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EUROPE must allow for Irish fish producers a freer hand for the pro- duction of farmed fish and shell fish or the industry faces a troubled future. Addressing the European Parliament’s Fisheries Committee in Brussels on Thursday, the IFA’s Aquaculture Executive Secretary, Richie Flynn, said that the EU strat- egy to support a sustainable fish and shellfish farming sector was vital to redress the balance of seafood im- ports into the community.

Mr Flynn was speaking at a special hearing of the Parliament on the Sit- uation and Perspectives of the Aqua- culture Sector.

“We are all aware of the growing importance of food production and food security. We see growing num- bers of health professionals urging consumers to eat more seafood as a matter of priority to promote the development of mind and body and prevent modern diseases,’ he said.

“We see a rise in interest in food that is sustainable, organic, eco- friendly and convenient. All of these factors have contributed to an ever- erowing demand from European consumers for more and more qual- ity seafood.

“We know how to grow fish and Shellfish in Europe. We have dec- ades of European experience, avail- able waters, the right climate and the

world’s most advanced technology.

“EU Aquaculture produces 1.5 mil- lion tonnes of seafood and supports 80,000 jobs. Yet the community to- day still imports almost 50 per cent of its seafood needs. Aquaculture worldwide – in Asia, South America and elsewhere – is the fastest grow- ing food sector in the world.

“But here in Europe we are in dan- ger of starving in a land of plenty. Our Aquaculture sector is stagnant. Production in some sections of the industry is actually falling. Small and medium enterprises are facing CHUM Ee UN Laon

Mr Flynn said that MEPs visiting fish farms in the west of Ireland over Easter had seen first hand the value

and potential of farming salmon, mussels, oysters, trout and cod and the future opportunities to farm dif- ferent kinds of fish in the deep, clean waters of the Atlantic ocean on the EU’s western extremities.

“The Parliament has a hugely im- portant role in ensuring that the de- velopment of aquaculture in Europe is led by common-sense legislation, practical research and development and a recognition that our valuable sea and freshwater resources must be used efficiently for food production,” he continued.

“The EU Strategy being developed by the commission must release the potential of the aquaculture sector, not restrict it.”

DOUBTS have been raised over the way in which Clare County Council allocated funding following the deci- sion to grant the Lisdoonvarna Play- ground Project more money than it had actually asked for.

Following a heated discussion at the local area council meeting held in Ennistymon yesterday, the decision was made to award the playground €35,000 from the Community Play- eround Grant Fund, even though it had only asked for €30,000.

The fund, which this year totals €83,000, is competed for by differ- ent groups all around north Clare.

“IT would favour the Lisdoonvarna development, but I think we would be setting a dangerous precedent in giving people more than they asked for,” said Cllr Flan Garvey (FG), be- fore leaving the meeting.

The overpay situation arose follow- ing concerns raised by a number of councillors over a validity of a pro- posed playground to be located in the Michael Cusack Centre in Carron.

“IT don’t think that the Carron scheme

fits in with the playground scheme at all. There has to be unlimited public access to the playgrounds,” said Cllr Joe Arkins (FG).

“Tam also disappointed that there aren’t more applications in from oth- STUCCO) napa SL UODAL eK

Council engineer Hubert Newell confirmed that the Carron playground did not meet the normal criteria in terms of access for the children.

‘The people in Lisdoonvarna have spent nearly a million and a half on this project and are putting together a real integrated scheme for the whole

community.

“They got the short straw last year so I think it is only right that they should get the funding they are look- ing for this time around,’ said Cllr Martin Lafferty UND).

Of the €83,000 on offer, €12,000 was allocated for the construction of fencing for the Corofin playground.

Of the remaining budget, €35,000 was allocated to the Lisdoonvarna facility and €35,000 was allocated to the Carron playground, provided it was made easily accessible for local Oi elon

TEN years ago, a coach teaching youngsters the fine art of wielding a hurley would be shouting encourage- ment to Paddy, Michael or Colm. The game is Still the same but in Scariff, some of the names have changed and youre as likely to hear cries of “come on Dieter’, as “come on Pat”’.

The young students of the Raheen Wood Steiner School are coming to grips with the sliotar for the first time and help is needed in keeping them safe and sound on the field. Steiner school parent, John Donaldson, is one of the people organising training for the students and he is appealing for anyone with gear and particularly helmets to donate to contact him or

the school.

“When we started the training ses- sions we weren’t sure what the inter- est would be but the response was fantastic,’ said John. “We had 20 kids to start with and that’s risen to 50 now. But their safety is very 1m- portant and we have very little in the way of gear. We can only put as many children on the field as we have helmets for.”

The school doesn’t have resources to buy helmets and strip but John believes there are probably helmets gathering dust in homes all over Clare. “It’s a lot to ask parents to buy helmets for all their children at the Start, with some of them bound to drop out along the way,” said John.

“I think there must be spare hel-

mets in homes where children have given up or grown up and we would love if people could donate them to us. Or if there is a commercial spon- sor who would like to help or anyone who has some strip lying around, we would love to hear from them. We want to bring the game to the chil- dren and not leave any child out but it’s a catch 22. We can’t let them on the field without helmets,” he added.

The school doesn’t have its own playing pitch, but, said John, “Scariff GAA have been very good to us, let- ting us use their pitch for training.” Anyone who can help with kit or sponsorship should contact John on 086 3761807.

After many years of waiting and campaigning, the Raheen Wood

Steiner Primary School in Tuam- eraney has been granted provisional recognition by the Department of Education and Science from next September with Lifeways Ireland Ltd based in as patron.

Commenting on the announce- ment, Pearse O’Sheil, spokesperson for Life-ways, said, “The parents who have worked hard to provide this education for their children over the past number of years are delight- ed that the State now recognises and supports the choice they have made. We would like to take this opportu- nity to thank all those who worked so hard to help establish and sustain the schools and who supported us in our efforts to gain recognition from the department.”

has learned that Clare County Council has contracted the CM International group to pub- lish a Clare County Enterprise Strat- egy detailing a new way forward for business and enterprise in the county.

This strategy, which will be pub- lished next month, includes at its core a co-operative approach to de- velopment involving both the Uni- versity of Limerick and the National University of Ireland in Galway.

The report came before the Strate- gic Initiatives and External Affairs Committee of NUI, Galway last ete

“The report came before my sub- committee detailing information from Clare County Council recom- mending enterprise strategies for County Clare. Basically what is pro- posed is that Clare County Council co-ordinate all the major organisa- tion in the area including the County Development Board, RRD, NUI Gal- way, UL and anyone with the inter- ested in enterprise,” said Cllr Martin Lafferty (IND), who is a member of

the governing body of NUI, Galway.

“The idea is to form a committee to develop enterprise in the county. They are looking specifically at in- creasing the quality and quantity of research and development, increas- ing innovation and the quality and adaptability of the labour force.

“Clare County Council wouldn’t have the expertise for this kind of project but they are looking to co- ordinate the expertise that is avail- able in the area. They are lucky that we are sitting here between the two universities, one in Limerick and one in Galway. Galway university have a close relationship in Clare County Council and will be carrying out this initiative on their behalf.

“We have a number of organisa- tions already in Clare like Shannon Development, Enterprise Ireland and the County Development Board it- self.

In the minutes recorded for last week’s meeting of NUI, Galway’s Strategic Initiatives and External Af- fairs Committee commitments were given for the university to take a “leadership” role in the process.

A commitment was also given, in principle, to share intelligence with their client base in the county and to “define and elaborate the scope, role of an R&D transfer facility in the area of bio-medical engineering” in the county.

A MAN died in his car after suf- fering a heart attack yards from his home, the Coroner’s Court heard last elo

Sean Corry drove 100 yards from his home in Dunmore, Doonbeg when he fell ill, causing the car to strike a stone wall. Mr Corry was on his way to feed cattle when the acci- dent occurred. At the inquest into his death, a jury at the Coroners Court in Ennis found that Mr Corry died of natural causes.

Mr Corry was discovered by a

neighbour, Ann McInerney. She told the court that she was dropping her daughter to school when she saw Mr Corry’s car.

She said, “I saw the car of the left side of the road. The car had hit the stone wall. When I was coming back I noticed Sean Corry slumped at the wheel”.

Garda John O’Brien was called to the scene. He told the court, “I saw a green Opel Vectra embedded in a wall two foot high, 100 yards from Sean Corry’s house. I had known him for the past 12 years”.

Garda O’Brien said he believed Mr

Corry had “suffered a heart attack before the car mounted a wall near where he was going to feed cattle”.

Pathologist Dr Elizabeth Mulcahy carried out the post-mortem on Mr Corry’s body at Limerick’s Midwest- ern Hospital.

In her deposition, Dr Mulcahy told the court that there were no exter- nal injuries and that Mr Corry had a clinical history of ischemic heart Oberon

She said “In my opinion, Mr Corry had a heart attack in the previous 12 hours and then had this terminal Vo 0 ee

Dr Mulcahy said death was due to cardiac tamponade, secondary to a micro-cardial infraction.

County Coroner Isobel O’Dea told the jury “I would suggest that in the circumstances, and based on the fact that it wasn’t caused by an accident,

the verdict should be natural causes.

Ms O’Dea said, “I extend my sym- pathy to Mr. Corry’s family on this huge loss. It must have been a huge shock”. Supt Gabriel O’Gara ex- tended his sympathy to Mr Corry’s Je DOepe AYA

PARISHIONERS in Kilbane have taken to the highways and byways, raising cash to rennovate their much- loved nineteenth century parish church.

St Mary’s Church, Kilbane was built in 1845 by Fr John Burke and has seen generations of parishioners, baptized, married and sent on their final journies.

Above the main altar hangs a life- size crucifixion scene by the famous Italian painter, Cleato Luzi.

But while it has a special place in the hearts of the parishioners, the stone-built church — which is a pre-

served building – has seen better days and now needs a complete renova- nt)

But the work will cost money so parishioners have been organising all sorts of fundraisers.

“People of the parish and even outside the parish have been very Supportive,’ said Kilbane Pastoral Council Chairwoman, Mary Burke.

Mary was one of the organisers of a 10k fundraising run and walk on Easter Monday, which roused enor- mous enthusiasm and support lo- cally.

“Everyone got involved. Sgt Gerry Mulqueen walked the route in uni- form and looked after guiding the

traffic, our parish priest, Fr John Bane, cut the ribbon to start the 10k. Water for the runners and walkers was sponsored by Pat Walsh and Pat Meagher and Gunnings provided re- freshments in the form of Mars bars and water. Micke Ryan and Billy McInerney came along with a horse and trap and picked up the stragglers. We had wonerful co-operation and camaraderie,’ said Mary.

Seamus Bridgeman was the first runner over the finishing line and first walkers were Patricia and Fan- chea Moloney along with Sinead and Emer Mullane.

78 people signed up to do the 10k but almost 100 actually took part,

raising much-needed funds. The youngest walkers to finish the route were Anna-Lee Marsh (7) and Catri- onal Millane (8).

And despite their Trojan efforts, it’s unlikely that the parishioners will be sitting still for long. The fundraising committee have organised a dance on Friday, April 11, at the Lakeside Hotel in Killaloe with music by PJ WZ iitwet ene

FIANNA Fail TD Timmy Dooley has welcomed the sanctioning of some €10 million in funding sup- ports for schools and pre-schools in disadvantaged areas.

The funding comes under the Dor- mant Accounts Fund and the Rapid Leverage Fund and will enable up to 100 schools designated under the Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools (DEIS) programme to

achieve Digital School Status, the upgrading of facilities in up to 200 feeder pre-schools for DEIS schools, and the continuation of the library enhancement programme in up to 130 DEIS schools.

A proportion of the funding will also be directly sanctioned to 20 DEIS Limerick schools, to enable them to remain open after hours, at weekends and during holidays.

“This funding will support three main measures in DEIS schools in

Clare and all over the country. All DEIS schools will soon be informed how they can apply for funding un- der these schemes.”

With regard to the Library En- hancement Scheme, schools who have already applied for funding under the first round of funding last year will now have their application reviewed, the Deputy was told.

“There were so many applications first time around that there are a number of outstanding applications.”

IT WAS business as usual at Shan- non Airport yesterday despite it be- ing the date on which the Shannon stopover officially ended.

But while yesterday was the offi- cial date for the Open Skies agree- ment to take full effect, the impact of the ending of the stopover actually struck late last year.

A spokesman for Aer Rianta said there was “nothing done and no statements issued to mark the end- ing of the stopover because it had already ended”’.

A schedule of landing one flight in Shannon for every three flights land-

ed in Dublin over an 18-month pe- riod was put in place under the Open Skies talks. This came into operation in the winter 06/07 schedule.

Subsequently, a number of airlines fulfilled their obligations under the schedule and stopped landing at Shannon. American Airlines was one and it ceased its routes into Shannon while continuing to fly into Dublin last year.

“We have already had the impact of it. There will be nothing different in the scheduling next week than there was last week,’ the spokesman said.

He added that Aer Rianta are “very happy that post-Open Skies, we still have seven routes to the US with

Continental, Delta with two routes, USA Airways and Aer Lingus with three cities”.

Open Skies is the agreement be- tween the EU and US that will allow EU-based airlines to fly from any city in the EU to any city in the US and vice versa. It has lifted long-standing restrictions on what routes airlines can fly between the two areas.

Proponents say the deal will boost competition, increase flight frequen- cies, reduce fares and create jobs on both sides of the Atlantic.

But tourism and business interests in the region are concerned that the ending of the stopover, combined with a weak dollar, has already im-

pacted on business.

Hoteliers in Clare are reporting losses of up to one third of their US business bookings for this year and the Irish Tourism Industry Confed- eration is predicting that 250,000 bednights will be lost in the region over the first year of Open Skies. It will take up to three years to recover those bednights, the confederation said.

However, Deputy Tony Kileen said that the introduction of a US customs and border protection post at Shan- non would boost transatlantic traffic.

‘| think the facility will far outweigh the potential losses under Open Skies in the long term,” he said.

PEOPLE from north Clare and south Galway are being offered the oppor- tunity to get some free, and possibly life saving, advice on the dangers of cancer. On Monday, April 14, the Community Information Service mobile unit will be in Ballyvaughan with a trained nurse on board from llam and 3pm.

Access to the mobile unit is free to all and has been organised by the Marie Keating Foundation and the Ballyvaughan Medical Centre.

“We will have a trained nurse here all day who will be answering ques- tions and talking to anyone who

wants to come along and have a few words. The nurse will have some prosthetics to show how important early detection really is,” said Ailish Lawlor of the Ballyvaughan Medical Centre.

“This is aimed at men and women of every age. Anyone from the gen- eral community who would like to learn more about how best to guard against cancer should come along.

“In fact, this month the Marie Keating Foundation is focusing on prostate cancer so we are hoping for a large turnout of men.

“This type of facility 1s especially important for people in a rural area where it may be a little bit more dif-

ficult for people to get this type of medical screening.”

The trained nurse will speak to locals in the strictest of confidence and will also be able to provide take- home information leaflets and infor- mation on each of the key cancers to be aware of.

The nurse will also provide advice on healthy lifestyle options and work with prosthetic teaching aids to high- light the importance of early detec- nO

The Marie Keating Foundation which was established in 1998 fol- lowing the death from Cancer of Marie, mother of Ronan Keating. The foundation aims to raise aware-

ness of the importance of a healthy lifestyle and early detection in reduc- ing the risk of cancer.

The foundation was established in1- tially to try and bring an end to breast cancer but has since widened it’s fo- cus to a number of different types of cancer in both men and women.

They focus predominantly on can- cers that can be prevented through lifestyle changes and early detection and their stated ultimate goal is for a future free from cancer. The founda- tion offers this drop-in service free of charge to the public.

For more information contact Bal- lyvaughan Medical Centre on 065 ira iUeRy

CLARE’S ladies football season be- gins in earnest this Sunday when the county team face their first acid test against Down in the Suzuki National league semi-final.

Clare’s performance in this game will be a good barometer as to whether or not further progress has been achieved this year in the devel- opment of the county panel. Should Clare win on Sunday not only will the team gain a place in the Division 2 final against either Waterford or Donegal (which will be televised live on TG4) but they will also be guar- anteed a place in Division | of the Suzuki league for the 2009 season as both finalists are automatically pro- moted.

Manager Deirdre Murphy has brought Clare a long way since she took over the reins in January 2006.

In 2005 Clare had failed to fulfil some fixtures but upon her appoint- ment Deirdre and her management team set about reversing the fortunes of the Clare county team and had success in winning the Munster Jun- ior championship and the 2006 Su- Zuki Division 3 league in her maiden year.

The aim for 2007 was to be com- petitive in Division 2 of the national league and to make every effort to secure the newly created Intermedi- ate championship or at least a final place. While they succeeded in their league ambitions they again came up agonisingly short of reaching Croke Park with again a single point semi final loss to another eventual winner ateatee

The All Ireland Intermediate championship title is the obvious fo- cus of Clare’s ambition in 2008 but Sunday’s game will be an important stepping stone in the development of the squad. Down operate as a senior county for championship purposes and have been mixing it with the best of Ulster teams at this level for a

number of years. While they will be favourites to progress against their intermediate rated rivals, Down will still enter this game with caution as they will realise that Clare are a team with ambition this year.

In their four games to date in the 2008 series Down have had good wins over Fermanagh, Tipperary and Longford while they drew away to Donegal. They’ve also scored a massive 12-54 in their four games to date in the current league so clearly they are ateam on form. Defensively Down have conceded 7-23 and Clare will hope to exploit their tendency to concede goals even when dominat- ing games.

Clare should have their strongest panel for selection on Sunday and it will be interesting to see the first fif- teen. Clare’s defence has been shaky at times but the return to the squad of Sinéad Eustace of Coolmeen and also the Banner’s Sarah Hoey mak- ing herself available for selection should help matters in this depart- ment as the season progresses. Vital to Clare’s success however will be a

fully fit Tammy Hehir and ex-Gal- way star Michelle Delaney is another player who could have a major influ- ence in determining Sunday’s out- come. She’s easily playing her best football in years and is really making an impression in the county scene this year.

Sunday’s encounter has all the in- eredients of a thriller with a big prize at stake for the winners and if Clare play to their full potential they have every chance of overcoming their northern opponents