The Clare People Archive

THERE have been calls for the retention of tourist offices in rural parts of Clare amid concerns they could be shut under a new coordinated marketing strategy for the west of Ireland.

West Clare councillor Gabriel Keating (FG) called for a report “on the implications on the delivery of tourism services, if any, for Clare following recent media reports that the west of Ireland is to be marketed as a separate tourist destination.”

Cllr Keating told the meeting that in times of change there is always a danger that rural communities will be affected and forgotten about.

He said it was vitally important for Clare that tourism offices in Kilrush and Kilkee are kept open.

In his reply, Director of Services Gerard Dollard said it had been shown that on the international stage, a west of Ireland branding can be effective and is important in encouraging people to the area. He said the council welcomed the focus on promoting the west of Ireland

Mr Dollard stated, “The promotion and branding of the west of Ireland does not impact on the delivery of tourism services as such but the recent Government announcement regarding the proposed transfer of the tourism remit of Shannon Development to Fáilte Ireland obviously has implications for delivery of tourism services both in the area of product development and marketing and promotion. Clare Tourism Forums and the Strategic Policy Committee will also be seeking discussions with Fáilte Ireland at an early date to iden- tify the best manner in which Clare County Council and the forum can continue to play an active role in the delivery of tourism services and the marketing and promotion of County Clare.”

West Clare councillor Pat Keane (FF) said it is important that the region is properly marketed. He said opening hours at the offices should be extended during the tourist season.

Cllr Christy Curtin (Ind) said, “Clare has a unique brand and we have to sell it and we have to sell it to everyone.”

Mayor of Clare Pat Hayes (FF) said all Clare people are ambassadors for their county.

Cllr Johnny Flynn (FG) said Shannon Airport should be promoted as the official airport of the Gathering – the government’s campaign to increase tourist numbers in 2013. He said the airport’s long association with emigration should be emphasised in order to avail of the estimated 400,000 extra passengers that the Government are hoping the Gathering will bring to Ireland

AN EAST Clare family has been forced to move out of their own house because of anti-social behaviour by neighbours who were claiming a Rent Allowance Payment.

That is according to East Clare Cllr Joe Cooney (FG), who called for tighter regulations to be placed on people who receive rent allowance – including a provision for money to be taken directly from a persons social welfare payment to repay a private landlord or the local authority for damage done to a property.

Cllr Cooney said that the way that a small minority of people on rent allowance treat property is a “disgrace”.

“Some of these tenants, the state that they leave some of the houses are a disgrace. I have people on to me, and they can’t rent out their house because of the damage done,” said Cllr Cooney.

“I am aware of a family in East Clare who had to move out of their own house because of the anti-social actions from one family beside them. If these people can’t treat the property properly, and not be acting the fool, then there has to be consequences for them.

“Not all tenants are the same, but some are very bad. This is a vital motion. What is going on is a dis- grace in some place, but it is not everywhere. The damage has seen some local council houses left closed for up to 12 months, which in my opinion is a disgrace.”

The motion was seconded by Cllr Joe Arkins (FG) who said that legislations need to be put in place to allow landlords to recoup payments from people who destroy their property.

“There are some people in this society for who there are no consequences,” he said. “I think we need legislation where a local authority or a private individual should pursue people in the courts and they should then have an attachments put to their [social welfare] payments.”

JUST under € 1.8 million has been collected so far in Clare via the household charge, new figures from Clare County Council show.

The information was given in response to a notice of motiwon from Labour councillor Pascal Fitzgerald requesting a breakdown on the total amount collected in the county to date.

In his reply Niall Barrett, Head of Finance, stated that the latest information from the Household Charge Bureau that there were 17,819 household registrations processed for payment as at 9am on Tuesday, April 24. This corresponds to the sum collected for the county to date.

He continued, “Nationally there are an estimated 220,500 household charge declarations which have been made through the post and over the counter in local authority offices that are being processed by the Household Charge Bureau.

“The County Clare portion of the unprocessed declarations is not included in the above figure as the county/city breakdown is not yet available in the figure.

“In addition, 15,159 declarations nationally have been received by the household charge bureau where a waiver from payment of the house- hold charge is claimed and these declarations are not included in the figure.”

He added, “This gives a total number of 921,101 household charge declarations made nationally.

“The amount collected for Clare will increase as applications on hand are processed by the Bureau.”

Cllr Fitzgerald asked if householders living in unfinished housing estates who have paid the household charge could be provided with services by Clare County Council?

He also asked the council to clarify their position for the residents in these estates.

Mr Barrett stated that there are no proposals at the present time to change established arrangements for the provision of services to estates in the county.

Cllr Cathal Crowe (FF) called for Minister for State Jan O’Sullivan, who he said represented 5,000 people in Clare, to attend a council meeting.

Director of Services Ger Dollard said the introduction of the household charge has not changed the way the council deal with unfinished estates.

He said the council is currently dealing with a number of unfinished estates in Clare.

“We are working very hard to get through that,” he added.

CLARE County Council is to write to the Department of the Environment seeking legislation to be introduced to ban posters from certain areas of towns and village – with separate poster zones being created instead.

This follows a motion put forward by Cllr Paul Murphy (FG) at last night’s meeting of Clare County Council which called for a permit system to be introduced which would require each election candidate or political party to notify Clare County Council of the number of locations of all posters erected in Clare.

“One important angle is safety – there is a serious health an safety question for people putting up and taking down posters. They are also distractions for people looking at them [the posters] when driving on our road,” said Cllr Murphy.

“I am not looking for a total ban, I think posters are a useful things – especially for young voters. I believe that they do serve a purpose for younger candidates whose faces might not be that well known.”

The motion received support from all the candidates present, including a number of councillors who reported having their posters stolen during an election, only for them to reemerge in another part of the county once the vote is complete.

“I have always been an advocate of the central locations for posters,” said Cllr Patricia McCarthy (Ind).

“We all know that posters do disappear in some areas – a poster might disappear and may not reappear for a year or more and they have been used for some other purpose in the mean time.”

Cllr Joe Arkins (FG) also reported some of his posters appearing in private residences around the county.

“In my area they take them down the day after you put them up. People take them down and then put them up again after the election,” he said.

“It is very hard to keep track of all your posters between the wind and these individuals who seem to think that these posters would make a nice additions to their own house.”

Cllr PJ Kelly called for a total ban on all election posters – saying they he had never had to use them to get elected.

GRAFFITI artists in Ennis could have a wall to call their own if plans put forward by a local councillor get the go-ahead.

At yesterday’s meeting of Clare County Council, Councillor James Breen (Ind) renewed his calls for a graffiti wall to be developed in Ennis.

Cllr Breen, who first proposed the wall last January, told the meeting that graffiti can be a healthy form of therapy for young people.

He said that while he is no expert in the matter, some graffiti could be a “beautiful thing”.

He said that by developing a dedi cated facility for graffiti in Ennis, young people wouldn’t have to be worried about being “hunted away” from other locations.

Cllr Gerry Flynn (Ind) proposed that primary and secondary school make walls available for graffiti.

He said, “We’ve actually left some of the graffiti in place (in Shannon) because it is of such a high standard.”

Cllr Cathal Crowe said it had been shown that there are therapeutic benefits to be derived from graffiti. He said a graffiti wall would help alleviate distasteful graffiti in other parts of Ennis. Cllr Breen told the meeting that he wasn’t trying to foist a graffiti wall on communities in Ennis.

He added, “I think Lees Road would be a good facility for a graffiti wall.”

The Director of Services, Gerard Dollard, stated that Lees Road had previously been forward as a location for the wall.

He explained, “The Management Committee of the Lees Road facil ity was subsequently requested to consider the provision of a graffiti wall. The matter was discussed at a meeting of Ennis Town Council’s Leisure Facilities Committee. It was agreed by the committee that the matter would be reconsidered in 12 months.”

The proposal was due to be discussed at yesterday’s committee meeting.

“It should be noted that no funding source has been identified for such a project and, in the event that the provision of such a facility was considered more appropriate for the Lees Road facility, such a funding source would have to be identified. The proposer of the motion may wish to suggest other possible locations that could be considered if a funding source was available,” he said.

THE Sinn Féin drive to energize the party in rural counties came to Clare last week as party leader Gerry Adams visited Ennis.

The party leader visited a number of locations in the county town last Thursday as part of the party’s rural Ireland consultation process.

“The first phase is to listen, and we will be doing that all over the summer. We believe that rural Ireland in particular has been devastated in recent years – by unemployment, by emigration,” said Deputy Adams.

“A lot of these charges, like the septic tank charge, are a full frontal attack on rural dwellers. If you live in the city, if you are part of a system you are okay, but if you live in a rural area you are not.

“But we thought that the first phase of this should be a listening phase. Whether it is small school, people who have had a Garda station closed down or people who have seen the cost of public transport go up. But particularly people who have the imagination to create jobs – they should be supported.

“An example of this is two brothers who we met just now over at Ennis Mart, who could not get the money they needed to start their business and employ people.”

Sinn Féin will continue its rural Ireland consultation process until the end of the summer and they will produce a document on their finding later this year.

SINN Féin leader, Gerry Adams, has left the door open for a number of former party members in Clare to return to fold, but has closed the door on expelled members such as Shannon Cllr Cathy McCafferty (Ind), saying she was expelled for a “good reason”. The Louth TD, who was in Ennis last week to campaign for a ‘No’ vote in the upcoming European Fiscal Treaty, refused to give a reason why the Shannon councillor was expelled from the Sinn Féin party earlier this year.

“After the last election we initiated a review right across the island of Ireland, looking at where we need to shape our organisation – looking at where we were strong and how we could change things where we were weak. We did this in Clare and some local people objected to what was brought forward,” said Deputy Adams.

“It was all done democratically. Some people left and some people were dismissed. We are in a new era. We have a sizable vote in the county, I think that is seen in European elections, it is seen when Martin McGuinness stands, but we have no local representative and we have to crack that. It isn’t a matter of cracking that for a ego trip, it is a matter of correcting things so we can start to serve people in a matter that we think is best for the people of this county.

“I am very hopeful and very confident that the changes that we have made [in Clare], which have been done in consultation with local people, will lead to greater traction to the party in Clare.

“All parties have their democratic process and their disciplinary process. The fact is that a small number of people who were expelled, were expelled for a good reason. We don’t want to end up being complicated for all or any of that. It has happened, people part company in every organisation and every political party. It is done, it’s dusted, it is regrettable, but sin é, that’s it, we move on.

“Those who have not been expelled, there is a process for anyone who wants to come back into the party. There is a process in place for those people. That is a decision for them, it isn’t a decision for us. We can’t altogether blind ourselves to the fact that part of the lack of the development of the party [in Clare] is the refusal of some to go with the way that the party is building itself across the island. If it works in County Antrim, if it work in Kerry and in Donegal, it can also work in Clare. But it needs a full hearted involvement by the local members. A political party, at least one like the one we want to build, can only be built from the bottom up.”

programme.

Since the allegation the person who made the claim in the programme has not contacted any authorities nor the school in question, despite various attempts in South Africa to ask him to substantiate the allegation.

Indeed in the immediate aftermath of the allegation the Dillon family were pleased to note that a number of his former pupils made themselves avialable to refute any alleged stain on Brother Dillon’s character.

The family of the now deceased Clare Christian brother along with members of the clergy have maintained that as the documentary was discredited it must be investigated in its entirety, including the allegations against Brother Dillon.

At an Oireachtas Joint Committee meeting on Communications last week, Labour Deputy Michael McNamara told RTÉ Chairman Tom Savage and Director General Noel Curran that the whole programme appears to have been flawed.

He said that the investigation into the Fr Reynolds segment occurred because a defamation case had been successfully taken but the dead cannot bring defamation cases.

It is understood however that RTÉ has already conducted its own internal inquire into this element of the documentary.

“The programme has been utterly thrashed, the programme team has been pretty thrashed, rightly or wrongly, maybe they are carrying the can for others, maybe not,” said Deputy McNamara.

“Why not have an independent inquiry even outside the remit of the BAI (Broadcasting Authority of Ireland)?

“Why not bring in Anna Carragher or somebody else of that stature to carry out an investigation into the allegations made against somebody who is dead?” he asked.

Deputy McNamara said he hoped that RTÉ would reflect on the situation over the next few days.

“The whole programme is now tainted and natural justice requires that the allegations against the late Brother Dillon be investigated by an independent competent authority. Brother Dillon’s family are entitled to this,” he added.

The issue is expected to come before the Oireachtais committee again today (Tuesday).

ENNIS General Hospital’s radiology department, which faced closure 12 months ago, has won the prestigious Biomnis Healthcare Innovation Awards.

In a rags-to-riches story, the department, which had come under much criticism in the past, was recognised for its ‘Innovation in Quality of Service Delivery’.

The new x-ray service has cut result waiting times from 10 days to just 15 minutes in the case of emergencies, cut costs by 29 per cent and has seen more than 1,800 patients.

Hospital manager Frank Keane explained that when the x-ray department faced closure last year, as a consultant radiologist could not be recruited, the hospital team began to “gingerly” consider the option of introducing teleradiology technology.

In April 2011, Ennis General Hospital (EGH) partnered with Global Diagnostics (Global) and through the deployment of new and innovative teleradiology technology and new enabling processes positively transformed the operations, efficiency level and the standards of patient care and responsiveness at the Radiology Department.

The x-rays continued to be taken at the Ennis hospital but then they were immediately sent by telelink to one of the nine consultant radiologists available to read them.

One of the biggest successes within this pioneering system is the quick response of the department.

Now an emergency x-ray is read and reported on within 15 minutes, while an accident and emergency x-ray’s results are with the patient within 90 minutes.

Inpatient x-rays are read within three hours, while the hospital now guarantees that GP referred x-rays will be read and the results with the GP within 48 hours, although most are with the family doctor within 10 hours.

This compares more than favourably to an older system where patients were waiting an average of 10 days to have an x-ray read.

The team of radiology experts from Ireland, Northern Ireland, England and the UK include specialist paediatric and neurology radiologists, and bring added expertise to the hospital service.

Mr Keane said he was delighted with the win at the weekend, especially as the competition was so stiff. All of the other eight entries came from Ireland’s leading teaching hospitals.

CLARE big-wave surfer Ollie O’Flaherty will be one of the main attractions at the first ever Wavemasters Surf and Music Festival, which takes place in Spanish Point over the June Bank Holiday weekend.

The Lahinch man has become the hottest prospect in Irish and Euro- pean surfing following his thirdplace finish at the Billabong XXL Big Wave Awards earlier this month. Ollie will be joined at the festival by current Irish champion Stephen Kilfeather, as well as a number of leading Irish surfers.

In total, six surfers, each of whom are current members of the Irish surf team, will take part in an ‘Expression Session’ on Spanish Point beach from 2pm on Sunday, June 3. Prizes will be awarded for best move, best wave and best overall performance.

The festival will also include a number of live music performances taking pace at the Bellbridge Hotel in Spanish Point. The organisers are hopeful that the Wavemasters Surf and Music Festival could become a regular event in the county’s annual festival calendar.

The music portion of the festival will be headlined by Irish funk-rock band Republic of Loose. The music line-up will also feature Bellharbour musician Jim McKee and his band.

Over the last number of weeks, Jim has been travelling the world promoting his role in the new film, Songs for Amy , alongside Kinvara singer-songwriter Ultan Conlan. The pair wrote and recorded much of the soundtrack for the film. In recent weeks, the film has received a good reaction, winning an award at the Newport Film Festival in Los Angeles and also appearing at the Cannes Film Festival.

It will receive its official Irish premier at the Galway Film Fleadh next month.

Tickets for the Wavemasters Surf and Music Festival are currently available from 087 1841555.