The Clare People Archive

CLARE County Council needs to exercise its “green” buying power and count the environmental cost of where it spends its money, an elected member has said.

Cllr Brian Meaney’s comments came as an international conference in Ireland heard how local authorities had the spending power to make a serious environmental difference.

Junior Environment Minister, Batt O’ Keefe, opened last week’s “Buying Green” one-day workshop on Green Public Procurement in Ireland.

The seminar took place at the Enterprise Ireland Conference Centre in Glasnevin, Dublin, and was convened by ICLEI, the international association of local governments and regional and national government organisations that have made a commitment to sustainable development.

In his opening address, the minister noted that public authorities were one of the largest consumer blocks in Europe, spending some 16 per cent of the EU’s gross domestic product.

In Ireland, the total Government purchasing budget is between €8 billion and €10 billion per annum. This gives “significant leverage” to procurers in the public sector to “move the market” towards the competitive provision of greener products and services, he said.

The Minister added, “The extent to which we integrate the environmental, economic and social dimensions of our policies will determine our future prosperity and quality of life”.

Clare County Council had no representative at the conference and just three other Irish local authorities were represented.

Green Councillor Brian Meaney said that it was “very important that we as a council consider our public procurement policy. First, we need to ensure that we are only buying materials from suppliers who are operating within the planning laws.

“It has happened in the past that this has not been the case. And we must give serious consideration to the carbon dioxide impact of what we are buying.”

A spokeswoman for the County Council’s Environmental section said that Clare County Council’s Waste Minimisation Policy is “coordinated regionally by the Regional Waste Management Office”.

She added that the region was the first to appoint a Regional Industrial Waste Minimisation Advisor.

“The Replacement Waste Management Plan for the Limerick/Clare/ Kerry Region has incorporated clear policies and targets. Objectives include to implement green procurement of office stationery in each local authority, to increase waste prevention and recycling in each local authority, to investigate tendering for the purchase of consumables on a regional basis and to reduce and reuse construction and demolition waste.”

AFTER three years in existence, the position of full-time biodiversity officer at Clare County Council is to be scrapped later this week.

The position, which has been held by Elaine Keegan since its creation in October of 2003, will be down-sized to a part-time position following the failure of Clare County Council to meet the shortfall in budgeting created by the withdrawal of LEADER funding.

The project was funded for last year through a combination of LEADER, Clare County Council and Heritage Council funding. All LEADER funding has been suspended until the end of 2007. It had been hoped that the local authority would put forward what one council member described as the “very small amount of money” required to keep the position viable.

“I find it hard to reconcile this when we appear to have appointed our sixth Director of Services at Clare County Council,” said Clare’s Green Party general election candidate, Cllr Brian Meaney.

“From my understanding, a Director of Services salary would pay for three full-time biodiversity officers. I cannot even contemplate the loss, or even the scaling back, of the biodiversity brief at the council. We should look at the more grandiose and cosmopolitan functions of the council before we cut back on something like this.”

In recent times, Ms Keegan has been responsible for a number of Clare County Council’s most successful projects. These include the recent survey of the cuckoo population in the county, the creation of a CD-ROM for primary schools on Clare Biodiversity and the recently formed Clare Bat Group.

“It is unfortunate that the funding is not available and we will have to scale back,” commented Ms Keegan. “We will carry on and push for more funding in the future. These projects should be funded by the Department of the Environment through the Parks and Wildlife Service as they have stated in their own biodiversity plan that each local authority should have a biodiversity officer.”

The work of the biodiversity officer will be discontinued completely in the beginning of next year, but will be restored in a part-time capacity later in 2007. It is hoped that ongoing projects such as field trips for primary and secondary schools and the work of the Clare Bat group will be continued for the immediate future.

A PILOT scheme for third-level education in Ennis will be in place by February next, members of Clare County Council have been told.

Harriet Cotter, the new Director of the Clare Lifelong Learning project, was giving a presentation to a meeting of the local authority on the provision of third-level education in the county.

She told members that, to begin with, there would be two pilot projects, one in February of next year and one the following September.

The courses offered on these pilot projects would include community studies and foundation studies in various subjects.

One of the concepts behind the overall project is to establish a facility in Ennis enabling people from all parts of the county to access courses through distance learning, in association with the third-level institutions of neighbouring counties.

It is envisaged that the facility will prioritise courses relevant to the county’s economy in the areas of culture, tourism, forestry, maritime and agriculture and programmes for immigrants.

In the past seven weeks, Cotter told the meeting, she had been liaising with existing third-level facilities and the possible course providers.

“I have found a huge commitment to this. In addition, we have a growing population and a strong business, industry and commercial base as well as a traditionally high participation rate in third-level education.”

But she told the meeting of councillors that there was a major issue around fees.

“The fees issue is a significant inhibitor. It’s an inequity which allows full-time students to study free while part-time students have to pay for it.”

An awareness campaign is being planned to let people know what will be on offer, with a series of public meetings scheduled for around the county.

ONE of Fine Gael’s general election candidates, Cllr Tony Mulcahy, has come under fire from Shannon residents over his plans to jointly develop a number of homes in Shannon.

Last month, Cllr Mulcahy, along with Noel Justice, lodged three separate planning applications with Clare County Council to build three dormer homes at Ballycasey.

In their objection, the ‘concerned residents of Clairin Glas’ against all three applications, state that the proposed houses, “will be out of character with existing houses and lead to increased density and traffic flow and, in turn, risk to our children and disregard the rights of surrounding residential homes.

“The availability of single sites in Shannon is at a minimum and it was never intended for the Clairin Glas area to be used by property developers as an opportunity to change the pattern of development and intended use by individual families.

“This is now being contravened by Cllr Tony Mulcahy and Noel Justice.

“We would like to bring to your attention the fact that a portion of the proposed site is zoned open space in the south Clare plan for the area.”

The residents also state that the current application contravenes the condition of a previous application in relation to style of house and overall density as laid down by Shannon Development who insisted on a low density for the area.

“Purchasers of sites were legally compelled to abide by these conditions as part of sale and overall development of these sites. There is a duty on the council to uphold these conditions.”

Speaking to The Clare People yesterday, Cllr Tony Mulcahy said, “I certainly reserve the right as a citizen to submit a planning application. However, as the application is live and as I am a member of the planning authority, I cannot comment on the applications.”

A decision is due on the applications later this year.

THE mother of one of the Kilkee girls killed in a car driven by a 15year old has formally requested the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to appeal the leniency of the sentence given to the driver.

At Ennis Circuit Court last month, David Naughton (19) was jailed for three years after he pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing the death of two girls, Stacey Haugh (16) and Lorna Mahoney (13) on October 17, 2003.

Imposing sentence, Judge Con Murphy said that Naughton was on a campaign of dangerous driving on the night in question.

Solicitor for Mrs Mahoney, Eugene O’Kelly, has written to the DPP on her behalf to have Naughton’s sentence appealed to the Court of Criminal Appeal.

The letter focuses on Naughton’s extradition warrant, and demands to know who was responsible for errors on it.

“This error had the most significant impact on the length of the sentence imposed and was wholly within the Prosecution’s control.

The letter continues, “Mr. Naughton had done everything in his power to avoid prosecution for this offence including failing to appear while on bail for the first time. When he was subsequently arrested he was again granted bail and absconded to the UK. . . .

“He only pleaded guilty when there was no other option open to him. In the circumstances it is questionable whether he should have been given the benefit of his guilty plea in mitigation . . . His attempts to avoid prosecution added considerably to my client, and her family’s, distress . . .”

ENTERPRISE Minister Micheal Martin has hit back at claims that Enterprise Ireland has no intention of decentralising to Shannon.

The minister was in Shannon last week to announce 350 new high-tech jobs for the region. The jobs are to be created over the next five years by Digital River Ireland, which is setting up its European Headquarters in Shannon. The company, which has just clinched a contract with Microsoft, handle all of the online trading requirements for companies including Adobe, Canon and CompUSA Inc.

Shannon Development were instrumental in bringing the company to Shannon.

Answering questions after the announcement, the minister said that a recent move by Enterprise Ireland to sign a 25-year lease on premises in Dublin was not a statement of intent to stay in the capital.

He was reacting to criticism that just a handful of people had expressed an interest in moving to Shannon under the decentralisation scheme. He said the new lease “is a sensible move,” which allowed functions of Enterprise Ireland, currently scattered, to come together under one roof.

The minister added that the signing for 25 years does not mean Enterprise Ireland would stay in Dublin for that length of time. “There are get-out clauses,” he said. The Minister added that a site had now been identified in Shannon for the move and negotiations were under way.

“The first to be up and running in Shannon will be the new unit which has been given a special brief to support the county and city enterprise boards. I would hope there will be 70 staff in situ by next February,” he said.

Stating that the “government decision to decentralise Enterprise Ireland stands,” the minister admitted that they had “greater success” with departmental decentralisation than with the various other bodies listed to move.

“There are discussions going on with the social partners to see how best we handle the move with the agencies,” the minister said.

Asked why he had rowed back on his decision to give Shannon Development’s foreign investment brief to the IDA, Minister Martin said that they had made a convincing argument for it.

“Shannon Development came to us a year ago and put the argument to us that they are a catalyst for economic development in the region. They felt that they still had a role to play in the Shannon Free Zone and I accepted their overall argument,” he said.

THERE has been mixed reaction to the confirmation by the HSE that the Mid Western Regional Hospital Ennis is to get its own CT Scan. The National Hospitals Office approved the purchase of the scanner for the MWRH Ennis, after the Mid-Western Hospital Trust agreed to provide the capital cost.

“The National Hospitals Office will then over the coming weeks agree the revenue costs for the project and will make available from 2007 onwards,” a statement from the HSE said.

Leader of the opposition Enda Kenny (FG) expressed his concern that the scanner on offer was “minimal in capacity.”

During his visit to the county, the Fine Gael leader said the scanner would be “out of action” in three to five years time. “It seems like a false economy,” he added.

Senator Timmy Dooley (FF) said he was not prepared to accept the delay in sanctioning the purchase of the six-slice CT scanner when the money was already available from the MidWest Hospitals Trust.

“The absence of a CT scanner has a negative effect. Only very urgent cases at Ennis Hospital are considered for CT scanning,” he said.

“These patients must be transferred to Limerick by ambulance and, in some cases, be accompanied by a consultant anaesthetist.

“It is estimated that 3,000 scans per annum are required at Ennis Hospital,” he added. “Until now, however, only approximately 1,000 patients receive a scan by transferring to Limerick.”

AFTER months of speculation, the Health Service Executive has finally given its seal of approval to the €20.8 million development at the Mid Western Regional Hospital Ennis and the project can finally go to planning.

Brian Gilroy, National Director of Estates at the HSE, gave approval for the long-awaited third stage of the project on Wednesday. It allows a detailed design to be completed and the plan to progress to planning permission.

Fianna Fáil Senator Brendan Daly, who gave an ultimatum to the Taoiseach regarding the hospital before being added to the party’s election ticket, described the news as “a key decision” and “very important”.

“It will allay the fears of people in the county that there may be further delays in delivering the plan.”

Minister Micheál Martin announced the funding for the hospital development when he was Minister for Health in 2002.

In 2004, Minister Mary Harney approved the funding and a design team was put in place.

It was hoped that the hospital project would be at planning stage by last summer.

The HSE called for an analysis of the cost of the project last August after it emerged that the first phase, which was allocated €20.8 million, would cost in excess of €30 million.

The increase in cost was a result of changes to hygiene and other requirements in hospitals nationally.

A TEENAGE birthday celebration turned to tragedy when a young girl was killed in a road accident, moments after she had left a party.

Ennis Coroner’s Court heard that Charelle Howard (17), an only child, from The Watery Road, Ennis, was a back-seat passenger in a Volkswagen Polo car that was involved in a single vehicle accident at Shanaway Road, Ennis, in the early hours of July 16, 2005.

Charelle’s friend, Jennifer O’Halloran, recalled how she held a house party at her home in Woodstock, Ennis, to celebrate her 18th birthday. At around 12.30am, a number of those attending the party decided to go to the Queen’s nightclub. A young man, Aidan Quilligan from Sixmilebridge, was driving and there were six passengers in the car. Mr Quilligan had not been drinking and everybody was in good form, the inquest heard. En route to Ennis, the car overturned and Ms O’Halloran noticed that her friend was not moving.

“Charelle didn’t answer. I said to her, ‘Come on, get out of the car’, but she was not moving. I knew she was unconscious,” recalled Ms O’Halloran.

A man who was driving behind Mr Quilligan’s car, minutes before the accident, said the car in which the group was travelling was moving at a speed of “maybe 60 mph.”

Charelle’s grandfather Jack Howard, from Newmarket-on-Fergus, recalled how his daughter Sandra rang him at 12.45am to say that Charelle had been in an accident. Twenty minutes later, she phoned again to say that Charelle had passed away.

A PSV inspector examined the car and noted that it was roadworthy. Dr Jeffrey de Freitas, who carried out an autopsy on Charelle’s body, concluded that death was due to cardiac respiratory failure, due to a fracture of the skull, consistent with having been involved in a road traffic accident.

County Coroner Isobel O’Dea said the accident, after a birthday party, was a “sad tragedy”. The jury agreed with her suggestion that a verdict of accidental death be brought. Ms O’Dea said alcohol was not a factor in the accident. “A young life was tragically lost, after an evening’s entertainment. It was a tragic accident,” she said.

Mr Quilligan’s family extended sympathy with the Howard family on the loss of Charelle, through their solicitor.

AGREEMENT with the unions on a package which would allow Shannon Airport to move forward will be achieved before Christmas. That was the prediction by Airport Executive Chairman, Pat Shanahan, when he came as an invited speaker to address Clare County Council last night.

Shanahan told the meeting that after 18 months of negotiations, he now hoped that talks, which are on-going under the auspices of the LRC, will be successful, “in time for a busy festive period.”

And he promised councillors that “no-one will be coerced or forced to take a redundancy package. Staff will be made an offer and if they don’t want it, then they can stay.”

The Executive Chairman was making a presentation and answering questions from elected representatives on the situation at, and future plans for, Shannon.

He told the meeting that passenger numbers would top 3.6 million by the end of the year. This is an increase of 21 per cent in European traffic, 11 per cent in US traffic and 13 per cent in UK traffic. The one downturn this year was in military traffic, which has been cut by 60 per cent.

He added that with the advent of open skies, “we are aggressively going after the North American market and advertising that the place people want to be flying into to spend their holidays in the west of Ireland is Shannon, not Dublin and then taking a four-hour bus ride.”

The decision to close the bar at the airport and cut back on opening hours in the restaurant was one forced by staff shortages, Shanahan said.

“We cannot afford to increase direct employment and the way forward is to provide state of the art franchising facilities,” he added.

He warned councillors that the “biggest problem facing Shannon Airport is financial viability and this needs to be addressed urgently.” He added that other cost factors besides staffing, including energy costs and rates would also have to be addressed.

As well as targeting increased passenger numbers and decreased costs, the cargo and property elements of the business would be developed.

“We are operating in a very competitive market and we want to have a world-class facility at Shannon. We need a seismic shift at Shannon and a point has been reached where management and unions are ready to make that shift. In this environment, people will have long-term, sustainable jobs.”