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YOU’VE heard of the Chinese year of the sheep and the pig, well in agri- cultural circles at least 2008 has been branded as the International Year of the Potato.

The United Nations Food and Ag- riculture Organisation (FAQ), has taken on the task of celebrating the mighty spud, and to commemorate this initiative the Minister for Food and Horticulture at the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Trevor Sargent, this week announced funding for the FAO.

“Ireland will provide significant funding, starting with an initial pay- ment of $150,000, to support the

activities of the UN Food and Agri- culture Organisation (FAQ), which is the lead United Nations’ agency for implementation of the International Year of the Potato,” he said.

“The coming year has been desig- nated as the United Nations’ Interna- tional Year of the Potato. Throughout the world, governments, scientists, farmers and others will focus on the potential of the potato to improve food security and nutrition and to reduce hunger and poverty. Ireland is committed to play a major part in view of the fact that the potato is the third most important food crop in the (ey ule B

“Funding provided by Ireland will go to support FAO activities. Ac-

tivities will include information gen- eration and dissemination through conferences and symposia to review research policies and chart the future direction of the sector.

“This will include a major confer- ence run by the International Potato Centre in Peru in March 2008 fo- cusing on the application of potato science for the poor. It is hoped to encourage action throughout the developing world to focus on potato systems including crop yields, exten- sion training on improved varieties and production systems.”

The mighty spud has noted the central role the potato has played in Irish History. The failure of the crop due to potato blight in 1845 led to a

famine that left 1.5 million dead and a further 1 million citizens forced to emigrate.

“Irish people have a deep memory of the effects of famine on our nation. Our history means we are acutely aware of the need to focus on the po- tato and the vital role that agriculture can play in improving nutrition and supporting food security,” continued Sargent.

To mark the Year of the Potato, Ireland will also organise a national programme of events for 2008 with an emphasis on nutrition. This will include activities for schools includ- ing a primary school competition that aims to promote both the aware- ness and the growing of the potato.

The Bishop of Killaloe, Dr Willie Walsh, has raised the possibility of a sell-off of Church-owned lands across the diocese, though stressed that there will be no sudden sale.

Dr Walsh has revealed that he has initiated a consultation amongst the diocese’s priests, a diocesan pastoral council and “asked a small sub-com- mittee to look at that whole issue of how do we apply Gospel values to our property and whatever finance we may have available to us”.

After confirming that the diocese had donated 15 acres of land for the

development of a daycare centre and housing for the elderly in Ennis, Dr Walsh said that the Church “is not in the business of profit-making”.

After giving away lands valued at €10 million to provide services for Ennis’s elderly population, Dr Walsh said, “I am perfectly sure that the Church holding a lot of land for itself is not in any way part of the Gospel.

“What I’m sure of is that it has an obligation to act responsibly. We are not going to be disposing of all the property suddenly.

“There is the whole question of the employment of lay people in our Church with the diminishing number

of priests.

“We have already increased the number of lay people, but there will be more lay people employed by the Church. Some of the finance needed for that will be got from the sale of some property.

“It was a past generation that passed this land onto us. We have an obliga- tions to future generations to in some way pass on some of that property to future generations.

“At the moment, the discussions are in initial stages, but I would visualise that it would be ongoing and these people would be regularly asked for their views and those views would be

fed into the diocesan trust who are ultimately responsible for decision- making in this area.

“One would need the wisdom of Solomon in some ways to be sure to know what to do in particular situ- ations.

“I haven’t a fully formed view of the long term and I would prefer to wait and let people mull over these things, discuss them and look at the continuing needs of the diocese.

“If someone 20 years ago decided to sell off all the property, we would have a serious difficulty in employ- ing more people nowadays,’ Bishop Walsh added.

AS MINISTER for Finance, Brian Cowen, cleared the way for a miserly budget this week with talk of ‘belt- tightening’, his cabinet colleague Agriculture Minister, Mary Cough- lan, was busy painting a rosy picture for Irish farmers come December 5.

Speaking following the publication of the 2008 Pre-Budget Outlook by the Tanaiste last week, Coughlan welcomed the proposed provision of €1.722 billion for the Department of Agriculture.

In addition, €110 million is being provided for the fisheries which, for technical reasons, 1s included in the Pre-Budget Outlook under the Vote for the Department of Communica-

tions, Marine and Natural Resourc- oe

“The Pre-Budget Outlook repre- sents a new approach to the annual Estimates procedure. The Outlook is drawn up on the basis of Exist- ing Level of Service and on Budget Day, 5th December, the Tanaiste will present any budgetary additions to- gether with his revenue proposals for 2008,” she said.

“It makes a great deal of sense to deal with expenditure and taxation in a single exercise. The allocation of €1.722 billion in the Pre-Budget Outlook was the practical expression of the Government’s commitment to the development of a modern, ef- ficient and sustainable agri-food in- dustry.

“The Minister said that the fund- ing reflected the Government’s and my own objectives for the sector as outlined in the various policy state- ments and agreements, including the National Development Plan, To- wards 2016 and the Rural Develop- ment Programme, 2007-2013.”

Apart from this voted expenditure, the Department of Agriculture will also disburse almost €1.4billion in EU direct payments and market sup- ports in 2008.

A number of areas have already been earmarked for substantial fund- ing including €17Imillion for food safety, animal health and welfare and plant health and more than €1billion for a range of measures under the Rural Development Programme and

for capital investment in the dairy, beef, sheepmeat and farm sectors.

Of this billion euro some €375mil- lion has been allocated for the Rural Environment Protection Scheme, €257million for Income Support in Disadvantaged Areas, €68million for Early Retirement and Installa- tion Aid Schemes, €12I] million for investment in the Forestry Sector and Bio-Energy and €183million for schemes of on-farm investment, 1n- cluding Farm Waste Management.

Along with this some €27million is provided to support the efforts of An Bord Bia to promote Irish pro- duce in overseas markets which, the Minister said, is more vital than ever in the face of increasing competition from non EU producers.

IS IT A BIRD? Is it a plane? No, it’s Superman and his mates, and they’re pushing a engine-less Mini Cooper through the streets of Gort.

No, it’s not a scene for Tim Bur- ton’s latest film, instead this Friday two teams of local lads will dress up and push two Mini-Coopers through the streets of Gort.

This daring deed, which will see a team of heroes race a team of vil- lains, is all in aid of this year’s Peo- ple in Need telethon.

“It started with myself and Ross O’Donnell, a guy I work with. We were having a bit of a laugh and we said that we would do something for the ‘Telethon,’ said Brian Bourke

(hero).

“The idea came about pushing the two mini-cars. The idea went from there and we decided that we would have a bit of craic with it and dress up. I don’t know where the idea of the super heroes came from but I Wee ULM oom OMA RETIT OLA

“We are going to have a good team and a bad team, good versus evil, and we will raise as much money as we can.”

The teams will race from the Gort hurling field on the Tubber Road and are expected to arrive in the square in Gort at 4.30pm this Friday, Octo- ber 26.

“Oh ya, it’ll be a competitive race. We should have five or six heroes and villains on each team in full cos-

tume. It will be competitive, there is no doubt about that. We will have Su- perman and Spider-man on the good team and the Joker and the Penguin on the evil side.

“There is a guy in the town called Seamus Daly and he has a number of Mini Coopers and he is going to give us two of them. One of them is driveable but I don’t think there is an engine in the other one so that will be lighter to push, I think the heroes will be pushing that one.”

The heroes and villains will be raising money for the people in need dev uelUtcaam aslo bupe-leen

“There will be plenty of buckets around on the day for people to do- nate money. We have cards and buck- ets in the local businesses around the

town and people can just call into them if they want to donate money,” continued Bourke.

“The money raised locally around the area stays local which should be an incentive to donate. We would like to thank the people from the Tel- ethon for all their support, the Gardai who are helping us and blocking off the streets for the race and the people of Gort for all the support they have given up.’

THE Minister for Transport, Noel Dempsey has stated that any Govern- ment protection of Heathrow slots would be regarded by the European Commission as a special right, which would be challenged before the Eu- ropean Court of Justice.

The minister has also stated that the Aer Lingus withdrawal of its Shan- non-Heathrow service “does not re- quire that a fundamental review of our aviation policy be undertaken or that a Green Paper be published”.

He said, “The main objective is to ensure that the three State airports have sufficient capacity to respond to the growth opportunities of a com- petitive airline sector and to provide vital international access.

“In fulfilling this objective, it is pro- posed to establish Cork and Shannon as independent airports, once finan- cial and operational readiness has been demonstrated under the State Airports Act 2004. In addition, the six regional airports have a key role to play in promoting regional devel- opment.

“The further key components of our strategy are to ensure that our aviation safety and security policies comply with, or exceed, the highest international standards and that the policy framework for air navigation services ensures that the require- ments of airlines for efficient rout- ings and the avoidance of delays are met as far as possible without com- promising safety.

In response to a second question from Limerick East deputy, Kieran O’Donnell, Minister Dempsey was unable to give a date as to when Gov-

ernment funding will be put in place for the full implementation of the €53 million mid-west tourism and economic development plan.

On the decision by BMI not to proceed with a Heathrow link from Shannon, Minister Dempsey said, “The decision by British Midland that it would not commence a Shan- non-Heathrow service was made public on October 4 and reported in the media the following day. I was made aware two days previously, on October 2, that the decision was likely to be negative.

THE details of this year’s winter Cultural and Heritage Programme at Coole Park will be announced later today at a ceremony at the Coole Park Visitor Centre in Gort.

The Friends of Coole will host the official launch of the programme, which has been compiled in part- nership with the National Parks and Wildlife Services, Galway County Council, Galway Rural Develop- ment, Galway Education Centre and Failte Ireland West.

Each year the Coole Park Cultural Programme aims to provide a series of quality multi-disciplinary arts and

heritage events to as wide local au- dience as possible in a site that has national and international cultural Status.

This is the second cultural pro- gramme to take place in Coole this year following the highly success- ful spring programme earlier this year. Both the winter and spring programmes endeavour to showcase locally based artists and provide lec- tures on locally based topics.

The programme was initiated in 2005 on a pilot basis and it’s success to date is largely due to the strong partnership of agencies and active community involvement in its organ- isation, delivery and support.

This year’s winter programme will focus on integrating arts, culture and education with a series of events for adults, young people and families. Drama, heritage, music and poetry will feature in the new programme of events taking place between now Neem @isbuneettane

Coole Park is a nature reserve and former home of Lady Gregory. The park contains extensive woodlands and a series of turloughs with six kil- ometers of signposted nature trails plus a formal walled garden.

The walled garden contains an au- tograph tree that is engraved with initials of many of the leading fig- ures of the Irish Literary Revival

who were personal friends of Lady Gregory including William Butler Yeats, Edward Martyn, George Ber- nard Shaw, John Millington Synge and Sean O’Casey.

Coole Park is part of the Coole- Garryland Complex Special Area of Conservation and the whole of the park is designated a special protec- tion area for birds.

The winter Cultural and Heritage Programme 2007 will be launched today, Tuesday, October 23 at the Coole Park Visitor Centre in Gort at 3.30pm. Details of the winter pro- gramme brochure will be available at the ceremony later today. All are welcome to attend.

MAYOR of Clare, Patricia McCa- rthy left the podium at Saturday’s Save Our Slots Rally to thunderous applause, having told Aer Lingus they “can’t give the two fingers to the mid-west’.

Mayor McCarthy was among a list of speakers who castigated Aer Lin- gus and the Government for the deci-

sion to move the Heathrow slots from Shannon to Belfast.

“My message is simple,” she told the gathered crowds. “Mr Mannion and Aer Lingus, you have made a big mis- take. You have given the two fingers to the Government but you won’t give the two fingers to the mid-west.”

She said that Aer Lingus was ped- dling a “myth and a lie that seat sales are going well in Belfast and the

Government ministers are peddling the same myths and lies.”

Her message for Dublin was, “We are not whingers in the mid-west. We have a problem and we’re getting up and doing something about it. Every- one recognises the injustice of what is happening except the elected Govern- ment. They have the solving of it. Ber- tie 1s the Great Fixer – let him come down here and fix our problem.”

Atlantic Connectivity Alliance’s Michael Vaughan lashed the Gov- ernment for having failed to prepare for the Aer Lingus decision. ““We in business believe there is an answer for those who fail to prepare – it’s a P45 and there are addresses in Dublin I would like to send those to today.”

He added that people should “re- member what has been achieved here. Remember the Flying Boats, remember the first Atlantic crossing. Remember Shannon Development and the Shannon Free Zone and give notice to those who have consigned us in the mid-west to the scrap heap – we will rise again!”

Deputy John Cregan, the only Fian- na Fail TD on the podium, was booed as he told the crowd of almost 10,000 people that he had “listened to your anger and | will be reporting back to the Taoiseach on the importance of this issue to the Shannon region.”

Also on the podium to speak in sup- port of the campaign were the Mayor of Limerick, Ger Fahy and the Ca- thaoirleach of Clare County Council, Cllr Kevin Sheahan.

They were joined by Fine Gael TD, Kieran O’Donnell; Labour TD, Jan O’Sullivan; Impact official, Andy Pike; SIPTU’s Michael Halpenny; Limerick business woman and model agency director, Celia Holman-Lee; and former Munster and Ireland rug- by hero, Peter Clohessey.

A ROAD fatality is unavoidable at a dangerous junction in Shannon, un- less steps are taken to address traffic eyuele) (othe

That was the stark warning uttered by local councillor Tony Mulcahy (FG), who spoke of his concern re- lating to the Aidan Park junction in SJerVeveeyee

He said last week that there had been four accidents at the junction

over the previous seven days.

“We are going to have to come up with a permanent solution. Someone is going to be killed there. There are peak times, morning, lunch and six o’clock in the evening. We have to come up with a freeflow system. It has to be resolved sooner rather than later,’ he said.

Senior Executive Engineer Donal Hogan responded by suggesting a short-term solution.

“In the short term, we can see what

improvements we can make with traf- fic lights. There are no opportunities to put in extra phases on the traffic lights that are there, but we can get a larger traffic controller, which would allow improvements,” he said.

“It is the right turn movements that is causing the problem,” he added.

Cllr Mulcahy replied, “The Station Road in Ennis is one of the busiest roads in the county, if not the busi- est. There are no lights there, but the traffic flows through. There is talk of

roundabouts. Basically it is a lump of tarmac in the middle of the road.”

Cllr Gerry Flynn (Ind) said the question of improving existing traf- fic lights has been mentioned before.

“T’ve heard that before, about the frequency of lights, but that won’t change the amount of traffic com- ing through. Maybe you could get the road section to draw up some proposal for the Aidan Park area and then let us try and come up with the funding.”

KILMIHIL farmer and Clare IFA Farm Forestry Chairman, Martin Murphy, was last week awarded a Merit Award at the 20th annual RDS/Forest Service Irish Forestry Awards at Castletown House in Cel- bridge.

Murphy was presented with the award by Mary Wallace, Minister of State at the Department of Ag- riculture, Fisheries and Food, with responsibility for Forestry, at a cer- emony on Thursday evening.

The annual Irish Forestry Awards, which are sponsored by the Forest Service of the Department of Ag- riculture, Fisheries and Food, are organised by the RDS which has a long association with Irish forestry and agriculture.

Martin took the merit award in the Farm Forestry category with John McCartan from Kells taking first place.

The Bio-diverse Forest/Woodlands category was won by The Mission- ary Society of St Columbian in Meath with the merit award going to Joe Barry from Kildare.

Greenbelt Ltd from County Cavan was awarded the judges prize for their outstanding work while the special award, in recognition of an outstanding contribution to Irish Forestry, was made to John McCa- rthy of None So Hardy nurseries.

Meanwhile, 1n his role as Clare IFA Farm Forestry Chairman, Martin last week called on Clare REPS farmers to examine the benefits of the new Forest Environmental Protection Scheme (FEPS) which is available to farmers establishing new forests on REPS farms.

The scheme, in which forests will oLoMMeNI Elo) NL elec MmmyalNe Mm oOh ab KO)IDOsTo ILE-DI objectives which will go beyond those of the regular afforestation scheme, will pay farmers up to €200 per hectare over and above the ordi- nary forestry premium for a five year ererulOXee

The payment will compensate farm- ers for the REPS payments that they would normally forgo when transfer- ring REPS land into forestry.

“T hope that this scheme will en- courage REPS farmers to consider

planting some land – the FEPS pay- ment along with the 15 per cent in- crease in premium which IFA fre- cently secured through partnership, should make forestry more attractive to farmers who wouldn’t have con- sidered it as an option in the past,” he said.

The chairman warned farmers to carefully compare the merits of both FEPS and the regular afforestation scheme, “the afforestation scheme

may be more appropriate and ben- eficial over the longer term on many je vuseee

Against this background the IFA hosted a farm forestry meeting in the Auburn Lodge Hotel last night.

“Farmers who are considering planting should come to receive in- formation on increases in planting grants and premiums and the new FEPS Scheme,” he said.

‘Farmers who have already planted

should also come to get details on other forestry schemes and an update on the Clare Wood Energy Project, which will create a market for thin- nings in the county.”

A YOUNG Clooney athlete’s vi- brant smile will light up the stage this weekend, when she receives a Clare Community Games All-Star.

12-year-old Aisling Corbett struck gold in handball at the Community Games in Mosney, during the sum- mer. She was on the Clooney/Quin team of five, which scooped the prestigious accolades, in the under- 13 category.

Aisling’s all-round enthusiasm for sport will see her winning her first All-Star and is eagerly anticipating the awards night.

“IT am excited, definitely. I will probably be nervous on Friday night though, as loads of my friends are coming,’ said Aisling, who referred to her gold medal win as “class”.

The award for handball 1s particu- larly pleasing, given that she just started playing the sport three years

ago. She regularly plays at the local handball alley in Clooney.

She is also a keen competitor in camogie, ladies football and run- ning, while off the sportsfield she en- joys playing the piano and fiddle.

She plays under-14, under-16 and minor camogie with Clooney/Quin, while she played with the local un- der-12 hurling team this year.

She also plays soccer, ladies foot- ball and camogie with St Flannan’s College, Ennis, where she is a first year student.

So busy is Aisling that she rarely has a free evening. Her proud mum Yvonne is her ‘taxi driver’, ferry- ing her around to the various sports events.

Yvonne says Aisling has been a keen sporting enthusiast since the age of just seven.

“She started playing football and camogie at the age of seven. She still plays and loves all sports. She loves

team sports. Aisling would be very sociable and outgoing. She always goes out and plays really hard for her team. She is very determined and is always willing to play,” she said.

Sport is a dominant feature in the Corbett family. Her father John is a keen GAA enthusiast and trains vari- ous teams. Her sister Saidhbhe (13) and brother Tadhg (11) also enjoy playing sport, while her younger sis- ter Roisin (6) has just started gym- ERO Leh

Aisling is one of 22 young athletes from the Shannon region who will honoured at the Community Games awards next Friday night.

The others are Orlaith Duggan, Clooney/Quin, (athletics); Thomas Dineen, Shannon (basketball); Laura McMahon, Newmarket-on-Fergus (camogie); James Danagher, Shan- non (chess); Karl Fitzmaurice, Shan- non (chess); Kelly Finnegan, Sixmi- lebridge. Kilmurry (culture corner);

Paula Loughnane, Quin/Clooney (cycling); Daniel Clair, Shannon (football); Naomi Lorrigan, Quin/ Clooney (handball); Keith Hogan, Quin/Clooney (olympic handball); Cormac O’Neill, Cratloe (tennis); Conor Cahill, Sixmuilebridge/Kil- murry (hurling); Jason O’Leary, Quin/Clooney (pitch and putt); Ciara Hallissey, Cratloe (rounders), Chloe Wars Ssixmuilebridge/Kilmurry (rounders); Noel Purcell, Sixmile- bridge/Kilmurry (rounders); Toni Lagan, Shannon (soccer); Daire Kel- ly, Quin/Clooney (indoor soccer); Eimear Wolfe, Sixmilebridge/Kil- murry (Swimming); Shauna Kerin, Sixmilebrige/Kilmurry (variety) and Stephen O’Dea, Sixmilebridge/Kil- murry (variety).