Category: Uncategorized

OVER €300,000 has been spent on storing an obsolete mast once proposed for Loop Head.

Throughout the 1990s, the Cross Loran C Action Group in west Clare staved off Gov- ernment efforts to erect the 720 ft Loran C mast. And in response to a Dail question, the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, Noel Dempsey confirmed that it has cost €326,000 to store the mast over the past five years on the outskirts of Paris.

A spokesman for the Loran C group said this week, “Action should have been taken a number of years ago by the Government to dispose of the mast rather than continue to pay these storage costs.

“The reasons now being put forward by the Department as to why Loran C will not be go- ing ahead are the same reasons put forward by the Action Group ten years ago, the primary one being that no one would use the system. The Government knew this, yet persisted with the project at huge cost”.

Green Party councillor, Brian Meaney said, “This is an appalling squandering of money and further evidence of the Government’s lack of care in spending taxpayer’s money.”

Minister Dempsey confirmed that the mast will not be erected on Loop Head or any other Irish location: “Ireland, along with Norway, the Netherlands, Denmark and Germany, has denounced the North West Europe and North Atlantic Loran C System – NELS – Agree- ment. Denunciation takes legal effect from December 31, 2005”’.

The mast, consisting of an antenna and transmitter, cost €1.9 million and was pur- chased by France and the Netherlands as per an international agreement. The Irish Govern- ment purchased 137 acres at Loop Head, cost-

ing €479,000, for the project, though €13,530 has been recouped in grazing rights over the past three years.

Since 1992, when plans for the mast were first announced, the proposal became ensnared in the planning and legal process due to strong opposition from the Cross Loran C Action Group on health and environmental grounds. Minister Dempsey confirmed that the project has cost €561,000 in legal and planning fees.

The development received the go-ahead from An Bord Pleanala in 1994. However, plans were frustrated by the action group af- ter High Court and Supreme Court victories in 1995 and 1996. In April 1998, the Supreme Court finally paved the way for construction of the mast. The Government agreed that special legislation would have to go before the Oire- achtas, but never moved to enact such legisla- tion. Ownership of the mast was transferred to France in April this year, with the agreement of the Netherlands.

Asked why the Government withdrew from the agreement governing Loran C, a Depart- ment spokesman said: “NELS failed to inter- est the EU in using Loran-C as an augmen- tation system to Galileo, aimed at reducing dependence on GPS. The project has also been hampered by the failure to mass-produce a low cost receiver.

“This placed the whole future of Loran C in doubt and all work on an Irish mast was suspended. A review of Ireland’s marine radio navigation policy was undertaken in Decem- ber 2002. This showed no overwhelming sup- port for Loran C among maritime users. Fol- lowing a Government decision in September 2004, Ireland denounced the agreement”.

He added that future use of the land will be decided upon after a six month winding up ere lorem

NORTH Clare conservationist and co-ordinator of the BurrenLife farm- ing organisation, Brendan Dunford was appointed to the national Herit- age Council by the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government Dick Roche, last week.

The council is the statutory body whose main responsibility is to pro- pose policy to government for the preservation and enhancement of heritage in Ireland.

It is funded by the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Lo- cal Government, and it was allocated more than €10 million in funding last year. “I am delighted with the appointment,’ said Mr Dunford.

“It not only signifies the impor- tance of the Burren but it also shows the value of the partnership between conservationists and farmers that the Burren is leading the way on.”

Mr Dunford moved to the Burren nine years ago to write his doctorate ‘The importance of farming practic- es on the natural heritage’.

After completing this work he es- tablished the not for profit Burrenbeo group and website with his partner Ann O’Connor in 2002.

His latest project BurrenLife, which was officially launched by Minister

Roche earlier this year, is focussed on examining sustainable farming methods for Burren farmers.

“The Heritage Council has an im- portant role to play in promoting best practice in protecting our national and local heritage when he appointed new members to the Heritage Coun- cil,” said Mr Roche at the announce- ment.

“It has established itself as a rec- ognised centre of excellence, and I want the Council to continue and build on the good work of the outgo- ing members across the whole range of heritage values that it has a role in promoting and protecting.”

The council will be chaired by former director-general in the Eu- ropean Commission Tom O’Dwyer, who is taking up his second spell on the council. Others to serve for the second time are; Dublin City librar- ian Deirdre Ellis-King; archaeologist Maurice Hurley; former senator Nio- clas O’Conchubhair and director of the Hunt Museum, Virginia Teehan.

Aside from Brendan the new mem- ber announced by Minister Roche are; Betty Coffey, the former Ca- thaoirleach of Dun Laoghaire Rath- down County Council; Billy Colfer, chairman of Wexford Historical Society; Professor Gabriel Cooney of UCD; broadcaster Ted Creedon;

artist Rhonwen Hayes; landscape horticulturalist Mary Keenan; gar- dening expert Finola Reid; Louth

County Manager Martina Maloney; Dr Caro-lynne Ferris, of the Coun- tryside Access and Activities Net- work in Northern Ireland; former

Cathaoirleach of Bray Town Council Noel Keyes and the Department of the Environment’s principal of herit- age policy, Donal Enright.

A LOCAL councillor is calling on Clare County Council to make Brennan’s Cross in Meelick safer for motorists and pedestrians.

Cllr Cathal Crowe has tabled a motion for the upcoming Killaloe area meeting of the council to have safety measures installed at the Cross. Brennan’s Cross is located on the Knocklisheen Road, one of the main arteries from Limerick

City into South-East Clare.

‘The junction is staggered with one approach road leading to the residential area of Elton

Court, Kilavoher, Ballycannon Heights and Glenn Abhainn and another leading to Meelick church and school. Traffic at Brennan’s Cross junction is particularly congested at morning and evening times when parents are bringing children to and from school and people are co- muting to work,” said Cllr Crowe.

The councilor said that he called “more than a year ago” for safety measures such as rumble strips and increased signage to be put in place on the approach roads to the junction.

‘ T don’t think enough has been done to make the junction safe and this time I will be asking the Council to carry out urgent repairs on the four approach roads, to remove earthen banks that limit visibility and put an extended rumble area in place,’ Cllr Crowe said.

that when big matches, at- tracting large crowds, take place, ‘There is an issue there in relation to the parking. It is becoming quite an issue. People are just throwing cars on footpaths. We have to real- ise that where there is a pitch, there

will be a certain amount of conges- tion and there is limited parking. . . .but people are getting blocked in and there is a danger for children living in the area,’ said the resi- eleim

Wolfe ‘Tones chairman ‘Tony O’Connell said there were stew- ards in place during last week’s fi- nal, but that stewarding is difficult when large crowds attend games. He said a bigger crowd that an- WCen Oye IKeLOMr-LH Ro sLOlorO MMO CoMeE-BOOTOMMUA ONTO D was arranged for Shannon at short notice.

“If the Council want to talk to us, we will talk to them, and also to the residents and gardai. We will talk to everybody and I am sure we will get a resolution,” said Mr

O’Connell.

Cllr Greg Duff, who raised the issue at a meeting of Shannon Town Council last week, said Clare County Council should take meas- ures to “curtail dangerous parking” in the vicinity of the pitch.

He said while he is happy to see fixtures allocated to the Shannon pitch, the parking issue should be addressed by officials of the club, gardai and the Council. ;

He said parts of Gleann an Oir, the estate close to the GAA pitch, were almost blockaded off, during the intermediate hurling final.

“When people are _ bringing crowds in, they should bear some of the responsibility,” said Cllr Duff.

Cllr Sean McKee said some cars

parked “half-way across people’s driveways,’ and drivers showed “scant regard for people who live there.”

Cllr Patricia McCarthy said may- be it was time all partners involved should come together, so that resi- dents would have access to their homes, during matches.

Shannon Mayor Cllr Tony Mulc- ahy said a meeting should be set up between gardai, residents associa- tions, club representatives and the Town Council, to resolve the prob- one

“T’d suggest if we don’t get a meeting before Christmas, we should get one after . . .to get a traffic management plan in place,” said Cllr Mulcahy.

DOOLIN is no stranger to tragedy – the vul- lage made famous by the Russell brothers and known the world over has made the headlines for the saddest of reasons down the decades.

As the pall of gloom and depression descend- ed on Doolin over the past week, memories of similar tragedies in the popular tourist resort were revived. All of these drowning tragedies took place on the notorious Tra Leathan.

A priest named Fr. O’Keeffe drowned there

in 1923, while in 1959 two German tourists perished.

However, it was the horror story that un- folded on July 31, 1983 that sent shock waves all over Ireland and beyond. Eight young men lost their lives when they were swept out to sea while bathing at Tra Leathan.

Events began to unfold at 4.30pm when a large number of swimmers, having ignored the danger signs posted by Clare County Council in the area, got into difficulties. The combina- tion of the tide going out, rough seas, strong

undercurrents and shifting sands made condi- tions treacherous. Screams for help were heard as a number of people were swept out to sea. Those who managed to scramble ashore, and a watching crowd of about 70, could only look on helplessly as Tra Leathan claimed eight more lives. All of the dead were from outside the county and in the area for the weekend. A mas- sive operation involving the Army, Navy, Air Corps, Gardai, Civil Defence and volunteers was mounted to retrieve the bodies.

The dead included three brothers, James (25),

John (21) and Edward (19) Doran from Borris in Carlow; James Murphy (17) from Borris; Michael Murphy (22) and Colm Keyes (21) from Portlaoise; Denis O’Sullivan (30) from Sneem, Co Kerry and John Paul Leahy (19) from Kilmallock.

A veil of depression descended on north Clare and beyond after the tragedy. It was the worst maritime disaster in the county since nine lives were lost when the

A CLOSE friend and colleague of Martin Griffin, who died in last Monday’s tragedy, has been speaking about the talented young tradesman whose funeral took place in Ennis on Saturday.

“Martin Griffin was one of the most infec- tious characters and the hardest working lad I

have ever met in my life,’ said John O’ Donovan of the Adalta Group, for whom Martin worked as a carpenter on the restoration of Coolreagh House at East Clare Golf Club in Bodyke. “My heart is breaking, it is just so hard to believe,’ Mr O’Donovan continued. “Martin Griffin was the most infectious individual. He was always happy and laughing and had an amazing smile. He was multi-talented and a gifted craftsman. He was a registered sub-con-

tractor and boy, did he work hard.”

Mick Doran, whose body was recovered early yesterday, also worked for the Adalta GSrxeltiey

Joe O Callaghan from Tulla, worked with his friends on the Bodyke project but for a different Coelseleree

Speaking of the two men who worked for

him, Mr O’Donovan said, “It is very difficult to

speak about these lads in the past tense but they were fierce hard workers. They were also great pals of mine and they were only working on my own house the night before they travelled to Doolin.

“They worked all day until 8.30pm and the craic we had was something else. Martin worked with me for the past six or eight months with his brother Michael. My heart felt sympa- thies go to both their families,” he added.

LAST Thursday was a busy day for the ICMSA in Clare as two separate elections were held in the Falls Hotel in Ennistymon.

In the North Clare area Richard Devereaux of Ennistymon was elected as chairman while Mau- rice Harvey, also of Ennistymon, was elected as secretary and as a National Council member.

Martin McMahon of Broadford was also re- elected as the County Executive Chairman with Padraig Haugh of Moyasta securing the position of secretary. Interestingly, the Vice-Chair of the County Executive will be held jointly by Thomas Shannon of Lissycasey, Richard Devereaux, and Mark Clune of Feakle.

The President of ICMSA, Pat O’Rourke, ad- dressed the meeting and covered three main top- ics in his presentation. He began by criticising

the readiness of some co-ops to cut milk price for short-term considerations.

In this regard, he singled out for his particular criticism, the position adopted by Glanbia who had cut the price paid to their suppliers by 4 cents and had planned to cut it by 10 or 11 cents. Mr O’Rourke also pointed out that this decision com- pletely ignored the underlying strength of dairy markets, with returns from SMP and Casein re- NeNDNem OM asnbU Tee

‘Farmers are very tired of being the first to feel the heat whenever a co-op was faced with even the most transient of commercial challenges,” said Mr O’Rourke.

The issue of animal medication was also open for discussion and Mr O’Rourke said that the IC- MSA had met representatives of the dairy co-ops in Abbeyleix just over a week ago and all were agreed that the new rules on animal medicines,

insofar as they related to dairy farming, should be tied into the Dairy Herd Certificate.

The dairy co-ops also agreed that prescrip- tions for intramammaries should last for one year rather than the six months that the Minister for Agriculture, Mary Coughlan, has proposed. This would link the operation on mastitis control programmes at co-op level directly to the Dairy Herd Certificate.

‘At present all dairy farmers must submit dairy herd certificates annually and the linking of new rules on prescription and the Dairy Herd Certifi- cate would have many benefits and would consid- erably reduce the amount of paper work and costs involved,’ continued Mr O’ Rourke.

Mr O’Rourke concluded by calling for the Irish Government to exercise a veto on any attempt by Commissioner Mandelson to coddle British ex- porters at the expense of Europe’s farmers.

CLEAN drinking water must be supplied to the residents of En- nis in the event of another boil notice being issued.

That was the call being made last night by members of Ennis Town Council who are seeking a guarantee from the County Man- ager that more will be done for the residents in the event of an- other boil notice being imposed on the water supply for Ennis and its surrounding environs.

“It is so serious at this stage that a guarantee should be sought” said Mayor Frankie Neylon at Monday’s meeting. Cllr Neylon went on to add that providing a suitable solution can be arrived at, a temporary water filtration system should be installed while the town waits for a new €13 million water treatment facil- ity due to be constructed in two years time.

The Council was debating the issue following a motion tabled by Councilors Donal O’Beara (GP) and Johnny Flynn (FG),

calling for the continuing un- acceptable quality of Ennis drinking water be declared an emergency and that the County Manager use his available pow- ers. “The supply is unsuitable for the weakest in our society, that is children and the elderly, while others can take their chances if they want, is the approach sug- gested by the Council. This is totally unacceptable” said Cllr O’Beara.

Also present at Monday’s meet- ing were members of the newly- formed Campaign Committee who were protesting outside En- nis Town Council about the poor quality of the water supply. The committee was formed after a public meeting was held in En- nis on November 2 to discuss the contamination of the Ennis wa- ter supply. It is composed of lo- cal political representatives and members of the public.

Town Engineer Tom Tiernan said that the council was cur- rently reviewing a number of proposals concerning temporary water filtration systems for the town’s water supply. He said that the Council is treating the prob- lem very urgently but that any solution must be appropriate for the Ennis supply.

Mr. Tiernan stated that the er- ratic nature of supply in Ennis imposes extra complications on any solution and that there very few examples of successful 1m- plementation of temporary wa- ter filtration systems around the world. He revealed one of the proposals before the Council is a Russian system that has yet to be used outside the country and that any proposed project would cost between €600,000 and €1m.

YOUNG people are being turned away from farming by an obsession with regulations and a lack of opportunity to expand the farming business warned IFA presidential can- didate, Padraig Walshe, last Nelo

Speaking at the launch of his election campaign, Pad- raig Walshe said Irish farm- ing is at risk of going into terminal decline, with dev- astating consequences for rural Ireland, unless radical changes are made in the way the industry is regulated and managed.

Mr Walshe said that farm- ers are being smothered with anti-competitive controls and regulations and with archaic

systems of trading. The presi- dential candidate warned that the EU authorities standards on food trade issues and the obsession with regulations are scientifically unjustified and are crippling the competitive- ness of farming in Ireland.

Mr Walshe also commented on what he called the archaic practices in the Irish meat in- dustry, describing it as ‘remi- niscent of the tangling days of 50 years ago’.

“A system where farmers do not know what price they will get for animals from one day to the next would not be tolerated in any other sector of the economy,” he conclud- ed. “The meat industry must come into the modern era and treat farmers as professional business people.”

PROPERTY owners across the county are being pursued under leg- islation to curb derelict buildings. Shannon Town Manager Ger Dol- lard has confirmed that owners of 15 such properties in Shannon – mostly houses – are currently being pur-

sued, as are owners in other parts of the county.

According to Mr Dollard the council’s main aim is to bring these properties out of dereliction.

This could be partly achieved by applying a levy of three per cent of the market value, payable by the owner, onto such properties.

“It was never meant to be a rev- enue generating thing,” he said.

Mr Dollard added that it was par- ticularly important to deal with the issue if better results were to be achieved in Tidy Towns competi- tions.

“IT wouldn’t say it 1s a crisis, but there are examples. We are serving

notices, which give people an op- portunity to do something about it.

“They will have plenty of oppor- tunity to sort it out,’ said Mr Dol- lard.

A number of Shannon ‘Town Councillors spoke out on the issue Clerks NM N else NN OTSe

Councillor Geraldine Lambert

(FF) said that, in some instances, the landlords were only interested in collecting rent and not maintaining the property.

Cllr Patricia McCarthy (Ind) said, ‘People should be aware of how se- rious it is.

“Until such time as the council takes action, it will carry on.”