Category: Uncategorized

THE appointment of Micheal Mc- Dermott as new Clare senior football manager might just be a rallying call for an upsurge in the fortunes of the flagship football team in the county — that was the message delivered to the county board meeting on Tuesday by chairman Michael O’Neill as he con- firmed that the Cavan man has been given a one-year term in the post.

“It’s an indication of the interest we had in the post that there were four in the running,’ said O’Neill “and it went right down to the wire. We made a mighty trawl. We had Aidan Moloney, Michael Lillis, Micheal McDermott and Ger Lawlor. Aidan informed me last Friday he was pull- ing out of the contest. Micheal Mc- Dermott will manage the team with Liam McHale and James Foran, while one other person will be added to the team.

“T would appeal to football people. Every effort was made with this ap- pointment and we want anyone who has any ambitions to wear the coun- ty jersey to come forward,” added O’Neill.

Meanwhile, Munster Council del- egate PJ McGuane, who was part of

the committee that selected the new manager, said Clare must aim high in 2010. “The carrot is there,’ said McGuane, “because we are in Divi- sion 4 with Waterford and Limerick, while we play Waterford in the first round of the championship and if we beat them we have Limerick in the semi-final.

“The league will be a great barom- eter of our progress. Our first game

is against Wicklow. That will be a barometer. I would ask everyone to throw their weight behind the team for the next year.

“We are a Small county with a small pick but there’s an old saying that if you don’t aim high, you won’t strike high,’ added McGuane.

THE closure of Orchard Lodge and Gort Glass has nothing to do with pa- tient care, and everything to do with a nursing Crisis.

That is according to the Psychiatric Nurses Association representative Denis Meehan who maintains that nursing staff predicted this crisis six months ago.

“We saw this coming last May and brought it to the Labour Relation Commission,’ said Mr Meehan.

There are currently vacancies for 37 nursing staff in the Clare mental health service, he said.

‘A further five nurses are to leave the service before the end of the year.”

‘The service 1s run as much as pos- sible on overtime,’ he said.

Mr Meehan said that even with the closure of the rehab units in Ennis and Kilrush there will still be a shortage of nursing staff in the Clare mental health services.

He maintains that the policy being enacted by the HSE is not going to

solve the problem, but merely move it around.

Mr Meehan also refuted comments that the closure of the two units was part of the process of community liv- ing.

“There is no outreach team in west Clare or talks of one,” he said.

This week the HSE maintains that the review of mental health services in Clare is taking place against a back- ground of a 21.3 per cent decline in the number of nurses working in the Clare Mental Health services between

January 2008 and the current national moratorium on recruitment.

The closures of the two units – Or- chard Lodge and Gort Glas – are also part of “a need to respond to the com- plex requirements of specialized serv- ices to patients in accordance with best practice in modern health care”’.

“Our engagement with the staff as- sociations is further informed by a requirement to submit a management proposal to the Labour Relations Commission (LRC). The referral to the LRC was made by the staff associ-

ations following what they described as managements failure to recruit psy- chiatric nurses for the Clare Mental Health Services.

“At a meeting of the LRC held on Thursday September 24, 2009 under the chairmanship of Mr John Agnew, all parties agreed that management would come up with a proposal to ensure the continuing safe delivery of services in the context of existing resource constraints. The next LRC is scheduled for November 23, 2009,’ the HSE said.

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.

COUNCILLORS are calling for a full road safety audit to be carried out at each primary and post-prima- ry school in the Ennis area.

At yesterday’s meeting of council- lors in the Ennis East electoral area, Councillor Johnny Flynn initially called on the council to carry out a road safety audit of all schools in En- nis East.

Cllr Flynn told the meeting that an audit was necessary as there had been a “significant” number of traffic accidents at schools in Ennis.

In response, Senior Executive En- gineer, Eamon O’Dea said that the council did not have the resources to carry out the audit.

Mr O’Dea added that there had been significant investment in road signage and road markings.

He stated, “The council would be obliged to look at this proposal on a countywide basis and it would not be possible to have it carried out within our resources. There has been con- siderable investment by the council into road signage and road markings

in the vicinity of schools and the em- ployment of school wardens at many of the national schools.”

He added, “The council is willing to discuss any issues that may exist on an individual basis with the relevant

school authorities and this is usually carried out in the pre-planning phase when schools are seeking permission for improvement works.”

Cllr Flynn said he was disappoint- ed with the council’s response. “I’m

disappointed that we are not looking at this a bit more. I think we could take Ennis East as a trial area. The number of accidents and incidents outside schools is significant.”

Cllr Flynn added, “There is a sig- nificant need for this. Ennis East would become a pilot area.”

ClUlr Tommy Brennan (Ind) said he would support the motion if it was amended to include all schools in the Ennis area and not just those in En- nis East.

Clir Flynn agreed to amend his mo- tion to include all schools in Ennis.

Cllr Flynn had initially proposed that Clare County Council carry out a road safety audit at each primary and post-primary school in the Ennis East in terms of adequacy of vehicu- lar set down/collection, facilities for cyclists/pedestrians (including cross- ings), school warden needs/requests, public lighting, speed limits, effec- tiveness of signage, school bus facili- ties, etc, and make recommendations for planned phased improvements if required.

TANAISTE Mary Couglan has ad- mitted that the money is not there to implement all of the recommen- dations made by the Mid-West Task Force which was set up in the wake of massive job losses at Dell.

The Task Force was appointed by the Tanaiste herself after Dell an- nounced it was moving all of its manufacturing process to Poland, taking 2,000 wagepackets directly out of the economy and causing fur- ther job-losses in companies depend- ant on feeding the Dell plant.

After his interim report to Govern- ment, Denis Brosnan, Chairman of

the Task Force, said that any further work done by him and the Task Force would be a “waste of time’ unless the recommendations published four months ago are implemented.

Among those recommendations were that the Government should tackle costs in Ireland, to accelerate the regeneration programme in Lim- erick and to improve back to educa- tion allowance schemes.

Speaking before taking the mike at the Shannon Development ‘Dynamic Regions – Directions in Regional De- velopment’ conference last Friday the Tanaiste and Minister for Enter- prise said that while a lot of the rec- ommendations which have a national

context are being addressed, she stressed that “it has to be said that we don’t have the financial wherewithal to implement every recommendation that there is.”

But she promised that she and her government colleagues “will be bringing together two or three items that need to be addressed here in the context of the Task Force here to see if we can find the financial where- withal in next year’s budget to allow that to happen.”

The Tanaiste was speaking to the conference as Government employ- ees took to the streets to protest at proposed cuts in pay and revised work practices.

The Tanaiste told the conference that a “seismic change in attitude” is need in the public sector.

Citing the example of Shannon De- velopment “who did their own reor- ganisation without a word about it” she said that if public sector employ- ees are not prepared to co-operate to get the balance right “then Govern- ment will have to make a decision… everyone will have to take a reduc- tion in their standard of living. Many people in the private sector have done this in order to keep their jobs.

“A lot of people in the private sec- tor have lost their jobs and it is part of my portfolio to try and get those people back to work again and attract

more jobs to this country and support entrepreneurship,” the Tanaiste con- tinued.

Speaking to the conference itself, she said “I believe regional devel- Opment is now more important than ever. To be more competitive and innovative, we need more regional actions on the ground to devise so- lutions to help us on the road to na- tional recovery.

“IT believe the time for strong re- gional development is now. Mobilis- ing the contribution of each region to national competitiveness is at forefront of what we do. Strong re- gions will help us grow and sustain a strong national economy.”

IT is still unclear what power, if any, Clare’s four TDs have to influence the decisions made by Clare County Soiele

Following a lively debate at last night’s meeting of the local author- ity, the exact power the TDs have to influence the allocation of housing remains a mystery.

This follows a motion put forward by Cllr Brian Meaney (Green Party), asking for a list of all TDs who have

representatives on behalf of mem- bers of the public to Clare County Sonia

“I’m not happy with the reply. I re- quested a list of the names of TDs and I have not been given that list. I wanted to see what influence, if any, a member of the Dail can have on the allocation of houses. I want it clearly stated whether a TD does not have a role to play in the allocation of houses.

“It must be stated clearly what role a TD has in this, what weight is given

to a representation made by them. I have been contacted by people who have said that they were successful in representatives because they con- tacted their TD.”

This motion was supported by Cllr Patricia McCarthy (Ind) who said it wrong of TDs to tell the public that they have powers in such instances if WeTeaVare (oyna

“It is wrong for elected represented to misrepresent the situation and say that they can have influence. Or if they are having an influence then we

need to know about it,’ she said it.

The role of the TD’s in local issues was defended by Cllr Cathal Crowe coy)

“T think that it is a quirk in the Irish system that elected members from all levels have a very close level of contact with the local community,” he said.

“If a representative wants to make representatives on behalf of people then I can’t see any harm in it.”

A spokesperson from Clare County Council said that all representative

from TDs are acknowledged and a TD would be given advice on the current status of the application.

“It is prehistoric and inconceivable that we elect people to legislate and they end up as social workers,” said OW rite

‘They are more interested in watch- ing their backs and deceiving the electorate,” he said.

“I don’t believe that they have any more influence on this matter than a Shetland dog but they are putting it around that they have.”

THE curtain came down last night on the 15th annual Ennis Trad Fes- tival. A performance by the Alan Kelly Quartet rounded off the festi- val, which organisers are hailing as AME CLentoe

Committee member Kevin Finu- cane said the four-day festival drew big crowds.

“There seems to have been a good crowd around alright; particularly on the Saturday for the Lunasa gig but there seems to have been good crowds around all weekend. We haven’t got an official figure on the numbers yet but in terms of musicians, there was a big turnout. Talking to the pubs where there were sessions on, there seems to have been a lot of people around. It’s a sign that music brings people to the pubs,” he said.

This year’s festival had been in doubt but its future was secured through increased support from En- nis Town Council, local businesses, the Vintner’s Federation and the ar-

rival of Guinness as main festival Sponsor.

““T think the fact that there was doubt about it, more people came along to support it. Between concerts and ses- sions, CD launches and workshops, there was an awful lot going on. The hotels were full. You couldn’t get ac- commodation anywhere so I think that’s a fair indication of the amount of people that were around,’ added Kevin.

The festival kicked off on Thursday night with a performance by Clare band Moher at the Temple Gate Ho- tel. Saturday night saw some of the best traditional bands face off against each other in the West County Hotel for the Ard Ghaisce na mBuionta, or Great Band Challenge.

Trad band Lunasa drew big crowds to the Auburn Lodge for their per- formance, also on Saturday night.

Sunday saw two legends of tradi- tional Irish music, Frankie Gavin and ‘Tony McMahon, take to the stage for a rare joint concert at the Old Ground Hotel.