The Clare People Archive

FIGURES released by the main tourism operator in the Midwest show that it failed to capitalise on the record growth in passengers at Shannon Airport last year.

According to accounts returned by Shannon Heritage to the Companies Office, visitor numbers at the company’s visitor attractions, including Bunratty Folk Park, recorded a drop from 629,233 in 2004 to 625,615 last year.

This comes against the background of record growth at Shannon Airport where 3.3 million passed through the airport in 2005 – an increase of 900,000 on any previous year.

The launch of Shannon as a hub for Ryanair in May of last year is a large contributor to the massive rise and today, Ryanair serves 26 European destinations from Shannon.

However, the figures from Shannon Heritage show that across its top attractions a drop in visitor numbers were recorded last year.

In all, the company operates eight-day visitor attractions and four evening entertainment venues around the Shannon Region.

The figures show that visitors to Bunratty Folk Park dropped from 324,903 in 2004 to 316,813 in 2005, while the numbers at the Bunratty Banquets dropped from 69,171 in 2004 to 66,999 in 2005.

The O’Brien’s Tower attraction at the Cliffs of Moher was one of the few visitor attractions to buck the trend with numbers increasing from 78,365 in 2004 to 81,283 in 2005.

Despite the drop in numbers, Shannon Heritage’s accounts show that the company recorded an increase in profits from €139,659 in 2004 to €196,458 in 2005.

The accounts show that the company also increased its turnover from €11.3 million in 2004 to €11.9 million in 2005.

The company now has accumulated profits at €734,059.

PARENTS, staff and students of Seamount College in Kinvara have appealed to the Sisters of Mercy to give them time to come up with with a rescue package for the school following last week’s announcement that it is to be phased out over the next three years.

Hundreds of locals attended a crisis public meeting in the village on Friday evening to discuss the “shock” announcement that the school was to be wound down.

“Our primary concern at this point is for time and space to sort this out,” said Jane Joyce of the Parents Committee. “We all know that Kinvara needs a school. We know that Gort is full and Oranmore is full so we don’t know where our children are to go.”

Serious concerns have also been raised at the manner in which the announcement was made.

“It is unprecedented that the ASTI were not informed of the closure until the announcement was made on Thursday,” commented school principal Eileen Mulkerins on Friday night.

Ms Mulkerins went on to dispute the reasons given by the Sisters of Mercy for closure of the school, stating that student numbers are increasing and far in excess of the 150 mentioned by the Department of Education, that facilities were up to scratch and that the curriculum being provided was more than adequate.

The campaign to save the school has been given the complete backing of the three remaining Sisters of Mercy remaining at Seamount.

“The closure comes as a great shock to the resident Sisters of Mercy, and they are devastated,” said Sister Pius, a retired teacher at Seamount. “We hope that this meeting will put pressure on our headquarters in Ballinasloe to give a clearer message about their decision.”

Seamount College was set up by the Sisters of Mercy in 1921. The school is located on grounds donated to the Sisters of Mercy by a local woman on the condition that a school be established.

CLARE County Council is investigating claims that a leading Irish cruise boat company has told customers to dump toilet waste directly into the River Shannon.

A letter was sent to the Emerald Star cruise hire firm last month by a Dublin customer of the Carrick-on-Shannon based company. The documented was also circulated to local authorities with responsibility for the Shannon and Lough Derg, including Clare County Council, although it is not clear by whom.

It details observations and complaints about the company under a number of headings including service, cleanliness, training, equipment and health and safety. Under the last heading however, the author claims to have been told by staff to dump the contents of on board toilets into the Shannon.

“Having enquired about pump out stations for waste matter we were specifically instructed by our ‘trainer’ to dump the contents of our toilets directly into the Shannon. When I expressed disbelief and disgust at this, we were informed ‘everyone does it’.

“No instruction was given as to where to dump our waste, just dump it. Watching children swim and fish around me on the cruise, knowing what was in the water, sickened me.”

Clare County Council has confirmed it received the letter and the claims will be fully investigated and they will “take whatever action is deemed necessary.

An Emerald Star spokesman confirmed they are also investigating the claims including the allegation that a staff member issued instructions to dump toilet waste into the river.

“This matter is being investigated but we cannot comment on the contents of a letter between a private individual and the company. The wider issue of the disposal of waste and the provision pump-out stations is currently being discussed by a number of boating companies and Waterways Ireland. There are a large number of people involved in these talks including local authorities.”

Clare Green Party county councillor Brian Meaney said that he was horrified by the claim that people are advised to dump toilet waste into the Shannon.

“This is a horror story and should be investigated thoroughly by all the relevant authorities. This is the second representation in relation to sewage being dumped into the Shannon I have received. We have to remember that everything that goes into the river upstream comes down into Lough Derg.”

A MILTOWN MALBAY mother has told The Clare People about her frustration at having two daughters within the orthodontic system.

Her first daughter, now 16 years old, was assessed and found to need orthodontic treatment in May 2004.

Two and a half years on, the teenager still has not had a follow-up call to make an appointment for treatment.

In the interim, the west Clare woman’s second daughter has become part of the slowmoving system.

This week, at the age of thirteen and a half, she has been assessed for orthodontic treatment.

This young girl has also been found to need treatment immediately, but her mother knows from experience there is a long wait ahead for both of her children. So annoyed by the system is she, that she is now preparing to lobby her local TD.

This family is not alone. As many as 30 per cent of the teenage population in Clare need orthodontic services.

Once a dentist suspects treatment is needed, a child is sent to an orthodontist for assessment. This occurs from the age of 12 onwards. During an assessment, the patient is categorised as Category A (very serious) B (quite serious) and C (requires urgent work, but is not as serious as A and B).Children with a category B problem have a traumatising wait of up to five years just to begin treatment once assessed.

TEENAGERS in Clare are waiting up to five years for essential orthodontic services; while those considered less serious are forced to go private or just not have their teeth treated at all.

The HSE Mid West Consultant Orthodontist Ted McNamara places the responsibility for the backlog squarely at the door of the Department of Health and what he describes as vested interests in the dental profession.

Mr McNamara has called for the recommendations of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children of 2005 to be implemented immediately, so that the teenagers throughout the Mid West can have their teeth treated efficiently.

The committee recommended that a training programme provided by a number of orthodontists in the former Mid Western Health Board that had been stopped, be reinstated immediately.

“These services went under numerous inspections and were the subject of independent assessment and were commented on in glowing terms,” it said.

A review into this service began in April.

Mr McNamara told The Clare People that it was difficult to recruit dentists to the service because no one wanted to work in the public sector. Previously they worked there because they were offered training in orthodontics.

He was appointed consultant to the region in 1985, the first ever, at a time when there was approximately 5,000 children on the waiting list.

“I would have made no inroads into the problem on my own so I got the dentists to help based on an American model where therapists were trained to do some of the routine work.”

This system was replicated in Dublin, Galway and Cork and during the next 14 years proved very successful, according to the head orthodontist.

In 1999 the Mid West orthodontist system won a gold medal for its service beating off competition from orthodontic schools and services throughout Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales.

That same year however the orthodontic service changed, as the Irish authorities decided that the training could no longer continue in the same format.

The change has seen the loss of the service in Shannon.

The loss of the dentists in Cork has left teenagers with appliances left without follow-up treatment and exposed to dental rot and gum disease, he said.

There are two other orthodontists working with the consultant in the Mid West with one more to be appointed in North Tipperary in the near future.

AS the last of the evacuated Crowe Street families returned to their homes over the weekend, life in Gort slowly began to approach something close to normal.

The majority of the 50 displaced households returned home on Wednesday evening but, due to an extended forensic examination, the six houses closest to number 67 Crowe Street were forced to wait until the weekend.

“Most of the people moved back AT this stage, we don’t know what lessons from Abbeylara, the Garda implemented in the closing stages of the Gort siege.

That’s because there was no independent verification of what caused members of the Garda’s Emergency Response Unit (ERU) to open fire on Anthony Burke. All we have is the Garda’s version of events. All we know for sure is that Mr Burke was shot in the chest and badly injured.

But while there is a dearth of hard facts, there are numerous questions.

One of the most significant of these is why the ERU’s less-than-lethal beanbag rounds apparently failed to incapacitate Mr Burke. into their houses during the week but I know one family who lived very close and only went back last night (Saturday),” said one Crowe Street resident.

“It was hard for them to go back – it was just outside of their wall that the man fell. It’s a big shock for all of us.

His wife and children were evacu ated over their back wall.”

The HSE’s Critical Incident Response team arrived in Gort on Thursday. They are continuing to offer counseling services to anyone Was it a technical glitch? If so, why were the ERU equipped with beanbags at-all? After all, the Patten Commission on policing in Northern Ireland found such “impact devices” to be “tremendously” unreliable.

Equally, was it to do with the ERU’s weapons training? According to Fine Gael’s Justice Spokesman, Jim O’ Keefe, the ERU has had to use Defence Forces’ firing ranges since the Garda’s “tactics town” in Templemore was demolished and the firing range in Dublin was closed down.

Was the decision to close these facilities taken at the highest levels of the force? If so, is it credible to expect the chief superintendent headeffected by the siege.

“It will be tough for the people living close by. The police were not going to do anything about the broken windows and doors, but they have decided to replace them, so it won’t be so much of a reminder,” continued the Crowe Street resident. “People are gob-smacked that this would happen with him. He was a very quiet fellow. He had a few drinks, maybe sometimes he had a few too many, but he was a lovely quite man. There were never any ing the internal enquiry to objectively criticise his own superiors, in a rigidly hierarchical organisation like the Garda?

Other questions surrounding the Gort siege derive out of what has been independently established about what happened at Abbeylara. The Barr Tribunal heard that when ERU members killed John Carthy, they were following their training and instructions to open fire on the central body mass or torso of the target. They did so in the belief that there was a clear danger to the lives of other gardaí – a clear requirement of Garda regulations in the use of firearms. rows or any police cars arriving up at the house.”

As the dust begins to settle, locals are now beginning to focus on how the siege was handled by gardaí and how the reputation of Gort will be affected by the media attention.

“People have been talking about Abbeylara and talking about Gort but you have to be in close proximity to it to really know what was going on. There was no other way of doing it. The police were very open and transparent and let us know what was hapMr Justice Barr subsequently found that the positioning of gardaí at wrong locations exacerbated any threat that existed to the life of gardaí.

At Gort, did scene commanders position their personnel in the safest feasible locations?

The Barr report also found, on the basis of evidence from international policing experts, that had the ERU been equipped with two specially trained firearms support dogs to attack John Carthy as he left his home, it was “likely” that he would be alive today.

These dogs, known as “non-compliant” dogs would be “of great value” in a future “Abbeylara type situpening every step of the way,” continued the resident. “We had a man here from The Sun offering money to anyone who had a photograph of him. We have had enough of that kind of scum.”

“This is not a small incident, it is very serious but this is a strong community and we will take it in our stride,” said Niamh Clune of GRACE.

Gort locals wishing to speak to a HSE councillor should contact 0949372882. ation”, the report concluded. So, how near is the ERU to receiving “noncompliant” dog support?

Finally, two of the ERU’s dark navy Isuzu Trooper jeeps drove at great speed along the Gort Road in Ennis, in the direction of Gort, at approximately 9.30 a.m. on the morning of the siege.

Were these jeeps carrying the first ERU teams to the scene? If so, were the people of Gort at greater risk in the ten hours it took the ERU to arrive?

And was the reported movement by gardaí, of journalists to a position well out of sight of the siege, at 9.50 a.m., linked to the ERU’s arrival?

THE CATCHMENT areas for schools have not been reviewed in almost 40 years, it has been revealed.

The last review of catchment areas for schools and school transport was carried out in 1969, according to Clare Green Party Councillor Brian Meaney.

The councillor is calling for an immediate review, on the basis that there have been huge demographic shifts shown in six census results since the last time school boundaries were looked at.

“Ireland has seen significant changes in the distribution of population and in educational practices since then,” Cllr Meaney said. “Our society has become increasingly urban and new systems of education such as multi-denominational schools have been added to the mix. In the face of such dramatic change, a review of catchment areas and boundaries is long overdue.”

The councillor said that the situation had led to anomalies that resulted in some children not being able to go to school in their own villages because they were still being subsumed into large urban areas such as Ennis.

Cllr Meaney said that, despite numerous reports to the Education and Science Committee clearly recommending that the catchment areas be reviewed, “nothing has been done”.

“Why can’t a review be carried out? The Minister for State with responsibility for school transport, Síle de Valera TD, told members of the Joint Committee on Education and Science last year that a review of catchment boundaries may be appropriate in certain circumstances. Let’s carry out the review as a matter of urgency and debate the recommendations later,” the councillor said.

The councillor said that the system, “needs to be brought into the 21st century. Parents now have more choices as to what type of education they want for their child.”

Councillor Meaney said that the widespread social and demographic changes that had taken place since the last review were further reflected in the preliminary figures from the 2006 Census.

This was the sixth census since the last review of boundaries was undertaken back in the late 1960s, the councillor added.

Cllr Meaney was to ask last night’s meeting of Clare County Council to call on the Minister for Education and Science, Mary Hanafin, and her department officials to undertake a nationwide review of the boundaries.

But the meeting was adjourned before the Green Party councillor’s motion was reached. It will now come before the next meeting of council for debate and a vote.

THE Irish National Teachers Organisation says it’s a ‘scandal’ that over 3,000 primary school children in Clare are in classes of over 30 with Central Executive representative, Declan Kelleher adding that the Clare figures make for ‘sorry reading’.

The Corofin INTO leader said the further admission that there are another 3,500 primary pupils in classes of up to 29 at primary school level shows how little has been achieved in reducing class sizes to a level which is consistent with the demands of the THE Government has admitted that there are over 3,000 Clare children in primary school classes with 30 pupils or more.

In response to a Dáil question from Fine Gael TD, Pat Breen, Education Minister, Mary Hanafin revealed that out of the 11,793 primary school pupils in Clare, 3,157 are currently in new primary school curriculum.”

“Most of the 3,500 pupils are in classes of between 25 and 29 and many of the pupils in the classes of over 30 pupils are in multiclasses where the pupil is frequently in a room with pupils from three or four other classes.

“Multiclass teaching is highly specialised and under no circumstances should any multi-class have more than 20 pupils.

“In fact, the Government promised that by 2007 all primary pupils in Infants, first and second classes would be in classes of no more than 20. classes of 30 or more.

The Minister also revealed that there were 6,746 pupils in classes of between 20 and 30 pupils.

Stating that there had been major improvements in this area, she said the average primary school class size was 24 and there was now one teacher for 17 pupils at primary level, including resource teachers.

“Children with special needs and

“6,500 primary pupils in Clare have been badly let down by Minister Hanafin and left in classes which are far too high and way outside the benchmark of 20 pupils per teacher at primary level.

“The Minister states that there is now one teacher for every 17 pupils at primary level.

“This is grossly misleading as she is including teachers whom the government has been forced to employ to teach children with special education needs in mainstream schools.

“In some instances, her Department had to be dragged through the those from disadvantaged areas are getting more support than ever and with thousands of extra primary teachers, recent years have seen the largest expansion in teacher numbers since the expansion of free education.

“Over the next two school years even more teachers will be put in place both for priority areas of disadvantage and special education and courts before these supports were put in place.

“To use these appointments to attempt to “gloss up” the total failure to make any significant impact on class size is extremely misleading.

“The INTO will soon publish the results of a comprehensive study of class sizes in Clare.

“This will give exact data on class sizes in every part of the county and will highlight the need for accelerated action to reduce what is now the second highest primary school class sizes in the EU”, the teachers’ leader added.. also under a reduction in the mainstream staffing schedule.

The statistics show that there are 150 pupils in Clare in a class size up to nine pupils and that there are 1,740 in classes with between 10 and 19 students.

However, Clare Fine Gael TD Pat Breen yesterday slammed what he described as “the Government’s failure to deliver on its Programme for Government commitment to reduce class sizes in the county”.

“Although the latest figures show the Government has finally moved to tackle the single Clare school with a class sizes of over 40, the Department standard is for one classroom teacher for every 28 children.

Deputy Breen said there were still 3,157 pupils – or more than one in four of Clare’s 11,793 National School pupils – in classes of more than 30.

“It is a disgrace that Clare’s schools can fall so short of the national targets and it compares poorly with other counties. In Mayo for example, only 1,840 primary school children are in classes of 30 or more .

“The Programme for Government commitment to reduce class sizes is in shreds and is nowhere near meeting its 2007/2008 commitment of 27 children per classroom”, he said.

A MAN who set fire to a house, forestry and bogland in west Clare within an eight-hour period after he “lost control” has been jailed for three years.

Patrick McNamara (30), of Lisgreen, Lisdeen, Kilkee, and also of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty to damaging a house, by fire, at Lisgreen, Lisdeen, on March 19 last. The estimated damage caused was up to €60,000. He also admitted burning two hectares of forestry, at Monmore South, Kilrush, and bogland, at Tullaher, Doonbeg, on March 18.

Detective Garda Michael McDonagh said the accused brought gardaí to the scenes of the fires.

“He was going through great difficulty in his life at the time,” said the garda. “He is not your average criminal that I would be dealing with every day. He is a man who has committed crime but I believe he makes nothing out of it. He always admits his involvement,” he added.

He said it would cost €2,000 per hectare to restore the forestry.

Garda Michael Ryan, who investigated the Lisgreen house fire, said McNamara stole diesel from a building site in Doonbeg, drove to Lisgreen, poured the diesel around the house and on hay and set it alight.

Gardai did not realise the bog fires were deliberate until they began to investigate the house fire.

Defending Barrister Mark Nicholas said his client regretted his actions and called the emergency services after he set fire to the house.

He said McNamara had a row with someone in Kilkee and “flipped and lost control…lost all sense of responsibility for a period of six to eight hours.”

The court heard that McNamara has several previous convictions, mainly for road traffic offences, while he has also convictions for deception.

Judge Carroll Moran said McNamara, “doesn’t appreciate the duty to observe the law and keep out of trouble.” He said if he had not pleaded guilty, he could be facing a term of up to seven years in jail. He imposed a three-year jail term.

THE Shannon Airport Authority (SAA) yesterday confirmed that passenger numbers at Shannon are up 13 per cent to 2.8 million for the first nine months of this year.

Confirming the continuing growth of Shannon, a SAA spokeswoman said that terminal passenger traffic is up 15 per cent on the corresponding period last year to 2.3 million.

In 2005, transatlantic traffic increased by three per cent.

However, this year with new services available, the important transatlantic sector has shown a 12 per cent increase.

Traffic to UK destinations has increased by 14 per cent, while passenger numbers to Europe have increased by 20 per ceny.

Meanwhile, the number of US troops who have passed through Shannon Airport since the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, in the US has exceeded the one million mark.

It has been estimated that Shannon Airport has earned €25m from the Pentagon so far this year and netted around €37m in 2005. The overall figure since the September 11 attacks has put been at around €130m.

In that time, a total of 1,037,765 US military personnel have transited Shannon on an estimated 6,800 flights.

Figures released by the Shannon Airport Authority have confirmed that the number of US military personnel who have transited the mid west airport in the past five years has topped one million.

But the numbers for the third-quarter of this year slumped by almost half on the same period last year due to the pull-out of troop carrier World Airways.

The most recent figures, up to the end of September this year, show 250,220 have passed through the country’s second largest airport.

However, during the third quarter of this year, 41,146 personnel passed through Shannon, compared to over 81,000 in the same period last year.

During the whole of 2001, a total of 91,495 US military personnel passed through Shannon, although the majority of the activity followed the terror attacks of September 11 when the US launched air-strikes in Afghanistan.

In 2002, the figure decreased to 74,870, while the following year, with the commencement of Operation Iraqi Freedom, the US led invasion of Iraq, 121,943 troops landed at Shannon and their way to or from the Middle East.

In 2004, that number had increased to 158,549 but then more than doubled in 2005, which was a record year for troop activity at Shannon, with 340,600 using Shannon.