The Clare People Archive

CARERS from all over Clare took to the streets of Ennis on Friday, following an impromptu meeting through Facebook, to raise their concerns about budgetary cuts to the Respite Care Allowance.

Among the 40 to 50 people that took part in the protest were parents of young children with disabilities, older parents of adults with special needs and full-time carers of the elderly.

All had one clear message – the cut to the respite grant was the last cut they could even contemplate bearing on top of all the previous hardships they had endured in previous budgets.

One of the organisers, Niamh Daly (pictured above), said the protest organised in Dublin by the Carers Association was an indication at how upset people were but, as most carers cannot travel to protest, the carers of Clare decided to have their say on their own streets.

“Carers cannot all get to Dublin but, at the end of the day, we have to have our voice heard,” she said.

Many more Clare carers were unable to attend the protest as the people they care for are house-bound and therefore could not come to Ennis.

It is not just the cut to the respite grant, however, that is affecting Clare’s carers. Family carers, providing unpaid care to family members and loved ones, have been seri- ously affected through the number of cumulative cuts, including the cut to the Household Benefit Package, increases to the prescription charge from 50 cent to € 1.50, the new carbon tax on fuel and the drug payment scheme threshold increase from € 132 to € 144.

The Carers Association said it was extremely disappointed with the level of reduction of over 19 per cent in the respite grant paid to over 77,000 family carers, 20,000 of whom receive no other support from the State for providing full-time care for a family member from their own resources.

The grant is designed to be used by carers to buy in home care or pay for residential respite care for the cared-for person in order to give the carer a much needed break from their caring role.

However, The Clare People has learnt that many carers are using this grant to pay for necessary therapies and services for those they are caring for.

“I CRIED that day.”

Young mother Niamh Daly who spends every hour of every day caring for her three-year-old daughter with special needs was brought to tears by the announcement that the respite grant would be cut by € 325 to € 1,375 for the year.

This money was not used for the purpose of respite in her home, but to pay to replace essential therapies already cut by the government.

Little Chantelle was diagnosed with autism nine months ago. At the time, Niamh was told she would be sent on a course to teach her how to help her daughter with speech and language, but no speech and language therapist or occupational therapist would be provided directly to the toddler.

To provide such services to her nonverbal daughter would cost Niamh € 100 per week.

She decided to use the respite grant, designed to give carers a brief holiday from their round-the-clock dedication, to provide some essential services when possible, and horseriding therapy which also helps her little girl manage her condition.

“This is just a whole lot coming together,” said Ms Daly, referring to the respite cut – the straw that broke the camel’s already seriously weakened back.

“If they keep cutting, I will just have to sit home with my child all day,” she said.

She laughed at the thought of taking a holiday, explaining that a few hours to go into town would be a heavenly break.

Niamh spends 24 hours a day, seven days a week, caring for her daughter and, as a result, cannot hold down a job.

“I can’t go out to work because my child requires 24-hour care. I want to work. This is the first time in my life I have not gone out to work. If I could work, I would at least be able to do overtime to get her some therapies, but I can’t because I have to care for her full-time.”

Niamh is busily collecting old mobile phones in the hope of exchanging them for an iPad.

She must collect 185 in a bid to get the tablet that would allow Chantelle to communicate with her mother and alleviate some of her daily frustrations as she struggles to speak.

The mother of one is angered that all Government TDs have been offered free iPads, along with all the other allowances and expenses, while carers struggle to survive.

She called on the ministers and TDs to spend a day living her life and believes that, after such an experience, they would reconsider any cut to carers and people with disabilities.

Cuts to the respite grant will save the Government € 26 million while TDs’ allowances and expenses come in at € 25 million.

MORE than 30 young men and women from the North Clare and South Galway area have contacted Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM) either applying for a job or asking to be trained to work on the 500-hectare organic salmon farm proposed for off the Clare coast.

Despite growing concerns about the impact of the fish farm among local fishermen and agencies such as Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI), BIM confirmed to The Clare People yesterday that they have been inundated with young people looking to work on the proposed site.

BIM have also confirmed that, should the farm be given the go ahead by the Department of Agriculture, the organisation will establish a temporary training facility in North Clare where people can learn the skills needed.

“We have not only had people inquiring about jobs, we have also had people asking about training courses where they could up-skill in preparation for the jobs coming on line,” said Donal Maguire of BIM.

“I think most people understand that the jobs will come when we are in a position to appoint an operator. But we have had an awful lot of enquires from people who want to get qualified in operating a boat or diving training – things like that. There are quite a lot of people locally who are thinking ahead with a view to being at the top of the queue if and when these jobs come online.”

BIM have said that the fish farm could create as many as 500 jobs locally, if it is given the green light by the Department of Agriculture. The number of jobs have been queries by the IFI and other groups.

“Once we get the go ahead for this we will set up a mobile training unit in North Clare or in Galway so that we can deliver training on the spot to the local people,” continued Donal.

Meanwhile, groups opposed to the fish farm will protest outside the constituency office of Minister for Agriculture, Simon Coveney (FG), this Saturday, December 15.

In a statement, No Salmon Farms At Sea (NSFAS) said that it will join like minded groups Save Bantry Bay, Save Galway Bay, FISSTA and Friends of the Irish Environment for the protest march in Cork.

SOURCES within Clare GAA have confirmed to The Clare People that a number of suspensions will be handed down this week as a result of the investigation into Minor A hurling final between Kilmaley and Clarecastle.

Both clubs are also expected to be fined as a result of the incidents that marred the second half of the final, played in Sixmilebridge back in October. Several mentors from both sides have recently been before a committee appointed by the GAA in Clare to examine the controversy.

The game made headlines when pictures of the incidents were featured on the front pages of a number of national newspapers, as well as going viral on Facebook and Twitter. Only two mentors were named in the referee’s report, Kilmaley’s Niall Romer and Clarecastle’s Tommy Howard.

A FORMER mayor of Shannon has called on Shannon Town Council authorities to outline to members of the local authority where over € 10,000 that has been put into a fund for the 2014 local elections has been diverted to.

Cllr Sean McLoughlin has made his comments ahead of the 2012 Shannon Town Council Budget meeting because the money put aside for the 2014 election won’t now be used for its intended purpose as the council is set to be abolished as part of the Government’s new blueprint for local government coming into effect in 2014.

“Every year we put away so much money for the local town election,” revealed Cllr McLoughlin.

“I am just wondering where is the money that was put in that pot, for a better word. I am wondering be- cause we won’t need to have a town election next time around, so the money that was put away won’t be used for the purpose it was put away for.

“I think there was roughly about € 3, 500 put aside each year since the 2009 election.

“The fact that it wasn’t taken out of this year’s budget drew my attention to it.

“I want to know where the three years of that money has gone,” added Cllr McLoughlin.

The Fine Gael representative has told The Clare People that money should now be ring-fenced for another project in the town.

“There was money put aside for the past three years.

“That’s over € 10,000, which is a lot of money.

“That money is just sitting there, money that could and should be put to use for something in Shannon,” he added.

ONE out of every six houses located in a Clare ‘ghost estate’ is vacant. According to new figures released by the Department of the Environment, Clare has one of the highest rates of vacant properties in unfinished, or so-called ghost, estates of anywhere in the county.

In total, there are 346 vacant houses and 194 vacant apartments located in estates which have been classified as unfinished or ghost estates. These 540 vacant houses in unfinished estates equate to one out of every 80 houses in the county.

According to property website MyHome.ie, there are currently 1,280 properties for sale in the Clare. With a total of 540 vacant houses and apartments located in areas classified by the Department of the Environment as unfinished, it is likely that a sizeable proportion of the properties for sale in Clare are located in these areas.

The results of the National Housing Development Survey also revealed that a large number of unfinished developments still exist in the county.

The Department of the Environment officially classifies 72 locations in Clare as unfinished estates. Many of these estates are fully serviced and largely complete and have high numbers of occupancy.

Indeed, only 23 of these 72 estates were exempted from paying the household charge this year because of being classified as unfinished.

A number of buildings in the 72 estates are virtually complete but, for one reason or another, the developer or receiver has been unable to bring the properties to completion.

According to the survey, 22 houses in the Aisling Estate in Ennis and 20 in Acha Bhille have been classified as “near completed” but have no construction work currently ongoing.

Road infrastructure was a particular problem on developments in the county, with more than 600 properties deemed to have a basic road base, with no completed surfacing work.

A total of 132 properties in the Moyard estate in Shanballa, Ennis, were deemed to have road access, while 97 on the Tulla Road, Roslevan and 72 properties in Cregaun Na Hilla in Clarecastle were classified as having unfinished roads.

Of the 72 estates identified in the National Housing Development Survey, construction work was ongoing on only four projects – the Cluainin and Tullyglass Lowlands developments in Shannon, as well as the Cois Tra and Cregg Beach development in Lahinch. The survey also identified a number of Clare estates where lighting and completed footpaths were a major issue. The names used to describe these estates are presented as identified by the Department of the Environment in the National Housing Development Survey and may be known differently locally.

SHANNON hasn’t been unfairly treated by the Government in a deal that will see its debts of € 100m cleared in return to saying goodbye to Aer Rianta International (ARI) that was established at the Clare airport and has made profits in excess of € 200m over the past decade.

In defending this trade-off that has been lambasted by both Fianna Fáil and former ARI executives in the mid-west, Minister for Transport Leo Varadkar confirmed that ARI would become the sole property of the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) post the December 31 independence of Shannon.

“It is important to bear in mind that ARI started in Shannon,” admitted Minister Varadkar, “but the contribution that has been made over the years has been much more than Shannon. It has been financed from all over the (DAA) group. The requirement of the new legislation is that both new entities – Shannon as a separated airport and the DAA – have to be vi- able. It wouldn’t be possible to write down the debt at Shannon – it’s not being written down, it’s being carried by Dublin and Cork. It’s passengers using Dublin that will pay off Shannon’s debt. Grant that concession and also ARI would not be possible,” added Minister Varadkar.

Fianna Fáil transport spokesperson Timmy Dooley has blasted this move, saying ARI had to “form part of the new Shannon entity”, which would “secure the airport’s future and provide a marketing budget that can be used to attract more tourists and open new air routes for the benefit of the mid-west region”.

Responding to this criticism, Minister Varadkar said, “ARI has considerable investment costs around the world over the next couple of years – € 60m over the next couple of years – and that money can be borrowing against the DAA’s balance sheet and the DAA’s assets.

“We didn’t want the new Shannon to have to go off and borrow a whole load of money to build perfume shops in the Ukraine and places like that,” he added.

THE new independent Shannon Airport has been warned away from entering into a new deal with Ryanair similar to the one that resulted in record passenger numbers of over 3.6m passing using Clare’s international airport in 2007.

Transport Minister Leo Varadkar told a media briefing in the Dublin Convention Centre that was attended by key figures from the Shannon Airport Authority, Shannon Development, Clare Oireachtas members and the mayors of Clare and Ennis that any dealings with Ryanair in the future should be on “a commercial basis” and instead pointed to the benefits of securing more military traffic through the airport.

Shannon’s passenger numbers rocketed to 3,620,623 in 2007 on the back of an incentive package arrangement between the airport and Ryanair that saw the low-cost carrier operate over 50 routes, but since then have declined year-on-year with figures expected to dip below 1. 5m by the end of 2012.

“I would expect that any deals that the new Shannon Aiport makes would be on a commercial basis that can be sustained, which was not the case in the previous Ryanair deal,” said Minister Varadkar, before revealing that targeted growth of having up to 2.5m passengers over the next decade was not dependent on a new Ryanair deal.

“They did reach a peak of 3.6 passengers largely on the back of that arrangement (with Ryanair),” said Minsiter Varadkar, “but bear in mind that prior to that they were well over 2m passengers on various occasions and up as far as 2.7m passengers at one point”.

Last June, Ryanair made a pitch to treble its passenger numbers through Shannon to one million if it was given a new deal by the Shannon Airport Authority whereby all charges would be waived for all additional passengers over the current level of 375,000.

Meanwhile, as late as last week it was revealed in The Clare People that the budget airline was on the cusp on announcing a new investment at the airport to bring in one million extra passengers providing an extra € 100m passenger spend to the region.

However, instead of looking to Ryanair, Minister Varadkar championed the cause of secured extra military stopover at Shannon as a way of boosting the airport’s figures.

“I have indicated for a very long time that Shannon has been a transit point for military flights and part of the plan would be to grow that,” he revealed.

COMPANIES are queuing up to do business in the Shannon Free Zone and provide thousands of new jobs – the only thing they’re demanding to turn this commitment into a reality is that Clare’s international airport be freed from the strictures of Dublin Airport Authority control and be given its full independence.

This promise of a jobs bonanza for the region was delivered by Rose Hynes, the chairperson of the Aviation Business Development Task Force that has helped draft a blueprint for the independent Shannon Airport structure over the last four months.

“We have people lined up who are willing to do business with Shannon but they are only willing to do it if the airport and the new entity is created on the basis of separation,” Ms Hynes revealed at Monday’s press conference heralding the timeframe for the airport’s independence.

“People are willing to do business, but not when there’s an air of uncertainty. They want to do business when there’s certainty and separation. We are already talking from a position of strength where we have commitment for a 1000 of those jobs – that’s a position of considerable strength. We are talking a success- ful airport that when combined with the landbank we can actually create and additional 3,500 jobs over five years,” she added.

Ms Hynes, who is tipped to become chairperson of the new Shannon Airport structure, has moved quickly to dispel thoughts the jobs target is overly ambitious, telling The Clare People that the plan represents “the beginning of a new era” for the airport.

“We had intensive discussions and we formed the view that the status quo was not a sustainable option and that a restructured Shannon and Shannon Development can be sustainable and can be successful,” said Ms Hynes. “Shannon cannot just remain where it is at the moment. We have looked at the Shannon situation high up and low down and we are absolutely convinced that we have a plan that’s viable, that’s going to lead to a successful airport.

“We had a philosophy in the task force where basically we decided that we weren’t going to leave behind a set of recommendations that were going to just gather dust somewhere. We decided that if we were going to recommend something we were going to put momentum into it.

“We were going to try and take that as far as we could do. We did that in relation to job numbers; we did that in relation to every other recommendation that we made. It means that when we talk about it, we talk about something we believe,” she added.

Commenting on the cabinet decision, Shannon Airport Director Mary Considine said, “Today is a pivotal step in the process of separation. The focus of staff and management at Shannon Airport has been on ensuring that the airport is financially and operationally ready for separation.

“This entire process is all about securing a sustainable future for all the stakeholders of the Airport and that Shannon Airport delivers on its role as a key economic driver for the West of Ireland,” she added.

THE community spirit of the Clare Tidy Towns effort was celebrated on Thursday night by the county’s flagship centre in the national competition over the last number of years.

Ennis was presented with seven different awards on the night, with the chairperson of the Ennis Tidy Towns Committee, Áine Purcell hailing what she called “a back to basics” approach as being the major contributory factor for the county capital’s achievements.

“In Ennis this year what we decided to do was go back to basics,” Ms Purcell revealed when accepting the award for Ennis as Ireland’s Tidiest Large Urban Centre. “We led by example. I know Tuamgraney do it, I know Mountshannon do it, I know Kilrush do it – I know all of you do it.

We asked people. People like to be asked. Everyone likes to be part of a community so we asked people.

“We didn’t make any emails, we didn’t make any phone calls, we didn’t write any letters – all 22 of us just went around and asked people. It paid off very well in that there’s a tradition that we’re very proud of, but it paid off more importantly in that it brought everyone together as a community,” he added.

Ennis’ other honours were as in the Gum Litter Taskfore competition, where the town was named both the large urban centre and national winner, the Tourism Town Award, the County Award, as well as a Gold Medal and the Shannon Region award winner.

“One of the highlights for me personally,” continued Ms Purcell, “was after we won the award as Ireland’s largest urban centre, someone said to me in the street ‘didn’t we do well in Dublin’.

“That was powerful because there was a sense of ownership in that because it was the community coming together.

“We are very, very fortunate in Ennis in that we have a very positive and great working relationship with our town council. Any positive relationship that you can foster is brilliant. SuperValu are to complimented for promoting Tidy Towns and promoting bringing communities together,” she added.