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ALLEGATIONS were levelled yes- terday that the Ennis Town Manager hid information pertaining to pro- posed development at the Post Office nCOAKG

At Monday’s meeting of Ennis Town Council, Green Party council- lor Donal O’Bearra accused Town Manager, Tom Coughlan of not shar- ing information collected in a report compiled last year.

After Cllr O’Bearra and Fine Gael

councillor, Johnny Flynn co-tabled a motion calling for a cost benefit anal- ysis prior to any development taking place at the field, Mr Coughlan said a study about the viability of such a project had already been completed.

Cllr O’ Bearra said, “I find it bizarre to say the least. What’s the point of me asking for a cost-benefit analysis when the manager has hidden infor- mation? You said you would keep us informed and I think that is relevant information.”

Mr Coughlan replied, “I was going

to bring all the information when a decision had to be made.”

Cllr O’Bearra said, “I consider that bad judgement on your behalf.”

Mr Coughlan rejected the accusa- tion he had withheld the information from the council and said he would forward copies of the report to all councillors.

The independent study, carried out by Hughes and Roll associates, found there were significant obstacles to re- developing the existing site of the De Valera Public library in Ennis.

It also recommended an infill sec- tion of the Post Office field, located between the post office and St Co- lumba’s church, as the most commer- cially viable site for any new library OlAVolley evento

Mr Coughlan stated that without the sale of the De Valera library, it was unlikely a new library would be event

He said, “It’s an unrealistic assump- tion that it could happen elsewhere.”

Following a lengthy and at times intense debate, members proposed that consultants be engaged to draw up a master plan setting out potential OCSAIeA Co) oy ea erslmr-lmm i elomSI COR

Fianna Fail councillor, Joe Reidy said, “As far as I’m concerned, it’s going ahead. It’s a pity people are changing their minds.”

Fine Gael councillor, Johnny Flynn said he had raised concerns when the project was first mooted about the sale of the original library site.

Fine Gael councillor, Mary Coote Ryan called for a report into the potential effect of construction on flooding.

Town Engineer, Tom Tiernan said a previous flooding report had found the proposed infill section of the field had a “miniscule” effect on flood eynlnKeye

Independent councillor Taiwoo Matthew requested more information on the level of funding available.

FINDING hotel rooms for more than 100 cats is not a job most people would relish.

But for two ladies from Killaloe, it’s a labour of love. Carmel Byrne and Shirley Ward of the Midlands Cat Club have been doing their bit in staging the club’s annual show for the last ten years

Shirley is chairwoman of the club and Carmel is show organiser and, says Carmel, the show gets bigger and better every year.

“This year we have more than 100 cats and they are coming from all

over Ireland and the UK,” said Car- mel. Siamese, Ballinese, Bengals, Burmese, Snowshoes, Abysinni- ans, long-haired, short-haired, lilac brown, chocolate and plain old love- able household pets – the show has a place for all of them.

Carmel got involved with cats af- ter a friend gave her a present of a Tonkinese. “I thought I should get a little friend for him, a Ballinese and I started entering shows. Well, he took first prize and never came second af- ter that.”

Carmel still has Rossie, her cham- pion cat, who is now II years old but she doesn’t enter her own cats in

shows anymore.

“After a while I got involved in helping to oranise shows and from there I became show organiser. Peo- ple organising don’t enter their cats, it wouldn’t be seen as fair.”

On the subject of booking hotel rooms for cats, Carmel can’t say enough about the Kilmurray Lodge Hotel in Castletroy, where the show has been staged for five years now.

“They are absolutely fabulous to us and can’t do enough. They ac- commodate cats and owners and not every hotel will do that. They’re so efficient that all I have to do is to put names on the rooms.”

Carmel explained that owners do their bit to keep the good will of ho- tels by ensuring that the feline stars stay in the bathroom for the dura- nO)

The show is sponsored by Royal Canin pet food manufacturers and it goes ahead this year on Sunday, February 17. It’s open to the public from 12.30pm to 5pm and anyone interested in entering can get details from Carmel on 065 6821616.

“We have been very happy with the people here,’ he said. “In the first nine months we have gone from zero to 30 billion US dollars in assets, and from 19 to 91 employees.”

The Northern Trust Corporation 1s one of the world’s leading financial services institutions.

It provides asset servicing, asset

management, wealth management, and banking solutions to institution- al and personal investors throughout the world. Founded in Chicago in

1889, it is a top ten asset manager by assets under management.

It is a leading fund administrator in Europe and one of the largest per-

sonal wealth managers in the United States.

Northern Trust describes the Lim- erick office as a growth centre in Ire- land in mutual fund administration, CCF (Common Contractual Fund) administration and alternative fund administration, supporting Northern Trust’s fund clients in Ireland and around the world.

The corporation set up a fund serv- ices division in Dublin in 2000, and already has 500 people employed there. The establishment of this sec- ond operation in the mid west, with the potential to create up to 300 high level positions, was announced by IDA Ireland in September 2006.

The office, which is in Block 2, Hamilton House, Plassey Technol- ogy Park, was officially opened by Michael Ahern, Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment.

“The mid-west region 1s a very at- tractive location for multinational companies to establish a base, with

a strong community support for business and the availability of high quality graduates and skilled people, as well as a wide choice of property solutions supported by an interna- tional standard infrastructure and an excellent quality of life for all,” said WW Gtimaueoure

Mr Osborn added that Northern Trust was delighted with the sup- port and encouragement from IDA Ireland and the local and business community.

learned yesterday that Mr Daffy’s generosity helped prevent two of Clare’s most illustrious soccer clubs from going out of business.

“But for Gerry, both Lifford and Avenue would have found it very hard to keep going. We had nowhere else to go and without him helping us out with a venue we probably would have hit the wall. Lifford owes him a big debth of gratitude,” said John O’ Neill of Lifford FC.

At his funeral on Sunday a horse- back guard of honour was formed by the Turkey Trotters, the Clare Hounds and fellow volunteers from

Hope Project. The last post on bugle was sounded by James Carmody.

A churchgate collection which Gerry had arranged before his death went ahead on Sunday and raised more than €4,000.

Meanwhile on Saturday, Clonlara

native William Quane was one of four people killed in a road traffic ac- cident on the N7 between Borris-in- Ossory and Roscrea. Mr Quane was on his way to the Ireland-Italy rugby match when the accident took place. His friend Séan O’ Donoghue from

Limerick was also killed in the ac- cident as was Polish man David Dziemianowicz and Italian woman Marika Rossi.

CLARE builders have called on Bishop of Killaloe, Willie Walsh, to intervene on a disagreement involv- ing the ongoing renovation work on St Flannan’s College in Ennis.

The head of the Clare Plasterers Union, Paddy Kenneally, called on Bishop Walsh to support “social jus- tice” and end a ban on Clare builders from the site.

According to the union, which has more than 600 registered members in the county, St Flannan’s are us- ing non-union builders from outside of Clare and in the process breach-

ing union agreements made with the Construction Industry Federation (CIF).

‘This project has been going on for more than 12 months now and not one of our members are employed. The contractors are completely ig- noring long-standing agreements and keeping Clare working out of the job,” said Mr Kenneally.

“They are bringing in non-union workers from Mayo and Galway while Clare tradespeople are unem- ployed and being forced to immigra- tion.”

The diocese of Killaloe has been in- tegrally connected with St Flannan’s

College since it was first established more than 150 years ago.

Kenneally has called on Bishop Walsh to use his influence to con- vince Flannans President, Fr Joe McMahon, to speak to the contrac- tors on the issue.

“We are calling on the Bishop of Killaloe to make a positive contribu- tion to social justice by raising the matter with the college and urging the employment of Clare plasterers,” he continued.

‘There is a real slowdown in the in- dustry and the college can assist in maintaining local jobs by employing Clare tradesmen on this site.”

NEIGHBOURS in O’Briensbridge and Montpellier are coming together later this month to consider how they might be able to tackle global change at a local level.

The two communities are getting involved in the Kulyana Project, which looks at how small groups can make a difference by acting locally on climate change.

Kulyana is a Hawaiian word mean- ing both privilege and responsibility and the O’Briensbridge Community Group has organised two nights for local people to hear about the project and talk about how they can get in-

volved.

“Everyday, we hear about ‘climate change’, ‘global warming’, ‘care for our environment’ and ‘fossil fuel de- pletion’. How these things affect us, or even more importantly, how we can live with and possibly change these things can be answered all the more effectively when we work as a team.

“Rural communities are more likely to find the solutions required for climate change than urban com- munities because the answers le in our natural resources and most of these are rural,” a spokesman for the project said.

The meetings are being held at

Montpelier Community Hall at 8.30pm on Wednesday, February 13 and the following Wednesday, Feb- ruary 20.

Everyone is welcome with as many people as possible being asked to at- tend.

The first evening will include a short explanation of the project and a slideshow presentation and the second evening will also allow peo- ple to ask questions and make sug- gestions.

“It’s a way of seeing what we can do as a community and with the two communities so close together, there are bound to be a number of good Suggestions for how we can make

a difference,’ said Mick Murtagh of the O’Briensbridge Community Group.

“This project should be something that will benefit the majority of the community, provide a focus for en- gaging in sustainability and pro- vide inter-community support,” the project spokesman said.

The Kulyana Project is adminis- tered by the Clare Association of An Taisce and is funded by Local Agenda 21 Environmental Partner- ship Fund 2007 facilitating sustaina- ble development at community level from Clare County Council and the Department of Environment, Herit- age and Local Government.

mY be Bradley said the plan’s objective was “to bring life to the town centre in Shannon and to bring new invest- ments and opportunities. It’s hoped to attract major investors into the area. It’s not a short-term fix. This vision is for a 10- to 15-year period.” Asked what the spin-off for the town would be, the senior planner said that, in the short term, it was “creating an economy and we very much want to link in with the airport and try to obtain a slice of the airport market which at present bypasses the Kena tee He believes the promised 1,000 jobs are most likely to be in the services, information economy and financial

services sectors.

He revealed that there were “al- ready commitments from three large interested parties to create a number of jobs in the short term, apart from the construction jobs that will be in- volved”.

The public has two weeks to make their suggestions to their local repre- sentatives, before the elected mem- bers consider incorporating the lands involved into a variation to the local area plan.

After that, formal submissions can be made through the planning proc- ess. Almost 140 people attended the briefing to hear details of the plan about which they had previously been asked to make suggestions.

Hugh Murray said that the “main preoccupation of the public submis- sions was to create a living town cen- tre with mixed use”.

The plan for the 90-acre town cen- tre development will involve a pro- posal to create up to 1,000 jobs over an extended time frame of up to 10- 15 years.

Among the proposals set out in the newly drafted master plan is the provision of a new main street, pedestrianised shopping precinct, town square, Civic Arts Centre, ho- tel, three-hectare civic park, primary school, medical care facility, school of enterprise and a light rail link.

AN EAST Clare-based multina- tional firm is to put in place a series of measures to ensure the continued conservation of a local bat commu- nity living near a wind turbine to be erected on its property.

Last year, Clare Coun- ty Council deferred planning approval to Ol- ympus Diagnostica for a wind turbine due in part to the need for a device to keep bats away from the structure.

The company, which is based between O’Callaghan’s Mills and ‘Tulla, lodged the plans for the turbine to source 40 to 50 per cent of its electricity needs from alterna- tive energy.

The turbine will be 200 feet high, which is half the size of the industry norm. As the company will consume all the energy from the wind-turbine, there is no need for a grid connec- tion. The company pointed out that the site for the turbine was not with- in any recognised flight path of the Whooper Swan and the Greenland White Fronted Goose.

As part of the project, Olympus Diagnostica is planning to place an ultrasonic “scarer” that will provide

a signal to all bat species likely to encounter the motors.

A comprehensive bat survey of the area has found a “significant” number of Lesser Horsehoe Bats who use a local stables as a night roost. Accord- ing to the survey, between five and

20 Lesser Horseshoe bats use this roost each night before returning to the main roost.

The company is pro- posing to provide 20 bat boxes to provide roosts away from the Zone of potential im- pact and to use the ul- trasconic “‘scarer”’ on a trial basis. With these elements in place, the wind-turbine should have no impact on the

local bat population.

The bat survey found that the area around the turbine site was “the only location where no bat activity was recorded”.

The turbine is facing opposition from a local family. In their objec- tion, Mr and Mrs JP Murphy and family state that the proposal is “in- considerate to the local landscape and setting of Rosslara Lake and its woodland surroundings.”

NEWQUAY native John Kerin has been promoted to the rank as Garda Chief Superintendent.

He was among a number of Super- intendents included on a list for pro- motion, announced last week. The promotion is not likely to take effect until later this year, when a number of vacancies are due to arise across the country.

He is currently Superintendent at Henry Street Garda Station in Lim- erick, having been transferred there from Ennis last March.

He had been based in Ennis since UithatomA COL 07

He had spent over six years at En- nis, having previously been based at Henry Street, between 1994 and Av ereh

During his career to date, he has been involved in many high-profiled investigations in Limerick, not least

the killing of Detective Garda Jerry McCabe. He was killed during an at- tempted raid on a post office delivery van in Adare, Limerick, in 1996.

Mr Kerin was detective inspector at

Henry Street at the time and headed up the McCabe investigation. He had been a uniformed inspector for two years at the time, but was on his first day as detective inspector on the date of the Garda McCabe killing.

Supt Kerin joined the force in 1978 and spent his first eight years in Mal- low where he was promoted to ser- geant. After a further seven years as detective sergeant in Clonmel, he moved to Limerick.

He has also worked in a new post at the Garda College in Templem- ore, where he co-ordinated specialist training courses in criminal investi- gation.

Policing is poised to continue in the Kerin family for many years to come – his daughter Emma passed out at Templemore almost two years ago. She is currently stationed in Galway.

EAST Clare people who are wonder- ing whether their carbon footprint is a neat size four or a massive size 12 can now find out.

A special ‘Carbon Clinic’ in Killa- loe can even tell people who are not in the ecological know how to reduce their footprint and save money into the bargain.

Energy management expert, Vin- cent Carragher, who hosts the clinic at the Family Resource Centre says he has been asked advice on every- thing from saving on the heating bills to how to future-proof new homes.

“People can be conscious of the need to reduce their carbon footprint,

but they may not know or be just too busy to research how to do that. If they come to the clinic, I can work out what size that footprint is, based on things like car usage or how well a home is insulated. Or sometimes, people just want to know if there is a grant for things like solar panels and who is a good supplier for them. If someone is building a new home and wants advice about conserving energy, I can talk to them about bet- ter insulation. Any of these issues that people want to know about, I’m qualified to talk to them.”

The clinic is becoming busier as time goes on, with the price of oil soaring and as a result, the price of fuel for home heating and motoring.

‘Fuel is so expensive now that it’s being measured by the milligram. By reducing their fuel consump- tion, householders can save money as well. We try to give them the best advice we can in whatever situation they are in and with whatever their issues are.”

There are advice leaflets available during the week from the centre and Vincent is available on Friday after- noons but will also try to accommo- date queries outside that.

Vincent, who studied biochemis- try and carried out a study of how a community in Ballina was able to reduce it’s carbon footprint and save money, believes that at a time “when more and more environmental scien-

tists are talking about Irelands three- planet lifestyle it is becoming imper- ative that people are introduced to principles of sustainability through the educational system from an early age, and that these principles are reg- ularly reinforced and built upon.”

Vincent believes that the “bottom- up” method of cutting emission, in which individuals keep watch on their own carbon footprints is the best.

Anyone who would like to talk to Vincent can reach him through the centre on O61 374741 and there’s more information available at www. ul.ie/lowcarbonfutures.