The Clare People Archive

CLARE County Council has confirmed that there are currently 381 people on its affordable housing list with the largest proportion of applicants coming from Ennis and Shannon.

In a report before the council’s Special Policy Committee (SPC) for Housing, acting Housing Director, Josephine Cotter Coughlan confirmed that 100 allocations of homes had been made to the original 481 people that responded to adverts last year for expressions of interest for people in need of affordable housing.

Figures supplied by the council show that 146 people from Ennis lodged an expression of interest for an affordable home, while elsewhere, 79 applications were received from Shannon, 35 from Quin, six from Kilrush, 21 from Sixmilebridge, 14 from Corofin and eight from Kilkee.

Ms Cotter Coughlan revealed council plans to develop 250 social and affordable homes in the Shannon area.

Outlining other future proposals in a bid to shorten the waiting list, Ms Cotter Coughlan said that the council intended to construct 24 affordable homes in Kilkee. The application is currently being considered and will be on the agenda for the council’s December meeting.

She also revealed that the council proposes to construct 40 affordable houses in 2007/2008 at Cluain Airne, Shannon.

“The council is currently examining the possibility of constructing an affordable housing scheme on a 2.2 hectare site immediately south of the Cluain Airne housing estate,” she said.

Ms Cotter-Coughlan revealed that through Part V of the Planning and Development Act, 72 affordable homes had been allocated in nine separate private housing developments across the county.

These include 10 homes by Reddington Construction at Lios Ard, Tulla Rd, Ennis, 10 homes by Rinn Construction at Gort na nUll, Sixmilebridge and five homes at Dun na Manach, Quin by builder, Paul Talty.

Ms Cotter Coughlan said that since 2004, the council had committed itself to providing 40 affordable housing initiative units under Sustaining Progress.

“The delivery of these units in County Clare is now being considered in the context of the master plan prepared for lands zoned Residential in the South Clare Economic Corridor Local Plan adjacent to the Cúl na Gréine Housing Scheme at Tullyvarraga, Shannon,” said Ms CotterCoughlan.

PLANS by Michael Lynch Ltd to build a road that could serve a new 42,000 seater stadium have received a second blow, with the National Roads Authority (NRA) opposing the proposal.

Last week, The Clare People revealed concerns over the impact the route could have on the medieval Clareabbey and the site of an 800year old battle.

Now, the NRA has told the council that it has examined the application “and considers that it is at variance with national policy in relation to control of frontage development on national roads for a number of reasons”.

The plan by Michael Lynch Ltd seeks to open 60 acres of land for commercial development. One of the options put forward for the lands near Clareabbey by the company is the development of a 42,000 capacity GAA stadium. However, the NRA has stated that the application for a new 1.5km route is premature pending the completion of the N18 Ennis by-pass and N85 western relief road and that the proposed development also involves lands acquired under Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) and funded by the NRA for the purpose of N18/N85 Ennis by-pass..

The NRA state: “The proposed application will impact on the effective operation of the N18/N85 by-pass.

“The N85 Clareabbey roundabout junction currently under construction as part of the N18 Ennis by-pass . . . was not designed to cater for the levels of proposed development generated traffic, which according to the Environment Impact Statement (EIS) submitted in support of the application are anticipated to be in excess of 14,000 in design year.

“We have serious concerns regarding the interaction of this large volume of development-generated traffic with National Road traffic from a capacity and safety perspective.”

The NRA also state that the impact of the proposed development on the road drainage regime for the N18 Ennis by-pass has not been adequately assessed.

The Department of the Environment states that “as with other developments in this general area south of Ennis, there are concerns about the flood risks and the presence of unsuitable ground conditions for construction in the floodplain of the River Fergus.

It goes on: “There is little consideration of the cumulative impacts of the current development in conjunction with possible future development on the current site, and other nearby permitted, planned or partially constructed development.”

A decision is due on the application next month.

AFTER today’s ceremony, Clare Haven Services will formally launch its information leaflet in nine different languages.

The leaflet will detail the services available to women through Clare Haven.

The event was organised with the assistance of Clare Women’s Network, the Irish Refugee Council and Ennis CDP. The leaflet was funded by the Dept. of Justice, Equality and Law Reform.

Between January and September of this year, Clare Haven has housed 118 women and 96 children, provided advice and support for 49 new callers to the Ennis drop-in centre and conducted outreach clinics at three centres around the county.

Kilrush has had 25 visits to its outreach, Shannon 69 and Scariff 14.

There have been 84 new calls to the service helpline and the drop-in centre in Ennis has conducted 282 support visits, with 571 telephone support calls.

Clare Haven Services can be contacted on the 24-hour emergency helpline at 065-6822435 or the daytime office number at 065-6891764.

The service has 35 staff providing round-the-clock emergency support for women living with physical, emotional and psychological violence.

A POIGNANT ceremony to remember the 125 women who have died violent deaths since 1996 and to mark the beginning of 16 days of action on domestic violence is being held in Ennis today.

According to figures produced by Women’s Aid, 80 of those 125 murder victims were killed in their own homes.

At today’s ceremony, candles will be lit to remember each of the murdered women.

The ceremony is part of the 16 Days of Action, an international campaign focusing on violence against women, running from November 25 – International Day Against Violence Against Women – to December 10, which is International Human Rights Day.

Events are taking place around the country to mark the 16 days of action on the theme of breaking the silence.

Last week in Dublin, Women’s Aid held a minute’s silence outside the Dáil in memory of the murdered women.

Speaking outside the Dail against the backdrop of a giant ‘In Memoriam’ card, Margaret Martin, Director of Women’s Aid, said, “The seriousness of the levels of violence against women in Ireland today and the failure of the legal system to keep women safe cannot be over-emphasised.

“The tragic reality is that some women pay the ultimate price of their lives.”

According to recent research, almost 50 per cent of all resolved cases of female homicide were committed by the husband, ex-husband, partner or ex-partner. This involved cases where the perpetrator had been charged and found guilty.

Martin continued, “Many people would like to believe that this issue has been dealt with. This is clearly not the case. Current services to women experiencing violence have received no increase in funding since 2002, despite the high increase in costs, which effectively means the curtailing of services year on year.

“The political will to take this issue seriously must be translated into adequate funding in this year’s budget. Women’s Aid has been making this call for the past four years and, still, in Ireland every month, on average one woman is murdered.”

Despite an increase in the number of calls responded to by the Women’s Aid National Freephone Helpline in 2005, there were more than 10,000 calls that could not be answered.

“We sometimes hear from women telling us that they have been suffocated until they were unconscious. It is obvious how dangerous the situation is for those women. While we know that the months prior to leaving and immediately after leaving are the most dangerous, we want women to know that many do make the break from their abuser and go on to lead full lives,” Ms Martin said.

IT took Norma more than 30 years to leave the man who beat her, tried to strangle her, threw dishes at her, blamed her for every disaster in his life and controlled all her finances while convincing the world that she was mad and he was a saint.

But she did it.

About eight years ago, when she found an escape route, Norma turned the key in the door, got into a taxi and travelled to Ennis to the bed and breakfast she had secretly booked.

For the next few weeks, nobody knew where she was, as she struggled to pull a life back together for herself.

The couple were married for two years when he first became violent towards Norma. “We were working abroad when we heard the family property was to go to another family member and not to him. He turned on me and blamed me.”

Other incidents which ended in blame for Norma included accidents which were of his own making. “It didn’t matter what happened – I was to blame.”

Norma endured beatings, threats, emotional and mental abuse. She lived in fear after he tried to strangle her. The beatings stopped when he was threatened by a family member, but the mental abuse got worse. She spent several years struggling with depression. Her health suffered and she had numerous operations.

During this time, Norma sought help from professionals. Some of these people didn’t believe her – one professional took her husband’s side when he had threatened to have her instituitionalised. Another threatened to have her children taken away from her. “He had everyone fooled,” she said.

Norma’s health and well-being deteriorated until, one day, an opportunity arose for Norma to finally leave her abuser. Norma is now living in her own home and works part-time.

“What I would say to women who are living in that situation is that you need to detach emotionally and try to stay positive.

“I kept going back, trying to fix things, but I was just letting myself in for more rough treatment. I finally realized that I had to start saving myself, rather than fix something that could never be. There is wonderful support available from Clare Haven Services and this, together with my deep faith, has sustained me through it all. I have now found peace and happiness.”

THE Environmental Protection Agency has said that issues relating to the pumping of raw sewage into the River Fergus in Ennis should be resolved as soon as possible.

The EPA’s Office of Environmental Enforcement has been in contact with Clare County Council about sewage treatment problems in Ennis following last week’s Town Council admission to The Clare People that it had been dumping raw sewage into the town’s river from its pump station at Francis Street.

The council said it was forced to take the drastic action because old technology at the pumping station couldn’t cope with the town’s population growth

The facility at Francis Street is operating beyond its capacity and during heavy rainfall it automatically pumps raw sewage in to the River Fergus at the rear of several home just 100 metres away.

The EPA said it was “following up on the issue to ensure that the waste water collection system meets the requirements of the Urban Waste Water Treatment Regulations.

“These regulations require local authorities to have collecting systems in place for urban waste water from population centres over certain sizes.”

The environment agency said however that it “notes the commitment made by the council to carry out upgrade works and would like to see this issue resolved as soon as possible. The EPA will continue to monitor the situation.”

Last week, Ennis Town Engineer Tom Tiernan admitted to The Clare People that the council had “serious problems with the pump station at Francis Street”.

“The technology there was acceptable 25 or 30 years ago but unfortunately it no longer is.

“We are not going to pretend that this is a satisfactory situation but we have not been made aware of any safety or health risk associated with it and we have explained the situation in detail to anyone who has raised it with us,” he said.

“This is not an acceptable situation but we have no alternative. There are plans for a major upgrade of the pump house at Francis Street in the Ennis/Clarecastle drainage scheme but until that has been approved and completed, this is the alternative we are left with.

“The next step is to apply to the Department to appoint consultants to commence the design stage of the project,” he said.

A VISIT to his native Wexford proved a fortunate journey for Willie Carr from Dun Aras, Hurlers Cross, Shannon when he purchased the national lottery ticket that got him entry on to last Saturday night’s television gameshow.

Willie, who is originally from Castlebridge in Co. Wexford, won prizes to the value of over €25,000 on the popular RTE programme hosted by Derek Mooney .

He has been living in Shannon for the past six years and is attached to the army transport corps at Sarsfield Barracks in Limerick. Married to Lorraine, who is a native of Shannon, they have an eight- month-old baby daughter, Leah.

He is interested in all sports and played hurling up until last year. He shared in the excitement of the local Wolfe Tones county championship win and is also a big fan of the Wexford county side.

Photograph shows Willie being presented with his winning cheque by Gerry O’Donoghue, National Lottery Security Manager as Derek Mooney gives the thumbs up.

CLARE doctors are paying up to €14,000 per annum for locum late-night cover, according to the Chairman of the Irish Medical Organisation’s GP Committee, Ian McGuinness.

This service, which provides cover for late-night ‘red-eye shifts’ in coops, has become a growing expense for small rural practices, such as those in west and north Clare, in recent times.

Galway-based GP, Dr Martin Daly, commented last week that a number of doctors in Clare were paying up to €14,000 each year for cover. In addition, doctors in Mayo were paying as much as €9,000, while some WestDoc doctors paid out close to €7,000.

“While this might be viable for larger general practices, it is not so for smaller ones.

“The Government and health management are storing up a massive well of frustration among our GP members in relation to out-of-hours work,” said Dr Daly.

It now looks likely that the members of the Irish Medical Organisation will push the doctor’s union to seek the exclusion of responsibility for out-of-hours work from any proposed new GP contract. Dr Daly added that since 2001 it has been impossible to engage with the Department of Health and the Government and to have any meaningful talks about out-of-hours work.

According to the Irish Medical Organisation, if Irish GPs were to follow their British counterparts and opted out of providing out of hours services, it would cost the government and Health Service Executive much more than it is costing at present.

THE planned construction of a second entrance into Gort from the proposed Gort/Crusheen bypass has, once again, been thrown into doubt this week as Galway County Council has stated that it does not believe the second junction is necessary.

Following a lengthy campaign by the Gort Regional Alliance for Community and the Environment (GRACE), the National Roads Authority (NRA) had agreed to build and fund the second junction earlier this month.

However, this latest revelation has cast doubt on that commitment as the local authority looks unlikely to upgrade the supporting roads.

In a statement received by The Clare People , a GRACE spokesperson commented that they had been “delighted” to learn that the NRA approved the second junction and they “thought it would be only a matter of course that the county council would be willing to upgrade a local road”.

However, according to GRACE, the road section of the county council does not accept that Gort needs a second entrance, despite all the figures which suggest the contrary, and despite the NRA’s acceptence of those figures.

The key road which needs to be upgraded is the Gort to Tubber road and this was not included on the list for the EU Co-Financed Specific Improvements Grant Scheme sent up by Galway County Council to the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government.

The current argument centres around different interpretations of the current and projected populations for Gort.

The Chief Executive of the NRA, Fred Barry, informed GRACE that Gort has the “potential to increase in population significantly” from its current level of some 3,000 people, which is already well in advance of the 1,500 to 2,000 people required to automatically be entitled to a second entrance.

However, the local authority has refused to recognise these projections.

UNIONS have welcomed the decision of Aer Lingus worker/shareholders at Shannon and Dublin to reject the Ryanair offer for their shares.

The no-frills airline’s €1.4 billion bid for Aer Lingus is now almost certainly history after 97 per cent of Employee Share Ownership Trust(Esot) members voted against the bid with a turnout of 70 per cent.

The two main unions, SIPTU and IMPACT, have welcomed the employees decision. A statement from Impact said that the employees would not accept a take-over by Ryanair “at any price . . .The bid by Ryanair held nothing for the workers, the consumers or the airline and its defeat is a rejection not only of Ryanair’s employment practices, but it is a victory for common sense and consumer choice.”

Impact, which represents Aer Lingus cabin crew, pilots and middle managers said members were right to reject the take-over. Both IMPACT and SIPTU have nominees on the trust that runs ESOT. The situation could make for uneasy bedfellows in a shareholder relationship. The ESOT will hold a 12 per cent stake while Ryanair will hold a 19.2 per cent stake.

Ryanair has so far made no move to take up the board seats and has said that it will make its views known at annual general meetings. O’Leary’s airline is pressing ahead with its bid, despite the result of the vote. It is planning on convening an extraordinary general meeting on December 14 to get approval for the acquisition. But it is possible that the offer may be withdrawn before that.