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PRESSURE is mounting of the De- partment of Communications, En- ergy and Natural Resources to cough up some of the estimated €10 mil- lion in funding needed for the devel- opment of Doolin Pier.

At yesterday’s meeting of the North Clare Area of Clare County Council, Cllr Martin Lafferty (Ind) tabled a motion demanding that the Govern- ment department not be “let off the hook” in relation to Doolin Pier.

Cllr Lafferty also accused former junior marine minister John Browne of misleading locals when, on vis- iting Doolin last year, he placed the blame for the delays with Clare County Council.

“The people of Doolin were an- noyed with Clare County Council for not putting in an application to the Department of the Marine for funding. Clare County Council put in loads of applications but they kept saying that the money wasn’t to come from the Department of the

Marine,” he said.

‘Then last year, just before the elec- tion, junior minister Browne came down and upset a lot of local people by saying that there was no proposal before his department on the pier and putting all the blame back on Clare County Council.

“I don’t think that the Department of the Marine should be left off the hook on this. They should give a cer- tain amount of funding towards this. Doolin is a commercial pier and is used by fishermen as well as by trav-

ellers to the Islands. If they don’t pay it then it will be the rate payers of Clare who will have to pay it.”

An agreement was reached last week to co-fund the development of Doolin Pier between Clare County Council and the Department of Com- munity, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs This arrangement would see Clare County Council pay some €2.5 mil- lion towards the development.

Cllr Martin Conway (FG) raised fears that parking charges could be used as a means of recouping the

€2.5 million.

“IT would hope that that €2.5 mil- lion is unconditional and that we won’t see car parking charges and the like put in as a means of recoup- ing that money,” he said.

Meanwhile, Cllr Richard Nagle (FF), welcomed the news that the new lifeguard facilities in Lahinch would be in place before the begin- ning of the 2008 Summer season but said that he was disappointed that the rest of the promenade masterplan had fallen behind schedule.

A SHORT summer holiday in Lahi- nch ended in tragedy for a 19-year- old Dublin man who drowned in the early hours of the morning after a night out.

Joseph ‘Joey’ Wall from Clontarf lost his life during the August bank holiday weekend last year, Ennis Coroner’s Court heard last week.

A day-long search followed his dis- appearance at around 4am on Mon- day, August 6. His body was located at the seashore less than 24 hours Fitoe

Joey’s friend, Tom Verling, said that a group of friends went back to their

bed and breakfast accommodation after a night out. He said that Joey went to the bed and breakfast and asked some friends to go for a swim. Tom and another friend agreed and they went down to the water.

“Joey started running and taking off his clothes. We started to run af- ter him,’ he recalled.

They followed Joey into the water, trying to catch up with him. They lost sight of him and called out his ue BaNToR

“Joey never replied,’ recalled Mr Verling.

Another friend, Sean Rooney, said Joey invited him to go swimming at around 4am. Sean initially declined,

but then agreed and they headed for the beach.

“Joey was taking off all his clothes as he went down the steps,’ he re- called.

He said he called him and waited in the water for some time, until the lifeguards told him to get out of the water.

The inquest heard that John Logan was out walking along the seashore at around 7.15pm on the Bank Holiday Monday. He noticed a male’s body in the water, face down. Doolin Rescue retrieved the body a short time later.

Garda John Cleary of Lahinch told the inquest that after the alarm was raised, the search for Mr Wall con-

tinued throughout the Bank Holiday Monday. The beach in Lahinch was deserted that day, apart from the search party, he said.

Pathologist Dr Peter Fawl carried out an autopsy on Mr Wall’s body on August 7 last. Death, he said, was due to asphyxia, secondary to drowning.

Coroner Isobel O’Dea said _ that, based on the evidence she had heard, the appropriate verdict was one of misadventure.

‘That unfortunately sums up the sad circumstances concerning Joseph’s death. It was a bank holiday week- end and there were a lot of people in Lahinch. It was a very sad and tragic end to the weekend,” she added.

ENNIS General Hospital Develop- ment Committee are preparing to elect a new committee although it is not yet known if chairman Peadar McNamara is to step down.

The long-serving member of the committee said he was fighting an internal battle and had not yet decid- ed if he would be vacating the chair.

The committee, which campaigns for the retention of 24-hour accident and emergency services at Ennis General Hospital and the reopening of the mammography unit, will hold

its annual general meeting on Mon- day, January 28.

Mr McNamara said that the meet- ing, which will be held in the Auburn Lodge, is open to the public.

“We are inviting all organisations to send a delegation and we hope to elect anew committee,” he said.

The group set up a sub-commit- tee – Clare Cancer Concern – earlier this year when it emerged that En- nis General Hospital was to lose its mammography unit.

At the end of September, the hospital committee organised a rally through the streets of Ennis protesting against

the threat to the acute hospital’s 24- hour accident and emergency service. Less than 5,000 people gathered in the square in Ennis on that Saturday afternoon in support.

Groups such as Clare People With Disabilities, Ennis Active Retire- ment, SIPTU, Shannon Aer Lingus Workers, Kildysart Agricultural Show, District Day Care Centre Clarecastle, Birth Choice Clare, Clare Sinn Fein, the INO, The Lions Club and members of Clare’s locals authorities took part in the March.

Mr McNamara is now hoping that the organisations will attend the

meeting along with the members of the public. “We hope to set up a new and revitalised committee,” he said.

When asked if he himself would be stepping down having served as chairman for a number of years he answered, “I am saying nothing.” In the meantime, he said he would con- tinue with the campaign.

Since the protest march, Mr Mc- Namara said that the group have met with Independent TD Finian Mc- Grath and the health spokespersons from the opposition benches. The eroup have also prepared a document for TDs outlining their plight.

EAST Clare politicians have called for a special meeting of their area council and want representatives from the National Parks And Wild- life service to attend.

Elected representatives say they are not comforted by the information provided at a meeting in Tulla on the proposal to include large tracts of land in the Slieve Aughty range in the Special Protection Areas (SPAs) for the endangered Hen Harrier.

The wildlife service held an infor- mation session in TJulla on Friday for people who are likely to be af- fected by the decision to make Slieve Aughty an SPA.

But local councillor, Pat Hayes(FF) who is himself a landowner in the area, said that the meeting raised as many concerns as it answered.

“It appears now that landowners will not be paid for all their land be- ing made a protection area, only for those bits of it that are mountainey and scrub. The Hen Harrier doesn’t distinguish between grassland and oul one

Cllr Hayes said he is concerned about the effect which the SPA’s may have on planning and selling sites in the future.

He is also concerned that it may af-

fect applications currently before the local authority for windfarms in the en aXes

“We’re told that it won’t affect planning yet every application which is made on the land covered by the SPA will have to be referred to the national wildlife service’, said Cllr SEM exy

“It seems that all of the national stakeholders have signed up to this, farming organisations, Coillte, for- estry Services.

‘“They’ve all singed up to it except the real stakeholders – the landown- ers”, Cllr Hayes said.

He added that he wants to see pay- ments made on all lands covered the protection order and not just tracts of those lands.

Earlier in the week, councillors at- tending a meeting of the Scariff area committee of Clare County Council asked their offices to find a date for a special meeting to discuss the is- sue and for representatives of the wildlife service to be invited to that meeting.

In information supplied to mem- bers of the Scariff area committee, the wildlife service said that ac- tivities such as turf cutting, existing farming or forestry activities, con- struction of private houses or farm infrastructure.

ONE of Clare’s largest credit unions has said it proposes to pay its mem- bers the same dividend they earned last year, despite predictions of slashed earnings on shares.

The ACCA (Association of Char- tered Certified Accountants) is advis- ing credit union members to expect a lower dividend and loan interest re- bate this year.

Aidan Clifford, Advisory Services Manager, ACCA Ireland, said, ““The current trend is for credit unions to be under-lent and over-invested and because investments yield a lower return than loan interest, the surplus

available for distribution in many credit unions will be lower this year.”

He added, “A number of credit un- ions have also been hit with invest- ment losses from perpetual bonds and other bonds and a generally un- derperforming stock market, adding to the downward pressure on divi- dends.”

All credit unions in Ireland have a September 30 year-end and will traditionally hold their AGM in De- cember to allow a dividend and loan rebate to be paid prior to Christmas.

Credit unions take deposits from members, lend the funds to other members and the balance of un-lent

funds are invested. The target for credit unions is to lend out €7/0 of every €100 deposited and invest the balance.

Few credit unions achieve this, with €50 being more normal and in some cases as low as €20 in every €100 being lent. Investments typi- cally yield a much lower return than interest on loans and this year invest- ment income has been hit by falling markets and losses on some unusual investment products such as “per- petual bonds”.

The Registrar of Credit Unions has barred credit unions from investing in some of these more exotic prod- ucts in the future. Mr Clifford con-

cluded, “Some credit unions are so heavily invested and so under-lent that they risk being described as dysfunc- tional savings clubs.”

But Paddy McNamara, acting man- ager of Derg Credit Union, said that the board will be proposing paying a two per cent dividend when the AGM is held in December.

‘“That’s the same rate as last year and the year before.” he said, adding that that is ““a much better rate than the or- dinary bank deposit account, which would typically pay much less on an active account. Credit union members have full access to their funds, pro- vided they are not being used to guar- antee loans and a better rate.”

AN AWARD-WINNING © north Clare-based GP said yesterday that a much better balance needed to be found in health spending so as more could be spent on primary care. According to Ballyvaughan GP, Dr Liam Glynn, 80 to 90 per cent of pa- tients in the health system are treated through primary care, yet it only re- ceives 20 per cent of health funding.

Dr Glynn — who recently scooped a medical ‘Oscar’ for a research project — said, “The balance is way wrong in terms of how the large hospitals swallow large amounts of health funding and that needs to be changed around in favour of primary care funding.”

The Government’s Primary Care Strategy was published in 2001-02 and Dr Glynn said, “It is making progress, but it could be happening

quicker.

“When you invest in primary care, it results in a more cost effective and more effective health care system.”

Dr Glynn, whose brother Fergus also operates as a GP in north Clare, said that he was thrilled to win the Irish Journal of Medical Science An- nual Research Award for his paper entitled, “Chronic Kidney Disease as a Predicator of Cardiovascular Mor- bidity and Mortality’.

Dr Glynn also scooped the award in 2005 for his research on out-of-hours doctors’ service.

The results of Dr Glynn’s research into chronic kidney disease empha- sise the importance of recognising it as a significant risk factor in patients with cardiovascular disease in the community. The research involved a database of 1,609 patients with established cardiovascular disease. The database was generated from a randomised sample of 35 general practices in the west of Ireland.

On the challenges facing rural GP practices, Dr Glynn said, “Rural GPs need to be supported by Government. There is a need to ‘follow the patient’ and Government must accept that it 1s more expensive to provide a service in rural areas.” Dr Glynn said, “The people make it worthwhile. They are tremendous folk.”

Dr Glynn qualified from Trin- ity College, Dublin in 1995 and, after finishing his vocational train- ing in General Practice in the Scot- tish Highlands, returned to Galway where he completed the Senior Reg- istrar scheme in General Practice.

In November, 2004, he was ap- pointed Lecturer in Primary Care at NUI, Galway and is currently pursu- ing an MD in cardiovascular disease in the community.

CLARE Council was yesterday ac- cused of turning its back on the lo- cal population in favour of providing mains water for new housing devel- opments.

A motion put forward by Cllr Joe Arkins (right) to attach 15 previously built houses at Nooan, Ruan onto the town’s mains system was rejected because of insufficient water being generated by the council’s treatment plant at Inchiquin.

“There is a good bit of land zoned for developments around Corofin and if a contractor wanted to tap into that tomorrow with 30 for 40 houses they could. But these local people who

have been living there for the last 20 years cannot get it. It is the most doable water scheme that I have ever seen and this is an opportunity that we should not miss.”

Cllr Arkins claimed that the house- holders were originally told that there was not enough capacity for their collection, but a large number of houses have been connected since they were refused.

“After saying that there was not enough water capacity, Clare County Council went ahead themselves and build 15 houses. Nooan, Ruan is the very heart of the old village, most of it is in the 30 mph speed limit. We can supply Tom, Dick and Harry and we can’t supply our own houses.”

Senior Executive Engineer, Hubert Newell, said that there was problem with the Corofin water system and that they had made applications for funding to carry out upgrades.

Meanwhile, Cllr Richard Nagle (FF), called for an area around Lis- cannor Pier, recently purchased by the council, to be cleaned up as a matter of urgency.

“It has been an eye sore in the area for years and we need to get the basic facilities in place as quickly as pos- sibly. The rest of the project might take years but we need to get rid of the eyesore as soon as possible. A million people travel that road every year on their way to the cliffs,” he SrAKOe

LISDOON VARNA is set to benefit significantly as a result of a four- pronged development which will cost up to €3 million.

The major plans will see the development of a 300-seater thea- tre, a new community creche, play- eround and sports pitch complete with running track.

All of the projects are being run in tandem and will be located close together, along the site of the old

town hall in the town. The plans for the theatre were spun into action some years ago when former Clare TD Sile de Valera secured more than €1 million towards the project. The project is expected to be completed early in 2008. The existing town hall will be renovated and the state- of-the-art theatre is expected to be opened next April.

“All projects are being done together and will be a huge benefit to the local community,’ said Marian O’Callaghan, who is a director of

Lisdoonvarna Failte, which owns the property on which the development will take place. The old town hall goes all the way back to Victorian mb en teh

“We are kitting it out as a fully equipped theatre. Along with the main theatre, there will be a suit- able place for conferences,” said Ms O’Callaghan.

“It will be a good asset for touring groups around Clare. We will talk to all groups so that it is a benefit not just to Lisdoonvarna, but north Clare

as such,’ she added. While Govern- ment funding will pay much of the costs, there will also be a need for lo- cal fundraising and Ms O’Callaghan is encouraging people to dig deep and help out.

“We hope to raise €120,000 over- all and now there is the chance to do it,” she said.

The organising committee has decided to organise a few major fundraisers, one of which will be a race night at the Ritz hotel on Satur- day, December 29.

A 24-YEAR-OLD Dublin woman, who was trapped on a ledge at the bottom of a 20-metre ravine for al- most six hours, was airlifted to hos- pital while five others had also to be rescued when a Saturday afternoon canyoning expedition in Clare al- most turned to tragedy.

The group of eight, from Dublin and Cork, had been canyoning along the bank of the Aille River near Doo- lin when one woman missed her step and fell several feet onto a ledge be- low. Two other members of the group risked their lives by floating along the river to a location where they

could safely reach a road and raise the alarm.

The group had set out at llam on Saturday to brave a three-kilometre stretch of the river in the townland of Ballysallagh when the incident oc- curred.

Canyoning is an adventure sport which involves walking, scrambling, climbing, abseiling and/or swim- eaneetee

The Shannon-based Coast Guard helicopter was scrambled to the scene. The chopper landed in a near- by field as members of Doolin Coast Guard were lowered on to the ledge to recover the casualty and her five friends.

A CHARGE against a Lahinch nightclub, accused of allowing an underage girl on the premises, has been dismissed. However, the judge who heard the case commended the gardai and said the State was ‘per- fectly justified’ in bringing the pros- ecution.

Before the court was Sunny Bay Limited, trading as the Claremont Hotel, accused of allowing a person under the age of 18 on the premises while an exemption was in force.

A 17-year-old girl told Ennis Dis- trict Court that she went to the Clare- mont nightclub in Lahinch at around

12 midnight on March 24 last. She was 16 at the time.

She said she was not asked for iden- tification, paid her money and “just eNO .< ore mn 0 Asked by defending solicitor Stephen Nicholas was she “absolute- ly certain” she wasn’t asked for ID, she said she was “positive.” She said on another night previous- ly she had been asked for ID and was not allowed in, as she didn’t have it. Mr Nicholas said that still photo- graphs taken from CCTV footage showed the bouncer looking down at something, as the young girl entered the premises. “We say it’s your ID,” he said. Mr Nicholas said ID was sought that night and no-one is let into the premises without showing it. Sergeant John Ryan told the court he came across a young man in the promenade carpark, shortly after | am. The young man told him he was in Lahinch to collect his 16-year- old sister who was in the Claremont nightclub. He accompanied gardai to the nightclub and located his sister. Shortly after 1.30am, Sgt Ryan spoke to the young girl in the com- pany of the manager of the nightclub, Eamon Fitzgerald. ‘She said she had no ID and wasn’t asked for it. I put that to Eamon Fit- zgerald and he said ‘All I can do 1s put my hands up,” said Sgt Ryan. However Mr Nicholas said Mr Fit- zgerald “didn’t quite say that” but the garda repeated that he did. Sergeant Michael Gallery told the court that he took a statement from Mr Fitzgerald, some time after the incident. “The way I operate the nightclub is I have two staff at the door, to check for underage, drunkenness and trou- blemakers. I operate strict rules in relation to same,’ said Mr Fitzgerald, in the statement. Mr Fitzgerald told the court that if anyone looks “any way borderline” age-wise, his staff ask for ID. Martin Mullins, who worked as a bouncer that night, told the court that “no-one gets in without ID.” He said he did not physically recall the girl showing ID on the night in question, but he had taken ID from her in the past. “Most Saturday nights we would refuse 30 girls and 20 fellas for ID,” he said. Judge Joseph Mangan said, “The State was perfectly justified in bring- ing this prosecution and the diligence of the members of the gardai is to be commended. Their diligence is noth- ing new to the court, where Lahinch is concerned. However, I am left with a doubt in the matter. I’m dismiss- yi iarea