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A THIRST for entertainment and a place where they can meet their peers, the transition year students of St Anne’s Community College, Killaloe have been brewing an idea which could see the start of a youth oF Nom bee stomcedwate

The transition year students have been researching the café for the Young Social Innovators Project.

The project, was founded by Sr Sta- nislaus Kennedy and Rachel Collier. The philosophy is that young people pursue a social issue they are con- cerned about and come up with re- sponses and actions to it. Becoming socially aware young citizens and making a real difference to people’s lives is one of the main aims of the

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The students have got moving to realise their vision for a place where young people in the area can meet and socialise in an alcohol and drug-free environment. For the past number of months the students have conducted a survey of their peers to establish the need for a Youth Café.

The overwhelming response was that there is a huge need for the fa- cility in the twin towns of Ballina- Killaloe.

WW aTem AU Cele olicmreD acm eri e-lO UL OUD OTSAM BD IT. @s with the Garda Siochana, Clare Youth Services, North Tipperary VEC., County Clare VEC, the Fam- ily Resource Centre Killaloe, Aware West of Ireland and the Health Serv- ice Executive.

They will now be looking to their

local politicians for support in secur- ing a venue and funding to see their project to completion.

‘The students have been very dedi- cated to this project. They’ve done the research and made all the contacts as well as visiting other youth cafes,” said teacher, Brendan O’Brien.

“There is still the question of a venue and what they are looking into now is starting small, maybe with something in the school.”

To create awareness around the project the students attended a Young Social Innovators speak-out forum in the Ardilaun Hotel in Galway City and gave a two-minute presentation to an audience of more than 400 oth- er students as well as politicians and invited guests.

The national policy on youth recre-

ation “Teenspace’ advocates such in1- tiatives. By April 3 next the students will know if their project has been selected to be displayed with hun- dreds of others in the RDS Dublin as part of the Young Social Innova- tors Showcase. The Showcase, which takes place in May, is a national event where hundreds of young peo- ple meet and discuss issues of social concern with each other and with the decision-makers and people whose lives they wish to improve.

THE Competition Authority has been called upon to investigate claims of a ‘closed shop’ that prohibits over 400 Clare taxi and hackney drivers from operating out of Shannon Airport.

Bye-laws dating back 14 years en- sure that there is no conventional taxi rank at Shannon Airport and, instead, passengers seeking a taxi must hire a hackney cab based at Shannon.

Despite the massive growth in pas- senger numbers at Shannon Airport

in recent years, where last year 3.6 million people travelled through it, only 34 hackney cabs operate out of the airport.

Yesterday, the Shannon Aijrport Authority (SAA) declined to say how many new licences have been issued in recent years, stating only that the numbers have increased ‘slightly’.

Since the deregulation of the taxi business in November 2000, the number of licences has increased four-fold to 467 in Clare.

However, Shannon Airport remains a ‘closed shop’ and Deputy Dooley

said yesterday, “The taxi business at Shannon shouldn’t remain closed to others. It is anti-competitive and should be opened up to everyone.”

In his letter to the chairman of the Competition Authority, William Prasifka, Deputy Dooley said, “I am very concerned that since de-regu- lation of the taxi service, the num- bers of all public service vehicles in Clare has increased from 177 in November 2000 to 467 in December of 2007.

‘Based on these figures, I see no ar- gument to have this practice in place

at Shannon Airport.”

Deputy Dooley has also written to the Chief Executive of the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA), Declan Collier, and the Director of the Shan- non Airport Authority (SAA), Mar- tin Moroney.

He wrote, “I am concerned that the services provided are not in keeping with competition law or indeed in keeping with the spirit of de-regula- tion in the taxi sector.”

Deputy Dooley has also written to the Commissioner for Taxi Regula- tion, Kathleen Doyle, on the issue.

In response, a spokesman for Shan- non Airport said, “Shannon Airport complies with all applicable legisla- tion governing taxis and other small public service vehicles.

‘The current arrangement at Shan- non as operated is applied under leg- islation 1.e. S.I. 425 of 1994 (Airport Bye Laws).

“Since the establishment of the Taxi Regulator, we have been in reg- ular communication with them and they have outlined their satisfaction that the current operation adequately meets the needs of our passengers.”

ONE is every nine Clare rental prop- erties inspected by Clare County Council was found to be in breach of the Private Rented Dwelling Regula- tions, it was revealed at last night’s meeting of the local authority.

A further 25 rental properties were found to have “serious faults” by the Clare Fire Authority, with legal ac- tion being taking against a total of six landlords who failed to resolve potential fire hazards when warned by Clare County Council.

Only 434 rented properties were registered with the Clare County Council last year. Of these, 53 were

found to be in breach of the Rented Dwelling Regulations.

According to Fine Gael council- lor Joe Arkins, many Clare people on low incomes are afraid to report poor housing conditions to the local authority. The Ruan native claimed that there is a double standard of rents in Clare.

“There is a problem with the qual- ity and choice of rental accommo- dation in this county. In relation to apartments, we have two main types. Those for the well-heeled people who are moving onwards and up- wards and those for people on the breadline who live in places where they will take rent allowance,” said

CiUlr Arkins.

“This is another case where the de- partment is calling the tune but it 1s not prepared to pay the piper. We just do not have the money to carry out these inspections to a satisfactory standard.

‘The people who are not complain- ing about their apartments are those on the lower echelons of society, peo- ple who have a fear of losing their tenancy. We need to get the fund- ing so we can really put the wind up these landlords.”

The motion was seconded by Cllr Pascal Fitzgerald (Lab) who claimed that many landlords are not even on the council’s register.

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modations out there. There are land- lords there ripping off young single parents, people who don’t have an option but to live in these places. A lot of these landlords are not even on the register,” said.

Commenting on the motion, Cllr Martin Conway compared the cur- rent situation to that of Michael Dav- itt and the land wars.

“We are dealing with a culture of landordism in this country. Land- lords and absentee landlords, the same as Davitt rose up against. Some of what I witnessed in rented accom- modation would absolutely horrify any person. We need to up our game in terms of inspection.”

WHEN Una Kierse decided to send her eldest child to a pre-school play- eroup in Killaloe, she discovered that there wasn’t automatically a place for every child and community facilities were scarce on the ground.

Joss Lowry, Michael Culhane and Michael Glesson all had similar con- cerns and together the four set up the Killaloe Community Development Company with the aim of providing a community creche which would cater for all needs, including pre-

school and after-school care.

That was almost two years ago and this month, the endless filling in of forms and making a case were rewarded when the company was awarded €1.2 million, the maximum that can be awarded under the Na- tional Childcare Investment Fund.

The group worked closely with Clare County Council to apply for the funds through Pobail and Una says they are “just delighted. Now we can start looking at a premises or a site.”

The aim of the development com-

pany is to provide community facili- ties, which will cater for 35 full-time childcare places and 15 after-school je ENerone

“It’s wrong that some children get to go to pre-school and others don’t. The child who doesn’t have that year before going on to primary school is at a disadvantage from the start. If there are any difficulties like ADD, these are often picked up on in pre- school. Without it there 1s a year lost.”

“The new facility is still in the early stages and the company will have to

find a site or premises, get a contrac- tor on board and work through the planning process, but the grant was the start.

“We want to provide services across the board, including school holiday times, which can be very difficulty for working parents. Every child and every parent is entitled to have quali- ty childcare facilities where children can be encouraged and cared for. This is a facility which is very badly needed in Killaloe and now we have the money to get started on provid- ing one,’ said Una.

THE Christian attitude adopted by the family of a young man who lost his life in a road accident a year ago was commended by a judge, at the end of a trial relating to the death.

Judge Rory McCabe paid tribute to the family of Eamon Scully, after they expressed the opinion that they did not want to see a man convicted in connection with the death to go to jail.

James Freeman was acquitted of dangerous driving causing death, but was found guilty of careless driv- ing, arising out of a road accident in which Mr Scully lost his life, one year ago this weekend.

Counsel for the State Stephen Coughlan said Mr Scully’s family did not bear Mr Freeman any “ill will” and had no desire to see him sent to jail.

Mr Freeman’s barrister Michael Collins said the accident was “a low

speed collision, by way of both ve- hicles.” He said his client was genu- NIA U SON uNOROTE

He asked that his clent’s good character be taken into considera- tion, pointing out that he had no pre- vious convictions.

“Vd ask you to take into account the Christian attitude of Mrs Scully and family. The nature of the care- lessness of this case was an error of judgment,” said Mr Collins.

Judge Rory McCabe said the case

was “an enormous tragedy.”

“Life will never be the same for the two families and the two extended JE-VOODU O(c MaN Slomcr-BLOE

“The consequences for the Scully family are enormous. They lost a young man.

“Also for the Freeman family. Mr Freeman will live with this for the rest of his life,’ he said.

“I’m extremely impressed by the at- titude of the family of the deceased. It’s Christian. It’s caring. It recog-

nises the fact there are no winners,” he said.

“IT am not certain in the circum- stances a prison sentence would re- flect the circumstances in this situa- tion,” said the judge.

He fined Mr Freeman €1,000 said he was not imposing a driving ban, because, “I accept what was submit- ted by Mr Collins this was a momen- tary lapse of attention and I really hope it was not his decision to run the stop sign.”

HOUSE-BUYERS across Clare are facing massive hikes in house prices arising from contentious new Clare County Council charges.

Yesterday, council officials unveiled new draft proposals that would result in development levies increasing from less than €5,000 to €21,360, a 400 per cent rise.

House builders constructing homes on unzoned land who currently pay €4,180 will have to fork out a levy of €12,456 under the council’s Devel- opment Contribution Scheme 2008- 2011.

Those seeking to build holiday homes are facing a 300 per cent levy

increase from €9,500 to €27,050 per home.

The council imposed the levies on house builders to finance water, sew- erage, road and community infra- structure. They must be paid before houses are occupied.

The council is proposing the in- creases in order to raise €105 mil- lion to pay for new infrastructure across the county between 2008 and 2011, according to the draft docu- ment published yesterday,

The new charges came under fire yesterday. Ennis-based auctioneer, Philip O’Reilly describes the pro- posed hikes as “incredible”.

“This is a conspiracy against the first time buyer, builders, employers.

How are these figures justified when it takes six weeks to see a planner?”

At the council’s Special Policy Committee (SPC) for Planning yes- terday, Cllr Patrick Keane (FF) said, ‘These charges place on unfair bur- den on young couples wishing to construct a new home.

“IT can’t see why new home builders are the only ones to pay for roads and water where everyone will benefit.”

SPC chairman, Cllr Richard Nagle said, “I think that we are all agreed that the charges are unfair.

‘This is a policy foisted upon us by the Department of the Environment and its water pricing policy and they have passed the problem on to the council.”

Cllr Keane said that it was now important that the council came up with an alternative way to raise the money.

According to the draft document, €34 million has been collected in the existing scheme covering 2004 and 2007.

Senior council official Monica Meehan said that the proposed €12,456 charge for homes in un- zoned land would not apply in most cases as house builders would be covering water and sewerage costs themselves.

Cllr Nagle told the meeting that the charges would not be agreed at the SPC but would go before the coun- GIMME Kes mestccnnitee

is pleased to announce that a heat of the pres- tigious Paddy Powers Lovely Girls Contest 2008 will now take place in Vaughan’s Barn on Tuesday, Febru- ary 26.

“Yes, the big news is that we have added the lovely girls contest. There has been a few heats around the coun- try already but this is the chance for a lovely girl to qualify for the finals on the Aran Islands,” said Fergal Mc- Grath organiser of TedFest.

“We are looking for overall loveli- ness in the girls. It will be down to WALoMAWE-UGDOTSMm DOCOMO oME UE @USTcomE-DOCOM DN we have a tie break situation then we

will have to hear their lovely laughs. And of course, they will all have lovely bottoms.”

With full festival ticket sold out, or- ganisers have made a small number of single event tickets available.

‘We have been able to make a few more tickets available. So many peo- ple wanted to come to the events that we have tried our best to make as many tickets as possible available for people,” said Kilfenora TedFest co- ordinator Janet Kavanagh.

‘We wont be able to get all the peo- ple into every event but there are a few tickets available for some of the events and we will do our best to ac- commodate everyone.”

The festival opens next Monday with registration in Vaughan’s Pub

before the official opening ceremony, Chinese reception and the Ecumeni- Ceili. Tuesday, or Mustarday as it’s being called, will see the arrival of the MilkFloat for the Milk Float and Banger Parade through town and the brick fada contest.

Later that evening Ireland’s first ever All-Ireland blondes-only snakes and ladders championship will take place as well as an evening with Fa- ther Ted creators Graham Linehan and Arthur Mathews. Other events on Wednesday include the Linn- nane’s Music Emporium, Acoustic Karaoke with the singing Postman, Caesars Palace at Nagles, the all- Ireland Open Elvis lookalike contest and finally the Pat Mustard Memo- rial night featuring Mrs O’Reully and

the Hairy Babies.

Wednesday will see the ‘Ted Trail which will take in the Paro- chial House, the Chinese pub, Mrs O’Reillys house, the Song For Eu- rope waterfall and the caravan park from hell.

Linehan and Mathews will also unveil a commemorative plaque to mark the event at the Kilfenora Com- munity Centre.

If you are interested in sponsoring the plaque, getting involved in the lovely girls contest or book tickets contact Janet at 087 6277000.

A COURT has heard that a young man who was carrying a _ baton dropped it as gardai arrived at the scene of a late night disturbance in /Syeyeb ay

William Roche of St Michael’s Villas, Ennis, and Colm Connick (31), of John Paul Park, Murlintown, Wexford, appeared in court arising out of an incident at 3am on October DePAUerE

Roche was charged with possession of a baton, while Connick was ac- cused of possession of a knife. Both pleaded guilty.

Garda William Delaney told En- nis District Court on Friday that an altercation took place at O’Connell Street, Ennis.

“An independent witness pointed out Mr Roche as having dropped a baton when gardai arrived,” he said.

“He denied this initially, but admit- ted it later on,” said the garda.

He said that Connick had a knife in his back pocket. Roche claimed to gardai that he had the baton for his own protection as he had been threat- ened by a group of people earlier. He denied that he had used it.

It was, he said, the type of baton you would get on holiday and had the

word *“Lanzarote’ written across It.

Inspector Tom Kennedy said that there were no complaints in relation to the use of a baton, while it was not being alleged that the knife was pro- duced.

The court was told that Connick, a tradesman, had travelled from Wex- ford to do work on his friend Roche’s house.

Defending solicitor Tara Godfrey said there was “no inference” that Connick had produced the knife.

She said that Roche was carrying the baton “in case it was needed for protection.”

“It’s an offence to good taste rather

than anything else. There was no evi- dence that he wielded it as such,” she SrnOe

“If anyone was going to attack him, he felt he should have it. If anyone ar- rived at the scene and saw ared baton from Lanzarote, they would prob- ably die laughing. The fashion police might be on their back as well,” said Ms Godfrey.

“T don’t think any self-respecting criminal would be seen dead with that,’ she added.

Judge Joseph Mangan asked what was the baton for, if it was not for criminal activity.

Ms Godfrey replied, “The mind

boggles.”

Inspector Kennedy pointed out however, “A wallop from that would be no different to a wallop from any 0} Tos mm As Ole Oyen balcie a0 bee Ces 01 ime

“Just because Lanzarote was writ- ten on it doesn’t make light of his re- sponsibilities,’ said the inspector.

Judge Mangan imposed a _ four- month jail term on both men, sus- pended on condition that they keep the peace for six months.

He ordered both to enter a bond to behave for two years and fined them €1,250 each.

He fixed a bond in the event of an appeal.

reporter, Bernie English will be trav- elling with them to bring back first

hand reports of the sterling work be- ing done by Clare volunteers.

“We’re absolutely delighted. The building is fully plastered, the second coat of paint is going on inside and everyone is working flat out to have everything ready,” said Olive Halpin, one of the project organisers.

The 32 volunteers who are leaving from Cork on Thursday will be fol- lowed next week by Bishop of Killa- loe, Willie Walsh, who will perform the official opening.

On the ground, volunteers are con- tinuing to make heroic efforts, both as a group and as individuals, said Olive.

‘The bus picks the volunteers up at 6.30am and they hardly stop all day”, said Olive.

“They’re tired but we’re having great craic and what is being done

here is incredible. People have given rom releree lee

Some volunteers are even reluctant to go home once their time is done. Plumber, Gerry Leonard from Ruan has opted to stay another ten days to fit the bathrooms once the tilers have finished.

Meanwhile, the group preparing to leave on Friday will be leaving room in their suitcases – for toys for the children.

‘“We’ve been given a donation of toys to boring out because Sr Ethel starts now to prepare for Christmas with the children,’ said fellow organ- iser, Maureen McCarthy.

When the Lissycasey nun arrived in Missionvale more than twenty years ago, she had no buildings to work from and instead began reading to the children of the shanty towns un-

Clara ueee

Since then, the centre has grown and now feeds in excess of 2,000 people a day, provides schooling for the children of the township and brings what medical help is available to the many who have contracted the AIDS virus, which is pandemic in South Africa.

The new hospice will not only care for people in the terminal stages of the disease but will also be a health education centre, to help people man- age their health.

AN TAISCE and other groups have voiced opposition to plans to develop a small scale visitor centre to serve the recently opened Pol an Ionain cave in Doolin.

The cave contains what is reputedly the largest hanging free stalactite in the world.

Three years ago, John and Helen Browne, secured planning permis- sion to open the cave despite opposi- tion from An Taisce and the Pol an Jonain Action Group.

Since the cave opened, a bus has transferred visitors to the site from nearby Doolin. The original plan- ning application did not include the visitor centre which is described as a reception building that includes a shop, café and display area.

An Taisce Heritage Officer, Ian Lumley, stated that the application “warrants summary rejection”.

“It abrogates entirely the principle and consideration on which the pre- vious application was granted. The effect of the proposal would be to create a range of significant site im- pacts which would contravene the entire basis on which the previous consent was granted and the mitiga- tion measures contained in the en- vironmental impact statement for the scheme which form part of the legal

consent.”

Gabriel Casey of the Pol an Ionain Action Group claimed the applica- tion was “for a very large develop- ment” in a vulnerable, unspoilt area.

He suggests that the Pol an Ionain enterprise may threaten 103 jobs at Ailwee Cave, 13 miles away.

The Speleological Union of Ireland (SUI), which represents cavers and speleologists, has also objected cit- ing “the uniqueness of the great Sta- lactite and the need to be absolutely sure of its conservation.”

The SUI claims that “surface de- velopment will have an impact below ground. While we note that the cur- rent application includes a bio-cycle sewage treatment plant there seems to be no treatment for surface run-off water from the car park.

“Further development will inevita- bly lead to greater numbers of visi- tors with greater impact on the at- mosphere in the cave chamber with potential effects on the great stalac- tite.

“SUI is not opposed to showcave developments and indeed welcomes the education of the public about caves. However, we consider Pol an Jonain is not a suitable site for devel- opment because it is based on the de- velopment of one unique, irreplace- able feature and raises too many unnecessary threats to it”.