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A TULLA family, who bought their house in the belief that they were connected to the main sewer, have had to all but abandon their home because of the vile mess and stink in the back garden.

Stephen McDermott’s wife, seven- week-old baby and his two-year-old son have left the family home in Tulla village after their yard became swamped in raw sewage.

“We were told when we bought the house that we were connected. This started with a small blockage and we discovered then that we weren’t connected at all. Since then, the stuff has started coming up in the garden, the smell is all over the house and there’s no way the children can live here,” said Stephen.

Stephen contacted Clare County Council about being connected and, after a meeting with engineers, the council agreed to waive the connec- tion fee, but told him he would have to organise and pay for the digging up of the path and the road and their subsequent repair.

He believes this is a major prob- lem. “I agree that I should have to pay for the work that needs to be done in my own yard but to pay for the roadworks is going to cost much more than we can afford. I think it’s

ridiculous in this day and age – sani- tation is a basic human right. If this was somewhere in the third world, there would be a charity fundraising to put in a Sewerage system. Instead, we’re here with raw sewage in the garden and more scented candles go- ing than the Vatican – and the stink is still unbearable.”

But Clare County Council staff say that what the Tulla resident is being asked to do is no more than any householder would be asked if they wanted connection to the main sewer.

“The council will do the connection but the householder has to arrange for the digging and the other work. That’s normal practice,’ a spokes- man for the council’s engineering department said.

The spokesman said that the au- thority had taken the “unusual” step of waiving the connection fee of €1,135.

“We felt this was a unique situa- tion,’ the spokesman said.

But the local authority cannot take on the expenses involved with the connection, the spokesman said. “We’ll work with Mr McDermott and make the connection but he has to do the work – it is a matter of a couple of hours to do it. Any householder who wants connection to the services has to pay to do those works.”

will headline this year’s fes- tival alongside the likes of Joseph O’Connor, Tim Pat Coogan and Paul

Howard (aka Ross O’Carroll-Kelly).

The organising committee an- nounced a partial line-up yesterday, with more authors to be confirmed in the coming months.

The festival will also feature Ire- land’s first ever Book Club of the Year award and will also include a professional development workshop for library staff.

Supported by Clare County Library,

the three-day programme of events 1s expected to attract hundreds of book club members and book lovers from all over Europe and America.

Other authors scheduled to par- ticipate in the fourth annual festival include Diarmaid Ferriter, Fiona Looney, Claire Keegan and Thomas Lynch. Academic contributors this year will include Dr Paul Delaney, School of English at Trinity College,

Alan Titley, Head of Department at University College Cork and Niall MacMonagle, editor and English teacher at Dublin’s Wesley College.

‘The festival is a wonderful social and literary event that brings togeth- er book club members, readers and authors from all over Ireland and beyond,” said Frances O’Gorman of the organising committee.

“One of the highlights of the week-

end festival will be the Sunday symposium, during which Tim Pat Coogan and Diarmaid Ferriter will join a panel discussion on the subject of reading history.”

The festival is also inviting library staff nationwide to a free workshop on how to start, develop and chal- lenge a book club.

The Ennis Book Club Festival will take place from March 5 to 7.

Helping bridge school funding gap

A SHANNON business which man- ufactures and distributes sports and health nutritional powders has re- ceived a top national award.

ABC Nutrition, at Knockbeg Point, Shannon, has been awarded by Bord Bia at the food and drink industry awards. ABC was one of seven com- panies nationally that scooped acco- lades.

The company was set up in Febru- ary 2007 and is fully Irish owned. It initially had just one customer and has since gone from strength to strength and currently distributes all over the world.

It is owned by four people — Sean McNamara (Tuamgraney), Wil- lie Wixted and Lorraine Gunning (Broadford) and Atis Vitolins (Lim- erick) — and eight people are em- je Key (orem

Mr McNamara explained the back- ground to the company being set up, on foot of demand globally. “It start- ed off in the States 25 years ago with body building. Now rugby players, GAA players and people who train use the products. It has grown at a massive rate. The products are based on protein and powders are the main part of it,” he said.

“Our main business is_ blending the products. We buy in the ingredi- ents and source them from all over the world. We design products for groups of people with different re- quirements. There are different for- mulations for people trying to lose weight and those trying to put on weight,” he said.

The company manufactures its own brand of supplements, which are available in health food shops

and chemists.

“Our biggest market is in the UK. We also distribute to Spain, Portu- gal, Holland, Belgium, Scandinavia, Hungary, Slovenia and Greece,” said Mr McNamara.

The award from Bord Bia was enti- tled “The Thinking Big’ award, dedi- cated to small businesses demon- strating exceptional entrepreneurial spirit, matched by strong sales and

marketing.

Among the other winners were Bul- mers Pear, Glanbia and Kerry Foods. “The real satisfying thing was that all the others were household names. It was nice to be on the same podium as those type of people,’ said Mr McNamara.

Although business has been slower in recent times, he is optimistic about the company’s future. “It 1s very, very

positive on the international front,” he said. He was involved in setting up the company, having felt there was a need in the market. He studied animal nutrition for many years and acquired a PhD in this area a number of years ago.

, at an event hosted by Clare County Council. The book is the twenty-second to be published in the National Invento- ry of Architectural Heritage (NIAH) series.

NIAH surveys record a sample of built heritage, ranging from struc- tures of grand design to simple con- struction, spanning the period 1700 to the present day. The surveys inform recommendations from the minister to planning authorities for inclusion of structures in their Record of Pro- Kore CoOL OME LCLAUD Khe

The minister referenced the diverse historic built stock of County Clare when noting that “the built heritage of County Clare is a major contribu- tor to its unique identity and sense of place’. He pointed to the signifi- cance of “the restored tollhouses at D’Esterre’s Bridge, the Spectacle Bridge at Lisdoonvarna and the great

hydro-electrical complex at Ard- nacrusha’’.

Minister Gormley congratulated Ennis Town Council, Clare County Council and their officials for their interest and enthusiasm in ensur- ing that the County Clare Record of Protected Structures is robust and comprehensive. This approach helps to support existing pride of place at community level — the most power- ful tool in ensuring conservation of Ireland’s national and local built her- itage.

Mayor of Clare, Councillor Tony Mulcahy (FG) urged the minister to restore full funding for conservation projects to help preserve the “rich ar-

chitectural heritage of Clare”.

Deputy Mayor of Ennis, Council- lor Michael Guilfoyle (Ind) thanked Minister Gormley, saying that gov- ernment funding was critical to the future development of Ennis.

The NIAH survey is accessible on www.buildingsofireland.ie and work on a further nine surveys is under- EN

The publication

Gormley: ‘Not much in the kitty’

THE recession has done more for bringing down Clare’s waste moun- tain than all the education and aware- ness programmes together, members of Clare County Council were told last night.

Director of Services, David Timlin, said that the downfall in consumerism has resulted in a drop of 40 per cent in bring-back waste and a further drop of 20 per cent for other waste.

“The recession has done more for or volume of waste overall that any awareness programme or education,’ he told the meeting of the local au- thority.

He was speaking after Fianna Fail councillor, Pat Hayes had tabled a

motion asking what had been the result of the introduction last year of fees for people to use the county’s re- cycling centres.

But Cllr Hayes said that while it appeared that the revenue expected had been achieved from the charges, it was unclear as to what effects they have had on recycling.

‘Some centres seem to be up – oth- ers seem to be down but it’s hard to know from the information if people have used the centres less.

‘For instance, use of our own centre in Scariff is down while some other centres are up but I don’t believe that people from Scariff have switched to using centres in Ennis or elsewhere. I’d like to get a clearer picture.” he Ko) (em aatomanteronneree

THE multi-million euro package to assist Dell employees who lost their jobs earlier this year came a step closer in the last week as the Em- ployment Committee approved the proposal.

Last September the President of the EU Commission José Manuel Barroso announced that the Com- mission had approved an application from Ireland for assistance from the European Globalisation adjustment Fund (EGF).

The grant of €14.8 million would help 2,400 redundant workers in the computer industry in the mid west to find new jobs.

The application however also re- quired the approval of the European Parliament and the Council of the EU.

Last Thursday at a meeting in the European Parliament, the Em- ployment Committee approved the proposal to grant assistance to the former Dell workers.

Member of the Employment Com- mittee and the only Irish member of the EU Globalisation Fund Working Group, Ireland North West MEP- Marian Harkin, said that the work- ing group took the decision to ap- prove the Dell application following a response from the EU Commis- sion to a number of questions posed by the group.

“It is absolutely crucial that former

Dell workers have access to this fund as soon as possible and that nothing further delays the procedure. It is an expression of solidarity and support from the EU to those who lose their jobs through globalisation and at least it gives a ray of hope to those considering their future plans.

“IT have worked hard within the working group to ensure support for the Dell workers and I am very pleased with the progress so far,” said the MEP for the West, includ- ing Clare.

The mid-west application relates in total to 2,840 redundancies in total, of which 2,000 were in Dell Com- puters and 840 in eight of its sup- pliers and downstream producers. Dell represented 1.7 per cent of the total employment in the mid-west region, a region where unemploy- ment before the Dell redundancies was already higher than the national average.

The total estimated cost of the package is almost €©23 million, of which the European Union has been asked to provide EGF assistance of €14.8 million.

There have been 27 applications to the EGF since its creation in late 2006 for a total amount of over €154 million, helping some 33,300 workers.

The Dell application is the first re- lating to computers. The only other Irish application was for Waterford eee

ROG CB KAMP CMC Cort Eee

DESPITE Whitegate’s agonising loss there was still one very happy Clareman in Cusack Park on Sun- day afternoon. It was Sean Hehir, the former Clare and O’Callaghan’s Mills legend who trains the South Liberties side.

“T think we had most of the run of play today. We could have had a bigger score too if we had converted all our chances. Of course I’m not taking away from Whitegate’s per- formance, but I feel we probably just edged it. They are a good team and a good club and I thank them for a great match,’ said Hehir after his team’s victory.

“We barely got through today and we barely got through our county fi- nal but in the end we do our best and so far that has been good enough. Next day we’ll be up against a very classy Douglas side and it will be a very different story. Who knows hopefully our luck will continue.”

His team will certainly have to 1m- prove significantly if they wish to capture this Munster Intermediate ti- tle based on today’s match, but when the improvement and the voyage they have conquered so far is taken into consideration, this again could be yet

another challenge that they can over- come in 2009.

Hehir spoke about all these great hurdles his team have faced and how they have leaped over them with great success. “When I got in- volved with this club first there was so much history I did not understand and know about. They had been in a number of county finals but had lost every time.

“There was a great frustration amongst everyone involved and that did not disappear until we finally became county champions this year. The sense of relief that can now be felt is unbelievable and I think it may act as a catalyst for future success. Hopefully starting with a Munster Kens eae

South Liberties left Ennis on Sun- day with smiles all around. They, like Whitegate, have had a fantas- tic year. Unlike Whitegate they still have a chance to mould it into an even greater year.

Who knows, maybe the extra Clare influence they have stolen this year might just push them into the path of victory once more.