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With the latest fear of a major Foot and Mouth outbreak starting to abate, the Minister for Agriculture and Food, Mary Coughlan TD, has announced a range of measures de- signed to protect the Irish horse in- CliamtA

Speaking during last week’s Dublin Horse Show, the minister announced that she has stepped up measures to protect Irish horse breeders with stricter enforcement and inspection of passports and identification for horses to ensure compliance with the regulations.

Coughlan said her department of- ficers will have enhanced powers in the enforcement of the EU regula- tions on identification of horses. In

addition, marts, sales yards and other premises where horses are assembled are required to ensure that horses entering their premises have valid passports. Department Inspectors will carry out random inspections to ensure compliance with these regula- tions by both horse owners and other operators in the country.

“Complhance with the new regula- tions is essential for the protection of the country’s equine population and industry, with the sport horse sector alone now worth in excess of EUR400 million and involving 53,000 peo- ple,’ said Minister Coughlan.

It 1s now just over a year since Ireland experienced its first case of Equine Infectious Anaemia (EIA), a threat that almost forced the can- cellation of last year’s Dublin horse

show.

“Of the many lessons learned, we now appreciate the necessity of hav- ing an effective identification sys- tem for horses. The department will therefore be supporting new regula- tions being drafted by the EU Com- mission to provide for a national database for horses in each Member State,” she continued.

Minister Coughlan expressed her appreciation of the bloodstock in- dustry and, particularly, the sports horse sector, for its co-operation and patience during the outbreak and said that the efficient and expeditious manner in which the outbreak had been contained and eradicated could not have been achieved but for the commitment of the Department and the industry working together for the

benefit of all involved.

The minister concluded by remind- ing horse owners, stud managers and others in the industry to remain vigi- lant and to continue to exercise the highest standards of biosecurity to minimise the prospects of any fur- ther outbreaks of the disease.

Equine Infectious Anaemia also known by horsemen as “Swamp Fe- ver’, is a horse disease caused by a retrovirus and transmitted by blood- sucking insects.

The virus is endemic in the Amert- cas, parts of Europe, the Middle and Far East, Russia, and South Af- rica. EIA can be transmitted through blood, saliva, milk, and body se- cretions. Transmission is_ usually through blood-sucking insects, such as the horse-fly and deer-fly.

A DELEGATION of local tourism development agencies left Shannon yesterday (Monday) on a five-day promotional drive in the United States aimed at showcasing Shannon Airport as a key gateway to Ireland.

Representatives of Clare County Council, Shannon Development, Clare Tourist Council, Clare ‘Tour- ism Forum and Shannon Heritage will meet with members of the Irish- American business community in Chicago before attending the world’s largest Irish culture festival in Wis- Loyetssnte

Last year, more than 3,000 peo- ple from the American Midwest and Northeast are believed to have booked flights directly into Shan- non Airport as a result of the Clare tourism delegation’s presence at the Milwaukee Irish Fest.

“Aer Lingus’s axing of services from Shannon to Heathrow has led to fears that the airline could be ca- pable of curtailing or even ceasing its direct services from the County Clare airport to the US.

‘That is why this week’s promo- tional drive takes on added impor- tance for the tourism agencies in the mid-west,’ said Mayor of Clare, Cllr

Patricia McCarthy.

“The introduction of Open Skies has raised concerns over whether the level of transatlantic business at the airport can be sustained.

’Clare County Council, along with other leading tourism bodies in Ire- land’s mid-west region, has adopted a more proactive approach in a bid to maintain and build on this business by marketing the airport as a key gateway to the west of Ireland. Over the coming days, we will seek to raise awareness of the many airlines operating flight services between Shannon and New York, Boston and Chicago,” she said.

The Milwaukee Irish Fest, estab- lished in 1981 by members of the city’s Irish community, is renowned as the world’s largest Irish culture SATE

Covering 74 acres of Lake Michi- gan’s shoreline, the event showcases Irish music, history, dance, sports and culture.

County Clare has been named as the central theme of this year’s Fest. The Clare tourism delegation will be located in the “Cultural Village” where thousands of promotional bro- chures on Shannon Airport and the region’s attractions will be distrib- uted to over 140,000 festivalgoers.

THE EAST Clare Walking group are taking to a pilgrim route in Spain to help answer the prayers of children in Mountshannon who need a play- ground.

Seven walkers are dividing the 1,000 miles of the El Camino Way of Santiago pilgrimage route between them to raise cash towards providing the playground.

While they’re walking in Spain, fund-raising will be on-going at home.

“We got an allocation of €41,500 from the county council and we raised €850 packing supermarket bags,” said Jane Murray, the Mount-

shannon woman behind the push to provide play facilities.

Jane began her campaign at the be- ginning of the year when she took on the provision of a playground as her practical project in her NUIG Diploma Course in Community De- (oJ Ce) oyaeto elm

She took on the project just two weeks before the deadline for appli- cations for county council funding and produced a very comprehensive proposal for a playground in the Ai- stear Park.

In compiling it, Jane researched playgrounds all over the county and sent a questionnaire to pupils in the national school to find out what their ideal play facility would be.

Children drew pictures on the back of their questionnaires and the best in each class won and easter egg for their help with the research.

But while the allocation from the lo- cal authority was a huge boost to the scheme, there is still up to €70,000 needed before the happy laughter of children playing on slides and swings can be heard in the Aistear.

So Jane is sending out a letter to every household in the area, asking people to support the fund.

“I’m asking people to donate what- ever they can, however big or small,” said Jane.

“We have a long way to go but peo- ple can help by making a donation through the Mountshannon Play-

eround Fund at the Bank of Ireland in Scariff or by putting money in one of our collection buckets,” said Jane.

The account number for anyone wishing to donate is 64555064, sort code, 90 44 13.

Collection boxes have been left at Callura Pottery, the Mountshannon Hotel, Cois na hAbhna, Keane’s Bar, O’Brien’s Post Office and the Bridge Bar.

Mountshannon was one of a number of areas around the county which were given cash to get their playground projects off the ground.

Parteen and Meelick also got a cash boost towards the provision of play facilities and are now in the planning SRR Sxen

ame) aale gust 10 just 22 people had taken ad- vantage of the “cheaper flights” from Belfast to London Heathrow from

January 14 to 21, 2008. The total revenue from these fares was a mere £412 sterling.

The airline has the capacity to carry as many as 9,/44 people in its four slots from the Northern Ireland airport during that period.

The three slots that would have been used during this winter period in Shannon could have carried 7,308 passengers.

More than 6.5 per cent of the ca- pacity of these flights for January 14 to 21, 2008 had already been booked when Aer Lingus announced it was

cancelling the route.

Instead, the coveted slots were be- ing transferred to Belfast.

Critics of the decision have argued it makes no business sense.

Last year, more than 321,000 peo- ple travelled the London Heathrow/ Shannon route. Of that number, 25 per cent were estimated to be busi- ness passengers while 33 per cent came through London Heathrow from the USA or Europe.

Chief Executive of Limerick Cham- ber Maria Kelly said, “The Shannon- Heathrow service has been operating

successfully and profitably for over half a century and the removal of these services will effectively cut off the West of Ireland from all major European cities and key destinations in the Middle and Far East. This will have serious implications for both tourism and business in the region.

“Cork, Dublin and Belfast will continue to have links to Heathrow and the other great European hubs to connect travellers to long-haul inter- national flights but the west and mid- west regions will now be deprived of this,” she said.

Tadhg Kearney, Limerick Chamber transport spokesperson, added, “It is important to emphasize that the Shannon-Heathrow route is success- ful and profitable and is one where Aer Lingus has for decades enjoyed an effective monopoly because of slot capacity restrictions in Heath- row Airport. They are now abandon- ing this profitable monopoly route to instead enter the highly competitive Belfast-Heathrow market against two other significant operators. One must question the commercial logic behind such a decision.”

A 29-YEAR-old man who appeared in court to provide a cash surety to secure bail for a friend, found him- self in custody after it transpired a warrant for his arrest has been in force for almost five years. Romanian national Jon Gratian Serban of 5, Sundale Lawn, Tallaght in Dublin, appeared at Ennis District Court to provide an independent cash surety of €2,000 for Cereasala M1-

halaiche, also from Romania, who faces a charge of theft following her arrest in Miltown Malbay County Clare. Ms Mihalaiche, with an ad- dress at 1, Phibsboro Drive, Dublin 7 appeared in court in Ennis last week in relation to the theft charge. She was remanded in custody with con- sent to bail on that date.

At Ennis District Court yesterday, Judge Leo Malone was told that a friend of the accused was in court and was in a position to provide a

cash surety to secure bail. Howev- er, during questioning by Inspector Michael Gallagher, it emerged that the accused had previously been ar- rested and charged with burglary, al- leged to have taken place on 18 July, 2002, 1n Dublin.

Solicitor for Ms Mihalaiche, Wil- liam Cahir, said he was not aware of this turn of events and the matter was adjourned briefly. Ms Mihalai- che was, however, allowed take up bail and after signing the necessary

documentation was released from custody. She is due to appear at En- nistymon District Court again on 5 Yo) oles 00lolos matey. a

Mr Serban was arrested outside the court and brought before the Judge Inspector Gallagher told the court that a warrant for Mr Serban’s arrest was issued on 30 September, 2002, at Kilmainham District Court after he failed to appear in court. The inspec- tor sought to have the accused re- manded in custody to Dublin District

Court on 17 August next.

Mr William Cahir, now acting for Mr Serban, said, “This is an unusual case. I would ask the court to accept my client’s bone fides in the matter and that he was not aware that a war- rant for his arrest existed.”

Judge Leo Malone agreed that it was an unusual case but after hear- ing details of the accused’s bank Statements, remanded the accused in custody with consent to bail in the sum of €1,000.

SOUTH-EAST Clare is to get a new state-of-the-art health centre.

It will be located at Westbury and is scheduled to open next summer.

The Health Service Executive has confirmed that the new centre will provide a wide range of services for infants to older people in the provi- sion of primary community and con- tinuing care services.

The new development at Riverdale, Westbury will provide public health nursing, community welfare serv- ices, child health clinics and dental oss Goh

Therapy rooms will be available for treatments such as speech and language therapy and occupational and physiotherapy services.

Locals have been campaigning for such a centre for several years as services had to be provided in the Presbytery attached to St Nicholas Parish church. There were delays in going ahead with the development with problems regarding its location and funding.

Local Labour cllr Pascal Fitzger- ald who lives in Westbury said its great to see this project now coming on stream and “we are now seeing interest being shown by the HSE”.

Killaloe cllr Tony O’Brien said it is a very welcome development for the people of south-east Clare and he looked forward to its completion.

‘There were hold-ups and difficul- ties along the way, but now that its going ahead its better late than nev- er,’ he said.

This part of Clare has seen spec- tacular population growth in recent years stretching from Ardnacrusha across to Clonlara.

Once a rural county, Clare’s new housing estates are now taking over the landscape and early develop- ments in Westbury resulted in severe flooding with flood waters entering

elehyene

Today Westbury is serviced by a new mixed business retail com- plex and Clare County Council has opened offices there to cater for the needs of the people in east Clare.

The new proposed health centre will further strengthen the infra- structural needs of the area which is now a parish of the diocese of Lim- erick complete with a church for the ever-growing population. Parishion- ers who send their children to Scoil Ide in Corbally and Parteen School now want a school in their own par- ish as the other two schools are expe- riencing overcrowding.

CPSSL have preparations well un- derway for the Kennedy Cup compe- tition to be held at the university of Limerick in June 2008.

This is an annual national event aimed at showcasing the best un- der 13 soccer talent from across the country. The event is attended by numerous head scouts from all the best clubs, both from Ireland and England, and is regularly attended by English Premier League clubs.

Each season Clare’s showing im- proves, and in June of this year, under the management of Michael Guilfoyle and Tommy Molloy, Clare improved their seeding up to 13th in the country.

Following the appointment of Dave Kerin and Clive Slater as joint man- agers, their first move was to appoint

Avenue United coach expert Tommy Molloy and meet up with FAI Re- gional Development Officer, Denis Hynes.

Arising out of this meeting the fol- lowing detailed plan has been pro- duced, which will see Clare pushing to improve even further on last sea- son’s success.

Management –

Emerging Talent Head Coaches and Kennedy Cup Managers – Dave Kerin and Clive Slater.

FAI Regional/County Development Officer – Denis Hynes

Kennedy Cup Expert Advisor and Assistant Coach – Tommy Molloy Other Coaches/Positions – To be CLoyibebuaaterem

Programme –

August 2007 – Clubs to submit names of county standard players

02/09/07 – Weekly Trials and Train- ing commences at Lees Road 23/09/07 — Selection of panel of ap- proximately 25 plus goalkeepers. Early October 2007 — Parent and player’s evening to explain commit- ments and expectations.

October 2007 (Depending on com- pletion of league season) — Increase training to | Emerging Talent (tech- niques and skills) plus 1 Kennedy Cup (tactics) session per week. January 2008 — Panel of 20 selected. Easter 2008 — Travel to a tourna- ment (possibly abroad).

May 2008 — CPSSL organised county tournament at Lees Road 09/06/08-13/06/07 — Kennedy Cup Tournament at University of Limer- ick (Dates to be finalised).

Training and Trials All training sessions will be run in

accordance with the Emerging Talent programme and taken by David Ker- in, Denis Hynes and Clive Slater.

The panel will be divided amongst the coaches available and, when ap- propriate, rotated through the ses- sion. Clubs will be permitted to submit three or four players, born in 1994, of county standard for trials.

Clubs are required to take a respon- sible attitude before submitting play- ers for trials.

In the event that a club considers they have more than three or four players of a suitable standard, they will be permitted to advise the man- agement of this.

The trial format will be open in that we will be happy to receive comments from other managers and coaches in attendance and take these into consideration when assessing players.

VETERAN Fianna Fail councillor, Peter Considine will have to wait until 2008 to learn whether he will receive planning permission to con- struct four homes on his landholding outside Ennis.

A decision was due last Thursday on the application by Cllr Considine for outline planning to construct four homes at Drumadreheid, Ennis.

However, Cllr Considine sought an extension to the time in which the council would make its decision until February 7, 2008.

In a note to the council’s planning department, Cllr Considine request- ed the six-month extension to allow the council consider the application. Usually, when applicants seek an extension, it indicates that there are planning hurdles associated with the application.

Cllr Considine purchased 25 acres of land at Drumadrehid in 1993. The sites are not subject to strict council planning rules that apply to lands in the open countryside on the outskirts of Clare’s main population centres. There are a series of such “develop- ment clusters” across the county that allow the lands to be zoned for hous- ing development. Clusters are usually designated when there are already a number of homes built in the area.

Ironically, because of the coun-

cil’s tough planning rules to inhibit one-off homes in the countryside, Cllr Considine can expect a pre-

mium price if he decides to sell on the sites when planning permission 1s secured.

An Taisce has recommended that one of the homes be moved else-

where as there is a ringfort adjacent to site four.

The national trust also states that “the elevation of the site is high and concerns of drainage problems and visual obstruction need to be ad- dressed”.

The Department of the Environ- ment has recommended that an archaeological impact assessment be prepared to assess the potential impact, if any, on archaeological re- mains in the area.

The department has made the rec- ommendation as the development site 1s within the zone of archaeo- logical potential established around a recorded monument.

“The assessment should detail the visual impact of this development on the recorded monument. This assess- ment shall also define the buffer area or area contiguous with the monu- ment which will preserve the setting and visual amenity of the site.

“It should be borne in mind that, if significant archaeological remains are found or there is a significant negative impact, refusal might be recommended and/or further pres- ervation in situ or by record may be required.”

A decision is due on the application later this year.

AER LINGUS’S decision to end its Shannon-London Heathrow serv- ice will mean added trauma for be- reaved families living 1n the west of Ireland.

That is the view of parish priest of Shannon, Fr Tom Ryan, who yester- day said that the ending of the serv- ice will result in the ending of the repatriation of Irish bodies from Eu- rope and the UK through Shannon.

Three years ago, Aer Lingus an- nounced that it was to end the repa- triation of bodies on its short haul flights to the three Irish state air- ports but quickly rescinded its deci- sion following a public outcry.

Now, arising from the Aer Lingus decision to end its Shannon-Lon- don Heathrow service from Janu- ary next, bereaved families will no longer be able to receive repatriated bodies of loved ones in a service that Aer Lingus has provided at Shannon for decades.

With no other airline providing the service at Shannon airport, families will now be forced to travel to Dub- lin and Cork airports to receive the

bodies.

a LO Er Cee EDOM mee ieee! over the pastoral dimension to the Aer Lingus decision and it under- lines the ripple effect of the decision for everyone in the region.

“The dead don’t have a voice and this decision to end the Heathrow service will only add to the distress of families at a very vulnerable time where they will have to embark on long journeys to retrieve the bod- oad

Fr Ryan said that it 1s a “very fre- quent occurrence” for him to go to the mortuary in Shannon and be in- volved in the repatriation of bodies. He said, “It takes place a couple of times a week, sometimes more.”

Fr Ryan added, “Aer Lingus has been very good over the years of providing the service and I would hope that the decision to end the Heathrow service would be reversed and rather than Shannon losing all its Heathrow lots that the burden would be shared between Shannon, Dublin and Cork.”

Spokesman for the Irish Associa- tion of Funeral Directors ([AFD), Gus Nichols, confirmed last night

that the IAFD will be writing to Aer Lingus chief executive, Dermot Mannion to express concern over the Aer Lingus move.

He said, “The move represents an- other reduction in services and will have an unavoidable impact on be- reaved families.”

Limerick-based funeral director, Gerry Griffin, said that the Aer Lin- gus will add to the costs of families seeking to have bodies repatriated. He added, “The service at Shannon is used greatly as Heathrow was the hub for all over the world for bodies being repatriated.”

He added, “The emotional impact will be huge for families worried about not being able to bring their loved ones home through Shannon and will only add to the trauma. That services are disappearing through so-called progress sounds strange.”

CLARE’S under 18 game against Galway, which was set for Sunday evening last, was postponed. Clare were all set for this game but it was postponed at the last minute at a meeting of Central Council in Nolan Park on Saturday afternoon.

Galway had looked for a postpone- ment of this game as members of their under 18 panel were also in- volved with their county senior panel who played in the senior semi-final against Wexford which they lost.

With fixture congestion, it was im- possible to fit in the game if it was put off, with the county junior side

in an All-Ireland semi-final this Sun- day and the winners of the Under 18 play-off due to play in a quarter-final on August 25.

However, when Central Council met on Saturday evening, they rear- ranged the play-off for August 25 and put the quarter-final back until September 16.

Tae) ee CoMM WE YACME OOD KMB OSE: hYAN ULE OU E-TKe as they will know their fate in the Junior Championship and the players who were in doubt over the weekend due to recent injuries should be fit for that renewed encounter with Galway and be able to claim their spot in the squad for the quarter-final in Sep- tember.