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‘(01 HONDA ACCORD

: “Centres like Lahinch Seaworld were never designed to make money. They are not profit making machines and if they do make a profit, it is a bonus. The value in Lahinch Seaworld is the resource it provides to the community.

He added: “I would like to congratulate the direc- tors, management and

staff for reducing the an- nual loss and the net debt by €80,000. While the balance sheet isn’t as healthy as one would like, its value is the superb facilities it provides for the community and for schools in the area.

OT OO e\ ab ab elo added: “More _ facilities like Lahinch Seaworld are needed.”

The complex employs 30 people and during the Win- ter months provides facili- ties for 40 schools in North and West Clare — while this year has added a steam room to the range of facili- ties on offer.

Sroleieter i Ceyme comm seco leuee Clare area, Martin Lafferty said: “Any resort like Lahi- nch needs a centre like La- hinch Seaworld. It is a tre- mendous development for Lahinch, while also provid- ing employment in the area.

Cllr Lafferty added: “I wouldn’t be overly con- cerned with the losses and I would urge the Council to maintain its annual con- tribution and interest in the centre.”

The accounts show that the Council guarantees loans

and overdrafts for Lahinch Seaworld to the amount of €317,000.

Now in its ninth year of operation, Lahinch Sea- world is a community-based initiative that has provided an added dimension to Lahinch’s long-standing reputation as being one of Clare’s most popular sea- side resorts.

Benefiting from over €2.5 million in EU money, the lo- cal community ensured that

the centre would become an extra tourism resource to Lahinch after individu- als from Lahinch and sur- rounding towns and villages including Ennistymon, Lis- cannor and Miltown Malbay contributed over €650,000 to the scheme.

The accounts for the end of October 2004 show that the centre had a turnover of €695,000 with a gross profit of €607,000.

However, the cost of run- ning the centre stood at €621,000 leaving an oper- ating loss of €14,000 and this led to an overall loss of €33,000 after charges of €19,000 in interest and other charges.

The accounts also show that €304,000 was paid to the 29 staff at the centre in 2004. Lahinch Seaworld also has assets worth €1.5 million.

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BEING crowned _ the ‘International — Festival Queen of Ireland’ has cer- tainly not gone to Kinvara woman Emma Kilkelly’s head as the 19-year-old seems to have both her feet firmly on the ground.

Just hours after win- ning the prestigious title, which is competed for by the winners of regional festivals from all over Ire- land and beyond, Emma was on her way to Mos- ney for the finals of the community games.

After celebrating her victory late into’ the evening of Friday August 26 the GMIT business student made the journey to Mosney early on Sat- urday morning to referee the camogie semi finals playoff between Cork and Offaly.

“I knew I had commit- ted myself to refereeing the match but I had no idea I was going to win the tile,” said an overjoyed Emma. “To be honest I’ve

been coming to Mosney all my life as a competi- tor and now as a referee and I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

Emma qualified to take OV MBD MMO MBKION EU MEDAN being crowned the Gort Show Queen, an achieve- ment which also qualified her to compete for the Galway Rose Competi- tion. She was also select- ed as the Banrion at the Gouterievlempercmpeelar:(eme aloe val and The Oyster Pearl at the 50th International Galway Oyster Festival.

The International Fes- tival Queen of Ireland Sores} orem isco me meue- Hever! by Dundalk man Mr. Pat- sy Rogers and involved a formal interview on Fri- day evening followed by an interview live on stage later that night.

Emma was joined at the festival by her fam- ily, friends and support- ers, along with her spon- sor, Patricia Kilkelly of Streams Beauty Rooms im ecoum

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ENNIS CHESS CLUB travel to Italy on September 16 to take on Europe’s finest in the European Team Championships.

They become the first team from Munster to take part in the prestigious tournament.

Ennis and Phibbsboro will rep- resent Ireland at the event which takes place St. Vincent.

Ennis qualified after they fin- ished second to Phibbsboro in the final round of the All-Ireland championships.

It has been a successful year all round for the club. They beat close rivals Limerick in May, to capture the Munster Championships for the second year in the row. Europe will represent a sterner test for the team. Several of the worlds top players will compete at St Vincent

including current world champion Vladimir Kramnik.

“It’s going to be tough. If we can win a few games we’ll be delight- ed” said John Cassidy, captain of Ennis Chess Club, this week.

The team will be without the services of the talented Gawain Jones, who will be competing at the ul8 European Championships in Bosnia. The Ennis chess club meets every Tuesday in Brandons

Bar. John hopes that their partici- pation the tournament will help to raise the profile of the sport around Clare.

“Hopefully by competing in Italy we will be able to attract a few new members and put Ennis on the map.”

As part of their efforts to raise funds for the trip, Ennis chess club will host a table quiz in Brandons Bar on Wednesday night.

SCAFFOLD TOWERS

ENTERPRISE, Trade and Employment Minister Micheal Martin is to enter into a process of discussions with unions representing Shannon Development about the company’s future, follow- ing a meeting of the parties last week.

Talks involving SIPTU, the NUJ, the Minister and his of- ficials will commence over the coming weeks and are not expected to end until at least October.

A spokesperson for the unions told The Clare Peo- ple they would be asking the Minister to justify his pro- posal to transfer its industrial portfolio to the IDA.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, on a visit to Clare on Saturday, sought to justify his Muinis- ter’s decision.

“The analysis, which is in the public domain, was that this was the best way forward and the Government made a decision on that basis. It’s a democracy and people are entitled to put forward their counter views and they have done that, and I understand Minister Martin is looking at those issues,” he said, after

meeting a deputation from Shannon Development.

Radical proposals from SIPTU to overhaul the role and structure of Shannon Development, including the abolition of its present board, were rejected by the Govern- ment.

The SIPTU document was lodged prior to Minister Martin announcing a reduced mandate for Shannon Devel- opment in July. The Board of Shannon Development also lodged a 10-year plan with the Miunister. Both papers were ignored.

The SIPTU document stated serious concern about the reasons behind the Gov- ernment’s focus on changing Shannon Development.

“We are deeply concerned that an overly simplistic, al- most chess-like game with the company and the Shan- non region’s future is being played out from a remote dis- tance in Dublin. In our view, this is motivated by an exces- sive and dangerous over-con- centration on the neatness and tidiness of admiunistra- tive structures.”

It proposed a more inclusive board, with members drawn from organisations such as IBEC, the Mid-West Region-

al Authority, the Shannon Airport Authority and local chambers of commerce.

Reduced staff numbers, from 165 to 120/130 through voluntary redundancy and natural wastage, were also eebaviteee

It claimed that rents from properties in the Shannon Free Zone accruing to the agency, amounted to a net figure of between €lm and €1.5m, rather than the €6 million previously thought. The figure doesn’t take into account the substantial capi- tal investment that the Shan- non Free Zone requires.

Among the new roles for the agency, the paper pro- posed Shannon Development would undertake major new development projects in stra- tegic areas of opportunity such as the Burren.

The document stressed that the “new role for Shannon Development will not result in any duplication with other national, regional or local public bodies.

It envisaged a dedicated unit of experienced people, solely concerned with find- ing and building relation- ships with new private sector investors, in Ireland, Europe and, in particular, the USA.

A COROFIN woman who has been making front- page news in China has just returned, after spend- ing a year-and-a-half in the Asian country. Deir- dre Gillespie moved to the city of Cangzhou in January of 2004 and took up a position as an Eng- lish teacher in the Pioneer Secondary School.

The unusual thing about Deirdre’s trip is that, in a city of more than three million people, she was the only Westerner, and for many of the lo- cals the first white person they had ever seen.

“It was really strange. Everywhere I went, people were staring at me and pointing. It was a little lonely at first,’ said the Corofin woman. ‘“Cangzhou is a industrial town in a rural area so they had very little Western influence. They just didn’t know what to make of me.”

Soon after her arrival, Deirdre was surprised to learn that she was about to be front-page news in the local newspaper.

After hearing about a local woman whose bicy- cle was stolen, her school decided to capitalise on its newest celebrity.

“The school heard about a lady who made shoes for beggars. Her bike was stolen, which is a big deal in China because bikes are the main means of transport out there,” she said. “The school gave her a bike and told her that I had bought it for her. I didn’t want to do it. I didn’t want to get credit in the paper for something I didn’t do.”

Following this early media exposure, Deirdre became a regular feature in the local rag. Many stories were written about her, including a second front-page exclusive when she visited the local tourist spot, an iron lion.

‘They were afraid of me at first and they didn’t want to speak English to me, in case I would laugh at them,” she continued. “I didn’t really pay much heed. I didn’t have much Chinese at the time. In the end, I got a bit sick of it.”

For the first three months of her stay at the Pioneer School, Deirdre was teaching more than 1,000 students each week. After the success of the programme, the school began to recruit more Western English teachers.

As strange as the experience might have been, at the end of the day Deirdre is happy that she went to China.,

“Tm really glad I went. I think that it opened up my mind a lot to new things,” she said. “I didn’t know anything about China before I went and the bit I knew turned out to be rubbish. I’d go back in a heartbeat.”

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