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THE Irish Lourels Classic at Curra- heen Park Cork took centre stage for greyhound people over the weekend. The second round heats were held on Saturday night the here the banker of the night Student Pass duly obliged and progressed to the next round.

The dog is trained by Owen MckK- enna for Claremen Cathal O’Doherty and Vincent Meaney and was available at odds of 10/1 to win the classic before the weekends racing. Deerfield Mover, who finished third in heat was bred by Gerry Burke of Miltown Malbay and is now owned by Bryan Dalton of the USA.

Dalcash Sweettea, owned by Patrick Meade of Miltown Malbay, got Clare owners off the mark in Galway on Thursday night. Housed in box three the winner, who was making his first outing, recorded a winning time of PEt

Race 7 on Thursday nights card was heat 3 in the Texaco Retailers A4 over 5S25yds. Here Mary Jones of Scariff had a welcome change of luck with Fossabeg Sparkie winning in a time of 29.42.

Rockmount judge owned by Shane Flanaghan advanced to the next round after filling second spot in heat in heat 4,

The feature race on Friday nights card in Galway was the final of the A5 Tote Stake where Now It’s Nancy owned by Eimear Lillis and Ian Kelly came up trumps. Prize money of €800 went to the Cooraclare winner. Baby LLeyton, owned by Bertie and Mary O’ Doherty of Clarecastle had to settle for minor prize money after finishing third in the Croi Buster Final. Next Friday night’s card is a benefit in Aid of Fianna Fail. There is a big entry of Clare dogs in all the race, heats for which have been held over the past number of weeks.

There is some decent prize money going to stake winners and managers are expecting a huge attendance.

that An Post admitted the service was “not satisfactory”’ when he presented his findings to the com- ee veNA ‘Despite the fact that the new sorting ar- rangement in Cork has been up and running for several weeks, the slow pace of mail de- livery continues,’ Deputy Breen said.

“T decided to post letters to my constituen- cy office in Ennis from 20 locations around the county over the weekend or on Monday morning. By Tuesday, only five letters, or

one in every four, had been delivered.”

The letters, which made it through with- in 24 hours, were posted in Ballyvaughan, Scariff, Ardnacrusha, Broadford, and Kil- FW eyer

But letters posted in Kilrush, Ennistymon, Lahinch, Lisdoonvarna, Lissycasey, Killa- loe, Kildysart, Ballynacally, Cratloe, Sixmi- lebridge, Shannon, O’Callaghan’s Mills, Tulla, Miltown Malbay and Ennis failed to be delivered by Tuesday morning even though they had all been posted by 10am on Monday, with the exception of the Ennis let- ter which was posted at 5.20 pm.

“This has nothing to do with the post of- fices who play a vital role in delivering an essential service every day. This has to do with the new sorting arrangement in Cork,’ said Deputy Breen.

“It falls far short of An Post’s actual rate

of a 76 per cent next day delivery, accord- ing to their regulator, Comreg, and a target of achieving 94 per cent,” he added.

By Wednesday, a further 13 letters were delivered, giving a 90 per cent 48-hour de- livery service, but the Shannon and Miltown Malbay postings had failed to arrive.

An Post issued a statement to the Deputy stating that this week’s operational reports do highlight mail arriving into Ennis too late in the morning to be processed and delivered that same day. This results in a portion of Ennis mail being delivered a day late. This confirms the nine per cent figure for 48-hour delivery.

“We sincerely apologise to customers who are being affected by late delivery. we are working around the clock to improve the Service,’ the statement said.

WITH a glut of rental property available lo- cally, Clare investors have cast their property investment net a lot wider, in recent times. In response, two Ennis businessmen, Martin Guerin and Gerard Lynch, have launched Blue Ten Properties, to facilitate investment in a carefully selected portfolio of overseas proper- Woe

Blue Ten has opted for a wharf-side develop- ment in central Birmingham as its first foray, and so far, just a few weeks after launch and based primarily on word of mouth, 35 of the 40 units have been snapped up. Martin Guerin confirmed, “over 90 per cent of the take-up has been from Clare based business people’.

Guerin has over 20 years experience working in the financial services sector and he believes that his reputation within the county has al- lowed investors to place their trust in him. But

Guerin and Lynch have also played safe with their first choice.

‘Holliday Wharf’, Birmingham, has been built by the very reputable builder, Charles Church. It overlooks Central Canal, in an area of the inner city in Birmingham which has undergone huge regeneration in recent years. ‘Having analysed the rental market, we decid- ed to reserve one-bedroom apartments only, as the rental return is very steady. Investors can expect to achieve rent of stg£625 per month on these properties, which are priced from £143,000 to £151,00”. The price range reflects whether or not the apartments include a park- ing space and their specific location within the building.

‘Holliday Wharf’ incorporates 155, one and two bedroom units and interestingly, Guerin said, ‘it’s estimated that over 55 per cent will be owner occupied.”

By buying in bulk, off plans, Blue Ten was

able to negotiate discounts of up stg£14,800, per unit, on behalf of its investors. Guerin ex- plained, “investors have to pay a 10 per cent deposit to reserve a property and the remainder is due on completion, which is anticipated early next summer.

“We have sourced a management agency, called Assets, to oversee the rental of the prop- erties on behalf of our investors, although if investors wish to pursue their own rental path, that’s fine. While many fittings are included, we have sourced a package of loose furnish- ings at acost of stg£5,000, again whether or not the investor wants to take up that option is at their own discretion. We have also negotiated a very cost effective conveyancing fee, with a local firm of solicitors, at £550 per unit”.

Guerin is convinced that this investment op- portunity is a safe bet. The rejuvenation of Bir- mingham continues at pace and it is anticipated that the face of England’s second city will have

utterly changed within the next five years.

“We have achieved substantial discounts that are not available to the one-off buyer. The dis- counts achieved are as much as some investors hope to make in their first two years”.

Certainly, there 1s consensus in the market that the UK continues to be a good area for property investment. According to recent re- search by Cambridge University the UK will experience a 1.4 million homes shortfall by 2021.

Guerin and Lynch may not confine them- selves to the UK however. “We are looking at potential investment properties as far away as Montreal.” But, Guerin conceded, “Birming- ham is a very good place to start. They speak the same language and you can hop on a plane and be at your investment property within a couple of hours, should the need arise”.

For further details on Blue Ten Properties, contact Martin Guerin on 087 2524639.

A MEMBER of the travelling community with 25 previous convictions has been jailed for nine months for stealing two ham joints from a truck in Shannon.

Father-of-eight Timothy Joyce, of Bal- lymurtagh halting site in Shannon denied stealing the hams – valued at €35 each – at Smithstown Industrial Estate in Shannon on May 31 of this year.

He also denied stealing 48 yoghurts, 15 packets of rashers, 10lbs of sausages and 24 bottles of Yop yoghurt.

Witness Tony Mulcahy told Ennis district court he returned to his business premises at around 9pm on the night in question. He noticed a red van parked in a cul de sac and pulled in behind the van. He said he saw a “young fella” jumping out of a truck, carry- ing two trays of yoghurt. The accused, Tim- othy Joyce, he said, was sitting in the van.

“Mr [Timothy] Joyce asked me to move. He said he was after catching a young fella stealing yoghurts,’ said Mr Mulcahy.

Gerard Shanahan told the court he ran a cold meats business in Shannon. He was alerted to some activity at his premises

on the night in question. When he arrived there, he found the back door of his truck forced open and goods, including sausages, bacon and yoghurt, lying close to the truck.

Defending solicitor Tara Godfrey said her client was collecting waste chipboard, from a unit. Garda Stephen Elvins said he re- ceived a call to go to Smithstown.. He said Timothy Joyce, a teenager and two children were at the scene. Products were strewn on the floor, between the truck and Mr Joyce’s Web

Mr Joyce’s vehicle was seized and two large hams were found in the back of it. In

reply to caution, Mr Joyce, said, “I don’t know a thing about it.”

Ms Godfrey said she was applying for direction, pointing out that evidence was heard that a young person stole some of the items and that the State had not proved it was the accused.

Judge Mangan said he was amending the charge, to exclude the rashers, sausages, yo- ghurts and Yops, but said the accused had a case to answer, relating to the ham joints.

He found him guilty and imposed a nine month jail term. The judge fixed recogni- sances, totalling €3,000.

MAKING sure that they are not breaking the law and keeping up with rapidly changing employ- ment legislation is one of the top worries for business owner man- agers, mid-west business people were told at a meeting last night. The group were being briefed by the Chamber of Commerce on a new service which will help take the pain and the risk out of employer/employee dealings. The new Chamber HR service for the first time in Ireland, offers employers an interpretation of the law, expert advice on human resources management as well as indemnification against the legal and award costs associated with responding to a claim in the La- bour Relations Commission or Employment Appeals Tribunal. Announcing the service, Chief Executive of Limerick Cham- ber Maria Kelly said, “feedback from our members strongly indi- cates that businesses, especially SMEs, struggle to understand

and keep abreast of changes in employment legislation. Yet they are responsible for compliance and implementation.”

Poor HR practice is not a de- fence in court, the gathering heard. “Chamber HR seeks to protect those who endeavour to comply with the law but lack the expertise to do so,” the CEO said.

Those attending the briefing were told that recently, the La- bour Court awarded €15,000 to a Congolese temporary call centre employee who was dismissed af- ter he made a 24 minute long dis- tance phone call while at work.

In another case quoted to the meeting, the Employment Ap- peals Tribunal awarded €3,000 to a bar worker for unfair dis- missal having been sacked for allegedly selling cannabis to col- leagues while at work.

“A potential fair dismissal can become an actual unfair dis- missal if good procedures are not scrupulously followed. When it comes to employment law, igno-

rance 1s no defence,’ the Cham- ber CEO said.

The service is supported by the Chambers of Commerce of Ireland (CCI) and is being part- nered by Peninsula Business Services, the largest employment law consultancy in the UK which has offices in both Dublin and Manchester.

Peter Done, Managing Director of Peninsula added that, “From personal experience, I know that common sense doesn’t count and owner managers need expert ad- vice and support. That is the gen- esis of Chamber HR. Peninsula is proud to be involved in providing this unique and indispensable service.”

The Chamber HR service 1s also providing details on “Chamber Business School” a FAS funded Chamber initiative that provides members with local access to training courses on people and performance management skills.

Details of how to avail of the service can be had by contacting any chamber of commerce.

THE issue of a 24-hour ambulance service for East Clare is to be raised in the Seanad this Vorb tee

The purpose-built, state-of-the art station in Scarriff was opened in 2003, but is open for only 19 hours a day.

Senator Timmy Dooley is to claim this evening that there is no justifiable reason why East Clare should be the only ambulance base in the Midwest region without 24-hour ambu- lance.

‘There has been a spate of accidents recent- ly in the area and many of them have taken place between 7pm and 12 midnights, a time when no staff were roster to operate the lo- cal fleet of two ambulances. Critically injured

people have had to lie on the roadside for an unacceptable length of time for ambulances to come from Limerick and Ennis while two ambulances lie idle a couple of hundred yards away, the senator said.

“This can not be allowed to continue as lives are being put at an unnecessary risk. It will only be a matter of time before a delay in the arrival of an ambulance will lead to the unnecessary loss of life. I will continue to put pressure on the Minister until the funding is put in place.”

According to figures contained in the Mid Western Health Board Ambulance Service Development Plan which was sent to the De- partment of Health just over 12 months ago, Scariff is the only purpose-built station in the Mid-West area.

IT has been a fruitful but confusing week for economic statistics. First we had the end-September Exchequer Re- turns. Then we had the Central Statis- tics Office (CSO) figures for the second quarter of this year, with conflicting figures from the Economic and Socials Research Institute (ESRI) hot on their heels.

According to a statement issued on Tuesday, October 4, by the Minister for Finance, Brian Cowen, an Exchequer deficit of €1,123m was recorded in the first three quarters of this year. This is substantially greater than the Excheq- uer deficit of €418m for the first three quarters of 2004, but well under the budgeted deficit of €2,988m for 2005 as a whole.

The Current Account Balance at the

end of September showed a surplus of €2,238m, not much different to the sur- plus of €2,348m for the same period last year. The budgeted surplus for the full year of 2005 is €4,092m.

The Capital Account Balance at the end of September showed a deficit of €3,361m compared to a deficit of €2,/66m for the same period last year.

The budgeted deficit for 2005 as a whole is €7,080m for 2005.

The CSO then released figures for the second quarter of this year showing that the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was 4.1 per cent up on the same quarter last year, at €37,784m. The Gross Na- tional Product (GNP), which excludes the earnings of foreign-owned compa- nies, grew at 3.1 per cent for the same eau lelee

Soon afterwards, the ESRI disagreed with these figures. It said that econom-

ic growth, as measured by real GDP, would grow by 5.7 percent this year and 5 per cent next year.

“Strong economic growth will contin- ues for the foreseeable future,” it said. It based this upbeat prediction partly on the large increase in employment shown by the latest Quarterly Household Sur- oe

SW ilommcaviseet-lKOeMMolciAWiocor mech iO best IKon me ls mainly down to different interpretations of what exactly is happening to produc- tivity.

The government explanation is that productivity has fallen owing to the loss of manufacturing jobs and their re- placement by less productive work. The ESRI, on the other hand, says that there has been a large increase in the numbers employed but that it sees no evidence of a downturn in productivity.

WHILE some might feel it’s a classic case of ‘closing the stable door after the horse has bolted’, Clare County Council nonetheless last week issued the second edition of its ‘Clare Rural House Design Guide’, aimed at setting higher stand- ards for rural housing design.

According to the council’s planning office, these design guidelines will make it very clear that housing develop- ment in rural areas needs to be of a high quality and should complement rather than dominate its surroundings.

The new rural house design guide takes account of new national guide- lines on sustainable rural housing. Liam Conneally, Acting Director of Planning with the Council said “it is the princi- ple aim of the new House Design Guide to create a clearer understanding of the components of good house siting and design. Without a well informed public it 1s difficult to achieve the high qual- ity building design that the landscape of Clare deserves”.

Conneally commented that “the land- scape of County Clare is one of its greatest natural assets and the achieve- ment of a high quality built environ- ment in the county is important to its physical and economic well-being. We all share in the responsibility to achieve this end; local authorities, design and building professions, building industry, chents who commission buildings and the community itself,”

He emphasised “the new House De-

sign Guide recognises that contempo- rary design can develop interesting and attractive buildings that contribute to the landscape character of the county.”

He stated that “the guide does not pre- scribe design but draws to the attention of applicants, architects, builders and their agents the benefits of drawing on traditional design elements in the design of new buildings and to give special consideration to siting, materials and orientation in the design process.”

Responding to the launch of the De- sign Guide, Liscannor based architect Alex Russell commented, “in the ideal world the proper profession would do the proper job, and there wouldn’t be any need for planners to impose design parameters. However, in the context of Clare, where a broad range of people think they can design, and have had a go at doing so in the past, with disastrous consequence, the council obviously felt that the need had arisen to produce such parameters”’.

Russell views the guidelines as a “kind of rescue mission’, although he concluded, “for large swathes of the county, they arrive, after the event”.

Russell aired concerns that the guide- lines seemed to be misguided in that they are directed towards the visual look of a house and also relied on a cer- tain interpretation of traditional archi- tecture. He suggested, “it would be bet- ter to guide in terms of proportion and scale and the arrangement of the build- ing, rather then prescribing in terms of visual or aesthetic appearance”.

Paul Conway, partner at Leahy and Conway Architects, Ennis said, “ a number of rural counties have produced House Design Guides in recent years. Considering the extremely poor quality of siting and design of much of what was built throughout the countryside over the past few decades, these guides have, at least, been well intentioned, though some are more successful than others.

He continued, “The new Clare De- sign Guide is aimed at the ‘user’, whom I understand to mean the people who will live in the houses. It is a reason- ably good effort, with new sections on modern design, conservation and an improved section on sustainability, and most professionally qualified architects will welcome it. A lingering concern re- mains as to how it will be operated by the planning authority, with the danger that it will be used as a rule book where the ‘good’ examples illustrated are to be badly copied without reference to the particular siting or circumstances, and an innovative design is reyected because it does not match one of the approved models”.

Conneally, for his part encouraged members of the public and house plan designers to use the design guide when preparing planning applications for one-off houses in the county.”

The House Design Guide is available at libraries throughout the county and at the offices of Clare County Council, Unit 1, Westgate Retail Park, Kilrush Road, Ennis at a cost of Eurol5 per

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Business People section recently, has 118 fulltime employees plus contractors.

Building on its past success and local ex- pertise, Tecnomen announced that it will

invest heavily in the future development of its Charging Business Unit products and this means further growth in its Shannon operation.

“This commitment to significant invest- ment in the Shannon operation further un- derlines the confidence that Tecnomen has in it’s Shannon staff and in the local region to provide the quality of personnel and in- frastructure we require.

“IT have every confidence that this expan- sion will be a success and that the plans will further secure the future of Tecnomen” said Kari Penttilaé, Director of the Charg- ing Business Unit.

Tecnomen has been operating in Shannon since 1991. The company first started as a manufacturing base to service the needs of Tecnomen’s paging and messaging custom- ers. The Irish operation has now grown to

be a central part of Tecnomen’s global op- erations and the headquarters of its’ Charg- ing Business Unit.

The Charging Product Development which is supported from Shannon is used by telecommunication operators to man- age their interface with pre-paid end-users. This is a significant growth area for Tec- nomen especially in the Latin and Central American markets.

Tecnomen develops and supplies mes- saging and charging solutions for telecom operators and service providers worldwide. Founded in Finland in 1978 the Company has over 25 years of experience in the tele- communications sector with many industry firsts including first to deliver voice mail, first to deliver unified messaging and first commercial MMS interconnection using different vendors’ systems.

Tecnomen systems are in use by over 60 operators in 40 countries worldwide.

This innovative multinational regards Shannon as a very advantageous global R & D production and logistics base, having Skilled labour, tax incentives and business infrastructure coupled with a strategic lo- cation beside an international airport are among the chief reasons why the company located in Shannon.

Most of the company’s R & D staff are third-level graduates from colleges in Lim- erick, Cork and Galway.

Shannon is the sole manufacturing and global distribution operation within the group and product is shipped by air to Tel- ecoms operators throughout the world.

All open positions in Shannon can be viewed at www.tecnomen.com.

SUITABLE Clare enterprises can apply for a share of €119 million to be made available by the government to support renewable energy projects over 15 years. There is a possibility of substantial sup- port for developments in wind energy, biomass, landfill gas, anaerobic diges- tion plants and hydroelectricity — and some of the savings on the costs of im- porting fuel are to be re-directed to the rural economy.

The technologies listed above cannot as yet fully compete with conventional electricity generation in an open com- petitive market.

Special financial support is therefore needed, and this can be justified under EU competition and state aids rules un- der the EU’s environmental protection guidelines.

Noel Dempsey, Minister for Commu- nications, Marine and Natural Resourc- es, has changed the system of providing grants for developing renewable energy SAI Coa nee

The former method was competitive tendering under the Alternative Energy Requirement (AER), but this 1s now to be a fixed price tariff system. These new fixed price tariffs per kilowatt-hour are: large wind energy (over 5 megawatts) 5.7 cent; small wind energy (under 5 MW) 5.9 cent; biomass (landfill gas) 7.0 cent; and hydroelectricity and biomass technologies 7.2 cent.

The new measure provides support for a contract with a registered supply com- pany to purchase all the output of the selected stations at guaranteed prices for up to fifteen years. The confidence engendered by long-term nature of this contract is expected to generate suffi- cient investment finance and loan capi- tal, which perhaps might not otherwise be provided.

The Department says that it will sup-

port a minimum of 400 MW of new renewable capacity, which will be in- creased to accommodate any slippage rates from previous competitions.

Mr Dempsey said the benefits would include secure clean environmentally- friendly indigenous electricity, and a major reduction in greenhouse gas emis- sions from the electricity sector.

There would be an estimated annual reduction of approximately | million tonnes of carbon dioxide, which has been identified as the chief culprit in glo- bal warning. A corresponding reduction in costs of over 20 million euro annually

for greenhouse gas emissions permits up to the 2010 target levels 1s also forecast.

Dependency on imported fossil fuels would be reduced and the national trade balance would be improved by redi- recting money previously spent on im- porting energy back into the rural Irish economy.

He predicted that this redistributed money would facilitate the creation of new long-term jobs in renewable energy equipment operation and maintenance, and of construction jobs during the building phase.