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A TOTAL of 46 jobs in ground op- erations are to go at Shannon.

Meanwhile workers faced with re- dundancy at one of the handling com- panies have been told that if compul- sory redundancy is necessary, those with the best skills and performance will be kept while people who have been late or absent may go regardless of seniority of service.

Servisair workers are currently vot- ing on whether to accept a proposal from management that there will be 20 full-time voluntary redundancies at the company, which looks after

baggage handling and other ground operations for many of the airlines using Shannon.

A SIPTU representative said that the union is not making any com- ment on the matter at the present as the ballot is on-going. There are cur- rently 65 people employed by Serv1- sair, 40 of them full-time.

In a letter to the union last week, Servisair management outlined it’s proposals, which include a redun- dancy package of statutory plus two weeks per year of service, with the weekly calculation capped at €600.

The company has said that if it does not get enough volunteers, it will ap-

ply a “matrix” selection process, which is not the tradition ‘first in first out’ redundancy process.

A spokesman for the company said this would be based on factors in- cluding workers’ “level of training, their skills, attendance record and any disciplinary matters.”

Sources in the company have de- scribed the process as too objective and a “carte blanche” for the com- pany.

Citing the “dramatic downturn in business at Shannon” as the reason for the cuts, Servisair management said its preferred option “is to secure as many positions in both the short

term and the long term and to mini- mise any redundancies.”

If agreement is not achieved on the proposal by October 26, all staff will be put on short time, the letter WEN @ Ole b

Meanwhile, Shannon Airport suf- fered yet another jobs blow with the news of 26 lay-offs at Sky Handling lantoe

The company says it has been forced into the decision because of a decline in air traffic at the facility. The company provides ground and cargo handling services and employs around 350 people in Shannon and DTV) ere

and employs 7,000 world- wide. The Dutch-owned company has its Irish base in Shannon and last year recorded total revenues of €35.5 million.

The Shannon based firm last year paid a dividend of €12 million and this followed a dividend of €20 mil- lion paid out in 2007.

€87,000 was paid in restructur- ing costs last year with the numbers employed at the firm dropping from 124 to 106. €273,000 was spent on restructuring costs in 2006.

The Shannon base also manages the production of a number of jour- nals owned by other members of the

Elsevier Group.

The company continued to show impressive profit margins with a gross profit of €30 million on its turnover of €35 million while oper- ating profit was recorded at €23 mil- lion after operating expenses of €7 million.

According to the directors’ state- ment, they “are pleased with the lev- el of business and year end financial position. The present level of activity is expected to be sustained for the foreseeable future”’.

The company had accumulated profits of €11.5m

The Shannon firm exports all its products with no business carried out in Ireland.

Staff costs last year increased from €5 million to €5.1 million.

According to the directors, “the principal risks and uncertainties fac- ing the company arise from the com- petitive and rapidly changing nature of its markets, the increasingly tech- nological nature of its products and services, legal and regulatory uncer- tainties and economic conditions”.

Aer Lingus drops axe on Shannon

A COURT has heard allegations that a man walked into a Clare hotel and demanded money, stating that he had ceca tee

The claim, by gardai, was made in respect of Timmy Casey (31), of Clonlong, Southill, Limerick, who is accused of demanding money from a cash register, at the Clare Inn Hotel OPMENT e as Lee ehiE

Garda Timmy Killeen told Ennis District Court on Friday that it would be alleged a manager was approached

at the front desk at 9.50pm.

‘He had a hood over his face and a scarf. He stated he had a gun and he wanted money. There was no sign of a gun, but the man had his hand in his pocket. The manager didn’t appear to be put in fear. He left the hotel after a short time,” said the garda.

Judge Joseph Mangan declined ju- risdiction. He was told that the DPP had elected for summary disposal of the case in the district court, on a plea of guilty.

The case was struck out, without prejudice to it being re-entered.

THE proposed National Assets Man- agement Agency (NAMA) will do little to ease the pressures on small businesses opreating in areas like Parnell Street, Clare Fine Gael TD, Pat Breen has claimed.

Deputy Breen was speaking was during the debate on NAMA in Dail Eireann where he warned that un- less credit begins to flow in the Irish economy many more small business-

es will go to the wall.

Deputy Breen, the party’s spokes- person on Foreign Affairs, cited the example of the Parnell Street trad- ers in Ennis when he questioned the Finance Minister Brian Lenihan as to whether “NAMA will make any difference to the traders on Parnell Street, or any other traders in this county or nationwide.”

He claimed that the majority of people in this country are against NAMA and that when it came to

dealing with developers “there is one law for young couples setting out to buy their first home and another for developers”. He also claimed that NAMA will do nothing to address the huge demand for social housing. “Credit flow 1s the life blood of any economy and in spite of statements from the banks to the contrary, many small businesses are being squeezed because they are unable to secure credit from their banks. I refer to the €54 billion being made available by

the European Central Bank,” said Deputy Breen,

He added, “The belief is wide- spread among Fine Gael members that many commercial banks – which have borrowed money at a rate of three per cent and which will now gain access to this money at a rate of 1.5 per cent – will repay their original debts instead of allowing credit flow to customers who badly need it. I will cite the example of Parnell Street in Ennis, County Clare. Ten business- es have closed there in the past 12 months with the loss of more than 50 jobs and there are 20 vacant premises on that street now. The question must be asked whether NAMA will make any difference to the aforementioned traders on Parnell Street or to other traders throughout the county or na- tionwide.”

In September, traders told a meet- ing of Ennis Town Council that Par- nell Street was “dying” due to a com- bination of factors including the poor condition of the street, lack of invest- ment, poor lighting, drainage and the overall impact of the recession.

Speaking at the October meeting of Ennis Town Council, Town En- gineer, Eamon O’Dea said the coun- cil was currently examining how best to deal with drainage problems on Parnell Street. He said that this would involve “substantial elements of work”.

A COURT has heard that a man who has been banned from all Tesco su- permarkets in Ireland stole a packet of rashers from Tesco in Ennis last month.

The 29-year-old pleaded guilty to stealing the rashers — valued €1.99 — from the store on September 25 last. Ennis District Court heard that he had paid for other items, but at- tempted to leave the shop without paying for the rashers.

Inspector Michael Gallagher told the court that a note on the file stated that the accused was banned from

all Tesco stores throughout Ireland. Asked by Judge Joseph Mangan when that order was made, he said he was not aware.

The judge asked, “Was the property recovered or was it fried?”’

The inspector replied that it was recovered.

The defendant’s solicitor said the man suffered work-related injuries a number of years ago, but had not made good use of his compensation and has since developed alcoholism.

The judge adjourned the case for a year and ordered the defendant to stay out of Tesco in Ennis. He agreed to this condition.

SINGLE parents living in west Clare are waiting an average of four months for their one parent family payment after first lodging their claim.

According to Social Affairs Min- ister Mary Hanafin, single parents served by the Kilrush office have an average waiting period of 16.86 weeks for their first one parent fam- ily allowance.

Cllr Christy Curtin (Ind) has called for additional staff at the Kilrush of- fice to deal with the backlog.

“It 1s important that these claims are processed on time. The most vul- nerable society must be looked after and that they don’t have to bear the burden. The necessary staff should be in place to ensure all applications are dealt with expeditiously.”

The average waiting period in east Clare is 13.43 weeks, while the aver- age waiting period by single parents served by the Ennis office is 9.60 weeks.

In a Dail response, Minister Hanafin said “Additional staff have been redeployed to local offices from other parts of the civil service and the department has identified a number of locations where the increasing number of claims for means tested payments warrants the allocation of additional Social Welfare inspectors. Arising from this, an additional 40 Inspectors are being assigned.

‘In some areas processing times are

unacceptably high but every effort is being made to bring these times back to acceptable levels as quickly as possible.

“Anyone suffering hardship can apply for Supplementary Welfare Allowance. The majority of SWA claims are processed within a matter of days.

The average processing times for claims decided in September was 3.63 weeks for Jobseekers Benefit and 7.53 weeks for Jobseekers AI- lowance.

In Ennis, the average processing time for jobseekers’ benefit is 2.3 weeks and 4.78 for jobseekers allow- ance, while the average processing time for jobseekers’ benefit in Kil- rush is 2.99 and jobseekers allow- ance is 5.5 weeks.

The average wait in Tulla for job- seekers’ benefit is 2.88 weeks and jobseekers’ allowance is 4.29 weeks

A RETIRED farmer lost his life after he was struck while crossing the road on his walking stick and then carried along on the windscreen of a car.

The tragedy occurred in the vil- lage of Ogonelloe, when John Coon- ey (89) was on his way home from Mass, an inquest into his death heard last week.

Ennis Coroner’s Court heard that Mr Cooney, a bachelor, died instant- ly, having sustained serious injuries when he was struck by a car, on Sat- urday, September 8, 2007.

John Lynch from Tuamgraney re- called how he had gone to 8pm Mass in Ogonelloe that evening. After Mass, he chatted to another man in the vicinity of the church. He was facing the road, when suddenly he heard “a screech of brakes, followed by a loud bang”.

He said he saw a dark coloured car and noticed that a person was being carried across the windscreen. “As the car veered to the right, the person flew off the car to the left. The car continued to come straight at us,” he Sr HLeB

Mr Lynch said that he feared for his own Safety, as the car approached him. “As the car came to us, I grabbed Tom McKenna and tried to pull him back a step to avoid the car,” he said.

‘‘T remember that he let off a roar as we both thought that we were going to be killed,” he said.

The driver increased the speed and drove off without stopping, he re- called. He said he felt the driver of the car would not have had any vision until the body fell off the car.

Mr Lynch said that the window on the driver’s door of the car was down and he saw “a young fella in his 20s with dark brown hair”. He could not see if there was anybody else in the ore

“While the body was on the wind- screen, I saw him (driver) looking out a small hole in the windscreen overhead,” he said.

As the car sped away, Mr Lynch ran to the body. He could see that it was John Cooney, a retired farmer who lived just 700 yards from the church. Mr Lynch and another man moved the body to the side of the road for SH IKAA

Garda Tim Sullivan from Killaloe was involved in the investigation into the accident. He said that he arrived at the scene at around 9pm. It was dark at the time and road conditions were good and dry. Several people were standing outside the wall of Ogonelloe church, having attended evening Mass. He said that a bro- ken walking stick — belonging to Mr Cooney — was found on the road.

Sergeant Deborah Marsh told the inquest she was informed that night that a car was found burnt out in Ca- herhurley. She went there and saw that a car was smouldering. The car, a Mazda 323, was identified from its TESS we leuse leo

She said that by 1lam the following day, three men had been arrested in connection with the incident.

Sgt Marsh told the inquest that the car had skidded for 22.7 metres, hav- ing impacted with the pedestrian. She said that the car had travelled at speeds between 74.9 kph and 88.6 kph, in a 60 kph speed limit. She said that the driver was later convicted of dangerous driving causing death, while the passenger was convicted of perverting the course of justice. Both were handed custodial sentences in the circuit court.

Deputy State Pathologist Dr Michael Curtis, who carried out the post mortem examination on Mr Cooney’s body, said that he had sus- tained several fractures, including to the spine, skull, rib and elbow.

Mr Cooney, he said, had suffered ‘severe catastrophic injuries, as a re- sult of being run over by a car.” The cause of death, he concluded, was multiple injuries, consistent with be- ing struck by a car.

The jury recorded a verdict in ac- cordance with the medical evidence.

Coroner Isobel O’Dea extended sympathy with the family and friends of the late Mr Cooney and compli- mented gardai on the speed at which they apprehended those who were travelling in the car. Inspector Tom Kennedy echoed her sentiments and said the late Mr Cooney was “in no

way to be faulted as to the circum- stances of the accident.”

MEMBERS of Shannon Town Coun- cil have expressed deep sadness at the passing of a woman who had a close connection with the town.

Jane Rice (right) was responsible for initiating a link between Shannon and New Jersey, back in 1996.

Jane, who was prominently in- volved with the New Jersey Emer- ald Society, died in New Jersey two weeks ago.

Retired Shannon ‘Town Clerk Tomas MacCormaic said that news of Jane’s death was met with sadness in Shannon. He recalled the link that had been set up by Jane.

“Shannon Town Council was rep- resented at every one of the Union County Parades each year; fourteen in all.

“Jane and (her husband) Jay ar- ranged each year to have the Shan- non representatives collected by lim- ousine at the airport and delivered to a reception by the President of the NJ Emerald Society. The limousine also took them back to the airport for departure, all compliments of the Emerald Society,” he said.

‘She was very special to those of us who met her,” he said.

“During the Shannon representa- tives stay in New Jersey, Jane and Jay escorted them to all formal events

and arranged for the mayor to be in- terviewed by television, radio and the print media. They delivered them to their hotel each night and collected them each morning for breakfast,” he added.

Jane was in good health when Mr Mac Cormaic and Councillor Geral- dine Lambert (representing the May- or, Councillor Gerry Flynn) visited New Jersey for the St Patrick’s day parade earlier this year. However, she took ill after Easter and passed away a fortnight ago.

The Emerald Society Pipe Band , 90 of who took part in the opening of the Rose of Tralee Parade this year and who spent several days in the im- mediate Shannon area, played at her funeral Mass and burial in the US.

RESIDENTS say a fence along the river bank at Willow Park, Ennis needs to be replaced and improved to prevent “‘loss of life at the estate”.

In a letter to Ennis Town Coun- cillors, Michelle Hanrahan, Chair- person of the Willow Park residents committee, outlines a series of health and safety concerns.

Apart from the danger posed by the

river to children, residents also have concerns over a 400-volt ESB trans- former, traffic volumes and street lighting.

The letter states, “Our green area 1s adjacent to the river bank with very poor fencing. There is an urgent need to replace and improve this fencing in order to ensure that there is no loss of life at the estate. The residents feel that the fence requires to be at least six feet in height (similar to other

estates along the river banks) Our estate has a large number of house- holds with young children”

It continues, “Due to the filling of the green area, the ESB 3 Phase mains transformer (400 volt) is too low. This requires it to be raised or appropriately fenced off to ensure that our children are safe”.

Ms Hanrahan continues, “With the increase in housing along the Watery Road. The impact has been that the

junction of Sandfield/Watery Road, poses many dangers. Access to main roads leads to traffic congestion.

This is due mainly to the fact that a two lane traffic ease of access only occurs at the top of the road – we would ask that consideration be given to removing some of the grass verge in order to accommodate and lengthen the two lane access,’ the leter concluded.

Cllr Johnny Flynn (FG) has wel-

comed Ennis Town Council’s plan to improve pedestrian access in the area.

‘IT wish to welcome plans to put in place pedestrian traffic lights follow- ing discussions over the last couple o) mp ssleynlaatce

“I raised the remainder of these issues at the October meeting and I acknowledge your commitment to review them,’ the Fine Gael council- lor stated.