The Clare People Archive

AER LINGUS workers at Shannon Airport have voted overwhelmingly in favour of strike action should the Government press ahead with plans to privatise part of the State airline.

Of the 2,100 SIPTU members who voted on the issue last week, 94 per cent voted in favour of the possibility of industrial action.

The workers involved are largely based in the ground operations areas, including clerical workers, cleaners and a small number of cabin crew.

SIPTU national secretary, Michael Halpenny, said that sanction would be sought from the union’s national executive council, before notice could be served on the airline.

Halpenny said that the vote was “evidence of the workers’ determination to defend their job security and conditions of employment if management push through privatisation without addressing concerns.”

Halpenny said that the union had “attempted to honour our promise to the Minister for Transport, Martin Cullen, on meaningful engagement with the airline and have detailed concerns of our members. Regrettably, to date, there has been an absence of meaningful engagement on the part of management.”

A NEW policy has lessened the threat of council tenants being evicted from their homes.

The document aims to assist tenants and tenant purchasers, who may find paying rent difficult to maintain.

It was one of three policies launched last Friday in Ennis.

The second policy focuses on combating anti-social behaviour in housing estates. Its objective is to reduce the number of anti-social complaints and to initiate a prompt response to them.

The third policy aims to stamp out illegal dumping in local authority housing estates.

This is based on a number of principles, including the creation of partnerships with residents associations, community and environmental groups.

Chairman of the Housing and Social Policy Strategic Policy Committee, Councillor Joe Arkins (FG), said under the initiative, residents would be provided with a better level of support.

Resident participation in estate management should also become much greater, he said.

“There are 24 residents associations established throughout the county in council estates. We are aware that the needs of the residents vary significantly, having regard to the demographic size of the estates,” he said.

“The councils are committed to ensuring that peaceful occupation of each tenant will prevail, in all estates. There is only one acceptable level of anti-social behaviour and that is zero . . . zero tolerance,” said Cllr Arkins.

Chief Superintendent Liam Quinn, Ennis, said the opportunity was one to be proud of.

“Certain members of the population engage in crime, in drugs and in violence, which impact on the community,” he said.

The appointment of a Juvenile Liaison Officer (JLO) in Clare late last year has doubled the number of staff dealing with young offenders, while further steps were been taken, he said.

“Kilrush and Newport (Tipperary, which is in the Clare Garda Division) are working with local authorities to develop JLO programmes, similar to that in Ennis, which has proved very successful,” said Chief Supt Quinn.

Tim Ryan, who represented the Health Services Executive at the launch, said multi-agency cooperation could lead to huge successes.

“This is an example of what joinedup thinking can achieve,” he said.

“One of the most serious impact on any family is financial stress,” he said, referring to the policy document on rent/tenant purchase.

The document was a tribute to those behind it, but the real challenge lay in converting theory into reality and achieving on-the-ground success, he said.

ONE of the longest established companies in the Shannon Free Zone has recorded a large increase in sales.

Element Six – formerly De Beers Industrial Diamonds – increased its turnover from $185 million in 2003 to $237 million in 2004.

The most recent accounts filed to the Companies Office, also show that the company increased its gross profit from €83 million in 2003 to $123 million in 2004.

The profit increase can be linked to an increase in the size of Element Six’s sales and marketing division, which almost doubled its personnel, from 25 people to 48, in 2004.

However, the accounts also show the company’s pension fund for employees was deficient by $59.7 million. The company says there are proposals to remedy the deficit.

Element Six is the world’s leading supplier of high quality superabrasives and industrial diamond materials.

The principal activity at Shannon is the manufacture and sale of industrial diamonds.

According to the Directors Report, the company made a net profit of $15 million in 2004.

“We expect the general level of activity to improve in the foreseeable future,” the directors’ state.

The accounts also show that Element Six – which re-branded from De Beers in 2002 – paid a dividend of $89 million in 2004, which followed a dividend of $20 million in 2003.

In 2004, Element Six employed 530 people at the Shannon plant, an increase of four on the previous year.

Underlining the importance of Element Six to the Clare economy, staff salaries and associated costs amounted to $42.5 million in 2004. This represented an increase on the 2003 figure of €34.9 million.

The accounts also show that loans have been advanced to three Element Six directors, “to assist with the acquisition of housing and are interest free”.

The company accounts state that the loans “are repayable on retirement, or when the directors leave the company”.

The accounts record that at the end of 2004, MC Sexton, Dr TA Spooner and EA Brooks had loans of $43,000 each, amounting to a total of $129,000.

On its pensions deficit, the company state in the accounts statement the trustees have formulated a funding proposal to the Pension Board to address the deficit.

“The proposal involves increasing the contribution rate and reducing certain scheme benefits.”

AFTER years of work behind the scenes, Ennistymon has moved one giant step closer to having its own Enterprise Centre.

A Project Ennistymon-backed proposal was granted planning permission by Clare County Council late last month.

The €1 million development had looked to be terminally stalled last December, following a disagreement between Project Ennistymon and Clare County Council over the upgrading of the access road to the site.

While this disagreement has not been completely resolved, moves have been made by both sides, which look likely to lead to a compromise. If the situation is not resolved, Project Ennistymon stands to loose more than €350,000 in grants obtained from Shannon Development and the County Enterprise Board.

“The planning is a major step, but we are still working against the clock,” said Robert Crosbie of Project Ennistymon.

“A contractor is on board and we are hoping to begin construction after Easter. We would then hope to have it completed around November and open it before the end of the year”.

The granting of planning permission has been welcomed by local councillor and businessman Martin Conway (FG).

“The enterprise centre will offer existing businesses the chance to locate outside Shannon and Ennis. It will give local people who have ideas for businesses, a means of getting started and it will also create much needed employment in the area,” said Cllr Conway (FG).

The enterprise centre was made possible through a donation of land by the Sisters of Mercy.

“I would like to make a special thanks to the Sisters of Mercy without whom this project would never have gotten off the ground,” said Mr Crosbie.

CLARE County Council is to spend in the region of €250,000 demolishing a €1.5 million emergency traveller accommodation unit it built only four years ago to ease Ennis’s traveller accommodation crisis.

Already, the estimated costs for providing 24 hour security at the site in Gleninagh have been put at €378,000, or €9,000 a month since it opened in March 2002.

The security bill arose from a High Court challenge, which brought the council head-to-head with residents, in 2001.

The agreement reached after that challenge to ensure the site opened, saw the council agreeing to implement a report by consultants CAAS.

That report, focussing on a 17.5 acre site at Gleninagh, recommended the provision in the area of a games area, passive amenities and a pathway to adjacent houses.

In recent weeks, council officials have held discussions with representatives from the local residents and St Claire’s School to see what part of the CAAS plan can now be implemented.

“The agreement entered into needs to be honoured to show the bona fides of Council,” said Ennis Town Councillor, Donal O’Bearra (GP).

“One in five of all Europeans are now obese so it is more important than ever to put in elements of CAAS plan because they are all active amenities.

“The residents have kept their side of the deal.

“It is now up to the council to fulfil their side and be generous and speedy in carrying it out”.

No final figure has been put on the works and the council is to lodge the proposed works programme with the Department of the Environment. That is expected back within a couple of weeks.

However, part of the money will be invested in implementing the CAAS report.

In advance of the site being demolished, the Council relocated the six traveller families to a new emergency site on Ennis’s Quin Road last October.

The structures contained in the halting site contained re-enforced concrete.

It is proposed to demolish these and put a layer of top-soil on the surface.

A MAN who gardaí say went on a “serious crime spree” over ten days last month has been charged with setting fire to a house in Kilkee.

Patrick McNamara (29), from Miltown Malbay, and of no fixed abode, appeared before Ennis District Court last week, charged with arson, at Lisgreen, Lisdeen, on March 19 last.

He was also charged with entering Lernihan’s Garage in Cree, Kilrush, as a trespasser and stealing a cash till containing €80 in cash on February 20 last. He pleaded guilty to this offence.

Detective Garda Oliver Downes gave evidence of arresting the accused last Wednesday morning. He said McNamara made no reply after caution. Inspector Tom Kennedy requested that the accused be remanded in custody.

In Kilrush court last month, the accused pleaded guilty to trespass, at Kilkee Bay Apartments on March 21 last; trespass at Cunningham’s caravan park, Kilkee, in January and with entering Matt Lernihan’s garage as a trespasser and stealing €36 of petrol at Cree, Kilkee, on March 17 last.

According to gardaí, he gained access to an apartment and caravan in Kilkee and lived there, on different dates. He also admitted driving without insurance at Ennis Road, Kilrush, on March 19. A report relating to these matters will be available to the court later this week.

Inspector Kennedy said the new charge was “substantially more serious.”

Judge Joseph Mangan remanded the accused in custody to appear again in court later this week.

ATTRACTING new staff and maintaining existing personnel at Clare County Council’s planning department, is continuing to prove problematic.

A senior council official has confirmed that between 2002 and 2005, there were a number of vacancies and the full staff complement was rarely in place. There are currently three vacancies.

She also confirmed that the council received €582,105 in planning fees – down on the €1 million received in 2004 and the €941,244 received in 2003.

The drop is attributable to the deluge of applications to the council in 2004 and 2003 from developers seeking to build hotels, holiday homes and other commercial developments, aimed at seeking to take advantage of Government tax incentives.

In the past five years, the council has received €3.5 million in planning fees.

The revelations came in a response from the council’s Director for Planning, Bernadette Kinsella, to a motion by Councillor Christy Curtin (Ind).

As part of a “secret bonus deal last year, the council authorised payments of €112,500, or €7,500 each to 15 planners for unpaid overtime, as the council grappled to deal with the tax-incentive applications.

The number of planning applications lodged last year showed a drop on the numbers lodged in 2003 and 2004, according to the response.

Last year, 2,491 applications were lodged compared to the 2,773 and the 2,857 lodged in 2004 and 2003.

AT LEAST ten members of a drugs gang were trying to peddle narcotics in an Ennis pub on Friday night, when undercover gardaí raided the premises.

A total of 75 ecstasy tablets were seized and four Dublin men arrested.

The Garda operation was part of an ongoing initiative, aimed at combating suspected drug dealing in licensed premises in Ennis.

“We believe at least 10 people were targeting this premises. It was organised,” said Ennis Superintendent, John Kerin.

Plain-clothes gardaí mingled with the crowd late on Friday night and bought a number of illegal drugs.

Reinforcements were called to the scene. The four Dubliners who were arrested under Section Two of the Drug Trafficking Act, were taken to Ennis Garda Station for questioning.

They were released on Saturday afternoon. A file is being prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Two of the men questioned are in their 20s and two in their 30s. The Clare People has learned that one of the four currently lives in north Clare.

Gardaí believe that a number of others were involved in the operation.

Supt Kerin said the Garda operation had been going on for some time.

“This operation has been going on for a number of months. We are pleased with how it went,” he said, adding that gardaí would be “looking to serve a closure order within a week” on the premises in question, unless the “house is in order.”

“We will have to be satisfied that drugs are not sold in there again,” said Supt Kerin.

In a separate, unrelated development, a small quantity of cannabis resin was seized by gardaí in Shannon on Saturday evening.

A car, occupied by two Limerick men was searched and the drugs were found.

Heroin, one of the most feared illegal drugs, has taken a grip in Clare, according to top gardaí.

Detectives have disclosed that the drug has spread to rural parts of the county.

They’ve even established that the average age of heroin addicts in Clare is 31 years old.

The local Garda drugs team has reported a big increase in the number of heroin seizures this year.

Members of the Clare Garda Divisional Drug Unit say that addicts are spending an average of €50 a day to feed their habits.

“It’s the speed at which people become addicted to heroin that is the most frightful aspect of it. Undoubtedly it is the most dangerous drug available to the people of Clare,” said Detective Garda Seamus McMahon, of the Clare Garda Divisional Drug Unit.

He said heroin, at €25 a deal was now cheaper than a €50 gram wrap of cocaine.

Clare people are getting their supply of the drug by travelling to Limerick and Dublin, and in some instances Galway or Cork.

“There is a perception that by smoking heroin, it won’t do any harm and that you won’t get addicted to it. This is not correct . . . heroin is an addictive substance and the likelihood of somebody kicking a heroin habit successfully is quite remote. Heroin addicts would have had a history of abusing other drugs, before using heroin,” he said.

Generally, users initially smoke heroin, before they start to inject.

“People who would normally have an objection to using needles and wouldn’t contemplate injecting any type of drug are using needles to inject heroin,” he said.

“The average age of people we know who are addicted to heroin is 31.5 years. This leads us to believe people are getting into abusing heroin, knowing what it is capable of doing,” he said.

“There is no urban/rural divide when it comes to heroin. Naturally enough, the majority of heroin users would be centred around Ennis, broadly speaking. We would be aware of people having difficulties with heroin all over the county,” he said.

“Heroin will feature on the seizures for 2006. It is too early to say what sort of an increase we will have this year, but we will have a significant increase,” he added.

“We are appealing to people not to try heroin as it could be that one time that would get you addicted and risk a lifelong addiction,” he said.

HEROIN is gripping the people of Clare at an alarming rate with more than 100 people using the drug and half of these, addicted.

Addiction counsellor in the midwest, Mark Campbell said more than 50 people in the county were receiving counselling, as a result of heroin over-dependency.

“In the last 12 months there has been a significant increase in the number of addicts. Fifty people in Clare access this service. There are at least 100 users of heroin in Clare. All of those might not be dependant. The 50 who come here would have a dependency,” he said.

Mr Campbell, who has worked in Clare for four years, said the problem had become increasingly prevalent in the past two years.

“There is quite an increase in the number of users. It is more available now than it was two years ago,” he said.

“It becomes the main thing in people’s lives and can tear families apart. All addicts think about is their next fix,” he said.

He said the symptoms experienced by heroin addicts were comparable to the flu, but were “100 times” worse.

“Everybody who uses heroin isn’t necessarily an addict, but for those who become addicted, it becomes a physical dependence and they would do almost anything to get their hands on it.”

According to Mr Campbell, addicts range from their mid 20s to their mid 30s. The majority are males.

He said teenagers tended to fear the dangers of heroin, whereas some older adults did not have such qualms.

He believes they delve in the drug, out of curiosity. Good family support can help wean people off it.

“It is very much to do with curiosity. They like the effect and then try it again . . . and again. People who depend on alcohol tend to develop a dependency on heroin,” he said.