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IT WAS a historic weekend for Clare underage camogie as the Under-18s claimed their fourth Munster title.

There was plenty to be gained from Sunday’s win as history stood in the favour of Cork but Clare are learning to rewrite history books in the cam- ogie world.

‘“We’ve been working for years for this and over those years we have had some great battles with Cork,” said manager Fintan McNamara. “There is a healthy rivalry brewing there and to win today is great for the girls. This group had never over come the Cork challenge before today so this just shows how hard they are will- ing to work. Progress is being made at all levels in the county, we will be hoping that this group will now be in the challenging stages for the All-Ireland and for the future Clare will be recognised as a force to be reckoned with.”

McNamara also drew attention to the belief that exists within the

squad. “The team spirit is just fantas- tic and the whole panel are working together. But best of all they know they all have to work hard for their place yet each girl is supportive of all the others. That’s so important in to- day’s game where to win campaigns and games all the panel is required.”

Afterwards, Carina Roseingrave said the win represented a new be- ginning for Clare camogie and thanked her teammates for the work and dedication they have put in over the last number of months.

Clare now have a Munster title to their credit and two wins from two in the All-Ireland series. This will put them not only in with a serious chance of qualifying for a semi-fi- nal spot but also in contention to top their group. That’ the focus of the management as the girls will take their short break for exams.

THE HSE and the Government are being asked to rethink the sums when it comes to providing health services for the county.

Fine Gael Deputy Joe Carey said this week that a proper CT scanner at Ennis General Hospital could be in- Stalled for as little as €220,000 from the health services coffers.

The HSE is currently spending €130,000 each year transporting pa- tients from Ennis to Limerick for a basic CT scan.

“This is a significant cost, but just as Significant is a cost of having an ambulance tied up on these journeys,

the costs of having beds occupied that would not otherwise need to be occupied if a scanner was on hand, and the additional staff time going into managing the situation as it cur- rently stands,” said Deputy Carey.

If the much needed scanner was put in place the HSE’s only investment would be €350,000 per annum in staffing costs, according to the TD.

This 1s anet cost of under €220,000 per year when you take out the sav- ings in transport costs alone.”

“The Mid-West Hospitals ‘Trust will fund the new scanner at no cost to the HSE.

“Clearly, when you look at the facts, it makes huge sense to make

this moderate investment in order to get the huge gains that will accrue.

“The number of people travelling to Limerick for CT scans has gone up by 33 per cent since 2004 and that figure will presumably continue to increase. 35 of the country’s public hospitals have CT scanners. Surely now there is no justification for En- nis not to have one too,” he said.

In response to his Parliamentary Questions on the matter, the HSE have also confirmed to Deputy Carey that the accommodation of a CT scanner for Ennis is curremtly be- ing pursued under the 2008 Capital Plan.

Sinn Féin in Clare also believe that

the HSE’s local policy does not add up and urged them to change their lo- cal hospital police.

The report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Devel- opment found the government was basing its plans to centralise serv- ices and downgrade or close regional hospitals on a population-to-hospi- tal ratio presented by the College of Surgeons in England and did not take account of best practice in other Eu- ropean countries.

“The HSE and government must completely revise their plans for hos- pital centralisation in light of this report,” said Sinn Féin’s Ennis chair- person Finberg McGeehan.

YOUNG children in Quin are being afforded the opportunity to become dancing queens, thanks to a new dancing school which has been set up in the village.

Local resident Laura-Jane Allis has set up her own dancing school and teaches dozens of young children hip hop dancing along with musical theatre.

The 26-year-old set up the school, having studied in Cork and Cam- bridge. After graduating with a D1- ploma in musical theatre in Cam- bridge, she did a few shows in the West End, before deciding to move back to Quin.

Although born in Surrey, Laura-

Jane and her family moved to Quin 10 years ago and she now regards the village as her home.

She taught with the Sparks school in Ennis and then decided to set up her own school, Breakthrough Dance Sroyenyer-bas

Laura-Jane opened up in Quin and then started to teach in Ennistymon and Ennis. She now teaches children and adults from the age of six up- wards and has more than 100 young dancers on her books.

She generally teaches hip hop to be- ginners and then slowly advances her students to musical theatre, which incorporates acting with dancing.

‘Everyone loves hip hop at the mo- ment. I have slowly started introduc- ing musical theatre and am hoping to

introduce tap and jazz,” she added.

She has taught in the community hall in Quin for several months and is looking forward to a proper dance studio being opened there, when the community hall development is com- pleted later this year.

Laura-Jane found that once her company became known, the num- bers of students on her books quickly NO usrNoee

“It really has been word of mouth and the word has got around through the schools,” she said.

Having grown up in the UK, does Laura-Jane have any regrets about leaving there and moving to Quin’?

‘Absolutely not. I love it here. I definitely made the right decision. I was lost in London. This way, I get to

do what I love and it’s not too serious and they love it,” she laughed.

“I love everything about here. The whole community of Quin has been great, really supportive,” she said.

Laura-Jane will get the opportunity to show off her dancers at a concert at Colaiste Mhuire in Ennis on May 25, and she is looking forward to it. “It is a chance for the students to show their parents and friends what they are doing,’ she said.

Laura-Jane accepts beginners to her classes and can be contacted on 085 7771328.

A SECOND man has been arrested in connection with the fatal stabbing of a young boy in east Clare at the weekend.

A 19 year-old was taken to May- orstone garda _ station yesterday evening.

Gardai investigating the stabbing to death of Roman Vysochan yester- day afternoon released a 16-year old whom they had arrested on Sunday.

A file is being prepared for the Di- rector of Public Prosecutions.

Another 16-year-old who was stabbed in the leg in the attack 1s in a stable condition in hospital.

Roman, originally from _ the Ukraine, was found wounded on the main Limerick to Killaloe road, opposite the entrance to the Carrig Midhe estate in Corbally at 11pm.

He had stab wounds to his chest and was pronounced dead on arrival at the Mid-West Regional Hospital.

Two knives were found at the scene. Gardai arrested a teenager from the Moyross area in Limerick city and it is understood they may be seeking to speak to a second youth in relation to iW slomrAlARATO@

The dead boy had lived with his family in Ashley Close in Westbury for the last three years and joined St Munchin’s College a year ago.

A statement on behalf of the school said, “The prayers and thoughts of the community of St Munchin’s Col-

lege, Our Patron Dr Donal Murray, Bishop of Limerick, Trustees, Board of Management, Staff and Students are today with the family of Roman Vysochan a fifth year student who died tragically on Saturday night.

The whole school was shocked to hear of the tragic circumstances of Roman’s death. This is a difficult time for both the family, and the lo- cal and school communities. The school has put in place counselling for any pupils who may feel the need of help over the coming days.”

Meanwhile, local Labour Council- lor Pascal Fitzgerald has called for counselling to be made available to all of the dead boy’s friends. “They are getting together at the scene and they are very traumatised. They will need help dealing with this terrible shock”.

The councillor, backed by other local representatives has repeatedly called for a garda station to serve the Corbally area.

‘‘Ardnacrusha is a small rural sta- tion. A lot of people in Westbury wouldn’t know how to find it. With developments in recent years, we have thousands of people living in this area. Our community guard does a great job but he can’t be here all the time. We need a dedicated station for the area, with a garda presence.”

THE Michael Cotter Memorial Cup begins this week. Hosted by Kilmi- hil GAA club, the Under 14 football tournament is in it’s third year and has proved a very popular event on the underage footballing calendar. Only two rules deviate from the of- ficial code with only one hop and one solo allowed and there must to be a winner on the day.

Running over a ten day period, the

Oy OLSeN brome Dee loMs e-MEaRO LUO MAM Lis mele Shannon Gaels/Killimer v Doonbeg this Thursday. On Friday evening, Kilrush play Kilkee in group B, fol- lowed by the group C Clash of Co- oraclare and Lissycasey on Saturday and the hosts Kilmihil against Clon- degad on Sunday.

The semi-finals then take place on the following Tuesday and Wednes- day with the showcase final fixed for Sunday, May 25 at St Michael’s Park, KGiiecntente

AN ADMINISTRATIVE error in Clare County Council’s planning department cost the local authority €650,000 in a High Court settle- ment, it was confirmed yesterday.

Stunned councillors were told of the cost by council executives at a meet- ing behind closed doors on Monday.

The €650,000 payment is made up of compensation to a couple, Bernard Madigan and Mary Keane, as well as legal and professional fees and other “substantial” costs. The breakdown between compensation, legal and professional fees and the remaining costs has not been revealed.

The settlement arose from the cou- ple taking a High Court judicial re-

view over refusal of a planning ap- plication for 31 houses at Inagh.

Cllr PJ Kelly (FF), who called for the special meeting last month, said he was shocked by what he had been told by the council executives.

“TI didn’t think it could happen. It 1s beyond my wildest imagination what has occurred in this case,” he said.

He declined to state what details emerged from the meeting or the fig- ure involved, but said: “I don’t know the couple but I commend them for succeeding where others have failed and having the financial wherewithal to successfully challenge the system.

‘I hope we never see the likes of this again otherwise heads will roll.”

Cllr Kelly, who tabled a number of motions on the issue over the past

year, said the local government audi- tor could investigate the matter.

Cllr Madeleine Taylor Quinn (FG) said she was astounded at the infor- mation that had surfaced.

“This matter is not over yet and there are a lot of questions still to be answered,” she said.

At yesterday’s meeting, the council executives claimed there was no loss to the council as their insurer covered the €650,000 and they were able to claw back money in planning finan- cial contributions from the couple.

However, a number of councillors raised concerns over what effect the payout might have on the council’s premium.

Mr Madigan and Ms Keane lodged their application for 31 homes at a

site outside Inagh in 2005. It is under- stood that when they lodged further information on the application, it was not logged on the internal planning system and resulted in the due date for decision not being signalled.

This gave rise to the application not being decided upon within the prede- termined timeframe.

The two were then refused planning permission, but initiated High Court judicial review proceedings. Coun- cillors were told that if the case went to court, the local authority’s expo- sure could have been much higher.

Last year, the council granted plan- ning to the couple for a revised de- velopment on the same site. It is now up for sale with a guide price of €2 million.

HASTING’S Cottage in Shannon should be considered if a cremato- rium is built in the town according to a local heritage group.

Duchas na Sionna has made a number of recommendations relating to the Hasting’s site.

A planning application to build a crematorium, covered walkways and remembrance garden in Tullyvarraga is pending.

In a letter circulated to members of

Shannon Town Council last week, Duchas na Sionna said it wished to point out that the remains of Hast- ing’s Cottage would be sandwiched between the new structures and the present graveyard at [llaunamanagh, should the plans get the green light.

‘“Hasting’s Cottage is a vital part of the heritage of Shannon town. It is shown on the 1840 ordnance survey map of the area and may indeed have been built considerably before that date,” stated the letter.

“The cottage was the setting in

a drama that unfolded during the War of Independence when a Brit- ish Army General was held captive there,’ added the letter.

“Given the location of the cottage in the immediate vicinity of the pro- posed development, we feel it is of the utmost importance that a bound- ary be erected before the commence- ment of building works to prevent any accidental damage to the cottage and garden boundaries during the course of construction. A fine set of concrete gate piers would be particu-

larly vulnerable as they are located very close to the edge of the site,” it added.

The letter stated that Duchas na Sionna feels that the remains at the cottage site present an “invaluable Opportunity to the people of Shan- non to learn about the history of their locality and hopes at some stage in the future to carry out a detailed survey and supervised excavation of the site of Hasting’s Cottage as part of a community heritage project,’ it added.

THE PROMOTERS of the €150 million Doonbeg Golf Resort are to finally implement the terms of a High Court agreement struck four years ago in relation to a disputed right of way.

This follows four locals settling their claim with the golf club over its failure to date to implement the terms of the High Court deal reached in February 2004. This prompted four locals in Doonbeg to lodge pro-

ceedings at Ennis Circuit Court.

The case was due to be heard at Ennis Circuit Court last Wednesday. However the court was told the case nE:YeMoleres soln O(oreb

A spokesman for Doonbeg Golf Club said yesterday that “we are hap- py that the matter has been resolved to everyone’s satisfaction”.

As part of the terms of the High Court agreement, five locals agreed to an alternative right of way lead- ing to the golf club to build a bar- rier across the existing right of way

which traverses the 15th hole of the golf course to Doughmore beach.

The five that secured the agree- ment with the golf club were Thomas Considine, James O’Leary, Chris Carroll, Sinead Carroll and Simon O’Donnell, who has since passed on.

Arising from the High Court set- tlement, Doonbeg Golf Club built a six foot high wall across the disputed right of way.

However, this precipitated An Bord Pleanala ruling that the club acted 1l- legally in building the wall and that

decision is now the subject of sepa- rate High Court action by Doonbeg Golf Club.

In the circuit court action, the sur- viving four involved in the original High Court settlement lodged papers alleging that Doonbeg Golf Club “has failed, refused and neglected to take the requisite steps to comply with the Terms of Settlement and has failed to meet its obligations on foot of the settlement”.

The four claimed that no steps had been taken by Doonbeg Golf Club

to register the four’s right of way as a burden on their title deed; that no steps have been taken by Doonbeg Golf Club to register the right of the four to drive onto Doughmore beach and that Doonbeg Golf Club has failed to extend the existing carpark by July 1, 2004.

Following the settlement, it is ex- pected that a public consultation process will soon be initiated to al- low the works be carried out, which includes a car-park for 30 to 40 cars at the site.

CLARE County Council and the Health Service Executive started a process of damage limitation at the weekend ahead of revelations that both agencies failed to inform the public of increased risk of contract- ing cryptosporidium from the Ennis public water supply.

Documents released under the Freedom of Information Act show that the Environmental Protection Agency warned in January of an another possible outbreak of Crypt- Osporidium one month before the most recent outbreak where two chil- Cleon lmnEe

The agencies never informed the public of the increased risk and an RTE Prime Time Investigates pro- gramme quizzed top officials last week on their role in the failure to inform the public.

The programme is not going to be broadcast until September and is focusing on the outbreak of crypt- osporidium in Ennis and Galway.

Both the council and the HSE re- leased statements last Friday and in an apparent move to shift the blame to the council, the HSE told all GPs, pharmacists and dentists in Clare that “the HSE advised that consum- ers should be regularly updated by the council of developments affect- ing the Ennis water supply”’.

The council posted a statement on its own website which for the first time acknowledged problems – ob- liquely – with the temporary Ennis

water treatment plant.

It does not refer to the damning January EPA audit but says only the capacity of the plant has been in- creased by 25 per cent “in response to increased demands on the system and the requirement of the EPA that full filtration be applied to all drink- ing water going out to consumers”.

The statement also admits for the first time that not all water go- ing through the plant is treated for Cryptosporidium.

In a careful understatement of the ongoing situation over the past number of months, the council states that because of technical require- ments associated with the construc- tion of the new Ennis Water Treat- ment Plant and servicing of the interim plant, “it has not been pos-

sible to provide fully filtered water to date.”

The statement once more re-iter- ates the precautionary boil notice in place for vulnerable groups, includ- ing patients who are immunocom- promised, infants, pre-school chil- dren and visitors.

The statement goes on, “These groups are advised to continue to boil tap water before consumption. Institutions serving vulnerable peo- ple should also continue to boil tap water or use alternative supplies. This includes hospitals, nursing homes, créches, pre-schools and day CF eee tne

AS CLARE County Council cele- brated the official opening of its civic offices on Thursday last the conver- sation among guests was dominated not by the architecture, the environ- mentally friendly heating system or the disability access but the walls – the very green walls.

While the building itself was green in the environmental sense of the word, the bright green paint high- lighted the modern architecture and guests were evenly divided into two camps – those that loved it and those that favoured magnolia.

Whatever the feelings it certainly

made a conversation piece for those in attendance for the afternoon par- AY

The no-show of Minister for the Environment John Gormley didn’t dampen the spirits as Clare’s first citizen Mayor Cllr Patricia McCa- rthy opened the €25 million civic building.

Aras Contae an Chlair now pro- vides accommodation for 300 staff, as well as meeting rooms, staff canteen, laboratory, Mayor’s office, Council Chamber and three party rooms for the elected members. 320 car parking spaces are provided at the rear of the building.

Director of Services David Timlin,

who oversaw the building project, outlined how the Corporate Head- quarters building incorporates a number of environmentally friendly measures and operates as a naturally ventilated building. Solar panels and a wood chip heating system have been installed.

While many former local authority members and staff from the county were in attendance at the opening one former county councillor, who served with the county council for 11 years, took pride of place.

One time councillor, now success- ful businessman Bernard McNa- mara, was involved in the building as Michael McNamara and County

Building Contractors won the con- tract to construct the prominent building on New Road.

“T am delighted to be here because I probably took a bigger scelp off this job for old times sake when we were tendering for it. I think it was fortu- nate that it was the times that were rete

“It was a design build finance job and the financial rates that were available at the time were extraordi- narily more benefited than they are at the present.

“So the delivery of cost per foot here is half to two thirds to what some of the local authorities have spent in these buildings,” he said.