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THE concluding stages have been reached at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court in the trial of a Clare man for allegedly sexually abusing two of his daughters.

The 36-year-old accused has plead- ed not guilty to 11 counts of sexual

assault on two of his daughters on dates between September 2001 and December 2004 in a County Tipper- ary town. It 1s day-13 of the trial. Prosecuting counsel, Ms Una Ni Raifeartaigh BL, said in her closing address that the case in relation to one of the girls would have collapsed in view of her not giving direct evi-

dence of being abused.

Ms Ni Raifeartaigh, however, said the prosecution invited the five wom- en and seven men the jury to find the accused guilty of these charges aris- ing out of what the girl told a child psychiatrist in several interviews which were videotaped and shown in court.

She noted that in these interviews the child had clearly indicated under no pressure at all that she had been interfered with on many occasions Wa iomrlenoe

This was the first instance since its enactment that section 16 of the Criminal Justice Act 2006 was used to admit a video recording of such

an interview as direct evidence in a CHueneveerNmeurue

Garda Lorraine Fahy gave evidence of observing all the interviews seen by the jury and that what was shown in court was an accurate record of what happened at them.

The trial continues before Judge Desmond Hogan.

THE 14th annual Ennis Trad Festival kicks off this week and organisers are hoping that a bumper programme will attract big crowds.

This year’s event takes place from November 8 to 12 across numerous venues. An intensive programme features free day and night sessions with afternoon, evening and night concerts, recitals, singing, work- shops, presentations, CD launches and the ever-popular Trad Disco.

The legendary accordion player and composer Finbar Dwyer will Open the concert programme on Thursday, November 8. Finbar, who recently returned to public perform- ance after a break of 17 years, will

be accompanied by Brian McGrath. On Friday night Four Men and a Dog will unleash their highly energetic repertoire on the festival.

The band comprises Cathal Hayden (fiddle), Donal Murphy (accordion), Gino Lupari (bodhran, vocals), Ger- ry O’Connor (banjo) and Kevin Do- herty (guitar, vocals).

Workshops dominate Saturday’s events with classes for beginners, intermediate and advanced level given by the some well-known names ThA Mpa el Utss Come: baXe MOE-bO(Gos

A new addition to last year’s festi- val was the Trad-themed table quiz, which will test knowledge of trad musicians, records, CDs and trad triviality.

This year will see the presentation

of the Ennis Trad Festival Gradam Ceol to concertina player Sonny Murray. Sonny, from Knockalough, Kilmihil, is one of the many fine con- certina players from the area such as Solus Lillis, Bernard Sullivan, Tom McCarthy and 2005 Gradam recipi- ent Tom Carey.

Sonny lives in Ennis and has had a major influence on the Ennis music scene. This presentation is a fitting compliment to a man regarded as a master of the concertina.

A new feature of this year’s festival is the Ard Gasce na mBuinte Senior Ceili Band competition, which will be adjudicated by a panel of four adjudicators and an audience. Some of the best bands in Ireland and abroad such as The Thatch, Tribes

and Ceolteor1 na Mainstreach will compete. There will be many CDs launched this year including artists such as Kane O’Rourke and Geral- dine Bradley.

The guiding ethos for organisers since the festival’s inception has been to bring musicians of all generations and styles to Ennis to share their tunes, songs and steps in a relaxed session environment.

The festival committee has pur- posefully organised the sessions to allow opportunities for artists to per- form with others that they wouldn’t normally get to meet. Accordingly, a great social dimension is always present at this festival.

CLARE County Council has ex- pressed “a number of very serious concerns” over plans for a €25 mil- lion housing development in south east Clare.

Earlier this year, Greenband Invest- ments lodged plans with the council for a 103 housing development ex- tension to what is already in place at Westbury, Athlunkard near the Clare-Limerick border.

The proposal has attracted a large number of objections from local

residents and now the council has re- sponded to the residents’ concerns.

In a request for a large raft of new information on the plan, the coun- cil has requested that revised plans be submitted, but, in a move that will disappoint local residents, has pointed out that the density of the development is not high enough and that additional homes will need to be included.

However, the council has also re- quested that the developers submit an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) as part of the further informa-

tion required.

In its request, the council states that it “has a number of very serious concerns in relation to the proposed development and it not favourably disposed to the development as pro- posed.

‘The concerns of the council relate to the design and layout of the devel- opment as proposed, the lack of mix of housing types and design, the ef- fect the proposed development will have on traffic safety at this location, the residential amenities of existing residents and the lack of provision of

community facilities and open spac- es in the existing Westbury estate.”

The council goes on: “The con- cerns arise in particular to the lack of community facilities to provide for the number of existing and proposed OM CAUDDANSAc MAUI ODEO MOO CoMon ie: Nome

The council has ordered a revised layout providing for a better sense of place and revised housing designs incorporating a “much better’ mix of housing types and styles.

“You are advised that due to the scale and nature of existing permit- ted development within the West-

bury estate, no further large scale de- velopment can be permitted without the submission of a master plan to provide for the comprehensive devel- opment of the entire Westbury estate to provide for appropriate land uses, including residential uses, public Open spaces, community facilities, services and road layouts.”

The developers have also been told to submit a Traffic Impact Statement (TIS).

A decision from the council on the development is not now expected un- til sometime next year.

IT TOOK Anthony Kelly just a “couple of minutes” to show James Martin Cahill how to use a gun at his Kilrush home, Cahill claimed in the Central Criminal Court in Cloverhill on Monday.

However, Mr Kelly’s _ barrister, Michael O’Higgins S.C., pointed out that this was not what Cahill had told

eer

“In your first account, you said it could have been up to an hour. In your second account, you said at least half an hour,” said Mr O’Higgins. Cahill replied, “It was only a couple of minutes. He showed me how to use the gun.”

Counsel asked him why did he give a different account to gardai. Cahill replied, “I wasn’t sure at the time. It

only took a couple of minutes.”

Mr O’Higgins said Cahill alleged that when he went to Anthony Kelly’s house, the latter phoned Joseph Kel- ly, who arrived five minutes later.

“He told the gardai that Joseph Kel- ly went off to retrieve the weapon. That took about 25 minutes.

‘That puts you in Anthony Kel- ly’s house half an hour,’ said Mr O’ Higgins. Cahill replied, “It wasn’t

derclan le) sree

He said Anthony Kelly showed him how to use the gun inside the house. There were some discussions outside the house but he was not really sure what about. Cahill said he was “cer- tain” he was in Kilrush with another man in a car that day.

“It could be on the camera going into Kilrush by the Garda station,’ he told the court.

Counsel said, “why do I get a ter- rible sinking feeling everything is going to be all vague now with times and places?”’

Cahill replied, “I’m not sure about times”. Cahill rejected a claim by counsel that he was “obsessed” with euns. Mr O’Higgins said changes in Cahill’s evidence came out “in a hap- hazard manner”.

The trial continues today.

SHANNON-based industrial dia- mond manufacturing company Ele- ment Six Ltd increased the size of its business last year by almost 20 per Cone

According to accounts filed to the Companies Office, the company — whose principal activity is the manufacture and sale of industrial diamonds — also returned to profit last year after recording a loss of $9 million in 2005.

The accounts show that Element Six recorded a profit before tax in 2006 of $2 million. The company — formerly de Beers — increased its turnover from $279 million to $331 million in 2006.

According to the accounts the com- pany had a gross profit of $160 mil- lion up on the $131 million in 2005.

During 2006, the company an- nounced 75 job losses as part of a restructuring programme with two- thirds of the redundancies coming from support staff, and the balance coming from production operations.

The accounts show that the numbers employed at the facility at the end of 2006 was 580 — up from the 567 em- ployed at the end of 2005. Staff costs in 2006 came to $43 million. How-

ever, sales and administrative costs have significantly increased.

The costs of sales increased from $123 million to $147 million and administrative costs went up 67 per cent from $74 million to $124 mil- |bTeyee

The company paid a dividend of $89 million in 2004, however, no dividend was paid last year.

The company supplies products all over the world and the markets main- ly served with industrial diamond and related products are the United States of America, China, Japan and all countries within the European Union.

The statement accompanying the accounts show that “currently the company is investing in continuing research and development into new products and technologies and it is hoped to increase market share and profitability in the foreseeable fu- ture.

“Taking into account Element Six’s long and established history in the manufacture of industrial diamonds, it is expected that the company will at least retain its market share in the foreseeable future.”

The company has no major devel- opments planned for the manufactur- ing side of the business.

UP to 15 books of evidence which are due to be served for criminal tri- als have been lost — they were inad- vertently deleted from a computer in the State Solicitor’s office in Ennis. The “human error” was made by a

Staff member in the office, who was in the process of creating a back-up of files on a computer.

An incorrect key was accidentally hit and the loss was incurred 1m- mediately. The computer was sent to Dublin in an effort to retrieve the data. While some indexes have been

recovered, the books of evidence have been lost and will have to be reassembled.

COUNTY Councillors from the Kil- rush area are to discuss again the proposed extinguishment of a right of way through Doonbeg Golf Club at Caherfeenick Cree, amid claims that the elected representatives have reneged on a previous agreement to postpone any decision until after an upcoming high court judicial review.

In a heated meeting last evening, the members were told by Clare County Council’s_ solicitor, John Shaw, that any decision they made on the proposal to hand over a right of way to Doonbeg Golf Club Limited in exchange to alternative access to the beach would have “no effect” on the judicial review.

The judicial review taken by the golf club against An Bord Pleanala relates to claims by the golf club that

the planning appeals board acted outside its jurisdiction.

During last evening’s meeting, while councillors often resorted to raised voices and accused each oth- er of making personal attacks, the county solicitor also advised that, if

the high court upholds the decision of An Bord Pleanala, he has been in- structed to prosecute.

In February of this year, the Kil- rush councillors agreed to postpone any decision on the right of way until after the review.

Cllr Tom Prenderville (FF) pro- posed that this agreement signed by the councillors would stand until Doonbeg Golf Club is “compliant with all planning conditions” relat- ing to developments at the club, has “removed and dismantled all unau- thorised developments” and all par- ties involved are consulted.

Cllr Pat Keane (FF) offered an amendment to the motion that dis- cussions on the right of way be de- ferred until the December meeting of the councillors.

Cllr Madeleine Taylor Quinn asked what would happen at the December discussion and did he expect a deci- sion to be made.

Three councillors – Christy Curtin (Ind), Oliver Garry (FG) and chair- man Bill Chambers (FF) – supported Cllr Keane’s amendment.

Cllr Taylor Quinn (FG) did not vote,

explaining to her colleagues that she understood the meeting was called so that they could get legal advice and no decision was to be made.

Cllr Prenderville and Cllr PJ Kelly (FF) voted against the amendment and asked councillors Keane and Curtin if they were “wriggling out” of the February agreement.

Cllr Keane argued that the council had a right to discuss the matter.

“What is the status of that docu- ment then?” asked Cllr Prenderville.

“Your signature 1s worth nothing so,” Clir Kelly told councillors Keane and Curtin across the table.

“We have done nothing to enhance public confidence here today. We have wriggled like worms out of an agreement,” said Cllr Prenderville.

THE majority of the 200 Polish workers at the centre of an indus- trial row at the ESB power station at Moneypoint are to remain employed elo Kon

The Poles will continue to work on the mult-million euro environmental changes being made at the plant.

The former ZRE Katowicz employ- ees voted unanimously to accept the settlement terms of their dispute with the ESB, its main contractor Lentjes and the subcontractor ZRE Katowicz (Ireland) Construction Limited.

The Polish subcontractor left the workers, all members of the Tech- nical Engineering and _ Electrical Union, with up to six weeks pay in arrears. It has now gone into liquida- tion.

All of the workers involved have now been offered jobs with the main contractor, Lentjes, at the Money- point site or with other contractors on site including the UK based com- pany AMEC which 1s taking over the ZRE contract.

Lentjes has made arrangements to make hardship payments worth about 50 per cent of the total due to the workers this week.

The State Insolvency Fund is to provide separate payments arising out of the inability of ZRE Katow- icz (Ireland) Construction Limited to meet its liabilities to the workers.

TEEU General Secretary Desig- nate Eamon Devoy said, “There are jobs available for all of our members who want them in Ireland and we ex- pect the uptake to be very high.

“We have also secured jobs with

ZRE Katowicz in Poland for those who wish to return home but most of our members are expected to take up the Irish offers.

‘Thanks to the steadfastness of our Polish members, the solidarity of our other members in the ESB power station at Moneypoint, who were ready to act in their support and the assistance of the Labour Relations Commission, we have managed to achieve a happy ending to a dispute that could have ended very differ- ently,” he said.

“T have no doubt that if these work- ers had not been in a trade union they would have received no arrears, pen- sion contributions or other payments to which they are legally entitled.”

The workers had all been employed on the €384 million environmental retro-fit at Moneypoint.

ANIMAL rescue services have been working overtime this Hallowe’en to help pets who have bolted in terror of fireworks.

Clare dog warden, Frankie Coote said that this had been one of the busiest seasons ever and in just two nights last week, he dealt with 30 dogs that had lost their way in fright.

“It just gets busier every year. I worked through the night on Hallowe’en and Hallowe’en doesn’t just last for one night anymore. There’s nearly a whole month of it, with fireworks being let off and bon- fires being lit every weekend in Oc- tober.”

Stray dogs are still being brought in to the pound and Mr Coote is doing all he can to re-unite them with their owners.

“We’ve got about half of the ani- mals back to their homes but there are still a lot of dogs whose own- ers we haven’t found. We would ask people whose pets have gone miss- ing to contact us – we can’t get your dog back to you if we don’t know it’s TOD Estoy 0 roa

Good weather has exacerbated the dog warden’s difficulties as people have more opportunities to be out-

doors, letting off fireworks.

While most animals are acciden- tally strayed, having bolted in fright at an exploding rocket, one of the more sinister practices of Hallowe’en is for owners to abandon their pets under the guise of them having strayed.

“Some people use the night as an excuse to dump pets and then they are brought in to us.

“It’s a terrible thing to do but there are people who will do that,” he said.

The animals taken in by the dog warden vary from thoroughbreds to cross breeds. Some people who find animals keep them in their homes until the original owner has been found while other dogs are brought straight to the pound.

In the run up to Hallowe’en, pet owners were warned to keep their pets indoors to stop them running away or worse, being snatched by people with cruelty in mind.

“When an animal is lost, it’s very important that owners contact us so that we can help them look for it. We may already have the dog but we can’t keep animals indefinitely so we would appeal to people to contact us as soon as possible,” he said.

Frankie Coote can be contacted on 087-6225253.

MAKE the new Northern Distribu- tor Road big enough to solve grid- lock in east Clare – that was the message to the Clare and Limerick County Council’s from an elected representative for the area. Councillor Cathal Crowe said that he wants the two local authorities to give “strong consideration” to the width of carriageway for the proposed Northern Distributor Road. In June of this year the elected members of Clare County Council gave the green light to Limerick County Council to proceed to the planning stages for a section of the Northern Distributor Road from Coonagh roundabout to

Knocklisheen, Meelick.

“When this road sees the lights of day it is vital that it tackles traffic congestion in south east Clare and suburban Limerick in a meaningful way, the councillor said.

“A lot of forward thinking is re- quired if this road 1s to be effective.”

The councillor pointed to the road system built 15 years comprising of the Clonmacken Ring Road and Condell Road on the north side of Limerick City.

“These roads were built with the aim to alleviate traffic congestion in the city hinterland. The present re- ality is that this road system is one of the most congested routes in the mid-west and in order to escape the

city and suburban traffic, motor- ists are forced to take a detour on the south east Clare ‘rat-run’ from O’Briensbridge to Meelick. I feel that a wide carraigeway, or better still, a carraigway routed several miles north of suburban Limerick would best deal with the current traf- fic problems.”

John Fitzgerald has been appointed by the Government to head a task- force to deal with matters of social exclusion in the Moyross area. His report included a proposal to have a road running north of Moyross from Coonagh roundabout to the Knock- lisheen Road in Meelick.

Whilst the entire Northern Dis- tributor Road will take a number of

years to come to fruition, the section from Knocklisheen to Coonagh will be fast-tracked.

“IT hope that ultimately this road will do a lot to alleviate the daily congestion on roads in the south east Clare area. The road system from Clonlara, through Parteen and Ar- dnacrusha and on into Meelick has become a rat-run for commuters,” SO voy (our bee

He added that it is “important that all efforts are now made to build on the positive momentum around John Fitzgerald’s report. I hope that both local authorities, in conjunction with central Government, will now try to advance the entire Northern Distrib- utor Road project”.