The Clare People Archive

SOARING energy costs could see Clare faced with €387 million of electricity costs by 2010.

The startling prediction was made by Pat Stephens, Manager of the Clare-Limerick Energy Agency, as he addressed members of Ennis Town Council last week.

Figures show that, since 1990, Clare’s energy spend has increased from €64 million to €241 million in 2005. The figures don’t take into account electricity consumption at Moneypoint, Shannon or Aughinish.

Maximising County Clare’s renewable energy resources will be one of the issues discussed at an open meeting of the Clare Environmental Forum in the offices of Ennis Town Council at 8pm on Monday, September 18, 2006. Pat Stephens will brief those in attendance on the benefits of harnessing such resources as forestry, wind, hydro, wave, tidal and energy crops.

Mr Stephens warned, “The people of County Clare face energy costs of €387 million by 2010, if they fail – in the meantime – to produce electricity and heat from wind, water, and solar energy sources. This 100 per cent increase on energy costs since 2005 is having a damaging impact on personal finances, environmental emissions, climate change and sustainable development.”

Mayor of Ennis Joe Reidy (FF) said responsibility for energy conservation rested with each individual person. Councillor Johnny Flynn (FG) said more needed to be done to highlight the issue.

Cllr Patricia McCarthy (Ind), Chairperson of Clare County Council’s Environment, Emergency Services and Consumer Protection Strategic Policy Committee has urged members of the public to attend the open meeting of the Clare Environmental Forum.

THE chairman of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Enterprise and Small Business Deputy, Donie Cassidy called for maths and science to receive double points in the leaving cert examination, when the group met in Ennis yesterday (Monday).

The Westmeath TD believes that students studying maths and science should receive double the number of points in their State exams.

He said it was necessary for students to be interested in the sciences, if they were to be attracted into high skilled enterprise to the country.

Clare Minister for Labour Affairs, Tony Killeen warned, “the country will have great difficulty holding on to low skilled jobs” in the future.

“We are going to have difficulty competing at low skill level because it can be done more cheaply elsewhere,” he added.

He said it was now vital that Ireland had a well-educated workforce.

“We will continue to attract investment provided we invest in training our workforce,” he said.

Meanwhile, the committee learnt that Clare women were doing it for themselves in the world of new enterprise.

CEO of the Clare Enterprise Board, Eamonn Kelly, told the gathered Oireachtas members that 46 per cent of all start ups in the county under the current National Development Plan were being under taken by women.

In the 12 years of the County Development Board, it has assisted 436 enterprises in the county, creating 1,317 jobs.

“Our capability development programme provided an extensive range of training, mentoring and consultancy services and the demand for these programmes truly reflects the value placed on them by the participants,” Mr Kelly told the committee.

Addressing the committee Minister Killeen said that 30,000 women have been enticed back into the workforce. He said the Government was committed to this.

A FRENCH national has appeared in court, charged in connection with an alleged stabbing in Ennis on St Stephen’s night.

Toufike Lenaabdi (26), of 17 Glennoul, Tivoli, Cork, is charged with intentionally or recklessly causing serious harm to Patrick O’Neill (24), contrary to Section Four of the Non Fatal Offences Against the Person Act.

The alleged incident occurred at an apartment in Millstream Court during a party on December 27 last. The alleged victim is from west Clare.

A number of people who were attending the Christmas party were interviewed by gardaí, who investigated the alleged incident.

Giving evidence before Ennis District Court last Friday morning, Sergeant Frank Naughton said he arrested the accused in Tivoli, Cork, at 6.15pm the previous evening.

He brought him to Ennis Garda Station, where he charged the accused with the alleged offence.

In reply to the charge, the accused said, “I did it, but not intentionally or recklessly.”

Inspector Michael Gallagher told the court the charge was a “serious” one and that the DPP directed that a Book of Evidence be prepared.

He said he would agree to bail being granted, on €1,000 (own), €1,000 (independent) sureties and a cash lodgement of €500.

Defending solicitor Siobhán McMahon said her client lived with his partner in Tivoli and was a head pastry chef in a Cork hotel, where he had worked for the past six or seven months and earned €450 a week.

“He has €500 cash. He can get an independent surety for €500, as opposed to €1,000,” said the solicitor. Judge Joseph Mangan accepted this.

He imposed a number of bail conditions, including that he sign on at Mayfield Garda Station twice a week; that he stay away from the alleged injured party and that he notify gardaí if he changed address.

The accused will appear in court again next month.

A SMALL group of Fianna Fáil literary sleuths are to embark upon a €2,600 expedition later this week to celebrate the work of an obscure writer.

Clare County Council has given the goahead for Cllr Tom Prendeville (FF), Cllr Cathal Crowe (FF) and Cllr Bill Chambers (FF) to set out on the 400 round mile trip to Omagh for the fifth annual Benedict Kiely weekend.

It is costing the taxpayer €867 to fund each councillor’s attendance but at a recent meeting, it was agreed that the three councillors would make the trip.

The weekend away for the councillors marks the unofficial end of the 2006 summer school season, which has cost the taxpayer almost €25,000 to send councillors to various Summer schools around the country.

The most popular summer school for councillors this year was the MacGill Summer School at Glenties in County Donegal where it cost the taxpayer €9,135 to send seven councillors – six of them from Fianna Fáil.

Those that were given the go-ahead to travel to Glenties included Cllr Peter Considine, Cllr Patrick Keane, Cllr Patrick McMahon, Cllr Bernard Hanrahan, Cllr Cathal Crowe, Cllr Tom Prendeville and the only non-Fianna Fail councillor, Cllr Martin Lafferty (Ind).

The figures show that €2,514 was spent on sending two councillors to the William Carelton Summer School, €2,102 was spent on sending two councillors to the General Humbert Summer School, while €3,996 was spent on sending four councillors to a planning seminar.

One of the regular attendees of the summer schools, Cllr Tom Prendeville said: “I find that Summer Schools are very enlightening where you are able to hear talks from people on the social and economic changes affecting Ireland. I believe that there should be a greater attendance by councillors at these conferences and it would allow councillors acquaint themselves with visionary voices that you hear at these events.”

Deputy Mayor, Cllr Brian Meaney (GP) said: “A number of these conferences can be beneficial, but in terms of the Benedict Kiely weekend, I don’t believe that any benefit can be accrued either to myself in the role I perform, or to any of my constituents.”

CLARE County Council’s much trumpeted three-week long trip to one of Australia’s best known wine-growing regions suffered a blow yesterday when deputy mayor, Cllr Brian Meaney (GP), ruled himself out.

Last December, Cllr Flan Garvey (FF) announced details of the trip to Clare Valley between February and March next year. The only council expenditure would be on sending the Mayor and Deputy Mayor.

As it turned out, Cllr Garvey assumed the role of mayor in July and will be leading the Clare delegation.

However, Cllr Meaney yesterday ruled himself out of the trip. His decision will not come as a surprise, because has voiced concern over overseas council trips in the past.

“I don’t believe that the trip would benefit me or any of my constituents. It is also an election year. That is why I have made the decision not to go,” he said.

However, Cllr Garvey yesterday expressed optimism that the trip will be a major success.

Clare County Council has been twinned with the local council in the Clare Valley since 1986 and delegations from the Clare Valley are regular visitors to Co Clare. The twinning arose from a State visit by Dr Paddy Hillery, then President of Ireland to Australia in 1985.

The council is to shortly seek tenders from travel agents and Cllr Garvey said that “it is make your mind up time for councillors as to whether they wish to go on the trip”.

Cllr Garvey expressed hope that members of the Clare business, education and tourism community would join the council to form a Clare ‘trade mission’ that would also visit Sydney and Melbourne.

He was also hopeful that representatives from Spanish Point and Inagh, who have been involved in building links between the two areas, would go as well.

Cllr Garvey briefed councillors on the trip at their December meeting in Shannon. He said at the time: “I don’t know how many are going to come. Councillors have got to pay for themselves, but the mayor and deputy mayor are being paid for.”

He said the trip “won’t cost the council a penny, except for gifts to present to their counterparts in Australia”.

Three years ago, the then mayor, Patrick O’Gorman (FF) joined with the County Manager, Alec Fleming and their wives on a 12,000 mile round trip to the Clare Valley in Australia, costing €10,000.

AS the election approaches, the Government parties are marking out territory and nowhere more so than in Clarecastle this week.

Just two days before she resigned as leader of the PDs and Tanaiste, Mary Harney was greeted by a picket made up not just of concerned citizens but politicians, including members of her Government partner’s party.

Fianna Fáil Senator Timmy Dooley joined in the protest organised by the Ennis General Hospital Development Committee to highlight concerns over the delay in the development of the hospital.

Asked if it was a conflict of interest in standing at the picket line as a member of government, Senator Dooley said, “It was in showing support for the development of the General Hospital that I stood with the non-aggressive ligatures.”

But there is a doubt as to whether Ms Harney agreed with Senator Dooley’s assessment as she said during her tour of Roche, “I, like Mayor Garvey, was quite taken with the colourful lampshades. They reminded me of a previous Government and, if my Oireachtas colleagues keep protesting the way they were, it could be the colour of a new one.”

Senator Dooley referred to the remarks as “tongue in cheek”.

Other comments made by the Minister were not taken in such a lighthearted manner however.

Comments by the minister questioning if the organised protest was an “animal welfare lobby or what”, led to an angered reaction room the hospital development committee.

PRO for the group, Councillor Brian Meaney, argued that while Minister Harney “may want the hospital to go to the dogs, the people of Ennis are not animals.”

He claimed the comments caused great hurt to the people on the protest, “many who owe their lives, or the lives of relatives, to the accident and emergency service in Ennis General Hospital.”

THE Lahinch Community Council has targeted the Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell, and President Mary McAleese in a desperate appeal to end antisocial behaviour in the town.

In a strongly worded statement sent to hundreds of public representatives and the Garda last Friday, the community council described a situation where “people urinate, defecate, vomit and have sex” on the streets of Lahinch in the early hours of the morning.

The statement outlined the community council’s belief that the escalation of the public order problem in the village had resulted in a downturn in tourism with weekend golfing tourist particularly affected.

“Golf tour operators are saying that they will not place business in the village on weekends because of the debauchery they have witnessed on the streets,” the statement reads.

“Some people make more and more money while others see their businesses wither and die. The people who just like to play golf, enjoy the beach with their families and drink responsibly no longer want to come to Lahinch.”

The statement has prompted a sizeable response, with a number of public representatives already showing their support for the community council.

“We have received responses from the Department of Justice and a number of other agencies claiming that they will look into the situation,” said Mary Comber of the community council.

“Madeleine Taylor-Quinn contacted us, offered her total support and said that she had already made representatives to the Director of Services at Clare County Council, Clare Garda Chief Superintendent Liam Quinn and the Minister for Justice.”

According to the Community Council, the level of antisocial behaviour in Lahinch has increased dramatically this summer.

“Our windows are broken on a regular basis and our doors kicked in . . . our cars are deliberately and casually vandalised almost every night during the summer and large groups of drunk people roam the streets, lanes and promenade until the early hours of the morning, shouting and roaring, terrorising and intimidating anyone who tries to reason with them,” the statement continues.

The community council have also requested that a moratorium be placed on new holiday homes being built in the village until the situation has been resolved.

THE grief-stricken Royal Russian Circus opened in Ennis on Thursday, for the first time since one of its performers lost his life at a show in Scariff.

More than 300 circus fans visited the big top, which was the scene of the tragic accident just over a week before.

Vitaly Kharapavitski fell to his death as he performed the last trick in a comic air balloon act with his wife, Sasha.

The tragic Belarusian acrobat joined the circus last April with his wife of just one year. The 26-year-old was buried last week in Minsk.

The 35-member staff of the Royal Russian Circus was apprehensive about the first night’s performance, but all went to plan, according to the circus spokesperson.

Wayne Courtney said the show “went well in front of a very responsive crowd”.

He said that the circus was happy with the 300-strong attendance in the big top that holds a maximum of between 450 and 500 people.

The circus continued in the Ennis Showgrounds at Drumbiggle on Friday and Saturday, and finished with two large shows on Sunday before moving on to Galway.

Last week, Mr Courtney told The Clare People that performers risked their lives every time they stepped into the big top on show night, but there were very few accidents.

“While nobody was talking about their fears, I am sure that the accident was playing on the minds of the other trapeze artists,” he said.

SERIOUS concerns were raised last night about about Clare’s economic future within an enlarged Enterprise Ireland.

Former Clare TD Madeleine Taylor-Quinn was critical of the Government decision allowing the State company take over from Shannon Development, claiming Clare would have to compete for industry with more counties, as part of the enlarged agency.

The Fine Gael general election candidate said responsibility for the area should not be transferred to Enterprise Ireland in its current format.

She argued that the Shannon Free Airport Development Company Organisation (Shannon Development) was effective as an instrument of regional development.

“The Government have done another u-turn. It seems that there is no logical planning within the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, and jobs within SFADCO (Shannon Development) and throughout the region are being treated in a haphazard manner.

“Why is this Government intent on dismantling all the structures in this region that are vital and essential to the future development of the area?” she asked.

“It seems to be the case of divide and conquer, while the region and county becomes the sacrificial lamb,” Cllr Taylor-Quinn said.

Shannon Development was remaining tightlipped yesterday evening as news broke that the IDA was no longer to take over its mandate in the Shannon Free Zone.

When contacted by The Clare People , the development company said it had no comment to make on the minister’s apparent change of heart, or his decision to sign over its responsibility for home grown industry to Enterprise Ireland on December 31.

MINISTER for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Micheál Martin has decided not to implement his controversial plan to allow the IDA take over the Shannon Free Zone mandate from Shannon Development.

While the Minister has ordered that foreign investment in the region will remain the remit of Shannon Development, he is to order that the company’s indigenous mandate will become the responsibility of Enterprise Ireland from January 1.

More than 50 staff will also have to transfer from the development agency to Enterprise Ireland.

In a letter to the chairman of Shannon Development, Minister Martin wrote, “It is intended that this transfer will be affected by way of ministerial designation of the staff concerned.”

He told the chairman that the necessary legislation to enact this would come before the next session of the Dáil.

The 50 or more staff moving from Shannon Development to EI will make up the first phase of the decentralisation of Enterprise Ireland to Shannon. The second phase of decentralisation will be made up of Enterprise Ireland staff already working in the Shannon region, while the third phase will include the 40 staff who expressed an interest in moving to the town.

Minister of State with responsibilities for Labour Affairs, Tony Killeen told The Clare People , “Minister Martin said it would have been impossible to deliver Enterprise Ireland to Shannon in any meaningful way if the agency did not have any responsibility for this region as well as the rest of the country.”

The Clare junior minister said he was also pleased that a new national headquarters for the Enterprise Board was to be set up in Shannon.

Meanwhile, Minister Martin said he no longer intended to transfer Shannon Development’s mandate on foreign investment to the IDA.

Instead he said the development company would have the use of the IDA’s offices and contacts under a protocol yet to be decided.

“I am pleased that we have been able to persuade my colleague that Shannon Development is capable of making a positive contribution in the free zone,” said Minister Killeen.

Just over 13 months ago, Minister Martin announced that the IDA would take over the Shannon Free Zone.