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AGAINST the background of the school water charges row, Clare Fine Gael TD Joe Carey has highlighted the growing crisis of consultant fees for Summer work schemes which are owed by many schools throughout the country.

According to the Clarecastle dep- uty, who is Fine Gael Spokesperson on Juvenile Justice, the latest crisis arose when the Department of Edu-

cation decided to discontinue the summer school works scheme with- out consulting the schools.

The scheme allowed schools to carry out essential works during the summer holidays. In order for schools to apply for the scheme, it was necessary to hire a consultant engineer to prepare submissions. If the application was successful, the consultant’s fees were reimbursed through the scheme.

The situation many schools find

themselves in is that having hired consultants and paid out significant fees, the scheme has been cancelled and the fees remain outstanding. Deputy Carey said it was another example of the Government taking decisions with little regard for the implications of these decisions on the day-to-day running of schools. ‘“T have contacted several schools, who find themselves owing hundreds of euro in consultant fees, with no obvious means to pay for those fees.

One Clare school I spoke to owes over €650, while another owes in the region of €800. Coming at the same time as schools face outrageous wa- ter charges, this is unacceptable. ‘The department set out stringent guidelines for the summer work schemes which required schools to engage consulting engineers in order to be considered under the scheme. They have now cancelled the scheme, but schools abiding by the department’s own rules are out

of pocket significantly.”

Are our schools to foot the bill for the downturn in the economy’?

“IT understand the INTO are pres- ently surveying all schools in the country to find out how many schools have already paid out for consultant fees for projects. I expect them to find that the country’s schools are carrying a huge burden of debt for essential works that may not now even be carried out because of this crazy decision,” he declared.

THE people of Lissycasey are travel- ling en masse to South Africa to sup- port one of their own, as she gives hope to thousands.

Local woman Sr Ethel Normoyle has undertaken to build a hospice and community facility at Mission- vale, Port Elizabeth, where she cares for the poor of its shantytowns.

The Lissycasey native will be joined on the ambitious three-week construction project by three of her nieces and her nephew, as well as al- most a dozen more people from her home parish.

Tom Clancy and Paddy Carmody from Lissycasey were busy with a cake sale last week, as they worked

hard to raise the €3,000 needed to see each of the volunteering build- ers, painters, tillers and helpers to Africa.

The 160 volunteers will travel at different times during the three- week project.

As a bricklayer Tom’s skills will be required from the beginning – Janu- Vaan lon

Building contractor Paddy will make his way over later.

Family support is also on its way with all the Clare volunteers.

St Normoyle’s nieces Grainne Tal- ty, Pamela Normoyle, Cliodhna Tal- ty and her nephew Shane Normoyle, also from Lissycasey, are helping out with the project.

In the 19 years since she moved to

South Africa Sr Normoyle has es- tablished a school, a feeding centre, a clothing centre and a lifeline for people who have nothing.

As well as dealing with crippling poverty the people of South Africa are also coping with an AIDS epi- demic, which has left devastation and orphans in its wake.

More than six in every ten people in the township where Sr Normoyle works, have the virus.

The Little Company of Mary nun, who trained in St John’s Hospital in Limerick, is now preparing to build a hospice and community resource centre to help give a better quality of life to people infected with AIDS.

Already more than €100,000 has been fundraised to buy all the nec-

essary materials for the new facility, which will have 18 beds for patients, as well as facilities to educate peo- ple suffering from the virus in how best to care for themselves and their families.

To build the new centre, a team of 200 people are needed between Jan- uary 16 and February 26, staying ten days at a time.

Volunteers will be put up in a ho- tel in Port Elizabeth and the €3,000 which they have to raise to join the team covers all flights, meals ac- commodation and transfers for the oNmer Way

THE Clare Citizens information Centres are advising local shoppers that their consumer rights don’t go away if they are tempted by bargains in the New Year sales.

With the New Year sales taking erip of the county, the network of advice centres receive a lot of que- ries from shoppers in relation to their consumer rights at this time of year. Their basic message 1s that if a sales item turns out to be faulty, the shop must offer a refund, repair or replacement. According to Informa- tion Service manager, Paul Woulfe, some shops put up signs during their sales along the lines of ‘No money refunded’, “No refunds during sales’, ‘No exchange’ or ‘No liability ac- cepted for faulty goods’.

‘These signs can give the impres- sion that you don’t have certain consumer rights. So the shop may be committing an offence in using them, and could face prosecution.

“If goods turn out to be faulty, consumers are entitled to ask for a refund, replacement or repair. If the shop still refuses to give you one of these three options, report it to the Director of Consumer Affairs. You are not entitled to an exchange (or

a refund or a credit note) simply be- cause you change your mind about something you’ve bought. So double- check the shop’s refund policy before buying anything in the sales’, added Paul Woulfle

‘Some shops do allow you to ex- change goods that you’ve had second thoughts about, but remember that it is at their discretion and they do this as a goodwill gesture. If the product is faulty, you are entitled to a replace- ment, a repair or a full refund. You don’t have to take a credit note, even if the shop assistant insists, “this is our policy’.

“Stock with a reduced price in the winter sales must have been on offer for the advertised original price for at least a month before the price was KeLeLU(eolem

‘For example, shops are not al- lowed to have a label or sign on a product saying ‘reduced by 30 per cent’ if this 1s the first time that they are Selling this particular product. If you lose your receipt, your rights still apply. The shop is entitled to see proof of purchase, but this can be a credit card bill or a bank statement,” Mr Woulfe explained.

CLARE owners enjoyed big suc- cess at an exciting day’s coursing in Cloncullen last Thursday.

Favourite Clare Man was pipped in the final of the South Clare Cup by Valverdes, owned by Anthony and Denis Clohessey and Michael and Martin Madigan from Killimer.

Valverdes had earlier received a bye run to the final after the Clare- castle owned Murty’s Shadow was withdrawn while Clareman edged

out Caeser Mac in the semi-final to book a final spot.

There was success for the SAM syndicate from Clarecastle when Bird’s Baby clinched the Oaks ticket for Clonmel.

Trained by Gerry Holihan for John Quinn, Woodpark Rebel was again in top form, winning out the South Clare All-aged Bitch Stake.

The win over Crafty Montico books a place in the Champion Stake in Clonmel for Woodpark Rebel.

Former Clare hurling manager

Anthony Daly is another who will be heading to Clonmel. Murty’s for One, owned by the ATM syndicate of Anthony and Michael Daly and Tommy Howard had already guar- anteed a place in the Boylesports Derby after winning at the Galway and Oranmore meeting.

Daly, along with fellow owners Stephen and Martin Sheedy will have another interest in Clonmel after the SAM syndicate owned Bird’s Baby beat of stiff competition for a spot in the Clonmel Minealla Oaks.

In the final Bird’s Baby saw off the challenge of the Miltown Malbay owned Dalcash Shannon by three lengths.

The reserve derby was won by the Scattery Syndicate from Kil- limer with Scattery Hyland which beat Siena’s Steel owned by Co- oraclare brothers John and Michael O’ Donoghue.

However there was joy for Coora- clare when Riverdale Honcho won the Cloncullen Stake for one and two course dogs and bitches, for owners

Michael and Fiona Meaney.

Fisherman’s Ace won the final of the working members stake for Kil- kee owner Joe Harte.

THE sentence imposed on Adam Keane for raping Mary Shannon at a house in Ennis two-and-a-half years ago has been increased to 10 years, three of which are suspended.

Keane (26), of Barnageeha, Daragh was found guilty of rape at the Cen- tral Criminal Court in Dublin last February, arising out of an incident on May 30, 2005.

His three year suspended sentence was appealed by the State to the

three-judge Court of Criminal Ap- eer

The Court of Appeal ruled this week that the sentence imposed by the Central Criminal Court was “unduly lenient, even when all the migitating factors are taken into account”.

In imposing sentence last March, Mr Justice Paul Carney referred to a previous case. However the Court of Appeal said his “preoccupation” with the previous decision “distracted him from the essential particularities of this case”.

“The trial judge made no reference in his sentencing decision to the 1m- pact which the crime had on the vic- tim and her family life, nor did he ap- pear to attach sufficient weight to the place and circumstances in which the rape was committed.”

“This court 1s satisfied, having re- gard to the circumstances of the case, the particular circumstances of the respondent, that the well established principle that a custodial sentence should be imposed for the offence of rape ought to have been followed,

there being no facts or circumstances in the case which could justify the exceptional and rare departure from that principle. Accordingly, in i1m- posing a suspended sentence in this instance, the learned trial judge erred in principle,’ stated the 28-page re- port, published on Wednesday.

The judges ruled the fact that Keane had taken alcohol and drugs on the night in question and could not re- member what had happened did not “absolve him from criminal responsi- bility as the jury correctly concluded

HOM Us DURYos Ken elma

The Court of Appeal said it decided to suspend the final three years of the ten-year term.

“With a view to encouraging the re- habilitation of this young man and in all the circumstances of the case, the court will suspend three years of that term of imprisonment on his under- taking to enter into a bond to keep the peace,” it stated.

He will be subject to post-release Supervision for one year and will be placed on the sex offenders register.

CITYJET boss Geoff White has moved to allay fears that the Shan- non-Paris route could be withdrawn NMDA BUDS ToR

He has also revealed that the airline is also looking at setting up a route between Shannon and London City airport.

While many welcomed last week’s announcement that the airline will be flying twice daily between Shannon and Paris they were cautious about the longevity of the route, the airline says it’s here to stay.

“This airline plans its routes

meticulously and we are rarely out by more than one or two per cent,” said Mr White.

“In my eight years in Cityjet we’ve never closed a route,” he said.

The airline’s focus 1s on feeding passengers to European _ business hubs and into the Air France/KLM network.

The company’s research for the route included meeting with business interests in the region although Mr White denied demanding that busi- nesses sign on the dotted line to sup- port the new route.

In looking at the proposed new route between Shannon and London

City — which Mr White describes as “quite promising” — Cityjet will also be taking account of figures showing that just one third of the 330,000 an- nual Shannon-Heathrow passengers who travelled with Aer Lingus were connecting on to the wider world.

The remaining 222,000 listed Lon- don as their final destination.

While Cityjet’s meticulous pre- planning of routes is in contrast to the low-fares speculative approach, White stresses that there is no such thing in business terms as a marriage for life.

“It [the route] needs to be showing a good trend in the first six months.

No company is going to effectively subsidise a service for any region,” he said.

Cityjet became the darling of Shannon supporters last week when it announced the new Paris Charles de Gaulle route, effectively recon- necting Shannon with a major Euro- pean hub. The new route will start in February just weeks after Aer Lingus closes its Shannon-Heathrow route.

Business and social interests in the region have warmly welcomed the Cityjet move and a further an- nouncement on a London route would copper-fasten the airline’s OE leom ttm ON EDK

THE Senior Citizens Club in Shan- non has paid tribute to one of its founding members Tom Moore, who passed away last week following a SeCOVM MOND Note

Mr Moore died a year and a week after the death of his wife Ann, who was laid to rest in December 2006.

Originally from Limerick, Tom moved to Shannon several years ago

and lived in Finian Park.

He worked at the knitwear com- pany Lanaknit for many years and Since his retirement, he became in- volved in various community groups in the area.

Tom immersed his life in Shannon and played a key role in several com- mittees and groups in the town for several years.

He was involved with the Legion of Mary and Pioneers in the town.

He was also on the parish commit- tee when churches and schools were built, several years ago. His love of and interest in the community spirit never left him and he became a famil- iar figure in the local community.

Tess Barry, who set up the Senior Citizens Club with Tom and a number of others in 19779, said his loss will be felt by everyone in Shannon.

“We really miss him. He looked after our money for many years. He

kept us on the straight and narrow,’ said PRO of the Senior Citizens Club, Tess Barry.

‘Tom was a great organiser and was very well liked. If he did something, he did it well.

‘His heart was in the right place. Since he retired he put his heart into the club,” she added.

Mr Moore was buried at Illauna- managh cemetery in Shannon last JDulee ne

THE decision by Aer Lingus to re-route its Heathrow flights from Shannon to Belfast will significantly inconvenience a Gort couple who are due to spend Christmas in Australia.

Former Clare FM _ sports editor Mike McCartney and his Australian

wife Fiona flew out from Shannon to Australia via Heathrow yesterday. The couple will spend Christmas with Fiona’s family in Melbourne. However, the decision by Aer Lingus to move its Heathrow flights from Shannon to Belfast from January | means that they will not be able to fly back to Shannon when they return

from their three-week holiday.

The couple are angered that they were only told of the change to their return flights just a fortnight ago, having booked their trip sev- en months ago. They have been informed by their tour operator, Aus- tralian Holidays, that they could fly back from Heathrow to either Dublin

or Cork, as Shannon was no longer an option. Reluctantly, they chose Dublin.

Given that Fiona is from Australia, the couple have flown over and back several times over the years. The Shannon option was practical for them as they only had to travel for an hour to the airport.

However, given that the changeo- ver from Shannon to Belfast occurs while they are on holiday, it means that they have to rely on _ public transport to get home from Dublin when they return on January 11.

The couple have no issue with the tour operator but with Aer Lingus. “We are not blaming the travel agent as they have been good to us down the years,’ said Mr McCartney.

““T heard all the stories about Heath- row, but we didn’t hear anything. We only got notified a couple of weeks ago. They should have notified us a lot earlier. We can’t leave the car at Shannon if we are coming back to Dublin. Our choice of airport is Shannon,’ added Fiona.

McCartney, who became a familiar figure on the airwaves in Clare as head of sport with Clare FM for four- and-a-half years, is disappointed with Aer Lingus’ decision on Heathrow.

“People living in south Galway now have to go to Dublin, the other end of the country, which is a huge inconvenience. The way Shannon has been downgraded is disgusting. It is our local airport,’ he added.

‘SERIOUS and abnormal’ flooding in the Drumgeely area of Shannon prevented people from getting into their homes earlier this month.

The problem was discussed after it was brought up by Independent councillor Patricia McCarthy, at a meeting of Shannon area councillors earlier this week.

She called for a report to be pre- sented on the case and solutions to be brought into effect, to ensure that there is no repetition of the situation, which caused grave concern to resi- dents in the Corrib Drive area.

“Entrances to some of the parks

were blocked, due to the flooding. When the flooding was cleared on the right hand side, it moved to the left hand side, so much so that people couldn’t get into their homes,” she Sr NLGe

“It was unusual and it was a long, long time since that happened be- fore,’ she added, pointing out that she wants steps to be taken to ensure there won’t be a repeat of the flood- ing.

In a response to her query, Senior Executive Engineer Donal Hogan said that the “prolonged intense rain” on December 6 resulted in road and land flooding, not only in Shannon, but across the county.

‘In most cases, the road flooding in urban areas occurs when gulley gratings become clogged with de- bris such as leaves, litter etc, which washes into the gratings of the gul- lies,” said Mr Hogan, in a written response.

‘In some cases the flooding occurs because the underground gulley or the pipework from the gulley to the main drain has reduced capacity due to build-up of silt.

“The road flooding, which oc- curred in Drumgeely, occurred from the same reasons as outlined above for urban areas, with the build-up of leaves being the main reason,” added Mr Hogan.

He stated that the council’s outdoor staff were all diverted to deal with the flooding problems on December 6 and again on December 7.

‘The council endeavours to ensure that all road outlets are opened, gul- leys and pipework cleaned out as much as is possible. In areas such as Drumgeely, gulleys are cleaned out once each year, while pipework is cleaned out as the need arises.

“Notwithstanding these measures it is inevitable that rainfall such as occurred in this case will result in Surface water run-off which will, es- pecially at this time of the year, bring leaves etc to the gulleys resulting in flooding at some of them,” said.

THE University of Limerick has issued a statement revealing that antibiotics have been issued follow- ing a suspected case of meningitis which resulted in the death of a Clare student.

Tuamgreaney teenager Stephen McGuire was found dead on Friday morning last.

Health experts believe that the young sports enthusiast died from bacterial meningitis although the final results of his post-mortem have not yet been completed.

The popular 18-year-old was a second year business student and the son of Scariff GPs Drs Manus and Genevieve (Jenny) McGuire.

Manus McGuire is also well-known in traditional music circles.

The tragic death of the Clare teen just weeks before Christmas has left an air of tragedy over his home and college community.

More than a thousand people attended the funeral Mass on Monday at St Joseph’s Church, Tuamgreaney, of the former captain of the Bodyke/ Whitegate GAA minor A team.

He also played hurling with Bod- yke’s junior and intermediate team.

His team-mates and GAA col- leagues were present at both his re- moval and funeral Mass with two guards of honour.

As well as wearing his beloved Bodyke jersey, Stephen also played underage soccer with Mountshannon Celtic.

This year the sporting teen ran the Dublin City Marathon for Milford Hospice with a number of his friends.

Stephen is survived by his parents and two younger brothers, Danny and Manus.

In sending its condolences to Stephen’s family, the University of Limerick said that the appropriate medical, chaplaincy and counselling support services have been made available to its students.

“In accordance with national euldelines for dealing with such cir- cumstances, all household and very close contacts of this student have been given antibiotic treatment as a preventive measure.

“The Department of Public Health in the Health Service Executive have advised that no further preventive measures are indicated for any other students or staff,’ a spokesperson for the university said.

“As normal, any students or staff members should contact their own GP or the HSE if acutely unwell. Any public health queries may be addressed to the Department of Public Health at 061 483337.”

The spokesperson said that a brief- ing of the case has been issued to the campus community. “This notifica- tion is being issued for the informa- tion of those students and staff who may have left the campus since Fri- day, December 14,” she said.

Meningitis is a disease that causes inflammation of the lining covering the brain and spinal cord (called the ‘meninges’). It can be caused by a bacterial infection or a virus, or more rarely, by a fungal infection.

Viral meningitis is the more com- mon form of the disease and is also much milder — people with viral meningitis rarely die from the dis- ease. Bacterial meningitis however, while relatively uncommon, is usu- ally a much more severe disease and oF TN lem rele