The Clare People Archive

Speeding is on the increase in the En- nis area.

Figures obtained by Fine Gael TD Pat Breen from the Ennis gardai show that speeding offence detection rates have increased dramatically, while more than 100 summonses for loud exhausts have been issued by the Gardai in the

Ennis area.

According to Ennis gardai “a large number of these boy racers have been checked by the gardai. The number of Fixed Charge Notices issues by gardai for speeding offences is over 400 more than for the same period last year”.

Deputy Breen requested to see the fig- ures, after receiving a number of com- plaints from residents in Darragh about

people racing cars on the wide stretch of road at Darragh, on the Kilrush road. Residents also expressed concern that not enough speed traps were in opera- tion on the road.

“The gardai have informed me that speed checks are carried out in the area on a regular basis by both the Division- al Traffic Corps and the District Patrol CFT

CONCERN has been ex- pressed over a move by Clare County Council to rezone an estimated 300 acres of land for commercial development on the outskirts of Ennis that contains EU-protected habi- tats.

In adopting the Ennis and Environs Development Plan, the council along with Ennis Town Council re-zoned land in the Doora area for commer- cial development that gener- ated massive windfalls for the owners of the lands in ques- alone

However, the lands which are subject of the re-zonings are designated as areas of eco- logical constraint in the pub- lished Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the €190 million Ennis by-pass.

The lands contain protected fen and also the Marsh Fritil- lary and the Frog bit plants that are also a protected spe- alae

Asked if the Council had the all the facts in relation to the lands when they were re- zoned, the council’s Director for Planning, Mr Liam Con- neally said: “the zoning of land is based upon balancing information as to development needs and environmental im- pacts.

“At the time of the adoption of zoning in the Ennis and Environs Development Plan the information available to the Planning Authorities was relied upon to determine the appropriate zoning of land. At all stages of making the Plan Duchas were informed.

“All land constitutes some type of habitat and the impor- tance of that habitat at a local

regional or national level is only known where sufficient survey and analysis has taken ee leror

“The National Fen Survey carried out by the National Parks and Wildlife Service in 2001 did not make a detailed assessment of the Doora area and any information concern- ing any potential habitat value that existed was therefore not available.

“The Development Plan is constantly monitored and re- viewed and where necessary variations to the Development Plan will be carried out.

“The body now responsible for the protection of nation- ally important habitats is the National Parks and Wildlife Service and any recommenda- tions made by them regarding the conservation of key habi- tats will be taken into account in monitoring the Plan.

“All applications for devel- Opment are assessed on their own merits and the character and landscape of a site is a material consideration in that OC e

However, Cllr Brian Meaney (GP) has expressed concern over the rezonings.

He said: “it doesn’t appear that due consideration was given to the lands being areas of ecological constraint and questions still have to be an- swered concerning the rezon- ing.

“The uncertainty over the issue would not have arisen if the new Strategic Environ- mental Assessment Directive was in place at that time which would have investigated in a much more comprehensive way the presence of these pro- tected habitats in the lands in e] erie eye mae

ALMOST half of the 500 workers at Shannon Airport have been told that they must take voluntary redundancy, or the airport will have no future.

Currently, Shannon workers are con- sidering the most swingeing cuts in the airport’s 60-year history, in order that Shannon doesn’t accumulate losses of €137 million over the next 10 years.

A ‘survival plan’ circulated to workers by the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA), states that the current situation is “unsus- tainable’ and that “this serious underly- ing financial crisis is untenable to both management of Shannon and the DAA’.

But SIPTU representatives say that plans to outsource many of the jobs at the airport are ‘not a runner in this en- abKoyenee oss

SIPTU’s Tony Kenny said that the un-

ion views plans to outsource catering entirely and other jobs in security and maintenance as ‘comparable to the Irish Ferries situation.’

Nor is the union willing to bend to a deadline of having negotiations conclud- ed by November 16. “Any deadline is a company deadline. All negotiations will be through the trade union and we will be going to third party intervention if that is what is needed,’ said Kenny.

In the €10 million redundancy plan, long service workers stand to secure pay-offs of up to €100,000.

Airport sources have revealed that all but a handful of workers boycotted management briefings on the matter and workers in one department returned the plan to management in a cardboard box.

The document, ‘Programme for Com- mercial Viability Shannon Aijrport’, states that Shannon Airport is on course to make a profit of €3 million this year,

but only because of US military traffic.

It states that in the preceding three years, Shannon made an accumulated loss of €9.3 million. By 2014, the air- port will have an accumulated loss of €137 million, which excludes interest on existing debt. Some €85 million will be needed on capital expenditure over the next ten years.

It states Shannon must generate new traffic stream; have flexibility on work practices and non-core activities and rig- orous management of costs.

The severance package will only be available if the measures can be agreed and substantially implemented by year end.

Tony Kenny said that the “DAA is proposing to outsource functions from profitable areas of the airport, which is nonsensical.”

A DUBLIN man has been cleared of lar- ceny and burglary charges in east Clare, at Ennis Circuit Court.

Stephen Russell, of 25 Knockmore Grove, Tallaght, Dublin 24, had pleaded not guilty to three counts of larceny and one count of burglary, at various locations in Scariff and Mountshannon.

It was alleged he stole a car, valued at £8,000, at Ballyminogue, Scarrif; a Mo- torola mobile phone, valued at £129, at Mid- dleline, Mountshannon, and a Fujitsu laptop computer, valued at £1,600, at Mountshan- non, on August 25, 2000.

He had also been charged with entering Long’s shop, Main Street, Scariff, as a tres-

passer and stealing £4,150 in cash; ciga- rettes, cigars and tobacco worth £8,300 and telephone call cards valued at £1,000, on August 29, 2000.

Witness Eamon Long told the jury he was the proprietor of Long’s supermarket/news- agents at the time of the alleged incident. The shop was on the ground floor, with the living quarters overhead.

At around 7.30am, he said his son called him and he went downstairs. The storeroom door had been burst open and all the ciga- rettes in the shop and store were gone, along with cash and telephone cards.

After hearing lengthy legal argument over a number of days, Judge Con Murphy di- rected the jury that the accused be found not guilty.

A NORTH Clare solicitor has been is- sued a warning letter under the Planning Acts over a two-storey extension alleg- edly built without planning permission on Ennistymon’s Parliament Street.

Clare County Council has served Ju- dith Foley c/o Chamber & Co Solicitors of Parliament Street, Ennistymon in respect of an alleged unauthorised de- velopment in the town’s Architectural Conservation Area (ACA).

The letter to Ms Foley states: “I am to inform you that it has come to the attention of Clare County Council that unauthorised development is_ being carried out namely the construction of a two-storey extension in an ACA at Parliament Street without the benefit of planning permission.

The letter continues: “The council considers the development to be unau- thorised as it does not have the benefit

of planning permission and does not constitute exempted development.

You are required to cease unauthor- ised works and remove unauthorised development.

The letter adds that any person found guilty of carrying out an unauthorised development shall be liable on sum- mary conviction to a fine not exceeding a Oe

Ms Foley has been invited to make submission in writing to the council within the next four weeks. It will be open to Ms Foley to lodge plans with the council to retain the development.

The issuing of the Warning Letter to Ms Foley is part of increased policing of alleged unauthorised developments in Clare. Earlier this year, the Council’s Director of Service for Planning, Liam Conneally said that 900 notices had been issued since 2001.

Ms Foley was unavailable for com- ment this week.

AN open verdict has been returned in the inquest into the death of a fa- ther and son who drowned on a west Clare farm earlier this year.

The Coroner’s Court heard that Michael Cunningham (41), a fitter and his 10-year-old son James, from Knockbrack, Clonlara, were help- ing out on Michael’s brother Kevin’s farm at Eirebull, Labasheeda, when they disappeared on March 28 last

Both bodies were recovered from a quarry hole on the farm, by mem- bers of the Athlone sub-aqua diving club and Kilkee Marine Rescue, at 7.30pm that evening.

Garda Michael Ryan said a fork was located in the place where the two had been feeding cattle and adjacent to that was a large quarry

hole. There was a small scuff mark but nothing else to suggest anything was wrong.

Dr Elizabeth Mulchay performed an autopsy on both bodies at Lim- erick Regional Hospital. She con- cluded that the deaths were due to drowning.

Coroner Isobel O’Dea said the in- cident was a “very sad and unfortu- nate double tragedy.

‘Probably one of them fell into the quarrry and the other went into save him but we don’t know. Nobody saw anything happen,” said Ms O’Dea.

Sympathies were extended to the family of the deceased and tributes were paid to those who assisted in the recovery of the bodies, by both the Coroner and Inspector Tom Kennedy.

THE promoters of the US-owned Doonbeg Golf Club remained upbeat this week on the project’s future and performance to date in spite of the venture accumulating losses of €15.9 million since its inception.

Accounts for 2004 recently re- turned to the Companies Office show an accumulated loss of €15.9 million, including a loss of €3.2 million last year.

However, the losses will be wiped from the accounts next year when the golf club will show a sub- stantial profit when the sales from the luxury suites from The Lodge

appear in the accounts.

The golf club confirmed that 45 of the 47 one to four bedroom luxury suites currently under con- struction have been sold and this is expected to generate an estimated €30 million, with a number of the suites selling for €1.6 million.

The figures show that the US- backers of the project have invest- ed €37.5 million in the project, resulting in the company’s balance sheet showing a positive balance of €29 million even with the loss of €15.9 million taken into account.

Also, the figures show that the golf club’s legal adviser and com- pany director, Ennis-based solic1-

tor, Des Houlihan has been paid €262,856 in legal expenses in me

According to a company spokes- man, “Doonbeg Golf Club project is on budget and on schedule…The project has more than lived up to expectations and the feedback from those playing the course and investing in the suites has been un- reservedly positive.”

He said: “The Lodge, along with the all of the major facili- ties, including the clubhouse, the pro-shop, the restaurants/bars, the spa and the accommodation are on schedule to be completed early in the New Year.”

TWELVE Ennis based _ scuba divers stranded in Cuba since be- ing caught up in the aftermath of Hurricane Wilma, which pounded the Caribbean island at the week- end, are hopeful of returning home later today.

Following a ten hour drive from their base in Cayo Coco to the Cuban capital on Saturday, the group remained in an airport ho- tel last night awaiting confirma- tion of whether their Air France flight would be allowed take off for lake

The 12 strong group, all mem- bers Ennis Sub Aqua Club, left Ire- land on October 13th on a twelve day trip which included several days diving on Cuba’s Atlantic and Caribbean coasts. On Saturday, at the end of their holiday, their inter- nal flight to Havana was cancelled forcing the group to embark on a dangerous ten hour road trip to the

capital. The group finally arrived safely at their airport hotel on Sat- urday night however their flight to Paris on Sunday was cancelled be- cause of the storm.

Speaking from Havana last night, Brian Keogh from Newmarket on Fergus said, “The eye of the hurri- cane passed just 60 kilometres off the coast. The west of the country was affected worst but we were safe enough. It was very windy alright and our internal flight from Coya Coco was cancelled so we had to drive for over ten hours to Havana only to find out that our flight to Paris was cancelled as well.”

Cuba was fortunate to escape the worst of Hurricane Wilma al- though over 600,000 people were ordered by the government to evac- uate their homes particularly on the western side of the island. Yester- day (Monday), as Wilma reached Florida, waves churned up in her wake pounded the Cuban capital

of Havana flooding a highway and penetrating four blocks into nearby neighbourhoods.

“We are safe where we are and everyone is in good form. I don’t think we were in any real danger. We have had to stay an extra night in the hotel,’ said Mr Keogh as he surveyed the scene from his room. “We escaped the worst of it and at the moment it looks more like a bad winter’s day in Lahinch. The waves are high and it is very windy. We are still waiting to hear whether it is too windy for our flight to leave,” he said.

Earlier this year, the club do- nated all the proceeds of its annual flag day to the Tsunami relief fund. The money was sent to a boat yard in Sri Lanka where a small fish- ing boat was built, fitted with an engine and fishing nets and then donated on behalf of the club to a fishing family in Sri Lanka.

that tests of the supply showed a newly discovered bacterial contamination last Friday. It was decided at a subsequent meeting be- tween the Health Service Executive and Ennis Town Council to leave the boil notice in place until today, until the two bodies would meet

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Ennis Town Engineer, Tom Tiernan said of the contamination that, “It is a localised issue and we are investigating it.”

Junior Environment Minister, Batt O’ Keeffe has stated that a solution to the continuing vul- nerability of the Ennis public water supply to contamination won’t now be in place until Oc- tober 2007. However, Minister O’Keeffe said that the Department of the Environment would “provide any help we can to Clare County Council with interim remedial measures”.

One major Ennis business has made moves to try to the beat the town’s water crisis in its own way — by drilling for its own water supply. But the Lynch-owned West County Hotel has fallen foul of Ennis Town Council for its initiative.

The council has issued a warning letter to the

Managing Director of Lynch Hotels, Michael B Lynch in respect of the council’s contention that authorised development is being carried out at the West County, namely the unauthor- ised drilling for water. Mr Lynch has been ad- vised by the council that he is liable to fines if found guilty of an offence under Section 151 of the Planning and Development Act. Mr Lynch was unavailable for comment.

Meanwhile, a public meeting, organised by local residents, to discuss the issue will be held in the Auburn Lodge Hotel, Thursday at 8.30.

Growing public disquiet over the contami- nation of the water supply, along with the re- sponse of local authorities to the crisis will be discussed.

Organisers are keen to stress that the meet- ing 1s non-political and that all are welcome.

THE chances of the father of a Fianna Fail member of Ennis Town Council becoming a multi-millionaire moved a step closer this week, with the publication of the proposed rezoning to the Ennis and Environs Develop- ment Plan.

As part of the review of the Plan, coun- cillors from Clare County and Ennis Town Councils have agreed to rezone 70 acres of land owned by Damien Reidy on the outskirts of Clarecastle.

As a result of the move, Damien Reidy, father of Fianna Fail councillor, Joe Reidy

could be in store for a windfall of €16.8 mil- lion, following recent land-sales which valued housing land at €240,000 an acre.

As a result of the plan, 22 separate parcels of land are to be rezoned and the largest par- cel of land is the one owned by Mr Reidy at Clarecastle.

The rezoning of Mr Reidy’s land has also received the backing of the Council’s Plan- ning Department.

The rezonings also contain contentious pro- posals to extend residential clusters at Bally- maquiggan and Reaskaun on the outskirts of Ennis. The council’s Executive Planner, Bill Samsum warned councillors during the Sum-

mer that the areas in question had an area eroundwater vulnerability rating and were a zone of source protection for the public water supply for the Ennis area.

He said that if there was a move to vary the plan, due to the area having a groundwa- ter vulnerability rating and being a zone of source protection, the risk to human health would be increased. The rezonings also make provision for a train station at Clarecastle in response to the continuing growth of Ennis and its environs. The council proposes to re- zone 8.75 acres of land adjacent to Skehanagh Bridge at Clarecastle, along the main Ennis to Diiloueeesicansey

The rezoning of the land is expected to add significantly to its value.

Ennis councillor, Cllr Donal O’Bearra ex- pressed his dis-satisfaction with the entire process. He said, “I would be concerned about the whole scenario. It is a rezoning re- view, not a review of the plan as it didn’t look at any other objectives in the plan. Before engaging in any other rezoning, the Council should have determined whether there was a shortfall, or not. I don’t believe that there is a shortfall, and no rezoning should have taken place.”

The public has until Friday, November 1 Ithe 11 to make submissions on the proposals.