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DECLAN Collier, CEO of the Dub- lin Airport Authority, came under strong criticism at the Dail Transport Committee as he defended his deci- sion not to inform the Shannon board of Aer Lingus’s plans to pull the Hea- throw route.

The DAA CEO said that when the Department of Transport contacted him in mid-June about Aer Lingus’s plan, the information was imparted in “strict confidence”’.

“At the time, Aer Lingus was the subject of a hostile takeover bid from Ryanair and it was critical that this

information was dealt with on a con- fidential basis,’ he said.

Clare Deputy Timmy Dooley (FF) asked, “What kind of action would Mr Collier take if he became aware that somebody was giving considera- tion to terminating a service 1f the sit- uation related to an airline other than Aer Lingus to Dublin Airport?”

“If I was given the information in the same circumstances as I received the information on Aer Lingus, I would have treated it in exactly the same way, said a defiant Mr Collier.

Deputy Dooley, however, did not accept the response.

“I do not think it 1s fair to view it

on the basis that the DAA is part of a large State organisation and that a hostile bid was in place. There are lines of demarcation. The Dublin Airport Authority 1s responsible for developing business at the airports. This was a commercial airline in a privatised environment and surely the lines of demarcation would not have put Mr Collier in that position?”’ he said.

Senator Shane Ross accused the DAA of regarding Shannon as its future competition and the news that Aer Lingus was withdrawing the Heathrow flight “was music to the authority’s ears because it would land

Shannon further in the manure”.

Meanwhile, the chairman of the Shannon Airport Authority, Pat Shanahan, said Aer Lingus had been offered the same deal as Ryanair as far back as 2004.

Deputy Pat Breen (FG) asked if any incentive was offered after the Rya- nair deal?

According to Mr Shanahan, the air- line was made aware that, on the ba- sis of our restructuring programme in particular, costs at the airport would decrease.

‘Aer Lingus was aware of that but never engaged with us on a detailed level about it,” he said.

IRISH farmers have been told to re- main vigilant following the discov- ery of a fourth swan infected with bird flu in England on Thursday.

IFA National Poultry Committee Chairman Ned Morrissey said last week that reports of the bird flu in England reinforces the need for poultry growers here to maintain the highest levels of vigilance.

‘Producers here have implemented extra measures such as the installa- tion of water chlorination systems to ensure the health status of their flocks is protected,’ he said.

“Flock owners are safeguarding

their domestic flocks by having the highest levels of bio-security meas- ures in place, to avoid any exposure to wild birds.

“Poultry producers meet the high- est veterinary standards at all times, and are particularly vigilant at the moment to protect the health of their flocks.”

The new outbreak has renewed calls for the routine vaccination of all free-range, organic and hobby birds in the UK against the deadly flu virus.

The Elm Farm Organic Research Centre has been campaigning for such a preventive strategy for more than two years. The Defra institute

has a stock of 10 million does of vac- cine but so far they have been offered only for use to save rare birds and collections in zoos.

Richard Sanders, senior policy re- Searcher at the centre, said the latest outbreak at Abbotsbury was now “a trigger point” and gave a definite in- dication the virus was circulating in wild birds.

Sanders has urged Defra to release its stocks of HSNI1 vaccine to start an orderly programme of preventive acer eeeloele

However, a spokesperson from the British Department of Agriculture siad late last week that there was, as yet, no evidence of a large infection.

‘There is currently no evidence to Suggest widespread disease in the wild bird population but enhanced surveillance is taking place and poultry keepers in the area are re- minded to remain vigilant,” said her spokesperson.

Britain’s first case of the strain was in a wild swan found dead in Cel- lardyke in Scotland in 2006 and there have subsequently been outbreaks at poultry farms in eastern England, most recently in November 2007.

The virulent HSN1 strain has killed more than 210 people worldwide since 2003 and millions of birds had either died from it or been killed to prevent its spread.

CLARE and Limerick prepare for the McGrath Cup final with some striking similiarities. Both took the competition relatively seriously, nei- ther have played county opposition to date and a number of players have featured for both sides to date.

On Monday, the game was ten- tatively scheduled for Cooraclare pending the week’s weather and an- other home game for Clare should give them the advantage they need to take the honours.

The McGrath Cup may not be a sparkling, blue ribband competition on the bigger scale of things, but ask any of the Munster Final winning team of ’92 when they first started to believe they could make an impres-

sion and they’ll bring you back to the little-known All Ireland B title they captured before they won Munster.

That’s why Sunday’s match with Limerick is important. For all the players Frank Doherty has tried out and for all the information he has gathered, a medal from a tourna- ment that has so far thrown Clare up against well prepared — though physically weak — college teams, would not only be reward for a hard winter, it would tilt the confidence settings to the required level entering the league.

For the most part, Clare have been impressive over the past three games. Against UCC in Miltown, they start- ed well and kept the lead throughout the hour and in fact, they’ve never trailed a team in this competition.

Against LIT in the quarter-final they continued their composed, hun- ery attitude and strolled home in the second half. The thing is, they’ve yet to be put to the test late in a game. Should Limerick provide that test and should Clare come through it, then the signs are good for the league.

At the very least, Limerick will bring an added physical challenge for Clare. So far, Limerick have been highly experimental in their ap- proach to the competition but their forwards will have more consistent quality than anything Clare have come up against in 2008.

Against LIT in last weekend’s semi final, their full-forward line of Ger Collins, Ian Ryan and Johnny Mur- phy all impressed.

Clare, last Sunday, were caught

once or twice with swift moves through the centre. Gordon Kelly at centre-back may not the most physi- cally imposing of players, but he is Clare’s most consistent defender. His reading of the game is superb and he broke up several CIT attacks. The feeling here is that he will grow into the position.

The pattern of Clare’s play has now developed. Short at the back and long once it reaches midfield. With Frank O’Dea’’s effective distribution it’s a decent approach. And inside, there are options. With their height, Timmy Ryan and Colm Dillon pro- vide depth and width, though it now looks like a straight choice between the two with Ryan expected to shade it. In the corner, David Tubridy has been exceptional and the second

corner needs to be filled. Elsewhere, David Russell will be accommodat- ed and can fill a number of positions and Doherty is now beginning to see the pieces click.

Expect Sunday’s starting line up to be Clare’s strongest to date, though they are expected to be without a player or two. With Garry Brennan, Greg Lyons and John Hayes all due back for the league, competition for places is developing.

Mickey Ned O’Sullivan has already stated that Limerick are interested in taking the McGrath Cup across the Shannon. They won’t do that, but they’ll provide the required chal- lenge for Clare who next week will have Carlow on their minds.

WITH a predicted 10 per cent de- crease in transatlantic traffic this April, chairman of the Shannon Airport Authority, Pat Shanahan be- lieves that the best way forward for the international airport 1s full inde- pendence as soon as possible.

The SAA chair told the Dail Trans- port Committee that Shannon Air- port’s maximum potential could only be achieved as an independent com- mercial State enterprise.

“We believe transatlantic traffic will decrease by 10 per cent this year, with fully open skies in April. However, we believe traffic will grow from that

level and have been proactive in try- ing to retain transatlantic carriers. A number of significant factors will help us to achieve our aims. We have intro- duced a winter incentive 50 per cent discount scheme on landing charges which has been well received by our year-round carriers,” he said.

This winter, there are four direct transatlantic services, as well as a fifth through Dublin Airport.

“Shannon Airport’s marketing role is to attract airlines,’ he added. ““We expect the Open Skies tourism mar- keting fund will help the marketing activities of those agencies to make it attractive for US customers to travel to the west of Ireland.”

Mr Shanahan said the full imple- mentation of the US customs and border protection (CBP) facility in Shannon, which provides immigra- tion and customs clearance, will also be an advantage.

During the period 2000 to 2004, traffic growth at the airport stagnated while costs escalated, but since the ap- pointment of the board of the authority in September 2004 and with the active Support and investment of the Dublin Airport Authority, traffic has grown by 50 per cent, a major restructuring programme has been implemented, annual cost savings of over €10 mil- lion have been secured and the airport is now trading profitably.

Mr Shanahan said, “We believe that if the airport is transferred debt-free and with finance to meet the initial capital infrastructure deficit, it will be able to operate profitably and cov- er its Ongoing capital requirements from cash flow. This means the air- port will be financially viable as an independent entity.”

He added that the key elements of the Shannon Airport plan submitted to the Departments of Transport and Finance last December have been independently validated and clearly demonstrate that the airport will be viable and profitable as a standalone business in the next 10 years and be- yond.

IN WHAT proved to be a turbulent week for the meat Industry in Ireland, Glanbia finally removed themselves from the once lucrative involvement in the meat industry.

A deal, reported to be worth less than €10 million, is in place to sell the remains of the company’s inter- ests in the meat industry to a man- agement-led consortium.

The company will instead focus more heavily on areas such as cheese, nutritional ingredients and consumer foods with a nutritional emphasis.

Glanbia’s meat business was one of the leading pork slaughterer and processor in Ireland and it processed

1.2 million animals last year. That represents almost half of all the port slaughtered in Ireland in 2007.

Employing 850 people, the busi- ness operates from four facilities in Ireland, including two modern slaughtering plants at Roscrea and and Edenderry.

It also operates the only pork-head boning facility in Ireland in Offaly and a bacon curing and processing facility in Leitrim.

Along with the slaughtering of animals, the company 1s also one of the largest pig-farming operations in Ireland, with 4,500 sows across six ie Nesny

Meanwhile, Teagasc last week an- nounced details of development plan

to strengthen the pig industry in Ire- land.

The plan was compiled after an ex- tensive consultation process with all the main stakeholders in the sector.

The key issues facing the Irish in- dustry are addressed including the competitiveness of Irish pig produc- ers and how it compares to the in- dustry in other European and inter- national countries.

The report found that around 7,000 people are employed in the sector in- cluding about 1,200 on farms. Cur- rently, close to 500 pig producers in Ireland produce 3.6 million pigs annually. The Irish industry exports approximately 60 per cent of its pro- duction and is worth €250 million

annually. The report also states that pork is the most consumed meat in the world accounting for 38 per cent of meat consumption worldwide.

‘“Ireland’s position as a world leader in pig productivity has recently been overtaken by a number of its main competitors,’ said Brendan Lynch, Head of the Teagasc Pig Production Unit.

“A key factor in improving produc- tivity in future is to improve skill levels at farm level.”

During 2007 feed ingredient prices worldwide soared. Typically feed ac- counts for about 70 per cent of the cost of producing a pig and high feed costs in Ireland require very efficient use of feed on the farm.

THE real value of the McGrath Cup, for manager Frank Doherty, came with the opportunity to familiarise himself with the raw materials he has to shape.

At the start of the competition, he stood outside a dressing room in Miltown and said games were what mattered, that getting the most out of January was the target.

Clare have achieved that and are one game away from picking up

some silverware, the target has only SIUESA STON VASSOU BA KoLe

“What we’re getting is four games in January and in reality, 20 training sessions wouldn’t be as valuable as that,’ he says. “But I’m a great be- liever that winning is the best habit you can form. There’s are only four trophies that any county in Ireland can win from one year to the next, and the McGrath Cup is one of those. So it’s important that we go out in the right frame of mind — and we will.”

He’s aware, too, that Limerick will

prove to be more of a block in the road to success than the college teams Clare have faced so far. Colleges, by definition, don’t have the team spirit or ethos that define county teams and Sunday will allow Doherty gather more knowledge.

“Limerick will be a different ball game for us and we’re hitting them at a good time for us. Right before the league starts, it’s no harm to get a good, hard game under the belt.

“We want to win the McGrath Cup and in fairness, Mickey Ned

[O’Sullivan] will be just as anxious to do the same. So you’ll have two competitive teams going out on Sun- day and that’s useful for us.”

Doherty asked to run his mind over the campaign in general and pick out the positives. He points out enough to find some satisfaction in the three games So far.

“From what I’ve seen so far, the hunger seems to be coming back. That’s important and for us, the at- titude from the first game was right. Players were focused. On top of that,

a certain amount of passion that mightn’t have been there is starting to come as well.

“Lads are pushing themselves and pushing each other hard in train- ing. There have been a lot of pluses throughout the competition. The habit of winning is something that we want to develop. If we can keep in that zone, then that’s going to be a big boost going into the league.”

The hunger he speaks of is obvi- ous. Generally, his players have been starved of success on the county scene and he reckons that the vast majority of those involved in the squad will have something to prove on Sunday.

“Of the 33 lads we have in the panel, 25 or 26 of them have never contested a senior final for Clare. So that’s something. They’ll want to mark their first final with a win.

When I got involved I made it clear that I’d try and use as many lads as possible in the games and I think I’ve lived up to that – so we’re making full use of what’s available.

“There have been debutants and there have been lads that people might have thought weren’t good enough to make senior footballers. They’ve come in and done well. But we re learning a lot.”

Is he close to his team make-up for the league?

“I’d say we’re 90% sure of it now. A lot of the team that will start on Sunday will feature in the league. We might be without one or two lads against Limerick, but the team you’ll see won’t be too far off the mark.

“We have tinkered around with it from game to game and we’ve had to because we’ve got a small pool of players compared with other coun- ties and that brings positives and negatives. If we pick up injuries, we won’t have the reserves but lads get close to one another, they work well together and they know one another’s game. If you’ve a big pool of players, sometimes guys can shy away from things. They can duck down. That doesn’t happen with Clare.”

So far, the Doherty tenure has been a success. Getting something tang!- ble to go with the positive start is the next step.

A QUESTION mark has been put on plans by All-Ireland winning Clare hurler, Niall Gilligan to press ahead with a €7 million housing develop- ment in Kilkee.

This follows local resident, Ray O’ Halloran lodging an appeal to An Bord Pleanala against a decision by Clare County Council to grant the Sixmilebridge man the go-ahead for the development.

Along with the Kilkee application, Mr Gilligan also has two separate planning applications for his home village of Sixmilebridge where he is seeking to construct 14 apartments, two shops and a pub.

The council has put those applica- tions on hold after seeking further in- formation on the two applications.

The Kilkee proposal faced a small number of objections and the council gave the go-ahead after Mr Gilligan lodged revised plans.

The site is zoned ‘residential’ and adjoins a third class road.

In his appeal, Mr O’Halloran of Dunlicky Road, Kilkee said he was shocked by the council decision as it showed no regard for the existing residents who are in situ for more than 25 years.

“The roadway is barely adequate for our needs at the moment and is certainly not sufficient for this pro- posed new development.

“T cannot believe that the additional information requested regarding the traffic was not addressed and that the traffic impact assessment was not carried out by a competent traffic management company.

The planning authority gave Mr Gilligan the go-ahead after ruling that the plan “would not seriously in- jure the amenities and would not be contrary to the proper planning and development”.

As part of the 38 conditions, the council ordered the omission of two homes. It is also seeking that Mr Gil- ligan pay €175,000 in levies towards public infrastructure and that the homes be the principal places of res1- dence of purchasers of the houses.

SPANISH Point is set to become one of the world’s leading sites for the production of wave energy following the launch of the Ocean Energy Ini- tiative last week.

The new initiative, which guaran- tees a price of €0.22 for each KW hour of ‘blue’ energy, has made Ireland the world’s most attractive market for the generation of wave energy.

Spanish Point was identified by the Irish Marine Institutes as one of Ire-

land’s top four sites for the produc- tion of wave energy. Indeed, it was short-listed as a possible site for the creation of Ireland’s first test facility for wave energy.

“Places like Spanish Point are now going to get more and more attractive because investors will be able to see exactly what price they will be able to get for the energy in the long term,” said Andrew Parish, of pioneering wave energy company, Wavebob.

“Investors will be able to go into Spanish Point, examine the prevalent wave strength and predict with cer-

tainty exactly what revenue they will be able to make. This will make it much easier to get financial backing for large-scale projects.”

“The real key is that we will have market stability. This makes it attrac- tive for developers such as ourselves to invest and it also makes it easier for us finance major projects.”

With a host of new wave energy generators at the prototype stage, the wave energy market is expected to boom over the next 10 years.

“We are relying more than 90 per cent in Ireland on fossil fuels. So by

having this tariff for renewable en- ergy, it encourages more alternative clean sources of energy into the mar- ket, which will actually make energy cheaper in the long run,” continued Mr Parish.

“Fossil fuels are going to get more and more expensive as time goes by, and wave energy is going to become a reality.

“Not only will Irish companies be looking at developing sites like Spanish Point, but international com- panies will be there too. It 1s very at- tractive for them.”

WHERE experimentation goes in the McGrath Cup campaign of 2008, Limerick can claim to enjoy an edge on Clare. Mickey ‘Ned’ O’Sullivan has used 27 players in their three games to date, while Clare have used 23. And, as he looks ahead to the fi- nal that fixed for Cooraclare on Sun- day, O’Sullivan that there’s more to come. “We’ll try a few more because we have a big panel in at the moment,

but by the time the National League comes around the following week, the county board will want numbers aria Cena F

‘“We’ve brought in five new for- wards, while we’ve experimented in other areas of the field as well. In that respect the McGrath Cup has been great — we’re getting competi- tive games and a chance to see what we ve got.”

However, the wholesale changes that O’Sullivan made in the cam-

paign thus far shouldn’t lull Clare into any sense of confidence ahead of Sunday’s final. ““Now that we’re in a final, we will be going out to win it, just as Clare will be,’ says Kerry’s 1975 All-Ireland winning captain. Famously he tasted defeat at the hands of Clare as Kerry manager way back in the Munster final of 1992, but during his tenure with Limerick to date has enjoyed league and champi- onship victories against Clare. However, most of those who will

line out on Sunday have no experi- ence of playing against Clare. “This is my third year in charge of the team and the team has changed a lot in that time,’ admits O’Sullivan.

“In my first year I more or less stuck with the team that had been there before. They had played a lot of football over the years and put in a lot of hard work to try and win a Munster championship.

“In my second year I brought in a good few players, but many more

have come in this year, so the team is going through some transition. After the McGrath Cup we go straight into a tough league campaign where we will be up against teams like Sligo, Wexford, Fermanagh and Down. By then I’d hope to have the new players and the old fighting out for places on the team.”

The first test comes 1n Cooraclare on Sunday — not a must win game, but Mickey ‘Ned’ O’Sullivan wants to win it all the same.

HUNDREDS of walkers are expect- ed in north Clare this May for the first ever walking marathon ever to take place in the county.

The Ballyvaughan-Fanore Walk- ing Club will host the Clare Burren Marathon Challenge on Sunday May 24, and organisers are expecting a treat for enthusiast who can experi- ence first hand some of Ireland most SURINDER OMA

The marathon will coincide with the Burren in Bloom Festival in Bal- ly vaughan and will finish in the in the Burren Coast Hotel in Ballyvaughan. It starts at 8am in the morning and

will go cross country through a va- riety of different landscapes before arriving in Fanore.

They return via Black Head and the Green Road and back into Bal- lyvaughan.

“It’s more of a challenge than a running marathon. Half of it will be done on road and half of it will be cross country. It’s the exact same distance as a marathon,” said Mary O’’ Brien of the Ballyvaughan-Fanore Walking Club.

“We will also have a half marathon route and a mini-marathon route available for people on the day.

‘In a marathon like the Dublin City Marathon you would have walker,

runners and elite runners and the route is always flat. This event is dif- ferent, you are talking about walking up hills and over many different ter- rains. It’s not an event for wearing runners, you would need a good pair of boots.”

The Ballyvaughan-Fanore Walking Club was set up in 2006 and has al- ready some 80 members drawn from all over the country.

The club was all the brian child of Kevin McCormack from Fanore who is a well seasoned walker himself. Now we have members from all over the place and organise walks each Sunday all year round,” continued Mary.

“For each walk we leave around 11 in the morning and we wouldn’t be back until half three or four. You bring some lunch with you and make a day out of it.

“We have walked in spots all around Clare and we will be going to Letterfrack and Kilkenny later in the year. The islands are a big thing for the Club. Each year so far we have gone for a walk to the Aran Islands in August. Last year we had 67 peo- ple in the Aran Islands. We walked on each of the islands throughout the weekend.”

For more information check out www.bally vaughanfanorewalking- club.com.