The Clare People Archive

THE creation of a new independent Shannon run by a holding company that’s fully separated from Dublin Airport Authority influence while still under State ownership is the best way forward for Clare’s international airport.

That’s the view of Booz and Company – the consultants hired by the Government to come up with a new roadmap to secure the future of the 75-year-old airport.

The consultants said that this model of governance “provides the best ap- proach to balancing the stakeholder objectives with the viable operation of the airport”.

In backing what’s termed “a concession model”, which would pave the way for the holding company to lease out the airport for up to 35 years, the consultants have warned that “the current state of affairs at Shannon has resulted in demand levels that are not sustainable for the airport”.

Continuing Booz and Company says “Shannon Airport is faced with a significant threat to its viability under current ownership arrangements and further separation from the DAA would offer greater opportunities for setting policies that encourage route development and traffic growth and for the development of niche business opportunities.

“Under this approach, the competition of the local authority holding entity could include Clare and Limerick county councils.

“The holding company could also include Shannon Development, as part of a move to integrate the airport with the nearby industrial land, as well as input from relevant commercial interests and public bodies.

“In addition, the local concession model is the preferred model of local stakeholders since it provides an opportunity for them to take greater involvement in the operation of the airport and in the development of the surrounding land.

Creating a separate entity at Shannon, if well managed, is unlikely to significantly affect the DAA’s relationship with its financiers,” the report adds.

However, Booz and Company have warned that “creating a viable airport business under separate ownership” at Shannon “requires the new airport operate to significantly improve financial performance and to be able to access sufficient funds to maintain and invest in the airport over a longer term”.

To ensure this, Booz and Company say “the Government may need to consider appropriate mechanisms for ongoing support”.

This, the consultants say, could be done by way of “integrating the airport with adjoining industrial developments (Shannon Free Zone, supported by the inclusion of Shannon Development in the new holding company structure) and appointing a concessionaire that is experienced in developing successful aero-industrial airport businesses, could better ensure sustainability of the airport and surrounding areas”.

IF implemented, one of the options for the future operation and management structure to govern Shannon that has been put forward by the team of international consultants hired by the Government would mean little change for the airport.

That’s according to Booz and Company themselves, after the final report, which has been part-published by the Minister for Transport, Leo Varadkar, outlines that one of the two options favour by the consultants would not give Shannon its independence and instead place control of the airport’s destiny in the hands of a new holding company.

“State control of Shannon would be maintained, but would be given the status of an independent subsidiary within overall airport group,” says the Booz and Company blueprint.

“The independent airport board would set the strategic direction for the airport and appoint individual management teams with responsibility for developing tailored business plans and marketing strategies,” it adds.

Booz and Company also say that “if properly structured, the primary benefit of this approach is that it would provide the airport with enhanced autonomy at local level”, enabling Shannon “to develop policies and processes that will enhance airport competitiveness with their specific market”.

However, the downside to this option is that it amounts to a watered down version of the current status quo where Shannon is concerned. In theory, Shannon would be given equal status to Dublin and Cork, with all three airports being subsidiaries of a new Ireland Airports Corporation (IAC), but could still be the junior partner of the IAC because of having the smallest number of passengers.

That these pit-falls exist have been confirmed by Booz and Company’s admission that “a risk of this approach is that increased competitiveness of one airport could have a detrimental effect on another airport within the group by diverting traffic away from one or both of the other airports.

“The holding company may therefore choose to impose restrictions on the subsidiary boards to ensure a group-focused approach to financial risk management.

“This would undermine the key benefit of separation and lead to outcomes that are similar in reality to the current situation, but it would create a structure more suitable for future separation.

“Under this approach, there would also be some additional costs associated with creating extra governane at the national level, and through duplicating some management roles at the airport currently performed by the DAA,” Booz and Company add.

THE leading agency linked with the proposed public-private partnership takeover of Shannon Airport has heard the whole process to chart a new future for Clare’s international airport described as “a complete farce”.

Condemnation of the Booz and Company report into the future of the airport, which was commissioned by transport minister Leo Varadkar and published last Wednesday, has come at Clare County Council level.

Councillors and officials delivered a withering response at a specially convened meeting of the local authority’s Special Policy Committee on Enterprise and Tourism.

“The report before us is a complete farce,” blasted former Mayor of Clare, Cllr Tommy Brennan (Ind).

“They are treating us like mushrooms – keeping us in the dark and feeding us you know what,” said Cllr PJ Ryan, amid fears that the local authority might pull back from a commitment to embrace a takeover of the airport.

“What are they trying to keep back from us? Did they keep back stuff from us about the figures? Did they keep back from us how the DAA were milking Shannon over the years? What is the real story? We don’t really know,” added Cllr Ryan.

These fears have been backed up by Clare County Council Director of Service, Ger Dollard, who said “the biggest issue” was that “all financial data is effectively taken out of the report, which it makes it very difficult to make any type of assessment whatsover”.

PATIENTS and visitors to the Mid West Regional Hospital Ennis will soon have to leave the hospital campus and walk to the public roadside if they plan to light up.

Despite the purpose built covered shelter which is in place for smokers on the grounds and just yards from the main entrance of the Ennis hospital, smokers will have to leave the hospital grounds to light up according to new regulations.

This raises the distinct possibility of patients in dressing gowns, pyjamas and fluffy slippers being visible to passing traffic and the elements if they must smoke.

From May 1, all hospitals in the midwest, including the maternity hospital in Limerick, will become smoke-free, following in the footsteps of other HSE West hospitals.

Sister hospitals in Galway have been smoke-free for more than two weeks, although not everyone is a fan of the new regulations that must be imposed in all Irish hospitals by 2015.

Chairman of the HSE West, Pádraig Conneely (FG) asked if the HSE had gone a step too far by banning smoking on all hospital campuses.

“Is it not a far walk all the way to the road?” he asked. He also raised concerns about policing the new ban.

“How are you going to stop people outside accident and emergency in an inebriated state who are smoking, or a person dealing with a tragedy who wants to go outside to smoke,” he said.

According to the most recent figures available, the annual security costs at the Ennis facility are € 34k.

Clare representative to the HSE West Forum, Cllr Brian Meaney (GP) said he agreed with the policy, but raised concerns about hospitals like the Mid Western Regional Hospital Ennis, which has a psychiatric unit.

“It is more than a dependency for people with psychiatric problems,’ he said. He asked if the HSE now plans to extend the practice of allowing unhealthy behaviour on campus, by ceasing to sell sugary foods in its hospital shops, given the rise in typetwo diabetes.

Fellow Clare representative Cllr Tony Mulqueen (FG) asked about the size of the hospital campus and was told it was a 150-acre site.

“If there were 1, 5000 acres, would you have the same rules? Where does it stop?” he asked.

THERE is good news on the horizon for one Clare company as – after making himself Ireland’s foremost hurley maker – O’Callaghan’s Mills businessman John Torpey is about to take on the production of renewable fuels.

Torpey Hurleys have almost doubled the workforce at its Sixmilebridge factory over the last two years and now employs seven full-time people and a number of part-time workers.

The company began producing briquettes from the ash left over from making the hurleys last year and they are currently seeking funding under the LEADER Programme to roll out this product on a large scale.

“I have been able to take on a few people in the last few weeks and that brings it up to seven full-time employees and a few part-time. I’d say we now make between 60,000 and 70,000 hurleys a year now so there is a big demand for it right now.

“It’s about giving the customer what he wants. My father gave me a saying one time – he said ‘make quality and you’ll never be out of the job’. So that is what I have done. You will only sell a poor-quality product once and that is a fact,” said John.

“I have started into briquette-making using the waste from the hurleys. The briquettes are now selling in a number of shops in Ennis and they are selling well.

“These briquettes are made from material that would otherwise be going to a landfill. I have been in contact with LEADER and I am hoping that they can help me expand the Belvoir Briquette product.

“The lads are making hurleys flat out at the moment and, because of the mild spring, there probably won’t be as large a demand for the briquettes as there might be in other years. The briquettes will be great for the business.

“I have an ongoing supply of waste from the hurleys that is the raw material for the briquettes. At the moment, I have an acre of ground taken up with these pieces of ash because I have no place to put them. So the briquettes will be great for the business and great for the environment locally if I can expand this.”

John was brought to the attention of the world last week when he supplied hurleys and a lesson in the game to the Chinese president elect, Xi Jinping, on his official state visit to Ireland.

A DISTRICT court judge has noted the potential risk to consumers posed by buying goods over the internet.

Judge Aeneas McCarthy said consumers “had to be very careful these days”, particularly when making purchases online.

Judge McCarthy was speaking last week as he ordered that a stolen van purchased for close to € 10,000 in good faith by a Newmarket-on-Fergus man be returned to an English-based insurance company.

Judge McCarthy granted a request for a four-week stay to be placed on the order, pending a possible appeal.

At Ennis District Court last Wednesday, Gary Howard, of Drumline Newmarket-on-Fergus, applied to have a 2006 sprinter Mercedes Van, seized by the Gardaí last February, returned to him.

During the case, it was accepted by gardaí and Judge McCarthy that Mr Howard was the bona fide purchaser of the van and had bought the vehicle in good faith, not knowing it was stolen.

Mr Howard, who runs a Shannonbased haulier business, told the court that he bought the van in Tuam, County Galway, in January 2010, after seeing an ad in Done Deal.

Mr Howard told the court that he paid € 7,250 for the van and spent a further € 2,500 on repairs. He ex plained that he obtained a loan from the credit union to fund the purchase.

“I thought I was getting a good deal but I knew I had to put a bit of work into it,” he added.

He said an online check of the van’s history had not shown it was stolen. His solicitor, Daragh Hassett, told the court that his client had also asked the gardaí to check the history of the van. Mr Hassett said, “He rang his local gardaí and the got the two thumbs up. There’s no more this man could have done.”

The court was told that the van had been stolen in the United Kingdom, falsely registered in the Republic of Ireland and subsequently identified as part of Operation Swallow – an investigation involving the gardaí, Police Services of Northern Ireland (PSNI) and Scottish and English Police.

Detective Garda David Magee of the Stolen Car Unit told the court that gardaí had issued a warning for falsely registered vehicles. Insp Tom Kennedy said that while Mr Howard was the “bona fide owner” of the van, this was a case of “buyer beware”.

Solicitor John Casey, representing NFU Mutual Insurance, said the company had paid out a £10,000 claim on the van, making them the beneficial owner. Mr Casey added, “They never relinquished ownership, even though it was in the possession of other people.”

Judge McCarthy said evidence had been given that the van was stolen by a professional criminal gang and exported to Ireland. He added, “I have no doubt that Mr Howard is the bona fide purchaser who bought in good faith.”

He said the insurance company had paid out a claim. Ordering that the van be returned to FNU Mutual, Judge McCarthy said, “I have great sympathy with Mr Howard.”

AN Ennis man who stole a handbag containing € 3,000 from a woman as she was shopping has received an 18-month prison sentence. At Ennis District Court last Wednesday, Robbie Nestor (31) was also convicted on other charges of theft and of having heroin for sale or supply.

Nestor, with an address at 142 Hermitage, Ennis, pleaded guilty to eight offences committed between July 2011 and February 2012. Details of the offences were read out in court by Insp Tom Kennedy. He said that Nestor had been seen by gardaí selling a € 25 wrap of heroin to a woman in the Hermitage area of Ennis on Decem ber 1, 2011. The accused admitted selling the drugs, the court heard.

The court heard that Garda Francis Brennan carried out a search of 142 Hermitage on December 2, 2011. Insp Kennedy said 16 wraps of heroin valued at € 480 and € 460 cash were found during the search. He said Nestor admitted to having the drugs for sale or supply. He told gardaí that the money had been obtained from selling drugs.

On July 30, 2011, the court heard, Nestor was seen on CCTV taking a suitcase from a bus parked at En nis bus station. The case, which belonged to a student on her way to Galway, contained a laptop computer valued at € 500 and other items. Insp Kennedy said Nestor, who has 31 previous convictions, admitted the theft and told gardaí that he sold the laptop for € 100.

The court heard that at some time between September 16 and 17, 2011, Nestor took € 50 from an apartment in Barretts Lane, Ennis.

Insp Kennedy told the court that on January 31, 2012, the accused stole a handbag containing a mobile phone and € 100 cash from a woman in Tesco, Ennis. The phone was subsequently recovered. The court heard that the next day Nestor took a handbag containing € 3,830 from a trolley in Dunnes Stores, Ennis. Insp Kennedy described it as “opportunistic crime” and said the money was not recovered.

Solicitor Tara Godfrey said her client has suffered from a “very bad heroin addiction”. Ms Godfrey said her client, a single, unmarried man, had made full admissions regarding all of the offences.

She asked that the court consider adjourning any custodial sentence to allow Nestor receive residential treatment. Judge Aeneas McCarthy said he was not “doing that”. He imposed three separate six-month sentences to be served consecutively. He imposed a further four-month sentence to be served concurrent to the 18-month term. Recognances were fixed in the event of an appeal.

BUSINESSES and residents have been urged to dig deep to fund a € 10,000 “fighting fund” for the next phase of the campaign against a planned retail park on the outskirts of Ennis.

A public meeting in Ennis last night heard that € 3,000 had been spent by business groups so far against plans by Michael Lynch Ltd to build a 70,000 foot retail park.

The developers have appealed Ennis Town Council’s decision to refuse planning permission to the proposed development at Tobertascáin / Clare Road to An Bord Pleanála.

Local businessman and former En- nis Chamber President, John Dillane said towns such as Naas and Tralee had been “completely decimated” by out-of-town retail parks

“We are not afraid and we do not object to competition but we’re afraid of our town being destroyed,” he added.

He called on street leaders to appeal to businesses to donate money to the “fighting fund”.

He told the meeting that Tesco, the anchor tenant for the proposed development, would operate a “mini town under one roof” which would have disastrous consequences for jobs in Ennis. He added, “It should be a matter of pride that we’re not going to be steamrolled by them.”

Architect and planner Michael Leahy, who prepared Ennis Chamber’s submissions against the proposed development and planned changes to the Ennis Development Plan, told the meeting that An Bord Pleanála would likely deal with the appeal through an oral hearing.

He explained that the council re fused permission pending the upgrade of the wastewater treatment plant at Clareabbey and pending the implementation of the Ennis South Flood Relief Scheme. He said it was “quite likely” that the Board would accept the developer’s suggestions to deal with wastewater treatment.

He said an oral hearing would allow specialist evidence to be given on flooding and wastewater issues. Mr Leahy said the likely cost of the appeal process would be € 10,000.

The purpose of the meeting on Monday evening was to inform the business community and others of the appeal process to An Bord Pleanála, which has a closing date of Friday, March 2, for acceptance of submission.

The meeting in the Old Ground Hotel also heard calls for a more community-orientated form of protest. One Ennis resident said businesses should be “cultivating” customers to adopt the same position as them.

A spokesperson for the Ennis Development Forum said that in a recent meeting, all of Clare’s four Dáil TDs had backed the business community’s position on the proposed development.

ORGANISERS say there was a high turnout at a protest against new Government taxes and charges in Ennis on Saturday.

An estimated crowd of 200 people attended a protest march, according to the Campaign Against Household and Water Taxes (CAHWT).

The rally was organised as part of a national day of protest. Recent meetings held around Clare have highlighted growing public opposition to the new charges

CAHWT organiser Chris Quinn explained, “Protest marches were planned to go off all over the country at 2pm, which is why we planned the same start time.

“It was initially my idea to gather at the O’Connell monument and go from there, with the organising committee assembling earlier to pass out a few leaflets and pass out protest posters/placards. Just before 2pm, I got a phone call from the Limerick organisers wishing us well and letting me know they had roughly 450 at their march.”

He added, “My colleague Pamela Rochford first addressed those assembled, followed by Brian O’Coillin as the rest of us distributed the 70 or so placards we had.

“As more people gathered, we were asked to briefly delay our start time as more people were making their way to join us. Finally, we felt we could delay no longer, and set off from our start point at 2.15pm. We had, by my estimation, more than 200 with us at this stage, of all ages. As we headed up O’Connell Street, more joined our march.”

Chris explained, “After swinging through the Market Square and then up Parnell Street, we returned to our start point. I, along with the others at the head of the march, began to place our posters around the plinth, and others followed suit. By my estimation, we had at least 325 to 350 likeminded people with us.”

Chris believes the protest spirit is alive and well in Clare. He hopes that Saturday’s march can be the spark to organise other protest movements around the county.

He added, “I thanked all the marchers and asked for a round of applause for themselves, which was thunderous. Any and all people that wanted to volunteer were invited to present themselves to us so we can begin to organise in as many areas of the county as possible.”

A MAN is due to appear in court again today in connection with a seizure of drugs near Ennis last week.

Trevor Gargan (31) with an address at 179 Cregayn Street, Belfast, Antrim, Bt6 8NI, was brought before Ennis District Court on Friday.

Detective Garda Seamus McMahon gave evidence of arrest, charge and caution. He told the court that he arrested Gargan in Ennis on Thursday February 23. He said the accused made no reply after caution.

According to court documents, it is alleged that Gargan was in possession of cannabis for the purposes of selling or otherwise supply to another at Ballymaconna, Barefield on Wednesday, February 22.

Gargan is also charged with the unlawful possession of a controlled drug, to wit, cannabis, at Ballymaconna, Barefield on Wednesday February 22. An estimated value of the drugs was not given in court or outlined in court documents. Solicitor John Casey told the court that he had no questions at the moment. An application for legal aid for Gargan was approved.

Judge Aeneas McCarthy remanded the accused to appear again at Ennis District Court on February 28.

Asked by Judge McCarthy if was going to make a bail application, Mr Casey said he was not. Mr Casey explained, “Hopefully we’ll be in a position to make a bail application” at the next court appearance.