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A SHANNON-BASED pharmaceu- tical company yesterday announced plans to relocate part of its enterprise to a business park it strenuously op- posed in the planning process.

Yesterday, as part of its €70 mil- lion expansion plan, German-owned Schwarz Pharma announced that it is relocating part of its operation to the adjoining Westpark Business Park in Shannon.

However, the pharmaceutical com-

pany’s opposition to the business park prompted An Bord Pleanala to hold an oral hearing into planned €150 million development in 2002.

The promoters behind the business park claimed that the appeal was vexatious and argued to the board that the motivation was related to ne- gotiations over office space.

The board ruled that the appeal had substance, but granted permission for the development.

More recently, Westpark Devel- opments objected to three separate

planning applications at the Schwarz Pharma site, though the council granted permission for the propos- AES

However, yesterday, at a ceremony in Shannon, Schwarz Pharma con- firmed that it is to expand its op- erations into Westpark, occupying a new 110,000 sq ft building over five levels and will accommodate qual- ity control, IT services, employees amenities and a research and quality CH Ker

Managing Director of Westpark

Shannon, Brian O’Connell said, ““We are absolutely thrilled that Schwarz Pharma has chosen to work with BOC Holdings Ltd and have chosen Westpark as the strategic location of choice for their European expansion. Construction on the development will commence this month and is due for completion in late 2008. Managing Director of Schwarz Pharma, Werner Kunz said, “This new building will allow us to add strategic value to our future devel- opment initiatives while freeing-up

valuable growth space in our current production facility. This is a very significant and important decision by Schwarz Pharma and it underlines our confidence in the Shannon region to support our corporate business eva

Minister Tony Killeen TD said, “The decision by Schwarz Pharma to embark on this highly significant ex- pansion is a considerable boost to the Shannon region. The establishment of its R&D operation bodes well for i eTom RULAUD Kone

THE Athletics Association of Ire- land All-Ireland Inter Club Cross Country Championships was held in Sligo Racecourse and hosted by Sli- go AC on an excellent cross country course.

With heavy underfoot conditions a number of athletes found it very tough going and Orla O’Mahoney once again had to settle for that number four spot in the senior ladies.

Seamus Power produced a great ef- fort until the final lap where he was in fourth position and once again that final lap was too much. He jogged home in 12th place.

The junior men’s race was run over a distance of 8,00Q0metres and the star of the show here was John Coughlan, Metro St Bridget’s, son of Eamon Coughlan. He was one of the brightest stars of Irish athletics at the All-Ireland Schools Cross Country Championship two weeks ago and he captured another big title beating David Flynn, Clonliffe Harriers, and David Rooney, Raheny Shamrocks.

Ennis Track Club were well rep- resented with Brian McGinley pro- ducing a mighty performance and coming home in 22nd position. He has another year in this grade and he was followed home by David Quinn (38), Sean O’Flynn (50) and Stephen McGinley (52). This gave Ennis Track eighth place overall on 162 points, victory going to St Malachys Belfast on 43 points.

Mary Cullen, North Sligo, finalist in the European 3,000 metres indoor championships last week was among the leading contenders for the senior ladies 8,000 metres title.

With one lap to go Fionualla Britton, Sli Chulinn, Wicklow, made a very decisive move and went well clear of the field to take this title. Deir- dre Byrne, Sli Chulinn, was having a great battle with Orla O’ Mahoney, Ennis and Raheny Shamrocks, but the Wicklow girl had too much power on the final uphill stretch to the finish and once again the Clare girl had to settle for fourth position.

With just one month to the World Cross Country Championships in Kenya these championships were always going to be very well con- tested. Last years title holder Garry

Murray, Letterkenny, was going into these championships with a massive amount of training runs of over 100 miles a week along with Mark Ken- neally, Clonliffe Harriers, and after

two big laps these two athletes were at the front.

They took this race out at a blister- ing pace and on the second lap of the six the field of over 150 athletes were well strung out. Peter Mat- thews, Dundrum South Dublin, Joe Sweeney, St Malachy’s and Seamus Power, Kilmurry Ibrickane/North Clare, were in the next chasing group along with local athlete David Kelly, Sligo, Killian Lonergan, Clonliffe Harriers, and Brian Maher, Kilkenny City Harriers.

Two laps from the finish Murray and Kenneally made another surge on the downhill stretch and opened a big gap on Sweeney with Power working hard. He was well in con- tention with two laps remaining with Brian Maher having a very big race as he had moved into the the top six along with Kelly.

Over the final lap the Letterkenny man Murray showed his class when he went well clear. With 5Ometres of a gap he crossed the finishing line in fine style with Kenneally taking the silver medal and Sweeney running a big last lap to take the bronze medal ahead of Kelly and a surprise fifth Brian Maher.

The fast pace over the early laps took its toll on Seamus Power and he was feeling the full effects over the last lap. He was putting in a big ef- forts and he looked dead on his feet. Many onlookers thought he would not finish, but he never gives up and finished in 12th place.

The junior ladies race over 6,000 metres was a classic with Dundrum South Dublin athletes dominating this race from start to finish with victory going to Rebecca French- O’Carroll, second was Suzanne Huet and third was Bryony Triston.

Our own 17-year-old and Clare jun- ior cross-country champion Claire Madigan, St John’s, finished in eighth position.

BUDDING artists from the John Paul Estate have received much ac- claim for their work on display in the Kilrush Credit Union.

Offers to buy works from the exhi- bition were politely declined by the artists however as the work was very personal and of sentimental value to the creators.

In total eight young people from the local authority estate worked on pieces of MDF board to create the vibrant works of art.

The 13 to 16 year olds got involved in the project through the Kilrush Youth Centre during the summer.

The project was all their own idea. Supporting the young people the Clare Youth Service hired Ennis

based artists Martin and Giordana to help the enthusiastic group.

While the young people guided the project the professional artists helped with technique.

Entitled “MDF Stencil and Free- style Art” the project saw the young people use their names as the main focus of the work.

They then painted pictures around the name to express who they were.

The group also painted a sign for their “chill out house” on the estate Where they meet up a few times a week to do exactly what it said – atte

“T couldn’t believe it when I saw it (the work). They are very talented,” said Karen Casey who just recently took over the role of youth worker in Kilrush from Owen O’Meara Daly.

Mr O’Meara Daly bravely included his work in the exhibition also.

The first exhibition of the group’s work was in the Community Centre in John Paul Estate.

Family and friends of the group along with business people from the west Clare capital were invited to at- tend the first night.

From that showing Eiri Corca Baiscin and the Credit Union sug- gested that the work should be taken to the town centre for exhibiting.

Once on display in the Credit Un- ion, the work received many admir- ing comments and requests to pur- chase some of the pictures.

The pictures were far too personal for parting with however.

One of the pieces of course will be on display continuously – the “Chill

Out House” piece.

The group that meet here take part in soccer and other sports. They also enjoy cooking classes and taking part in the walking trips.

The services provided by the Kil- rush Youth Centre for between 20 and 25 young people is for those aged between 12 and 17 years.

The service is aimed at the target eroup, and helps the young people with their open social development.

CLARE is falling behind its Mid- west neighbours in the size of dis- posable income and total income per person new figures reveal.

The figures released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show that dis- posable income per person in Clare has jumped from €8,554 in 1995 to €17,993 in 2004.

However, the report published last week shows that the average dispos- able income in Clare still lags behind that of people living in Limerick and north Tipperary.

The statistics show that the dispos- able income per person in Limerick has climbed from €9,109 in 1995 to €19,500, while in north Tipperary, the average disposable income per person has climbed from €8,998 in 1995 to €18,312.

The figures also show that the aver- age disposable income in Clare falls behind that of the mid-west average of €8,924 in 1995 to €18,828 in 2005.

The figures show that Clare was six per cent lower than the state average while Limerick was slightly above the state average. The figures also show that Clare was falling behind in esti- mates of total income per person.

In 1995, the figures show that the average total income in Clare was 10,602, climbing to €22,402 in 2004, with Limerick’s income fig- ures going up from €11,322 in 1995 to €24,185.

The figures again show that the average total income falls below the mid-west average of €24,185.

The figures show that the Dublin region had the highest disposable in- come per person of the eight regional authority areas, being 11.8 per cent above the State average in 2004.

At county level, the only coun- ties that had an average disposable income per person in excess of the State average were Dublin, Limer- ick, Kildare and Cork.

Green party election candidate, Brian Meaney said last night, “These figures should act as a wake-up call to the State agencies charged with at- tracting inward investment into Clare and helping to create indigenous en- terprise.

It is anticipated that the figures would show that the Shannon-En- nis corridor would show disposable income levels higher than the na- tional average, but that the more pe- ripheral areas of Clare would show a large drop on the national average income.

CLARE County Council will reas- sess whether it is necessary to up- gerade the county’s largest fire sta- tion to a full-time service once the Department of the Environment has completed an analysis of future fire Oo

The county’s Chief Fire Office, Adrian Kelly, has confirmed that the department are taking a risk-based approach to the provision of fire cov- Jus NO A sCom ROUAD NKR

“On the basis of this methodology, Clare County Council can reassess what is the appropriate provision for

the Fire Service in the county. Cur- rently, we have the required standard of fire cover and there has been no fault with the service being provided in the past.”

Figures released by Clare County Council’s Fire and Rescue Service have revealed that in 2006, the fire brigade in Ennis responded to 568 calls, of which 127 were chimney fires and 105 were false alarms, ac- counting for 40 per cent of all calls in the town.

Chief Kelly believes that the number of callouts for the town’s fire service could be drastically reduced if the public improved their home fire safe-

ty and if the number of bogus calls made to the service was reduced.

There have been calls in recent years for Ennis fire station to be changed from a part-time to a full- time facility.

All of Clare’s seven stations are op- erated on a retained basis where fire- fighters respond to emergencies from their homes or places of work when alerted by a paging system.

The county’s station officers, the members in charge of each station, also work on a retained basis. Ennis fire brigade, however, has a fulltime station officer.

Some, including local representa-

tives and fire-fighters, believe it is time that the county’s largest and busiest station was upgraded to a full-time service where personnel would be based on site on a 24-hour- a-day basis, ready to respond to calls at a minute’s notice.

Clare Fine Gael Deputy Pat Breen said that Ennis Fire Station staff should to be made full-time in light of the 2006 call-out figures.

Deputy Breen says it is unac- ceptable that the 15 part-time staff should have to take the responsibility of such a busy service when they did not even have full-time status.

Kildysart Community Focus ree been working to provide Elderly Care and Childcare facilities for the

area.

The hardworking team is await- ing the decision of the council on its planning application to extend the community centre for Elderly Day Care facilities later this month.

The new childcare facility is planned as a stand-alone facility be- side the community centre.

The funding will now help with this massive undertaking by the local community to provide much needed community services to the growing town and the neighbouring commu- nities of Labasheeda, Cranny, Lissy- casey, Ballynacally and Coolmeen.

Plans are in place for a half crest

childcare building include a créche for toddlers, a playschool, and an af- ter schools service.

Mr Kelly said that once the facility is up and running parents will be able to leave their child in the centre after maternity leave, with the knowledge that the child can return there every day until they go to school.

To date the group has received €50,000 from the Dormant accounts for the elderly care facility and com- puters from the Department of the Taoiseach.

Furniture has also been bought ready for the new Elderly Care Cen- tre, if and when it gets the green light

from the local planning authority.

“Hopefully things will have started before the end of the year,’ said Mr Ths

Meanwhile Lissycasey has also got the green light from the Minister for Children as he allocated just over €900,000 for childcare facilities there. Welcoming the announcement Senator Brendan Daly (FF) said that childcare facilities were very impor- tant to the area.

“It 1s important to have proper fa- cilities for children in those early formative years. I would be keen to see these projects develop as soon as possible.”

A COURT has heard that a man Set fire to a house in west Clare, causing more than €100,000 in the process.

Bart Russell (59), of The Mews, Kilrush Road, Ennis, pleaded guilty to damaging a house by fire at Moy- glass Beg, Mullagh, in April 2005.

He also admitted a charge of crim- inal damage, at the same house, also in April 2005.

Sgt Joe Hehir told the court that the unoccupied house — the prop-

erty of Thomas and Mary Clancy — had been broken into and all the windows in the house had been bro- ken with a hammer.

Referring to the fire incident, he said the house was totally engulfed in flames and €120,000 damage was caused.

The court heard the accused is a voluntary patient in the acute psy- chiatric unit at Ennis General Hos- pital. He admitted his involvement in the incident.

Sgt Hehir said the injured parties have suffered gravely as a result of

what happened.

Defence barrister Michael Collins said his client suffers from bipolar disorder and has attempted suicide on a number of occasions.

“The case could not have been proved against him, but for his ad- missions,” said the barrister.

“This man is a serious risk to himself and needs active treatment, treatment he is getting at present,” he said.

He said his client was not a can- didate for an immediate custodial sentence and he said he was propos-

ing to the court that the psychiatric treatment would continue.

Judge Carroll Moran said he un- derstood the accused needed treat- ment and said he needed a sentence which was structured to include that treatment.

“We are going to try and help him, so long as he co-operates with us,” he said.

He adjourned the case until next month and ordered that the accused continue as a voluntary inpatient in the psychiatric unit, unless he 1s re- leased into the custody of his sister.

THE rising tide of the Celtic Tiger has failed to raise all boats and mem- bers of the Travelling community are worse off than they were 30 years ago, according to priest and head of Respond, Pat Cogan, formerly of the Killaloe diocese.

According to Fr Cogan, who was a chaplain to Travellers in Ennis in the 1970s, public hostility towards Trav- ellers has also increased over the last number of decades.

Speaking at the launch of Respond’s new Traveller accommodation and Support policy last week, Fr Cogan

raised concerns about a low take- up of second-level education among male Travellers in Ireland.

‘There has been a great improve- ment in the general wealth in Ireland over the last decade. But this has by- passed the ‘Travelling community to a large extent. One reason is that their family size tends to be growing consistently and this can make it dif- ficult,’ said Ned Brennan, Head of Operations at Respond.

‘The main reason is the educational issue; 1f the educational system does not work for Travelling people then how can they get the skills to sell to employers and take advantage of the

Celtic Tiger?”

Respond has identified suitable Traveller accommodation as one of its main priorities for the future and has appointed a Traveller accommo- dation officer whose sole responsi- bility will be to work with Traveller organisations.

Their new policy, which has been circulated to every local authority in the country including Clare County Council, is focused on a more uni- fied approach to dealing with Travel- ler issues.

“We want to bring about a much more unified approach to Traveller support. What we are offering to lo-

cal authorities is the use of our exper- tise of the last 25 years in how best to organise a coordinated Traveller sup- port,” continued Mr Brennan.

“We would be offering to work hand in hand with the councils and all the other involved agencies. We have cir- culated our policy document around to all local authorities, a number have got back to us and we would be very hopeful that all of them will over the next few weeks.”

Life expectancy for female Travel- lers is currently 12 years less than females from the settled community, while males die on average 10 years Cre Coe

THE artistic endeavors of more than 300 Clare children was celebrated this week at the Pol an Ionain cave in Doolin where the inaugural chil- dren’s Christmas art competition was judged.

After much deliberation, Oscar Healy from Cratloe came out on top in the competition which was crammed with quality work from all entrants.

“We did Santa Clause at the cave this year and as part of that we in- vited all the children who visited to take part in the art competition. We couldn’t get over the response, we

had 300 entrants from children all over Clare, it was really amazing,” said Helen Browne of Pol an Ionain.

“It was really interesting to see all the different things that the children could conjure up just with their 1m- aginations.”

The competition was judged by three arts school graduates who de- cided that Oscar’s drawing was the best of the hundred of entrants in a close competition.

“It was so difficult, they were all very good but there were six or seven pieces that were just excellent,’ con- tinued Helen.

‘He has created a scene which is based inside the cave. The stalac-

tite is in the background and in the foreground is Santa and two or three elves. The whole drawing is really fantastic, very well done.”

Pol an Ionain has been going from strength to strength since it opened less than one year ago.

“The cave has been going very well. We are operating a park and ride service from Bruach na Halla to the cave. This is to keep any disturbance of the natural environment of the area to an absolute minimum. It also means that only groups of 20 visit the cave at a time which makes it both a very intimate and eco-friendly expe- rience,’ continued Helen.

“We are open at weekends at the

moment and we will be opening full time after Paddy’s Day. It’s a great experience and allows people to view a sculpture of nature which has been in the making for millions of years.” The cave, which boasts the world’s largest free-hanging stalactite, was discovered in 1959 and was devel- oped using non-explosive drilling techniques to protect the ecology of the cave and its surrounding area.

A 17-YEAR-OLD youth has been convicted of assaulting a schoolboy during a school lunchbreak in Kil- Mut ee

Kilrush District Court heard that a 15-year-old boy — who is from west Clare — was walking along Moody’s Lane on January 9 last, when he met the accused and another individual,

who was not before the court.

The boy was repeatedly hit to the face with a clenched fist. The court was told that the accused urged the other individual to join in. He reluc- tantly did so. The young victim even- tually managed to run away.

He sustained a black eye, soft tis- sue damage to the nose, a lump to the side of the head and two lumps to the forehead.

The accused, who cannot be named because of his age, told the court that the young boy called him and his friend “scumbags and knackers,” and he then hit him.

The accused said the 15-year- old “doesn’t come into Kilrush any neuen

Supt Joe McKeown, prosecuting, asked him, “Why does he not come into Kilrush any more? … Because

of you.”

Supt McKeown added that the ac- cused has made life “a misery” for the boy and his family, but the ac- cused replied that this was not the OF Ton

“They have made my life a mis- ery, he said.

Judge Joseph Mangan convicted the youth of assault and fined him PAULO}