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MEMBERS of Clare County Coun- cil have voted to adopt a public con- sultation strategy for the preparation of Development Plans in the county.

They accepted it, after a debate on the issue at yesterday’s month- ly meeting of the Council, during which some councillors voiced their views on the formulation of develop- ment plans.

Councillor Patricia McCarthy (Ind) said, “It’s about communication with the ordinary people out there.”

Councillor Martin Lafferty (Ind) said, the document was “very well written. My experience of the last plan was it came in as an item. There wasn’t one word. It was proposed, seconded and adopted,” he said.

Councillor Tom Prendeville (FF) said it was not about a development plan as such. “We are talking about

local representation,” he said.

“The Department has laid out, in euldeline form, how we should con- sult with local groups. I would ask members to go forward,’ he added.

Councillor Richard Nagle (FF) said, “It is up to members here if they want to amend or change the County Development Plan. What we are talking about here is the public consultation strategy.”

“Some people seem to totally un-

derestimate the knowledge of the electorate. What we are talking about here is that we have a clear ap- proach,” he added.

He said that the document should be put on view for public consulta- tion, in libraries and public offices.

The Director of Services in the Planning Section, Bernadette Kin- sella said the document sets out how the council wished to engage in the process of consultation.

WHILE the politicians are on the campaign trail which they hope will lead them to the Dail, a Clonlara girl is on a votes trail of a very different kind last week.

You’re a Star competitor Maeve O’Donovan was raising support for her bid to win by visiting schools in her area and rallying support from the local community.

SRT eB WY ETAVor rasa oee EK Mh (cle) ats knock-out at the Helix in Dublin and was preparing for her next perform- ance at the weekend when she took time out to meet youngsters at Clon- lara and Parteen national schools.

The curious kids were delighted

to have a budding star in their midst and were full of curiosity about what it is like to appear on TV and per- form for an audience of thousands of critical people.

For 16-year-old Maeve, taking part in the competition has been a lesson she will never forget and one which many professionals would give their eye teeth to experience.

“lve learned so much from being involved and I could never have en- visaged staying in to this stage when it all started,” said Maeve.

The secondary school student stood out as the last female competitor in bolle iowa UNl ele

Fellow-Clare competitor Susan O’Neill from Ennis was voted out at

an earlier stage.

But Maeve has made firm friends among the other competitors. Speak- ing last week, she said that if she was eliminated, she would like to see Scuba Dice take the prize.

“They were getting such a hard time but I think they’re brilliant,” said Maeve.

With two songs to sing for Sunday’s heat, Maeve was upbeat during her school visits last week.

“When I’m jut singing one song, I get a bit nervous but by the time I get to the second, I’m into my stride and I can perform better,’ she said.

Sunday was week nine of a gruel- ling 12 weeks of competition which sees one hopeful act voted out by the

audience each week.

The prize is a valuable recording contract which could kick-start a showbiz career for the talented win- ner.

And she was non-plussed about the previous week’s criticism of her outfit for the show, an item which prompted radio presenter Ray Darcy to leap to her defence on air.

“We have stylists who advise us what to wear and I asked for some- thing a bit more casual for Sunday,” Maeve said.

THE dark hours and difficulties of putting a squad together given senior commitments and college football finally paid off on Saturday. Reward for Joe Garry and his team.

He stands outside the Clare dress- ing room door, inside the door just 40 minutes earlier he was planning the next phase of attack. Just one point up with the greedy share of posses- sion, he wasn’t panicking.

“We just said to the boys we were pleased with the way things were go- ing, because we were well on top in all sectors of the field,’ Garry says. “What wasn’t going too well for us was our scoring. We were on top, we should have been more ahead going in at the break. We knew that. We felt we probably deserved to be seven points up at half time but in fairness we felt if we kept at it, kept playing the way that we were playing that we’d win the game.”

Fourten chances and a return of four scores doesn’t make for positive reading but still, Garry says his play- ers were on top of things.

“I’m always in favour of lads tak- ing the ball on. To have a cut at it. It’s very easy to pass the ball off. You won’t get every shot you take but on other days you might get 17 or 18 scores. I think we only had what I’d class as two bad wides in the whole game. Everybody else was entitled to have a shot at it. I’d be very annoyed NiO OCoM BD OOCom UNO eleaarenlet lam

We’re delighted but in fairness to the lads they’ve been doing that all year long.”

Challenge games and training ses- sions gave them the foundation, but nobody was sure how they would come out when the traps lifted. Whether a layer of rust or doubt would linger. Garry didn’t have any doubts though.

‘These boys are unbelievably unit- ed. There’s a great unity in the team.

Everybody works hard for each other, from one to 25 on the panel. They deserved this win and they’ve two weeks to get ready for the next one. It’s a great win. A massive win. But there’s a good bounce in Clare football at the minute. From the mi- nors down to the under-14’s, there’s a feel good factor there. You can sense that in the crowd that came out to see Clare playing today. There’s good days ahead for Clare football and it’s a matter of keeping at it.”

Off he goes with back slaps still raining down upon him. Job done.

COMMENTING on the recent an- nouncement that a EU-US Open Skies draft agreement has been reached Pat Shanahan, Chairman of the Shannon Airport Authority, said that the chal- lenge will be to address the airport’s cost base, keep existing customers and bring new business in.

The chairman said yesterday that Shannon Airport has been preparing for Open Skies for some time and has built up an extensive range of transat-

lantic services which carried almost 800,000 passengers in 2006.

“The challenge Shannon now faces is that we must persuade airlines to retain their current level of services and develop new ones in an open market.”

He added “I believe that while Open Skies poses a challenge to Shannon Airport, the retention and further de- velopment of year-round transatlantic services and passenger/cargo traffic 1s achievable supported by a strong US marketing campaign, improvements

in road and rail infrastructure in the region and a substantial reduction in our cost base.”

Shanahan added the airport has the required facilities and capacity to service further growth of transat- lantic services and it is the authority’s intention to further enhance those facilities with the establishment of a Full US Customs and Border Protec- tion Inspection post in 2008 which would provide Shannon with an es- sential competitive advantage over other European Airports when devel-

oping additional services.

‘Shannon has the potential to devel- op as a financially and operationally viable airport and the benefits to the airport and wider region of the huge boost in passenger numbers over the past two years are very evident.”

But he stressed the urgency of ad- dressing what he described as an “uncompetitive cost base” in order to meet the business and operational needs of the airport. ““We can then begin to concentrate our efforts on ensuring we become more competi-

tive in our airport charges and our incentive schemes,” he said.

Shanahan added that “We believe we have developed a distinctive west of Ireland market both to and from the US. It is time for a concerted ef- fort by key stakeholders in the west of Ireland supported by a substantial Government tourism-marketing fund to market Shannon throughout the US. It is our aim to reach one million transatlantic passengers per annum within five years of the commence- ment of Open Skies.”

THE dangers of home heaters have been highlighted after a pensioner lost his life in a blaze at an Ennis house over the weekend.

Michael Moloney (67) died from smoke inhalation after an electrical bar heater toppled at his home, in Ashfield Park on the Gort Road in Ennis, on Friday afternoon.

He was a native of Knockanena, Caher, in East Clare, and had lived in Ennis for a number of years.

Mr Moloney, a single man, is un-

derstood to have died as a result of inhaling smoke fumes, after a bar heater toppled and set carpet in his bedroom on fire.

His body was discovered on the floor of his bedroom, near the heater, by another resident of the house, at around 4pm.

The fire is understood to have bro- ken out a short time earlier. Another tenant of the house was in another bedroom at the time, but he did not sustain injuries.

A post-mortem examination of Mr Moloney’s body took place at Limer-

ick Regional Hospital yesterday, the initial results of which indicate he died due to smoke inhalation.

Mr Moloney is survived by his brother and two sisters, who live in East Clare. He is to be laid to rest to- day (Tuesday).

Gardai investigating Mr Moloney’s death are not treating it as suspicious. “We are happy there was no foul play. We are treating this as an accident,” said a garda spokesman.

The county’s fire officers have stressed the importance of assem- bling a plan, in an effort to ensure

fires do not destroy lives. They strongly advocate the use of smoke alarms and to plan an escape drill, in the event of a fire.

Senior Fire Officer in Clare, Denis O’Connell is warning people to be vigilant when using heaters.

He said heaters with a naked flame require high levels of vigilance and clothes should not be placed near Wetoeee

“We recommend people use oil- filled heaters, as there is no naked flame involved. There is a certain level of safety required in any heat-

ing system that has a naked flame,” he said.

He is warning people to be mindful of the potential dangers of heaters.

“People should use smoke detec- tors. Fires should be guarded, elec- tric units should be switched off and chimneys should be swept twice a year,’ he said.

“The people most at risk from fire deaths are elderly people living alone,” he pointed out.

He said when they inspect homes, fire officers in Clare do not recom- mend the use of naked flame heaters.

A YOUNG man who verbally abused staff at a hospital where he was be- ing treated has been sentenced to one month in detention.

Jonathan Kenny (18), of Elm Drive, John Paul Estate, Kilrush, was con- victed of engaging in threatening,

abusive or insulting behaviour at En- nis General Hospital, on January 6 ENe

Garda Siggins told Kilrush District Court that he was on patrol in Ennis on the morning in question.

He received a call that a young per- son was receiving treatment at Ennis General Hospital and that he had be-

come aggressive after he woke up.

The garda went to the scene and said he saw him “pulling out draw- ee

He said that the accused was threat- ening to staff at the hospital and had to be restrained in the public area.

“I believed he was under the influ- ence of some kind of drug,” said the

garda.

Defending solicitor Pat Enright said his client had received drugs at the hospital, where he was treated for an alleged assault.

“He had a injury to his forehead. He received an horrific injury. It was a very, very serious wound. He was very upset about it. He was giving

out about the man who did it to him,” said the solicitor.

Judge Joseph Mangan sentenced the accused to one month’s detention at St Patrick’s Institution.

Mr Enright asked the judge to sus- pend this but he refused. He fixed recognisances in the event of an ap- peal.

THE Clare tourism industry is not pre- pared to deal with the consequences of Open Skies if it is brought in in the near future, according to Manager of Dromoland Castle and member of the Clare Tourism Council, Mark Nolan. Mr Nolan also believes that Open Skies would be of long-term benefit to tourism in the region if Govern- ment support is forthcoming in terms

of marketing and transport infrastruc- nb Cen

“If the change is to come soon, then we are not prepared. There is still a lot of uncertainty about when and how the changeover will actually happen,” he rEIOb

One of the critical things is to im- prove the infrastructure around Shan- non. The people who are using Dublin would prefer to fly out of anywhere ac- cept for Dublin but the infrastructure

must be there to allow people to get to S)aeeTeveleyee

“We are now competing with five or six airports around the country. It 1s no longer a situation of Shannon verses Dublin,” he said.

Despite the feeling in some quarters that the agreement will damage tour- ism in Clare, Mr Nolan is confident that it will be ultimately beneficial.

“This is really nothing new, we have heard it all before. I believe that it will

actually be good for business in the medium to long-term, but there will be some negative impacts in the short term,” he continued.

“It is very important that a marketing package be put in place to help main- tain the market in North America. We have been told 30, 40, 50 and 100 mil- lion for this at different times. Fifty five per cent of our business here in Dromoland comes out of North Amer- ica,’ he added.

RETURNING by very popular de- mand, the Corofin Drama Society will stage one final production of the Rape of the Belt this Saturday evening before taking the play on the Festival Circuit.

Such was the reaction to the three successful performances of the Benn W Levy comedy last month that the eroup have decided to allow local audiences one last look before they loyun trees iOemBelomKey-lem

“It is based on the ancient Greek story of Hercules and and his 12 la- bours. His ninth task was to steal the belt of the Amazons,’ said director Marianna Shonemann. The Amazons

are always portrayed as being fierce and harsh women but when he meets them he finds them very charming.

‘This makes it much harder for him to fulfill him tasks and lead to a lot of the comedy in the play.”

Following the Corofin date, the group face a busy schedule of the fes- tival circuit with five performances in the month of March.

First up 1s Doonbeg March 12 be- fore performances in Shercock and Cootehill in Cavan on March 20 and 21.

Next up is a return to Clare to take part in the Scariff Festival on March 23 before rounding off the tour in Charleville, County Cork on March oF

“We try to bring a three act play on the circuit each year,’ continued Marianna. “It’s great to get the play out to a wider audience and to al- low more people to come and see it. There is also a lot that we can learn JUuO)ooMoyUba-an steam LMmO em se low Ker-\em-TICMolor ing how other groups do it.

‘There are a number of people who are getting involved in a play for the first time with this production. Peo- ple like PJ Cox, his sister Sandra and Majella Dooley this is their first production and they have been great. We have also paid special attention to the costumes and set and people have been commenting on how good they are.”

Written in the late 1950’s, The Rape

of the Belt is an entertaining comedy based in Ancient Greece. It tells the tale of Hercules’ ninth labour where he has to take the ceremonial royal belt from the Queen of the Ama- ZONS.

The Amazons have a perfect king- dom, full of peacefully creative women, where the men (only a hand- ful) are kept apart as slaves, and used solely for breeding. All the while the Gods Zeus and Hera watch on which interest.

FARM families in the Miltown Mal- bay, Corofin and Ballyvaughan ar- eas can now avail of a free weekly outreach service to access informa- tion on welfare entitlements, farm schemes and training opportunities.

The North Clare Farm Family Sup- port Service will host open and free clinics in these areas each week and are inviting farmers on low incomes to attend.

“We are offering a one to one for farm families – to help them identify the different ways which they can identify ways of increasing their in- come,” said Gerry McDonagh of the

farm support service.

“Every farmer on low income will have different need. It may be that social welfare is the way to go for some while others might be better off looking at on farm activities such as REPS.

“Other might be more suited to looking for off farm employment and we can help them find the training that they need to explore this.”

The service 1s now equipped to pro- vide farm families with an on-the- spot estimation of their entitlements under the range of Social Welfare schemes including the State Pensions and Farm Assist. Over 400 farm families throughout the county are

currently availing of this latter enti- tlement which is worth an average of €168 per week per household.

Many more Clare farming families may be eligible for the payment than currently avail of it. This is on ac- count of the less stringent means test associated with Farm Assist relative to other means tested schemes and the 14 per cent fall in farm income last year.

The outreach clinics will take place at the Parochial Hall Miltown Mal- bay from 10.30am to 12.30pm each Tuesday. They will move to the Her- itage Centre, Corofin from 2pm until 4pm on Tuesday while the service is based in St John’s Hall, Bally-

vaughan from 12.30pm until 2.30pm on Thursdays.

The North Clare Farm Family Sup- port Service is strictly confidential. Farmers can contact Gerry McDon- agh, Rural Resource Worker at 065- 7072467 or 086-8544036 for a home visit. They are also welcome to call to the office in Monastery House, Parliament St, Ennistymon or to any of the new outreach locations.

The service is administered by the County Clare Cohesion Process and is an initiative funded by the De- partment of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs under the Local Development Social Inclusion Pro- eramme (LDSIP).

TOURISM bodies in the mid-west and Shannon airport management must “get their act together” in the aftermath of the end of the Shannon Stopover.

That was the message delivered by Transport Minister Martin Cullen (FF) yesterday, who said an urgent marketing strategy is required. He promised Government support for Shannon.

“Is there a fu- ture there for Shannon? Abso- lutely. People in the mid-west have to get their act to- gether,” he said.

He dispelled

suggestions from opposition politi- COE TeNsmanet-| mp usseele) Vc ing the stopover was akin to re- moving “a piece of infrastructure’ from the mid- west.

“l’m spending billions to ensure infrastructure remains in place in Clare,’ he said.

He said that while the Open Skies deal was being negotiated over the past few years, Shannon may have “held back” and remained in a “‘com- fort zone”’.

“Twenty-two different gatewaus in the States have expressed inter- est in having a connection with Ire- land. Not all of them will develop, but some of them will. Competition

for Shannon is not necessarily from Dublin. Shannon’s competition 1s other airports in the UK and Eu- rope,” he said.

“One only has to see Knock de- veloping new routes going into the States, and it hasn’t the population base that Shannon has. Shannon is very sustainable,’ he said.

‘This debate is over. The sooner we accept that, the better,” he said.

Clare Fianna Fail TD Tony Killeen

said it was obvious for a number of years that the end of the stopover was “imevitable”’.

Je CRS Hem aet-dmcybelee it was first mooted, major progress has been made on various tour- ism projects in the mid-west.

‘There is no rea- son why Shannon can’t get some of them (22 Ameri-

can gateways). Shannon is in a much better position than it was in the late 80s/early 90s,” he said.

He said he did not believe the tim- ing of last Friday’s agreement was hugely significant, in the face of the imminent general election.

“T think it is good timing to tell the people what the situation is, surely. In terms of timing, I think it 1s per- fectly alright to tell people now be- fore the election,’ he said.