The Clare People Archive

A FORMER Clare women’s sup- port group worker has been awarded €20,400 after claiming she was dis- missed and replaced by someone on half her wage.

Avril De Carteret, Druminalough, Peterswell, County Galway took her claim for unfair dismissal against Clare Women’s Network Limited, Clonroad Business Park, Ennis to the Employment Appeals Tribunal.

The tribunal heard that the claim- ant was involved in the organisation which provides support for women, from it’s inception in 1992. She in1- tially did voluntary work for the or- ganisation and was first on the pay- roll in 1999 for about two to three hours per week. This increased over the years to 15 hours per week in 2002. She was one of three part-time workers sharing the running of the organisation. In 2002 the claimant’s job description was formalised. Her job title was office manager/project administrator. It was mainly ad- ministrative work with some co- ordinating responsibilities.

In 2005 a review of the work and structures of the organisation took place and Ms de Carteret was made

redundant. The management com- mittee offered her the job of part- time administrator on 15 hours per week. The claimant was also to be invited to apply for the position of full-time co-ordinator. On Septem- ber 22, 2006 the management com- mittee offered the claimant either the equivalent of six months loss of sal- ary for the hours she would be losing if she took up the position of admin- istrator or, alternatively, redundancy.

She took redundancy and was paid €10,000 redundancy payment. The position of part-time administrator for 17.5 hours per week was eventu- ally advertised at a lower hourly rate than the claimant had been getting.

She applied for the position but, although she was short-listed and in- terviewed, she did not get the job.

Ms de Carteret told the tribunal she felt a situation had been “concocted” to get rid of her and to get a junior worker to do her job for much less money.

The tribunal determined unani- mously that Ms deCarteret was un- fairly dismissed.

A witness for Women’s Aid “did not respond in the negative” to the suggestion that the organisation had “got rid of” her.

A 35-YEAR-OLD German national with a previously clean record who bought a car with a dud cheque, has been in jail since June 18, a judge heard.

Klaus Scheel, originally from Sch- wenningen, pleaded guilty to issuing cheque which would bounce.

Judge Leo Malone heard that he wrote a cheque for €6,000 and gave it in exchange for the second hand car. He then left the area and couldn’t be contacted when the cheque bounced,

Ennis District Court heard.

Gardai traced him and arrested him.

His solicitor, Tara Godfrey said her client “has never been in trouble be- fore. He arrived here 18 months ago with his wife and child and his job was at some distance from his home. He was running out of money and needed a car and used the cheque to buy it. He is most remorseful and he has been in custody since June 18.”

Judge Malone heard the car was recovered. He imposed a one-month jail sentence backdated to July 22.

A DRIVER who was arrested on suspicion of drink-driving on the Kilrush road offered a doctor his big toe to take a blood alcohol sample from, a judge was told.

James Marrinan, a native of west Clare now living at 169 Denton Road in London, failed a random alcohol

breath test at the side of the road on August 24, Ennis District Court heard.

When he was brought to the Garda station he agreed to a specimen of blood being taken for analysis but offered the doctor his big toe for the test. Garda evidence was that when the charge was read to him Marrinan said, “I didn’t refuse’.

He pleaded guilty before Ennis District Court yesterday to refusing to provide a sample.

The court heard that the 49-year- old, who works for a London local authority, wanted to apologise to the court.

Judge Leo Malone imposed a four year driving ban and fined him ©400 which had to be paid on the spot.

A DRUMBIGGLE man, who took a Swipe at a Garda patrol car with an axe, has a history of mental difficul- ties a judge was told.

34-year-old Sean Sullivan of 16 Waterpark Heights, Drumbiggle, pleaded guilty to an offence under the Firearms Act when he appeared before Ennis District Court yester- day.

The court heard evidence that gardai were called to Waterpark on May 2, 2007, where they found Sulli- van in conversation with his mother.

A Garda witness told the court that as they arrived on the scene “Sul- livan had his back to us. When he turned around he was holding an axe and when he spotted us, he rushed at the patrol car and swung the axe.

Thankfully, no one was hurt.”

Sullivan’s solicitor, Tara Godfrey produced letters from a consultant psychiatrist and told the court that her client had a history of depression and manic episodes.

He had been diagnosed with At- tention Deficit Disorder and has been suffering the negative effects of being cared for in institutions as PO NEen

“He goes through periods where he is stabilised and is quite able to cope. We would ask the court to ex- tend bail conditions but if a sentence is being imposed we would ask that it not be too long a sentence, as it 1s virtually impossible for him to re- ceive proper treatment for his prob- lems 1n prison.”

Judge Leo Malone imposed a two month jail sentence.

I went to get in that way. When I in his sister’s living room waiting to pulled the latch, the glass broke.” loLome DU KINO MANS OMON eA ArT OBA VOOR A JUDGE yesterday jailed a man for He told the court that the window “He is very apologetic. He didn’t four months for breaking a window __ had been cracked before he broke it. | mean to break the window and im- in his sister’s house. Gardai agreed that Maughan was mediately said he would pay for it as

Michael Maughan (34) with ad- dresses at 18 Beechwood, Clare- castle and 20 Stone Court, Ennis pleaded guilty but said breaking the window at his sister’s house at Station Court Road on August 24 was an accident.

He told Judge Leo Malone that he had been staying with his sister and there were some papers at her house which he needed to bring to Bushy Park where he is trying to get a place to deal with his drink problem.

“I knocked at the door but there was no answer and I know she leaves the back window open so

soon as possible,’ Maughan’s so- licitor, Tara Godfrey said.

Maughan, who has more than 30 previous convictions, had ap- peared before the same court last week on charges of theft and as- sault on a staff member at Dunnes NIKO tee

Judge Leo Malone had imposed fines and a suspended sentence on that occasion but said that he “gave this man a chance on sub- stantial charges last week. I won’t be giving him another one.”

THE negative effect of the Aer Lin- gus decision to abandon its Shannon/ Heathrow route is highlighted in the latest figures which show the airport losing almost 70,000 passengers on its London routes since the start of the year.

Figures released by the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) show that Shannon has lost 68,423 passengers on its London routes for the first sev- en months of the year.

Figures for July show a drop of 16 per cent or 11,423 passengers to and from London on the corresponding period last year when the Heathrow service was in place.

Ryanair has introduced an addi- tional service to try to make up for the shortfall but they are failing to make up the deficit.

Ryanair has increased passenger numbers on its Stansted service from 29,333 to 33,946 for July and also increased its Gatwick number from 10,902 last year to 18,915.

The airline also launched a Luton service that delivered 8,171 in July. However, the new service doesn’t make up for the 32,220 that used the Shannon Heathrow service in July 2007.

Many passengers in the Mid-west are going to Cork to fly to Heath- row and the Cork Airport Authority (CAA) continues to benefit at Shan- non’s expense.

Cork increased its passenger num- bers to and from Heathrow during July by 19 per cent on the corre-

sponding month last year. The airport recorded a 13.5 per cent increase on its London Heathrow service for the first six months, going from 224,669 for the first six months of last year to 255,000 from January to June 2008. The bad news for Shannon was not confined to the London market with the economic downturn contributing to a drop of 11 per cent in passenger numbers to other UK destinations in July. 48,739 passengers used Shan- non to and from other UK destina- tions compared to 55,349 last year.

Routes to show a drop in traffic include Glasgow Prestwick (down 1,558); Nottingham (down 4,142) and Liverpool (down 1,314).

However, other routes performed well including Bournemouth (up 772) and Manchester (up 2,237).

With a number of Ryanair routes not performing as well as they did last year, airport management will be wary of Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary’s comment that Shannon is only one of two Ryanair basses that is losing money.

PROSPECTS of Aer Lingus revers- ing its controversial decision to aban- don its Shannon/Heathrow service in favour of Belfast have received a ma- jor setback with latest figures show- ing that the Belfast service now lags only 2,258 passengers behind the figures for Shannon.

UK Civil Aviation Authority fig- ures for July show that 29,962 pas- sengers travelled on the new Belfast/ Heathrow route last month compared

to 32,220 on the Shannon/Heathrow route for the same month last year.

Through aggressive pricing and marketing, Aer Lingus is heading towards recapturing the passenger numbers it had on the Shannon route less than six months after the launch of the Belfast service.

The gap of 10,009 for the month of June between the two services year on year was closed by 7,751 in favour of Belfast last month.

Aer Lingus spokesman, Enda Cor- neille said they were very encouraged

by the figures which were consistent with what the airline been saying all ~NKeyatee

Load factor for July on the Belfast route was 74 per cent and Mr Cor- neille said, “We are pleased with the load factor and that traffic 1s building month on month and shows that the business case of setting up the Bel- fast/Heathrow route is sound.”

“You can’t compare the Shannon service to the Belfast service as the Shannon service was in place for a number of years and the Belfast

service 18 only in place a number of ne Levels else

He said the Belfast service had gone from zero to a load factor of 74 per cent in a matter of months.

“We are pleased with the perform- ance of all our new routes at our Bel- fast base, but especially the Heath- row route.”

Figures for the first seven months show that 139,271 passengers used the Belfast/Heathrow service — 62,000 behind in passenger numbers on the Shannon/Heathrow service

for the same period last year.

202,219 passengers used the Shan- non/Heathrow service for the first seven months of last year.

At a Dail Transport Committee hearing last month, Aer Lingus chief executive, Dermot Mannion said he regretted the damage that was caused to the airline’s reputation in the Shan- non area during three or four months of last year. He later added that, “we have not ruled out any future short- haul operations from Shannon Auir- port”.

IRISH airlines have welcomed the British Competition Commission’s initial ruling that could end BAA’s monopoly ownership of London’s biggest airports.

Ryanair has called on the Govern- ment to move on the separation of Dublin, Shannon and Cork from the ruling hand of the Dublin Airport

Authority.

“The British Competition Commis- sion has confirmed that monopoly airports and an inadequate regulator has damaged the consumer interest in the UK,” said Ryanair’s director of legal and regulatory affairs, Jim CRE Yd ste

“Sadly, Ireland has followed this same failed model, which is why Dublin Airport provides such atro-

cious customer service at ever in- creasing costs to passengers.”

Mr Callaghan said that Ryanair has “no interest” in Owning any part of Stanstead, the airline’s biggest base, if itis sold but added that the airline will work in tandem with any new owner.

He added that Ryanair would also benefit from the sale of either Glas- gow or Edinburgh airports.

Meanwhile, Aer Lingus has also welcomed the British commission’s announcement.

A break up of the monopoly would result in lower landing costs for air- lines and this could be passed on in benefits to passengers, a spokesman for the airline said.

CLARE musicians were among the top prizewinners at the 2008 Fleadh Cheoil Na hEireann in Tullamore over the weekend. Ruan fiddle player Eimear Arkins took home one of the competition’s major individual prizes by coming first in the under 18 fiddle slow airs.

Eimear has 11 All-Ireland med- als and holds solo All-Ireland titles in Fiddle Slow Airs, English Sing- ing, Sean Nos Singing, Lilting and Comhra, as well as Bands and Grupa Ceoil.

Eimear had toured with Comhaltas in the 2007 Tour of Ireland and the 2008 Tour of Britain. She will be touring with Comhaltas in the 2008 North American tour during October no. ;

Eimear is also a member of Inis Og Ceili band who won the prestigious under 18 bands competition.

Other individual Clare winners in Tullamore included Aisling Hunt representing the Tulla branch of com- haltas in the under 12-button accor- dion; Siobhain Ni Ogain represent- ing the Corofin branch in the senior whistle category and Fergal Breen from the Doora-Barefield branch in the under 12 ulieann pipes.

Clare performed well across the cat- egories. The banner enjoyed success

in the under 12 instrumental groups section with Grupa Ceoil Burren and Grupa Ceoil Tigh na Coille finishing second and third respectively.

There was also a strong Clare showing in the dance competitions. St Mary’s took first place in the un- der 12 all-girls. In the mixed under 12-category St Joseph’s finished in third position while in the mixed un- der 15s St Michaels took first place.

The other west Clare set dancers taking part in the All-Ireland senior competition, Diabhliocht na hOige, also did the county proud by finish- ing second behind the other Clare set Kincora.

A SHORTAGE of new houses in Clare was predicted yesterday af- ter figures show the number of new house starts is only 29 per cent of what it was five years ago.

Local auctioneer, Dermot McMa- hon of Sherry Fitzgerald McMahon made the prediction after depart- ment figures confirmed that local authorities in Clare have received commencement notices for just 392 houses in the first half of this year.

This compares to the 1,330 com- mencement notices received for the same period in 2004. The figures provided by the Department of the

Environment show that there has been a steady decline in new house starts since 2004.

Last year there were 546 new house starts in the first half of the year and this followed 851 new house starts for the same period in 2006. There were 1,278 new house starts in 2005 and 1,330 in 2004.

Mr McMahon said that the inevita- ble consequence will be a shortage of new homes. Calling for Government intervention to help the first time buyer, he said that this would perco- late to other parts of the market.

“Confidence in the economy is the main thing needed for the housing market to recover,’ he said.

The McMahon auctioneering busi- ness has been in place for over a 100 years, and Mr McMahon said, “There are cycles and they can hurt people and there is a generation for whom this is a new experience.”

Cormac O’Sullivan of O’Sullivan Hurley DNG said that it will be well into 2009 before a significant meas- ure of consumer confidence will re- turn to the market.

He said however that confidence had increased in recent weeks with more viewings and inquiries. “People are holding back but if the prices are right, properties will sell,” he said.

In the past five workings day, his firm recorded four sale agreements.