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THERE are now more Clare teenag- ers driving to school and college than those cycling.

According to the most recent report from the 2006 Census, 134 students aged between 13 and 18 drive to school and college each day, com- pared to the 126 who cycle.

The statistics show that only 15 teenage girls out of 4,047 female students cycle each day to school or college.

Yesterday, Cllr Brian Meaney (GP) said that many of the students may be breaking the law as they would be on provisional driving licenses and must be accompanied by a qualified motorist.

“This is an issue for the gardai to enforce, but I also believe that driv- ing should be taught in schools.”

Cllr Meaney added, “From an en- vironmental point of view, it 1s not a sustainable activity to have more students cycling to school than those OTe Ybatem detour

“Schools also need to look at their own models where students must bring one large school bag and may- be a gym bag to school and that mili- tates against students cycling.”

One of Clare County Council’s top officials and county engineer, Tom Carey, 1S one of the relatively small

number of people who cycles to work Oye: uss cAU er amok ice

The census found that out of 49,138 people at work and school, only 536, or just over one per cent, go to work by bicycle each day.

The census found that out of the 49,138, 34263 or 69 per cent of peo-

ple use a car to travel to work or school each day.

Nine per cent of people walked to work or school, while eight per cent drove a lorry to work.

The figures also showed that of chil- dren aged between five and 12, only 87 out of 12,601 kids cycle to school, with 2,429 walking to school.

Mr Carey said, “I would like to see more people cycling and I try to give a lead in that area.”

Ennis Town Council recently put the county’s first cycle lane in place on the Tulla Road in Ennis and Mr Carey said that it would be wrong to conclude there were more students driving to school than cycling due to the number of cycle lanes available.

Mr Carey said that a cycling strat- egy for Ennis had recently been put in place, while a road safety working eroup in co-operation with gardai was developing cycling courses in school.

Mr Carey said that the provision of cycling lanes was not as simple as painting a line on the road.

He said, ““Guidelines and standards have to be adhered to.”

He added that a cycle trail between Shannon and Ennis geared for tour- ists has been put 1n place.

TWO Clare businesses have been named among Ireland’s top retailers at the FBD Crest Retail Awards Ex- cellence Awards 2007.

Patrick Bourke’s Menswear and Collins Jewellers were both singled out for recognition at the awards cer- emony held in Dromoland Castle on Saturday.

Patrick Bourke’s Menswear, O’Connell Square, Ennis, was a final- ist in the Best Large Store Western Region category. Collins Jewellers, meanwhile, was a finalist in the Best Small Store Western Region category.

The first Patrick Bourke’s Mens- wear opened in Kilrush in 1928. The family-run business has since ex- panded with two stores now open in Ennis, the first opened in 1996 and the second and biggest store, opened 12 months ago. Proprietor Patrick Bourke had been keen to launch a more up-market store while the other two stores would still serve the busi- eSMAWLod 0B

Employing 22 people, Bourke has two in-house tailors running the al- teration services. He also holds many in-store promotions and charity fash- ion shows. The store caters for almost 300 weddings a year.

Collins Jewellers again performed

strongly in the competition, having previously won the FCD Crest Best Small Store in the Western Region in 2005. Collins’ was also ranked among the top 50 stores in Ireland in 2006.

A family business, Collins Jewel- lers has been in the trade for the past 35 years. Spanning 1,600 sq feet and with a 30 ft shop front, Collins Jew- ellers is one of the most recognisea- ble shop fronts in Ennis.

The high-value attached to the Col- lins brand, in particular the stores- own Collins diamond, has seen busi- ness develop a strong reputation and attract shoppers from all over the eer eleas

The FBD Crest Retail Excellence Awards were established in 1997 to promote best practice standards in the Irish retail industry. It is now the largest awards programme of its type boasting over 400 entries annually.

This year, 429 stores entered awards and the competition was as intense as ever. The ceremony was hosted by RTE presenter Miriam O’Callaghan. Minister of State and Chief Whip Tom Kitt TD, presented the awards which were sponsored for the sev- enth consecutive year by FBD.

SHANNON-BASED company, Avo- cent International last year recorded a nine per cent increase in profits, according to its latest returns to the Companies Office.

The US-owned company record- ed an increase in profits from $35 million in 2005 to $38.6 million in PAU erey

This is based on turnover of $187 million, compared to $150 million in 2004, an increase of 24 per cent, while operating profit increased from $33 million in 2005 to $44 mil- lion last year.

Avocent is principally engaged in the manufacture, distribution, sales and marketing and research and de- velopment of IT solution products for the European, Middle/East, African and Asian markets.

In 2005, the company paid a divi- dend of $92 million and in Septem- ber of 2006, a further dividend of Oy Ro ne eateyee

In a statement accompanying the accounts, Avocent states that the eroup’s performance during the year “was very strong compared to the previous year’.

The accounts state, “In 2006 the

eroup further consolidated and ex- tended its R&D function in Shannon. The group’s function continues to concentrate on high growth oppor- tunities, continually investing in new product solutions, product enhance- ment and improving manufacturing IMEC E Lea ohne

In relation to the company’s future developments, the accounts state, ‘The company expects to launch new products in 2007 that will increase the group’s share of this market and reduce risk from its competitors.”

The company, which is led by one of the leading members of Atlantic Connectivity Alliance, Kieran Mc- Sweeney, occupies the flagship Shan- non Free Zone property formerly oc- cupied by Tellabs.

78 people are employed in sales, 58 in manufacturing, 33 to general and administration and 33 in Research and Development (R&D).

The accounts show that $20 million was spent on R&D, an increase of $1 million on the 2004 figure.

The accounts also show _ that $824,000 were paid to directors for management services while the ma- jority of the company’s business was done in the EU where $115 million was generated.

THIS year’s Junior Cert class at St Joseph’s Secondary School in Span- ish Point will go down as one of the best achievers in maths and science in the long history of the school.

Alongside a host of classmates with impressive scores on both subjects, Katie Curtin from Miltown Malbay secured a brace of As to help her be- come one of only a handful of stu- dents to gain a perfect 12As.

She was made to wait for her suc- cess however, having been awarded 11 As and a B in September before her grades were improved after a re- fe SEM oo)

“Any student who gets Il As is a

great result, but to get 12 is amaz- ing. There are very few schools who would even offer 12 subjects,” said school principal Mary Crawford.

“We offer a lot of different subjects to give each student the chance to experience a wide range of topics to choose from.”

Katie’s sister Clare was also the top-achieving Leaving Cert student at the school this year.

“T like trying out different things such as experiments and that. I like physics but I’m doing biology as well and that is also good. I like business as well so I might end up doing some- thing in that area,” said Katie.

The group is taught by maths and science teacher Marie Lynch.

“They’re a great gang and all of them are very good at maths. A lot of them had 90 per cent or more in their maths mocks, so it didn’t surprise me so much that they got on so well. They’re great workers, they wouldn’t have done so well if they didn’t work so hard,’ she said.

“T like Ms Lynch, she is a bril- liant teacher,’ said Geraldine Rynne from Miltown Malbay. “I like doing the experiments. Like today we are doing experiments to measure how fast something is accelerating. It’s very interesting to figure out how different things work.”

Sarah Donnelly, who received 10 As, also enjoys the class. “I really like doing the experiments and see-

ing how things work. We got to burn things in chemistry today, so that was good fun. I would really like to do something in the science area when I go to college. I’m not really sure what yet though,” she said.

“T like going at it and finding out how things work for myself. You learn more if you figure it out for yourself instead of reading it in a book. I’d like to learn more about different things and how they work,” said Sean McMahon from Kilmurry

“We all like the experiments I think. I like to try and solve prob- lem so it’s good fun. Fifth year is a lot tougher than it was in Junior Cert but I still like it,” said Siobhan Talty from Miltown.

THE PLIGHT of people applying to Clare County Council for planning permission to build homes, who fall foul of the Local Rural Person rule, was hotly debated at a meeting of the local authority yesterday.

Councillor PJ Kelly (FF) said that interpretations by planning staff was giving rise to situations whereby someone who had lived “nine years and nine months in the county can be given planning permission as a local rural person but someone who was born here and went away for the last couple of years and then came back is deemed not to be a local rural per- son’.

The councillor quoted High Court judgements against other local au- thorities which showed, he said, that planning staff were “precluded from interpreting the county development plan. It is the courts’ preserve”.

He told the meeting that in one case for which he was giving reference details to the officials, “a non-local can get planning permission in 33 days but a person whose family has been living here for four generations can’t. What interpretation resulted in those decisions?”

Meanwhile, Cllr Bernard Hanra- han (FF) raised the issue of people seeking permission who had been lo-

cal rural people but who had been re- classified as urban after the extension of town boundaries under “decisions which are outside their control.

“They have been rural people all their lives but when they want to build a house in a rural area, they are turned down because a line on a map was moved.”

Mayor of Clare, Cllr Patricia Mc- Carthy (Ind) said that the committee which had been set up to examine the issue and definition of a local rural person had been meeting regularly. They had been debating that question with the planners over the last two months and were “working very hard to come up with a solution which we can live with and which the ordinary people of Clare can live with”.

She asked Cllr Hanrahan if he would agree to defer the motion he had on the issue before yesterday’s council meeting until that commit- tee finished its debate. The council- lor agreed but said that he wanted to see a report in the near future as the issue had “caused untold suffering to people around this county”’.

Councillors told the officials at- tending the meeting that the issue of what constituted a local rural person was one with which they were faced regularly, particularly where people had fallen foul of the planning proc- ess.

THE countdown is on for underage basketball in north Clare with just three days to go to the throw-in for this year’s Lorcan O’Connor Cup.

In the three short years since the reformation of basketball in Ennistymon, the Clare Cascaders have quickly grown to a club of more than 100 young boys and girls.

‘The numbers have been increasing every year. The season starts in the first week of September and keeps go- ing on to Easter so we are very very busy,’ said Stephen Leigh of the club. “It’s a huge commitment, both from the players and the coaches, but it is going really well. Our under-12s are

undefeated at the moment and our boys teams beat the Limerick Lions in every age group when they came up to Ennistymon earlier this month.”

One of the highlights of the year is the Lorcan O’Connor Memorial Cup, which begins this Friday. This competition, organised in the mem- ory of one of the true greats of En- nistymon basketball, pits under-12s teams from within the club against each other with the final held in late December.

‘That was the highlight of our year last year. The kids are really looking forward to it. It’s a mixed under-12s tournament and is great success,” added Mr Leigh.

“We also have a very good group of

transition-year students. We wanted them to get involved, not just as play- ers, but also as coaches and referees. So five of them went off and did the Basketball Ireland coaching course and have started to coach at under- age level and in the schools.

“It’s about getting a club structure going. These kids are taking on more and more for themselves. They are showing a great interest and this shows their commitment to the club and to basketball.”

“We have six coaches and 10 peo- ple on the committee. We get fan- tastic commitment from all of them. The workload is shared and we get a lot of satisfaction out of it.”

The success of the club has also

seen the re-instigation of mini-bas- ketball for kids under the age of 10 on Saturday mornings. The sport has also spread into the local schools, with the CBS in Ennistymon seeing off a number of established basket- ball schools to win their way through to the Munster level of the Basketball Ireland U-19 league last week.

If anyone is interesting in forming a new basketball club in Clare, contact Michael O’Mahony from Basketball Ireland on 086-8112955.

THE Clare Executive of ICMSA held its North Area meeting last week at Fall’s Hotel in Ennistymon and elected Richard Deveraux as Chairman while Pat O’Donoghue of Kilshanny was elected Secretary. The meeting was addressed by one of the Association’s research officer, James O’ Mahony, on a wide range of farming issues such as the outlook for milk and beef prices, cross-com- pliance, REPS 4, Nitrates deroga- tions and the very abrupt termination of the Farm Improvement Scheme.

The election of Mr Deveraux and Mr O’Donoghue, together with the election last month of Thomas Shan- non of Lissycasey as Chairman of West Clare and Padraig Haugh of Moyasta as Secretary means _ that the Clare now only requires the East Clare area to convene and appoint its officers to fill all its positions.

The Chairman of Clare ICMSA, Martin McMahon, has said that Clare will send a large delegation to the national Annual General Meeting to be held at Limerick Racecourse on November 29.

“I’m confident we’ll be able to turn

out the usual Clare team,’ said the O’Callaghan’s Mills Farmer.

“We’re very excited about the line- up that’s been arranged for this year. Hugh Friel, the outgoing CEO of Kerry group, Tara Buckley, CEO of RGDATA and the Consumer Asso- ciation of Ireland will give presenta- tions on the question of Irish food and who get what?

‘That promises to be a very bracing debate. The afternoon will see John Moloney, CEO of Glanbia, Vincent Gilhawley of Town of Monaghan, Joe Flynn of Irish Dairy Board and Sieta van Keimpema of the Euro-

pean Milk Board give presentation on the theme of Increased Quotas – More work, Less income?

“This is a star-studded line-up of experts in the field of Irish food gen- erally and Irish dairying, in particu- lar. Any member who attends will have a much better idea of his or her business for the next 12 months after hearing these people then they would otherwise.

“The day will end with a full din- ner and a speech from Minister Coughlan. A great and productive day will be had by any member who attends.”

A TV ad that shows a road worker patting filling into a pothole with a shovel instead of re-surfacing a road has caused a major furrore in Clare County Council.

The ad is part of a series drawn up for the Irish Pride bread company un- der the slogan “Pride? You won’t find it in him, but you will in our bread”.

But the ad belittles local author- ity workers, members of the County Council claimed at the adjourned

session of their monthly meeting.

Cllr Joe Arkins called on the coun- ty manager to make a formal com- plaint about the ad to the Advertising Standards Authority.

“It’s derisory and stereotypical. We should be defending and protecting our workers at the lower end of the pay scale who do an excellent job,” he said.

Seconding Cllr Arkins’ call for a complaint to the authority, CUir Colm Curtin said the ad “is misrepresenta- tion which is totally out of date. If

anyone wants to see the quality of workmanship and dedication of our staff, they should come back to west Clare and see the job our own staff have done on the reconstruction of the bridge near Cree. It’s a testament to them.”

Cllr Michael Conway (FG) said that in addition to writing to the author- ity, the county manager should write to the Minister for the Environment, asking him to come up with funding for a counter-campaign that would show the work done by council road

staff in a positive light.

Cllr Sonny Scanlon said that it is “sad and very unfortunate for these workers, many of whom have fami- lies and already contending with the fact that they are let go before Christ- mas and for two and three months at a time. They should be on our full- time payroll.”

Other council members agreed that the ads were offensive and derisory of council workers. It was pointed out that it was all the more inappropriate as a council worker had this year lost

his life while carrying out his work.

The county manager said that he would certainly do as the members had asked. “I have on many occa- sions complimented the work being done by council workers. I have spo- ken to them and they do feel let down by negative comments. But their work is outstanding and it’s not just the ordinary day to day jobs. When it comes to things like trees blowing down in the middle of the night, they are there. We have a magnificent workforce.”

A DOOLIN man has just two days left to wait before he finds out if he will be bringing the biggest prize in Irish business franchising back to north Clare.

Derek O’Dwyer, of ActionCoach Business Coaching in Doolin, has been short-listed in the Franchisee of the Year Category at the prestigious Irish Franchise Awards 2007.

The award will be presented at a ceremony at Dublin’s Conrad Hotel this Thursday.

“We work with small and medium- sized business owners in the mid- west, helping them to improve their business through different strategies.

A lot of business owners are doing well, they know they can do even better but they don’t know how,” said Mr O’Dwyer.

“We go in and effectively teach them how to do it and then hold them accountable for the things that they know they should do but don’t do because of a variety of reasons.

“It compares very well with sports. Every sports person in the world has a coach. That coach isn’t better than the sports person but they have a different perspective.

“Ultimately every business _per- son wants to make more profit. But you can’t do that unless your team is working well and there is a good structure to the business which is

sustainable.

‘“That’s what we look at, at creating structures that continue to work when we are no longer there ourselves.”

Other finalists in Derek’s category include Michael O’Hara of Signs Express, John Dawson of Snap Print and Donnchadh McGinn of Chem- Dry.

The awards, which are sponsored by Ulster Bank, recognise excel- lence in franchising, a sector which has grown to an annual turnover to €2.099 billion in Ireland, accounting for more than 25,000 jobs.

“T have been set up here in Doolin for six years. I was the first Action- Coach to set up in Europe and now there are 200 of us all over Europe.

It’s an Australian company but it now has offices all over Europe,’ contin- ued Mr O’ Dwyer.

“It’s great to be nominated for this award. I am delighted. I have been working hard with ActionCoach to try to grow the franchise in the area and it’s working very well.”

ActionCoach Business Coaching operates nationwide with a team of 30 coaches. ActionCoach’s members work one-on-one with business own- ers and managers to help manage and grow their businesses and profit nerevaca Dae

THE IFA is once again pilling the pressure on Agriculture Mi£nister, Mary Coughlan, seeking an all out ban on Brazilian beef imports. Following the publication last week of FVO report on the standard of beef production in Brazil and a fresh outbreak of foot and mouth disease confirmed in Cyprus, IFA President says that Coughlan and EU Health and Consumer Protection Commis- sioner, Markos Kyprianou, must act to safeguard the Irish beef sector “The EU Commission has lowered Europe’s defensive barriers against Foot and Mouth disease to unac- ceptably low levels and continues to

expose the European livestock sector and Member States to unnecessary risks,” he said.

“Continuing to expose the Europe- an livestock sector and EU citizens to an unacceptable risk on foot and mouth disease is reckless and imme- diate action must be taken by Com- missioner Kyprianou to tighten up his flawed policy on FMD.”

The FMD virus in Cyprus has been confirmed as Serotype O, which is the common strain found in Brazil and other parts of South America.

Walshe also called for an all out ban on Brazilian beef following the publication of the FVO which found a number of shortcomings and defi- ciencies in the Brazilian beef sector.

The IFA President said Minister Coughlan now has evidence that Brazil still fails to meet EU require- ments.

‘The Minister must insist that EU Health and Consumer Protection Commissioner Markos Kyprianou delivers on his commitment to 1m- pose a ban on Brazilian beef in view of the fact serious deficiencies previ- ously identified by the FVO have not been corrected,’ he said.

“The FVO report had again high- lighted a litany of serious problems with the standards in Brazil. It con- cluded that as aspects of the iden- tification system were incorrectly implemented, this called into ques- tion the reliability of the 40-day and

90-day residency policy, which the Commission relies on to implement regionalisation. The FVO_ found more animals registered in the SIS- BOV database than were actually present on some farms. “

The report also found shortcomings in the vaccination procedures stating that ‘no routine controls were being carried out by the competent author- ity on holdings to ensure proper vac- cination in some states’.

The vaccination programme as rec- ommended was not been followed and thus the level of herd immunity might not be sufficient to protect against FMD. The FVO observed that the FMD virus 1s still circulat- ing in parts of Mato Gross do Sul.