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TEAGASC claimed last week that the increased cost of artificial ferti- lizer this year 1s impacting on farm- ers’ profit margins and could squeeze many Clare farmers off the land. Depending on stocking rates the higher cost of fertilizer in 2008 could increase production costs by up to €50 per hectare on beef farms, or up to €100 per hectare on dairy farms. This increase is the equivalent of 0.75 cent per litre of milk or 16 cent per kilogram of beef live weight. “Even though production costs have increased grass remains the cheapest form of feed on dairying and drystock farms, and nitrogen

remains the main driver of yields. On tillage farms, even at current fer- tilizer prices and based on expected grain prices, applications are justi- fied economically,” said Teagasc en- vironment specialist Tim Hyde.

Changes in the price of fertilizer have implications for usage and the management of other valuable nutri- ent sources such as slurry on farms. These changes have refocused at- tention on the benefits of clover as a source of nitrogen. In monetary terms a thousand gallons of slurry is now worth €25, while clover can fix nitrogen to a value of €120 per hectare.

Among the factors to be consid- ered when responding to the change

in fertilizers prices is the enterprise type and the level of efficiency. On farms fertilizers, particularly nitro- gen, drives farm output, and used ef- ficiently also drives profit.

Nitrogen is the main determinant of high yields and artificial fertilizer sources should only be reduced be- low crop requirement if it can be re- placed by alternatives such as clover swards and organic manures.

“While the increased cost of ferti- lizer will add €10 per head to feed costs associated with a winter fin- ished animal on good grass silage plus concentrates an intensive feed- ing system based on concentrates would only become more competi- tive, if concentrate prices dropped by

€80 per tonne,” said Siobhan Kavan- agh, Teagasc nutrition specialist.

In relation to tillage crops, nitrogen fertilizer prices would need to rise, or grain prices drop significantly, before current nitrogen application rates would not be justified econom1- cally.

“Despite dramatic increases in prices fertilizer applications remain a cost effective input for profitable crops.

“With current fertilizer nitrogen prices and the projected price of grain the economic optimum for cereal crops has not changed and is similar to that of 2007,” said Teagasc soul and plant nutrition specialist Mark Plunkett.

IF any Clare footballer was in doubt about what was expected of him on Sunday, he need only have looked at the number written on his arm. Be- fore the game, Clare decided to em- broider each jersey with ‘100%’ to represent the effort required.

A second championship defeat to Waterford in 12 months was unthink- able for Clare and though they skated perilously close to the edge, Clare managed to find a way through, to the relief of manager Frank Doherty.

“To be honest I’m just delighted to get over this hurdle because after last year, we needed to win’, said Doher- ty on the sideline afterwards.

“It was a morale booster to the county as such. We needed that go- ing forward, because if we had lost today, it probably would have driv- en Clare football back another bit. We’ ve had enough of knocks over the last few months, so hopefully this is a step in the right direction.

“Clare was a year waiting for this day to come. Them lads were hurt- ing over last year. Obviously I wasn’t there but I know what they went through, because when you lose a championship game you hurt. I knew they would keep going.”

Clare operated well below the re- quired mark for long periods and while rejecting the effect of the swirling breeze, Doherty acknowl- edged Clare’s shooting wasn’t up to

Nore te

“Tl tell you the truth. This whole breeze stuff I don’t believe in. Some- times teams play better against the breeze. We were knocking ball into our forwards in the first half and it was running away from them. We

were using the breeze too much. I felt if we carried the ball more directly and ran at them, and had overlaps and then kicked the ball, it would hold for our forward, and it would be a disad- vantage to the Waterford backs.

“We were shooting erratically at

times. It was decent enough ball go- ing in, but it was coming out just as fast. We had to cool things down.” Yet, for his first championship win as an intercounty manager, Doherty took heart from the way his team – particularly the younger members,

– stood up when it mattered.

“David Connole was man of the match in my opinion today. He’s only 18, he’s doing the Leaving Cert and he’s an absolutely fantastic young lad. I said the whole time that I’d love to play either him or Gordon Kelly at six. When David came out to six, it CHUN DE (orem Neto 8 ee

Doherty also thanked Waterford manager for his pre-match com- ments, damning the state of Clare football.

“I’m delighted with Kiely, with all his nice words during the week about Clare football. I didn’t have to say too much and I do appreciate his words of wisdom, fair play to him.”

Kerry, the All-Ireland champions, are now in Doherty’s sight-lines.

“It will be a privilege to the young- er lads. It’s going to help their game playing against the best team in Ire- land,” said Doherty

‘As far as ’’m concerned, you could pick the best players in Ireland and they wouldn’t beat Kerry. We’ll go down there and we have nothing to fear. We’ll go out and we’ll give it a lash, we’ll try our best and it will be great experience for the younger lads – for next year in Division 4 and that’s what we’re building on.”

No prizes for guessing what will be required in Killarney. Just think of a number and double it.

BUILDING started on only two houses in Clare last month as further evidence of a local housing slump.

The drive to build new homes has fallen away with Ennis-based auc- tioneer, Philip O’Reilly stating that there are 200 newly built homes in the Ennis area still remaining to be sold.

He said that the latest figures from the Department of the Environment came as no surprise, considering the amount of houses that remain un- sold.

According to department statistics, only two new house guarantee reg- istrations were made in Clare last month and this compares to the fig- ure of 41 for the corresponding pe- riod last year.

This was the second lowest in the country with only Longford hav- ing less where no new houses com- neo Neere FO aNO eee

There has been an 80 per cent drop in the number of new house registra- tions over the first four months of the year.

To the end of April, there have been only 79 new house registrations and

this compares to 398 for the corre- sponding period in 2007.

The April figures show there was an increase in house completions on March but the overall figure for the first four months are down signifi- cantly on last year.

There were 128 house completions in Clare last month, representing a 36 per cent increase on the 94 house completions in the county in March, although this was down on the 192 house completions for the corre- sponding month in 2007.

Statistics for the year to date show that 474 houses were completed –

compared with 748 for the first four months last year – a drop of 36 per cent.

Warning that the impact of the credit crunch has been underestimat- ed, Mr O’Reilly said that on a weekly basis, the lack of funding available for loans in the banks is diminish- ing and his advice to anyone who has got loan approval is to avail of it, be- cause it 1s getting harder day by day to secure approval.

“If a person needs a home, now is probably the time to buy before the mortgage market dries up further,” he said.

THE railway station in Sixmilebri- dge is poised to reopen within the next 12 months, after an absence of more than 30 years.

That was the message delivered by Clare County Council, in response to a query on the matter last week.

Local Fine Gael councillor John Crowe asked for an update on the project and queried when works would commence.

He specifically sought a date for

the reopening of the station, which locals have sought for a considerable period of time.

In response, acting senior engi- neer with the council, John Bradley pointed out that the council has been working in close co-operation with CIE, with regard to the re-opening of the former station.

“The station lands and railway house has been recently acquired by the council. It is planned to provide a park and ride facility in conjunction with the opening of the said railway

station,” said Mr Bradley.

“CIE have advised that funding has been provided in the 2008/2009 budgetary cycles for the upgrading of CIE’s infrastructural requirements and it is anticipated that the pas- senger rail service will open some time during 2009. No fixed dates are available for the scheduled opening of the facility,” added Mr Bradley.

Councillor Crowe said he was pleased with the response.

“IT am very happy with the re- sponse. At the end of the day, we can

see light at the end of the tunnel,” he pointed out.

‘“T would be hoping it would re-open next March or April. It will benefit the entire east Clare area as people can drive to Sixmilebridge and get the train to Limerick or Galway,” he added.

“The people of Sixmilebridge are thrilled with the update,” he said.

“Efforts have been made to get this re-opened for about lO years now, when petitions were signed,’ said Councillor Crowe.

40 per cent of farmers now Say that they are ready to vote Yes in the upcoming election.

The number of farmers now com- mitted to voting No stands at 33 per cent with a sizeable 27 per cent still undecided.

The Irish Farmers Organisation have been on the verge of endors- ing the No campaign over the last number of weeks following increas-

ing anger over the handling, by EU Commissioner Peter Mandelson, of the WTO.

Galway MEP Sean O’Neachtain spoke out on Thursday last calling on the farmers of Clare to Vote Yes for the EU Lisbon Reform Treaty.

O’Neachtain has been one of the treaty’s strongest advocates and has spoken out at many public meetings over the last month.

“IT strongly believe that it is in the future economic and political inter- ests of the people of County Clare and the people of Ireland that the EU Lisbon Reform Treaty is ratified,” he Sr nLee

‘This treaty is about ensuring that the EU institutions reform how they

will take decisions into the future so as to ensure that the European Union becomes more effective and more efficient in how it will carry out its business into the future.

A more effective European Union will help to ensure that the EU can bring forward new laws which will help to develop the European econo- my to a stronger extent. The ratifica- tion of this treaty will guarantee that the EU will be able to address new problems such as climate change and the security of energy supplies in a more structured manner. No one country alone can tackle all these problems on their own.”

Specifically targeting farmers, O Neachtain said that a yes vote will

help Ireland to effectively address the concerns of Irish farmers in the context of the CAP Health Check 2008 — 2013

“We welcome any measures at an EU level which will simplify the actual operation of the CAP, and, in particular, the administration of the single farm payment,” he said.

“But we clearly do not support the proposal to increase compulsory modulation from five to 13 per cent, which means that farmers will lose eight per cent in the value of their annual single farm payment from the year 2012, and it is proposed by the European Commission that these monies will be re-directed to other rural development programmes.”

GHOSTS banished. Demons laid to rest. A win against Waterford, his- torically, wasn’t something to get excited about.

But judging by the roar at the end and the sense of relief outside the Clare dressing room, this meant something.

More than winning, this was about wiping the slate clean and starting again. Conor Whelan, captain when Clare capsized in troubled waters down in Waterford last year, knew that for a long time on Sunday, it looked like Clare were charted to- Se NUGK-MCTOO ODE ED as EelKon

“Things didn’t look great for us,” Whelan, stand-on captain this year, admitted outside the Clare dressing room. “The lads got back into it. A great interception by Gordon Kelly was a real turning point in the game. We went up the field and got a point and then the point from Stephen Hickey closed the day out.

“We know we played very poorly in the first-half. We weren’t expressing ourselves on the ball. We just didn’t play right. We, as players, know that. Frank Doherty told us too. It was really laid on the line to us and we were happy that we rose to the chal- lenge in the second half. *

Sitting in the stands, injured, this

year’s captain Michael O’Shea kicked his heels in frustration as the errors continued to mount.

“Tt’s frustrating when you are look- ing out because you can see what is going on. You’re sitting in the stand and you can’t do anything about it.

‘“We’ve a lot to improve on. We made a lot of stupid mistakes. Our ball handling was very poor at stages, especially in the first-half. Our move- ment up front wasn’t up to standard. We weren’t creating enough oppor- tunities for ourselves. Saying that, a couple of the lads showed good bot- tle towards the end. They stood up and were counted when a couple of Scores were needed, but we’ll take the positives.”

They included a rattling good per- formance from David Connole, who, along with John Hayes, O’Shea said, provided Clare with mobility and strength going forward.

Plenty of work and plenty to think about, then, ahead of the Munster semi-final against Kerry.

O’Shea, who Doherty said after- wards would add a different gear to Clare’s running game, is hopeful of being fit to face Kerry.

“We’ve three weeks and we’ll be doing everything we can. That’s a day you really don’t want to miss. Playing Kerry down in Killarney. We’ll be doing everything we can.”

to clarify that the hospital did not receive any donations from 2003 to 2007, or if it simply did not record donations, a HSE spokesperson said the hospital had no record of any do- nations made during that time.

“But this does not rule out the pos- sibility of somebody coming in to

buy a box of chocolates for patients in a particular ward.”

Chairman of the Ennis General Hospital Development Committee, Ciaran O’Dea said that “despite the expected flippancy and condescen- sion evident from the HSE response”, the survey carried out under the Free- dom of Information Act poses more questions.

“If there have been no donations, it indicates the distrust that people feel with the HSE or a dissatisfaction with the level of service and resourc- es provided under the HSE. The issue may also point to a belief and dissat- isfaction with the over-distribution of funds to administration as opposed

to front-line staff and services. Both these possibilities are a result of the removal and lack of answerability of the HSE to the electorate,” he said.

‘A second possibility is that unre- corded donations have been made to support the hospital. This scenario beggars belief given the massive in- crease in expenditure on administra- tion. It is time to ask if the HSE is ‘value for money’ and to test whether they cost more than they benefit the people of County Clare and beyond,” the committee chairman added.

It remains unclear whether any do- nations have been made to the hospi- tal since 2003.

In the past, the people of Clare fun-

draised for a mammography unit for the hospital, which was later replaced by the health board and eventually closed by the HSE in favour of the centre of excellence in Limerick.

The Mid-Western Hospitals De- velopment Trust also agreed to pro- vide €600,000 to purchase the much needed CAT scanner, although the HSE has not yet taken the trust up on its proposal. The machine is estimat- ed to cost just over €400,000.

In February 2007, Deputy Pat Breen (FG) was told in a parliamen- tary question that €550,000 per an- num revenue funding has been pro- vided for running the CT service at the hospital.

ON AUGUST 15, an ancient tradi- tion will return to Tubber thanks to the restoration of one of the Burren’s most historic holy weeks.

The August pilgrimage to the Ri an Domhainaigh holy well has not tak- en place for more than two decades but now, thanks to the Beagh Rural Development Association, the centu- ries-old tradition looks set to return.

“This well is first mentioned in 1669 by a Franciscan friar called Anthony MacBrody in a work pub- lished in Prague. It probably dates back to pre-Christian times and the Church would have put its own mark on it over the centuries,’ said Tony

Diviney of the Beagh Integrated Ru- ral Development Association.

“We started working on these holy wells and ancient sites more than 20 years ago, trying to restore them and improve the look of the parish. We have completed a number of differ- ent projects over the years and we started this about this time last year.

“It was in a very bad condition. The ESB had been through the site a number of years back and you couldn’t even see the well. It was a slow enough process but we are hop- TUOTCMMHaY-T MD LMMY SOO MoLom EDU ToleremDOMBUSOomcO)s August.”

Each August 15, Mass was said at the holy well while people walked around the well and prayed. As

they circled it, they would mark the amount of times around the well by placing a stone on a small holy altar nearby.

“They say that if you turned the stones one way, it was good luck but if you turned them against the sun, you could put a curse on people,” said Paddy Rosengrave of the asso- ciation.

‘The belief that the older people in the parish have in this well is unreal. They came down here to pray on a regular basis, even when the place was nearly inaccessible.

“If the people in olden days got sick, they didn’t go to the doctor. It was off to the holy well that they went. This was their hospital.

“You can see that people have left new money, euros, at the holy altar so people must still be using the well.”

The Ri an Domhainaigh holy well is one of six holy wells located in the Beagh parish. It was historically the busiest local well, thanks in part toa large fair which used to take place in Tubber each August.

The group plans to reopen the well and once again celebrate mass in Ri an Domhainaigh on August 15.

WHY NOT give your fledgling business lift-off with the help of a €280,000 prize fund from the Seedcorn Business Competition 08 — that’s the message from InterTra- delreland.

Small companies North and South have leveraged €65m of additional equity investment over the past five years through Seedcorn, which of- fers the biggest prize fund of any business competition on the island.

“‘Treland is rightly renowned for its spirit of entrepreneurship and that 1s something we want to continue to support, So we would encourage even more young firms to sign up for this year’s competiton,’ said Liam Nellis, chief executive of InterTradelreland.

Pat Lucey of Aspiracon, last year’s winner of Emerging International Company, Munster region, said: “We

entered Seedcorn to help drive our business development and it gave us a framework for our business plan as

well as valuable feedback through expert judging panels and Master- ESNet

‘“Seedcorn forced us to address ar- eas which we had been missing — I Suppose you could say we took a step back in order to look forward. Ulti- mately, it accelerated our develop- ment by about six months and we are now engaged in negotiations with the VC community. The publicity has been very positive as well, as it all helps to get your foot in the door!”

All entrants to the competition must be able to demonstrate new equity requirements in excess of €75,000. Entrants to the Emerging Company category must be in existence for less than three years by September 26, 2008, and have sales targets of less than €5m. Entrants to the Emerg- ing International Company must be in business less than five years by September 26, 2008, and have sales targets of more than €5m.

Following the scoring of written business plans, the top entries from

each region and category are selected to make a short presentation to a pan- el of judges, followed by a question and answer session.

Winners are selected in each cat- egory in each of the four regions and all eight will be asked to make their presentation again to a separate pan- el of judges at the final in Belfast on November 26, 2008. The panel will then select the overall all-island win- ner in each category.

To register your interest in entering the Seedcorn Business Competition, log on to the new dedicated website: WWww.seedcorncompetition.com. Business plans must be submitted by Spm on the closing date of Septem- ber 26.

THE HSE has sent a letter to all Clare GPs instructing them not to re- fer patients to hospitals in Limerick OVO E DAN se: hyms KO) mmaeyi crease loi ecconlenvament-Neecs mograms, it emerged at last night’s meeting of Clare County Council.

This emerged following a motion put forward by Councillor Madeleine Taylor-Quinn (FG) in which she called for Health Minister, Mary Harney, to intervene personally and solve the problems of slow BreastCh- eck roll-out in the county.

“IT am very concerned about a let-

ter sent to Clare GP’s saying that women should not be sent to Galway or Limerick hospitals unless they are showing real symptoms. In effect, what this is doing is preventing Clare women from accessing early screen- ing for Cancer. It’s as simple as that,” said Cllr Taylor-Quinn.

“They are referring people to BreastCheck and we know that there is no efficient BreastCheck facility in operation in Clare. This is discrimi- nating against Clare women and | would like to call on the council to support me in calling on the minister to intervene now and get this situa-

tion fixed.

“This is an issue that has effected almost every family in Clare. If you have the €150 to spend then you can get yourself checked out, but if you don’t then it’s a different situation.”

The Mayor of Clare, Patricia Mc- Carthy (IND), told the council that she raised the issue with Minister Harney when a delegation from Clare met her last week.

“This was the one issue off the agenda that I raised with Minister Harney last week and I conveyed these issues to her and expressed the need to roll out a proper system and

education for people in Clare in rela- tion to mammography,” she said.

“I told her that confidence needs to be restored in the system and the sooner the better.”

The motion was also supported by Cllr Martin Conway (FG) who called for the HSE to be abolished.

“I completely agree with Made- line Taylor-Quinn and I question the competence of the HSE on this mat- ter,’ he said.

“I think that majority of the people of this country would like to see the HSE abolished. They have gotten too big for their boots.”