climate change,” he said.

‘We must ensure that we retain an agricultural production base in Eu- rope so that we can meet these new challenges both in the interests of the EU and of the world as a whole. We should not be afraid to say that we will not accept a bad deal and that we need more time to address these major issues.”

Minister Smith added that the world had moved on considerably since the Doha Round started in 2001. In particular, the current negotiations do not take account of the radically altered international landscape in relation to food security and climate change. He said the council should give itself the time required to reflect these important challenges in inter- national trade policy.

He also said that the passage of the farm bill, and the political debate in the United States, raised serious doubts about the capacity of the US administration to deliver and follow through on a deal at this time.

THE perfect economic storm is sinking jobs in Clare, with the news yesterday of more than 70 jobs being axed in the county.

57 workers at the Shannon based company, Avocent are to lose their jobs while workers will go in north Clare as German company Stubben Ltd is to cease all manufacturing at it’s Ennistymon factory.

And that town’s largest employer, Data Display, confirmed that they had to have workers on a four day

week for a period to avoid letting staff go. The factory employs 250 and Managing Director, Kevin Nev- ille said: “It’s a perfect storm – the strength of the dollar, the cost of fuel and the general global economy all going bad at the same time’, he said.

The Ennis regional office of inte- rior fit-out business, Ashcoin, which employed over fifty people at the Ballymaley business park, ceased trading two weeks ago.

Avocent yesterday confirmed plans to undertake a restructuring OuesaeeDeOUeNComm debs MMW sIDMBUCKIU Lm DO MmoLe.

redundancies at its Irish operations – 57 in Shannon and 7 in Dublin. The move will cut jobs at its Shannon operations from 160 to 103 and will affect its Research and Development functions.

The company said the measures are “part of a series of actions designed to enhance competitiveness, improve efficiency and reduce cost structure across its European locations.”

Avocent Senior Vice President and Managing Director of Avocent Inter- national at Shannon Mr Kieran Mac- Sweeney said staff whose positions

are affected had displayed exem- plary levels of quality and flexibility throughout their employment and the company would provide whatever support they could to help them se- cure new positions.

The company, whose customers in- clude industry leaders such as Bank of America, Boeing, Intel, Micro- soft, Nokia and Compaq, also con- firmed that it has entered collective redundancy discussions with staff NBC olee