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MILLIONAIRE movie star and accomplished pilot John Travolta jetted into Shannon Airport on Thursday on board his private Boeing 707 jet which underwent a maintenance check before he con- tinued his journey to London Hea- throw late on Friday.

Mr Travolta, who recently turned down an opportunity to play the next James Bond, has been in Shannon at least three times this year and is thought to spend sev- eral thousand Euro annually on refuelling, landing charges and other services at the County Clare “bu oe a

On this occasion, the star’s jet which he flies himself, was seen being towed from a maintenance hangar at the airport. While au-

thorities at Shannon are reluctant to speak about private visits to the airport, a source confirmed that “there was no problem with the jet, it was just a routine technical check.”

During his last visit to the region in May, Travolta and his entourage, comprising as many as twenty four people, stayed at Adare Manor for a number of days. The wealthy ac- tor is known to have played several rounds of golf during his stay. Last March the star made a brief refu- elling stop while returning from a movie premiere in London on what have now become regular stopo- (ouSe

Travolta does not often enter the main terminal but usually parks his aircraft 1n a more remote area of the airport where he is “handled” by a private company. On this oc- casion however, the star mingled

with passengers in the departures lounge before boarding the jet.

The stars 40 year old jet parked at stand 37 at the airport’s main terminal building where it was refuelled. The superstar’s Boeing 707-138, appropriately registered N707JT, was first built in 1964 for Australian Airline Qantas and still retains the airlines old livery. Tra- volta purchased the jet from Qan- tas six years ago.

Plane mad Travolta, who named his son Jett, earned his wings in 1974 and also owns a Gulfstream II jet. He bought an airport near Ocala Florida and built a home right next to the 7,500-foot run- way. His Boeing 707 is equipped with bedrooms, a recreation room and three dining areas. The avid aviator 1s also accompanied on his transoceanic flights by two other captains and an engineer.

FARMERS have received a stay of execution from an EU directive requiring them to have a prescription when obtaining animal medication that previously would have been available over the counter.

Late last week the Minister for Agriculture and Food, Mary Coughlan, confirmed that she was finalising new regulations on veterinary medi- cines following consultation with the statutory Animal Remedies Consultative Committee and interested groups. This follows concern in the farming community that the EU directive would lead to huge increases in cost for farmers, who would require a vet for each prescription.

The Minister said that the new regulations will transpose aspects of the EU Medicines Directive while also amending aspects of existing national feat ETBTODee

The EU directive requires that all medicines for food producing animals should require a pre- scription but also contains a mechanism for ex- cluding certain medicines from that requirement. The EU has not yet decided on the medicines that will be granted this exemptions but it must do so

before January | of 2007.

In the interim, existing national prescription arrangements can remain in place. In essence, this means that most medicines currently avail- able without prescription will remain so until the 2007 deadline and farmers can continue to get these medicines in the normal way.

However, intramammaries that contain anti- biotics are highly unlikely to qualifying for ex- emption at EU level and consequently such medi- cines will become subject to prescription. It is hoped that the new deadline will allow further time to finalise arrangements for prescriptions to be written in the context of mastitis control programmes implemented by co-ops and avoid the prescription requirement applying to differ- ent products from varying dates.

‘IT am pleased that the Department has seen sense in holding back on the regulations,” said Clare County Councillor Michael Kelly (FF). “The proposal that only vets could prescribe drugs would add considerably to farmers work when they are already struggling to survive.”

‘Farmers are subject to the most stringent reg- ulations already and I have not seen one shred of evidence of how the proposed new rules would

benefit the quality of our produce. At the same time we allow Brazilian beef into our country ev- enthough foot and mouth is in existence there.”

“However, it 1s essential to treat cows with in- tramammaries at the time of infection,’ he fin- ished.

Meanwhile, because of the temporary suspen- sion of the farm medicine directive the prospect of allowing people other than vets to write pre- scriptions has also been shelved. However, the Minister stated that this option could come back on the table in the future if requires.

A number of measures have also been put in place in an attempt to lower the cost to farm- ers. These include a removal of the requirement for mandatory farm visits by vets prior to writ- ing a prescription, the extension of the life of a prescription from the current 31 days up to six months and the introduction of a new require- ment on vets to issue written prescriptions 1n all or one

In addition, according to the regulations pre- scriptions must now indicate at least two prod- ucts where a suitable alternative was available in order to give farmers more choice as to the appropriate product.

THERE has been angry reaction to Clare being left out of recycling grants totaling €9m nationally, including a €2.6 million cash boost for Limerick recycling projects.

Dick Roche, T.D., Minister for the Env1- ronment, Heritage and Local Government announced last week that he was making a further €9m from the Environment Fund in capital assistance for local authority recy- cling facilities.

Limerick’s grant is the highest in the list with projects for the county and Mungret at- tracting €2,605,547.

An angry Green Party representative and Clare County Councillor, Brian Meaney, said that blame for the dearth of cash com- ing the Clare way had “to be laid firmly at the feet of our lacklustre national represent- atives. Limerick has strong clout in terms of its TDs and Ministers and it shows, when it comes to the amount of money that has been allocated.”

OTA rian y Ne Mdet-lmmaelomcet iA ae moe ce ing out for proper recycling facilities. The main recycling facility in Ennis doesn’t even open until noon. We need bring centers and we need a substantial facility in East Clare and Shannon, in particular, needs a bring centre. I’m just at a loss to see how Clare can be left out.”

He added that there should be “urgent investment in facilities in Clare if we are serious about diverting waste from landfill. Clare has got the rough end of the stick in Web ne

Announcing the grants, Minister Roche said that he was “aware that other local au- thority proposals are being developed or be- ing evaluated by my Department and I will be announcing further allocations as local authorities develop and formally submit their proposals.”

The Capital Grants Scheme 1s provided for in the Regional Operational Programmes (2000-2006) which are managed by the Re- gional Assemblies and is targeted towards the provision of recycling infrastructure, which reflects the waste hierarchy.

Other areas given grants under the scheme included Wicklow County Council, which received €1.1 million, Cork County Council, which received €530,400 and Fin- gal County Council, which was awarded €541,650.

In a statement accompanying the an- nouncement of the grants, the Minister said that he was “confident that these additional projects now being funded will help to build on the already significant awareness of the need to recycle and will further improve the levels of recycling throughout the country.”

that two fresh complaints had been made to him this year, one against a priest in Ennis and another against a priest in the ‘wider Ennis area.’ Both were relat- ing to incidents in the 1960s and both priests are now deceased.

Dr Walsh confirmed that the diocese made the most recent payment of €70,000 this year. He said that €100,000 was paid out last year, with €265,000 paid out in 2003. The money came from the proceeds of a €1.5 million land sale at his Westbourne residence in 2001.

Dr Walsh said that if the need arose, the diocese would sell off further land to make payments to victims. “We will do everything in our power to support and help victims.”

He stressed that no money towards the pay- ments had come from Sunday offerings. How- ever, in future, “1f it happens that we have to use other money to make payments, full information will be made to the people and priests”.

Dr Walsh said over the past 11 years he had re- ceived 25 complaints relating to 10 priests, who were now all deceased. The complaints date back to 1957 and all the complaints relate to incidents before he became Bishop in 1995. Multiple com- plaints were received about four priests.

“I do believe the complaints. I have no evidence of complaints coming to me which were not true,”

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Dr Walsh said he was devastated by the con- tents of the Ferns report.

‘We knew that the Ferns report was going to be quite bad news, we really had no idea that it was going to be that bad.

“There is a sense of pain and shame about the whole thing and that goes right across the priest- hood, up and down the country. I’m devastated by it and people who are suffering the real pain are the victims themselves.”

The Rape Crisis centre in the mid-west has re- ceived an increased level of calls, in the wake of the publication of the Ferns report.

“When something like this is prominent in the media, it triggers calls,” said spokeswoman Miri- am Duffy.

A DUBLIN man has been cleared of lar- ceny and burglary charges in east Clare, at Ennis Circuit Court.

Stephen Russell, of 25 Knockmore Grove, Tallaght, Dublin 24, had pleaded not guilty to three counts of larceny and one count of burglary, at various locations in Scariff and Mountshannon.

It was alleged he stole a car, valued at £8,000, at Ballyminogue, Scarrif; a Mo- torola mobile phone, valued at £129, at Mid- dleline, Mountshannon, and a Fujitsu laptop computer, valued at £1,600, at Mountshan- non, on August 25, 2000.

He had also been charged with entering Long’s shop, Main Street, Scariff, as a tres-

passer and stealing £4,150 in cash; ciga- rettes, cigars and tobacco worth £8,300 and telephone call cards valued at £1,000, on August 29, 2000.

Witness Eamon Long told the jury he was the proprietor of Long’s supermarket/news- agents at the time of the alleged incident. The shop was on the ground floor, with the living quarters overhead.

At around 7.30am, he said his son called him and he went downstairs. The storeroom door had been burst open and all the ciga- rettes in the shop and store were gone, along with cash and telephone cards.

After hearing lengthy legal argument over a number of days, Judge Con Murphy di- rected the jury that the accused be found not guilty.

THE number of people arrested for drink driv- ing continues to rise in Clare, despite repeated warnings and images of its devastating ef- ee

Up to this weekend, two hundred and twenty motorists had been arrested for the offence so far this year. This is a ten per cent rise on the same period last year.

There were further arrests over the weekend. Up until Sunday, two motorists had been ar- rested in west Clare. On Sunday, another driver was arrested in Shannon, in the early hours.

The head of the Clare Garda Traffic Unit, Inspector Kevin Moynihan says the growing number of arrests is as a result of increased Garda enforcement, allied to the fact that peo- ple are not listening to warnings on the dan- gers of drink driving.

“It is a sizeable increase. People don’t seem to be heeding the warnings. . . and it’s also down to increased enforcement in the traffic corps,” he said.

Accident & Emergency Consultant in Ennis and Limerick, Cathal O’Donnell says while many people believe young men are the main culprits, offenders range in age and class.

“Young males are a large part of it, but I have seen people from every social class and every age group involved. It is still happening despite warnings and despite active measures from the gardai,” he said.

Mr O’Donnell said drink drivers are, on oc- casion, responsible for leaving “innocent peo- ple dead.”

Mr O’ Donnell believes that old, careless hab- its are again returning to some motorists, after an awareness campaign in recent years.

“We have personal responsibility to other hu- mans. My impression is that there was a dip a

couple of years ago, but it seems to be creeping up again.

“Tt [drink drivers] has a huge impact on our departments at weekends. Road traffic acci- dents take from our time. We don’t mind doing it but it is preventative, as opposed to a person who has a heart attack, for instance.

“It happens on week nights and at weekends, day and night and doesn’t seem to be going away, he said.

Fine Gael TD Pat Breen expressed disap- pointment that the drink driving figures had again increased in Clare.

“Obviously the message hasn’t been driven home. We must have zero tolerance in relation to drink driving. Gardai will have to reinforce their campaign coming up to Christmas and Garda resources have to be increased in rela- tion to inspections late at night,” said Deputy Dior

ALMOST half of the 500 workers at Shannon Airport have been told that they must take voluntary redundancy, or the airport will have no future.

Currently, Shannon workers are con- sidering the most swingeing cuts in the airport’s 60-year history, in order that Shannon doesn’t accumulate losses of €137 million over the next 10 years.

A ‘survival plan’ circulated to workers by the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA), states that the current situation is “unsus- tainable’ and that “this serious underly- ing financial crisis is untenable to both management of Shannon and the DAA’.

But SIPTU representatives say that plans to outsource many of the jobs at the airport are ‘not a runner in this en- abKoyenee oss

SIPTU’s Tony Kenny said that the un-

ion views plans to outsource catering entirely and other jobs in security and maintenance as ‘comparable to the Irish Ferries situation.’

Nor is the union willing to bend to a deadline of having negotiations conclud- ed by November 16. “Any deadline is a company deadline. All negotiations will be through the trade union and we will be going to third party intervention if that is what is needed,’ said Kenny.

In the €10 million redundancy plan, long service workers stand to secure pay-offs of up to €100,000.

Airport sources have revealed that all but a handful of workers boycotted management briefings on the matter and workers in one department returned the plan to management in a cardboard box.

The document, ‘Programme for Com- mercial Viability Shannon Aijrport’, states that Shannon Airport is on course to make a profit of €3 million this year,

but only because of US military traffic.

It states that in the preceding three years, Shannon made an accumulated loss of €9.3 million. By 2014, the air- port will have an accumulated loss of €137 million, which excludes interest on existing debt. Some €85 million will be needed on capital expenditure over the next ten years.

It states Shannon must generate new traffic stream; have flexibility on work practices and non-core activities and rig- orous management of costs.

The severance package will only be available if the measures can be agreed and substantially implemented by year end.

Tony Kenny said that the “DAA is proposing to outsource functions from profitable areas of the airport, which is nonsensical.”

CONCERN has been ex- pressed over a move by Clare County Council to rezone an estimated 300 acres of land for commercial development on the outskirts of Ennis that contains EU-protected habi- tats.

In adopting the Ennis and Environs Development Plan, the council along with Ennis Town Council re-zoned land in the Doora area for commer- cial development that gener- ated massive windfalls for the owners of the lands in ques- alone

However, the lands which are subject of the re-zonings are designated as areas of eco- logical constraint in the pub- lished Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the €190 million Ennis by-pass.

The lands contain protected fen and also the Marsh Fritil- lary and the Frog bit plants that are also a protected spe- alae

Asked if the Council had the all the facts in relation to the lands when they were re- zoned, the council’s Director for Planning, Mr Liam Con- neally said: “the zoning of land is based upon balancing information as to development needs and environmental im- pacts.

“At the time of the adoption of zoning in the Ennis and Environs Development Plan the information available to the Planning Authorities was relied upon to determine the appropriate zoning of land. At all stages of making the Plan Duchas were informed.

“All land constitutes some type of habitat and the impor- tance of that habitat at a local

regional or national level is only known where sufficient survey and analysis has taken ee leror

“The National Fen Survey carried out by the National Parks and Wildlife Service in 2001 did not make a detailed assessment of the Doora area and any information concern- ing any potential habitat value that existed was therefore not available.

“The Development Plan is constantly monitored and re- viewed and where necessary variations to the Development Plan will be carried out.

“The body now responsible for the protection of nation- ally important habitats is the National Parks and Wildlife Service and any recommenda- tions made by them regarding the conservation of key habi- tats will be taken into account in monitoring the Plan.

“All applications for devel- Opment are assessed on their own merits and the character and landscape of a site is a material consideration in that OC e

However, Cllr Brian Meaney (GP) has expressed concern over the rezonings.

He said: “it doesn’t appear that due consideration was given to the lands being areas of ecological constraint and questions still have to be an- swered concerning the rezon- ing.

“The uncertainty over the issue would not have arisen if the new Strategic Environ- mental Assessment Directive was in place at that time which would have investigated in a much more comprehensive way the presence of these pro- tected habitats in the lands in e] erie eye mae

Speeding is on the increase in the En- nis area.

Figures obtained by Fine Gael TD Pat Breen from the Ennis gardai show that speeding offence detection rates have increased dramatically, while more than 100 summonses for loud exhausts have been issued by the Gardai in the

Ennis area.

According to Ennis gardai “a large number of these boy racers have been checked by the gardai. The number of Fixed Charge Notices issues by gardai for speeding offences is over 400 more than for the same period last year”.

Deputy Breen requested to see the fig- ures, after receiving a number of com- plaints from residents in Darragh about

people racing cars on the wide stretch of road at Darragh, on the Kilrush road. Residents also expressed concern that not enough speed traps were in opera- tion on the road.

“The gardai have informed me that speed checks are carried out in the area on a regular basis by both the Division- al Traffic Corps and the District Patrol CFT

SAU Sa item om aleriucmrmeNom\yE-Dade| Insurance A3 Sweep which got under- way at the Limerick track on Saturday night last. Race four went to ‘Redzone Run’, owned by Mrs Kathleen Carroll of Newmarket on Fergus running from trap 6 returned in a winning time of PIA Y

Heat seven of the stake went to ‘Scratch it Mac’ owned by Aaron Car- roll of Cratloe with a winning time of 29.26. Both dogs are expected to ad-

vance in the second round heats which take place this weekend.

‘Student Pass’ bowed out of the Irish Laurels at the Cork track during Sat- urday nights semi-final. The Cathal O’Doherty and Vincent Meaney owned dog did not enjoy much luck, finishing fourth after getting into trouble at the first bend.

Paddy Conlon of Cree made a wel- come return to the winners enclosure at Galway on Friday night ‘Cragaknock Vierl’ winning race two. The race was a sprint over 325yds and Vieri recorded a

good time of 17.94 out of box 1.

Race 10 on the same night went to ‘Buffalo Buddy’ owned by Ann Carey of Cooraclare who record a time of 29.17 running out of trap 1. Through to the final of the Tote A6 525 stake this coming weekend is “Clouncaheen’ Boss owned by Anne McGuire of Mullagh.

The dog won his semi final heat on Thursday night in a time of 30.03. Di- ane Shallis of Kilmihil also collected on Thursday night when ‘Greygrove Billy’ was a winner in race 9 with a time of 29.50.