The Clare People Archive

AFTER a two year delay, plans by An Post to move mail sorting and de- livery services from two Clare post offices to Shannon are now likely to go ahead in March.

Staff at the offices in Sixmilebri- dge and Newmarket-on-Fergus have been in dispute with the company since it announced its intention to permanently redeploy them to Shan-

non.They have now been advised by their union to accept recommenda- tions issued by the Labour Relations Commission following conciliation Fe EM Wioled ©

While further talks are scheduled to take place between the Communi- cations Workers Union and An Post, it is expected the sorting and deliv- ery services at Sixmilebridge and Newmarket-on-Fergus will move to Shannon from early March. It is

understood a number of outstanding issues in relation to the move will be discussed at that meeting.

At present, letter and parcel post for Newmarket and Sixmilebridge is sorted on site at the respective post offices. Ten delivery staff are employed between the two offices and moving them to Shannon would see a doubling of staff at that sort- ing centre. It is also understood that some redevelopment of the facility at

Shannon will have to be undertaken. Three separate dates were set in 2006 for the relocation of services, however the move did not go ahead because the matter was in dispute. Following talks at the LRC on Tuesday, recommendations were is- sued to both sides for consideration. Staff from Newmarket-on-Fergus and Sixmilebridge met with their union representatives in Ennis last Thursday night to discuss the LRC

document. Although the details of the arrangement have not been made public by either side, staff at the meeting were advised by the CWU to accept the LRC recommendation.

Commenting on the LRC talks, a spokesman for An Post would only say, “We went to the LRC last Tues- day for conciliation talks and after- wards recommendations were 1s- sued. Both sides are now considering those recommendations.”

A CONTRACTOR to begin work on the new sewage scheme in Corofin should be in place before the begin- ning of April, but little progress has been made on the Doolin scheme, the North Clare Area Meeting of Clare County Council heard yesterday.

Responding to a motion put for- ward by Ennistymon Cllr Richard Nagle, Senior Engineer of the Water Services, Walter Walshe, said that a new proposal to connect the Doolin scheme to the existing Lisdoonvarna scheme is being examined.

He also said that the Department of Communications, Marine and Natu- ral resources had recently granted a foreshore licence for the Bally- vaughan scheme.

Regarding Ballyvaughan, Cllr Na- gle said, “I am delighted about the eranting of the foreshore licence. The licence has been one of the main obstacles blacking the scheme for a long time.

“Doolin, unfortunately is still un- der consideration. | know that the council is looking at the possibility

of pumping it into the system in Lis- doonvarna system and hopeful some progress will be made on that soon. Doolin 1s in chronic need of a sewer- age system.

“The new proposal of pumping the sewage to Lisdoonvarna could be a lot cheaper than the previously men- tioned stand alone facility in Doo- thee

Cllr Martin Lafferty (Ind) criti- cised what he described as “mislead- ing” information circulated about the Doolin scheme.

‘That proposal to pump the sewage from Doolin up to Lisdoonvarna was made ten years ago. There is a huge need for this in Doolin and there is Spare capacity in Lisdoonvarna,” said Cllr Lafferty.

“There was a confused article in one of the local papers regarding the funding for the Doolin scheme re- cently. It was announced that €6.04 million has been made available for the Doolin scheme. However, it didn’t mention that there was a fund- ing deficit of €5.388 million for this project. This would have to be made up by the local people.”

CALLS were made for a more bal- anced approach to development in north Clare at yesterdays North Clare Electoral Area meeting of Clare County Council in Ennistymon.

Commenting on a motion propos- ing the upgrading of the main Crush- een to Ballinruan road, Cllr Michael Kelly (FF), suggested that all areas of the county should be looked after in terms of funding and development.

The area meeting took place direct- ly after an in-camera meeting where the multi-million euro development of the Lahinch promenade was dis- cussed.

“We have just been talking about a significant investment in Lahinch and, while that is a welcome invest- ment, I feel that we have to acknowl- edge that a more balanced approach to development needs to be under-

taken,’ he said.

“Investment need to be made in places like Ballyvaughan and Corofin.

‘These are areas of big population and areas that are not looking for much money. If we are to have equi- table system we must look at invest- ment in these areas.”

Meanwhile, in a separate motion Cllr Kelly raised concerned that slip- pery road conditions have caused a number of car accidents on the N67 in New Quay, with one car possible even entering the nearby Turlough.

In his official response to the mo- tion, Senior Executive Engineer in the Ennistymon Area Office Hubert Newell, said that tests on the road said it was satisfactory.

“Improvement works were carried out along the section of the N67 near New Quay School in recent years,” he said.

“A high quality asphalt road sur- face with appropriate camber, lining, signing and cats-eyes were installed. The NRA carried out a recent analy- sis of skip residence of the road. The skid resistance along the section of the road in question was shown to be satisfactory.”

Details of flooding at Deerpark West, to the rear of the Ennistymon Hospital, were also released at the inalexel mu etee

Responding to a motion put for- ward by Cllr Richard Nagle (FF), council officials commented that the situation was caused by “the instal- lation of inadequately sized pipes along the frontage of the developed size by some developers has led to an increased incident of road flooding””.

The meeting was adjourned early, with a number of councillors being oN ETSre Rr hehe

CLARE County Council is to write to the Department of the Environ- ment, Heritage and Local Govern- ment to amend planning guidelines sO necessary upgrades can be carried out on waste water services.

County Manag- er, Alec Fleming agreed that there was general con- sensus to write to the department after the issue was raised in a motion put for- ward by Councillor Madeleine ‘Taylor Quinn (FG).

Speaking after the debate, Mr Flem- ing said, “The only other thing I would say is that unless we get the sanitary services into various towns and vil- lages, then not a whole lot is going to happen.”

Cllr Taylor Quinn called for the county manager to outline the ef- fect of recently announced housing planning guidelines with specific reference to rural villages and those still awaiting waste water treatment services. She said, “Rural villages have been handicapped by a lack of infrastructure. To impose these

guidelines on towns and villages still waiting for services would be, in my opinion, penal. I propose an amend- ment to these guidelines that, until these places are up to critical mass, then they not be enforced.”

Cllr PJ Kelly (FF) said communi- ties in Clare were paying for the mis-

takes made in hous- ing plans in urban areas. “These were first called regula- tions and when it emerged that peo- ple weren’t entirely happy with them, they were changed and it suddenly be- came a consultative process. If mistakes are made in plan- ning in places like Moyross, then it shouldn’t be places like Scariff and Cooraclare that have to suffer.”

Cllr Martin Lafferty (Ind) said recent focus on the impact on plan- ning in urban areas had ignored the problems facing rural towns and vil- lages. He said, “There was nothing in these articles about regulation and the impact they had in rural areas. I don’t know what kind of spin doctor- ing this is.”

CLARE County Council has warned the National Roads Authority (NRA) to “keep its nose out” of planning is- sues in County Clare.

A heated debate erupted at last night’s meeting of Clare County Council where council members at- tacked the NRA and other Govern- ment-sponsored agencies for hanging rural Clare dwellers out to dry.

This followed a motion put for- ward by Cllr PJ Kelly CFF) in which he accused the NRA of engaging in

an “anti-rural campaign” against de- velopments beside national second- ary routes.

“This will result in hundreds of miles of road in Clare where no houses will be built. This is a crazy situation.

“If you continue with this logic, then the road to Kilrush will end up being the road to God knows where. This regulation doesn’t make sense, and if something doesn’t make sense, then it shouldn’t be there.”

Commenting on the motion, Tom Prendeville (FF) said that other agen-

cies such as the Environmental Pro- tection Agency (EPA) and An Taisce and An Bord Pleanala were all also cuilty of interference.

“If you want to talk about rural bias, then each of these organisations would have something to say on this matter,” he said.

Cllr Madeleine Taylor-Quinn called on the Government to take action to ensure that these agencies did not in- terfere with local planning issues.

‘We must remember that the NRA are an agent of the Government. They are appointed by the minister and the

minister has responsibility for them,” she said.

“If the NRA is getting involved in planning applications, then this must be brought to the attention of nation- al Government. In my view, the NRA are going beyond its remit.

“We have about 130 miles of na- tional secondary roads in Clare. This is a huge part of the county which is being adversely affected by the NRA.

“We need to send a message to the minister on this.”

Independent councillors Christy

Curtin and Martin Lafferty also criti- cised the role played by the NRA.

“The NRA’s role is overplayed in this county when it comes to plan- ning. They are mitigating against good decision-making.

“The legitimate planning authority for Clare is Clare County Council,” rem GubsunnO

“They are statutary consultees. It wasn’t Santa Claus who promoted the NRA into their position.

“We should get on to the minister and ask about the remit of the NRA and all the other consultees.”

FURIOUS members of Clare County Council told their officials that charg- ing people for recycling will result in fly-tipping and a sharp drop in the amount of recycling which goes on in the county.

At a resumed budget meeting of the local authority to set out the coun- cil’s spend and income for the com-

ing year, the proposal to raise cash by charging people who come to the council’s recycling centres met with stern opposition.

Council members were told that a “nominal” charge of €3 per car would raise an estimated €160,000 in the coming year. This would go to- wards the costs of improvements and additional services at the centres.

Cllr Brian Meaney (GP) said that

for the amount raised 1n the exercise, it would not be worth the damage to recycling practice.

He said there were other ways of freeing up money to improve facili- ties. “Nothing the director of services tells me will change my mind about these charges. We are not using best practice or methods of compacting, SO we’re paying to transport fresh air. There are savings to be made there. I

want to appeal to your better sense which says we should reward people who do the right thing and look at other means of raising funding.”

Cllr Martin Conway (FG) said he agreed “100 percent with Cllr Meaney – we are Sending out the wrong mes- sage if we start to charge”’.

Cllr Tommy Brennan (NP) said that the minister “has said publicly that his department is awash with money – the manager should ask him to send some of it down here instead of these Oi Neon

Cllr Flan Garvey (FF) said that the “way to get people to comply is to reward and encourage them, not pe- nalise them with charges”.

Cllr Pat Hayes said that the Govern- ment is already collecting for recy- cling through the Repak system and asked how much comes back from the scheme to the local authority.

Cllr Patricia McCarthy (NP) told the members that they have “been presented with a balanced budget and either we find some other way of raising this money or we don’t ap- prove the budget, in which case the council 1s disbanded.”

Director of Services, Ger Dollard said that if the council wants to con- tinue having new and improved recy- cling facilities, ““we need the funds to do it and we don’t have any extra funds to avail of so we have to intro- duce charges.”

INCREASES in the number of beaches and days covered by life- guards, more flexible arrangements for funding rural graveyards and the setting up of a full time fire service were all items on the shopping list of Clare County Council members as they met to budget for the com- ing year.

Cllr Martin Conway (FG) called for a five-year plan to be drawn up to provide a full-time fire service which would replace the retained fire serv- ice in Ennis.

He asked that more lifeguards be brought in. “Surfing is a 52-week a year occupation now. Everytime you go to Lahinch, the car park is full. I would like to see the lifeguard serv- ice extended to this beach.”

Cllr Tony O’Brien (FF) asked that some of the €206,000 allocated for litter prevention in the budget be “used to catch people who are us- ing the bring banks to dump rubbish and to bring them before the courts. Fines should be raised. The current fine is not a sufficient deterrent.”

Cllr Richard Nagle (FF) said that some larger areas were seen to be

‘getting much more favourable treat- ment in terms of allocated funding for graveyards whereas small, rural communities have to purchase land for burial grounds themselves.” Director of Services, Ger Dollard, said that two lifeguards are rostered on at a time on beaches in consid- eration both of child protection and health and safety concerns. “If one lifeguard gets into trouble, then there is a second to go and help,” he told the members at the budget 2008 meeting. “Our plan is to provide cov- er during the time that the primary school children are off and it can be

difficult to get lifeguards outside that time, as many of them are in college or having their own holidays.”

Director Dollard told the meeting that the issue of a full-time fire serv- ice 1S part of a national review.

‘There is a review of the fire service model to assess where there should be a full-time service. We will have to spend five times as much to go full-time.”

He also told councillors that litter fines are not in the control of the local authority once they get to court, “but judges are taking a sterner view now, One fine recently was for €5,000.”

COUNTY councillors last night voted to accept the budget for the authority for 2008, but struck out controversial plans to introduce re- cycling charges at centres and also voted to reduce certain water meter- ing charges.

Earlier members of Clare County Council were told that while Clare’s TDs support their calls for more funding for the local authority, noth- ing could be done until the members passed the budget they have.

Minister Tony Kileen (FF), Deputy Pat Breen (FG) and a representative of Fianna Fail’s Deputy Timmy Do- ley attended the third meeting which had been convened to try to reach agreement on the budget proposals drawn up for 2008.

Members had invited the deputies to air their concerns about short- falls in the council’s funding which had resulted in proposals to impose charges on recycling centres, among other measures.

At an earlier meeting, Mayor Pa- tricia McCarthy (Ind) issued a stern

warning that unless the councillors voted to approve the budget, the local authority would have to disband.

After hearing the members express their concerns about shortfalls in the amount of money allocated from central Government, Minister Kileen told the meeting that he understood their frustration but under law, he and the other elected TDs could do nothing to help until after the budget has been approved.

At an earlier meeting, Mayor Patri- cia McCarthy said that she had had a number of meetings with the minister

for local government, facilitated by Cllr Brian Meaney (GP) and while he gave the issues a hearing, he also could do nothing until the procedure of voting to adopt the current budget was completed.

Cllr Pascal Fitzgerald (Lab) said there should be money made available to fast-track the northern relief route while Cllr Madeleine Taylor-Quinn (FG) said that “all of the expenditure on roads seems to be concentrated on Shannon and Ennis and it seems there are no proposals for any major roads schemes in the west.”

ese terday, a spokesman from the De- partment of the Environment said that applications for one-off houses would not be affected.

‘The situation will be the same in Clare as it is in south Galway; the presence of Hen Harriers and the position of a site in the Special Area of Conservation will not be a factor

in the granting of planning permis- sion for one-off housing,” said the spokesman.

These commitments leaves too much ‘wiggle room’ for planners, ac- cording to Clare IFA president Sea-

mus Murphy. “There are real fears in the area. Farmers need to be able to build in their own areas. It’s the Irish way of life. Why should we put the welfare of Hen Harriers ahead of the welfare of farm- ers,’ he said. “We would like to remind all farmers that they can still object to this classification until February 8.”

As much as 35 per cent of Ireland’s Hen Harrier population – some 40 pairs of birds – is believed to live in the area between Clare and Galway.

Last year, Minister Gormley des- ignated some 61,000 hectares in the Slieve Aughty Mountains in south Galway and north Clare as a Special Protection Area for the preservation of the rare bird.

The Hen Harrier is facing extinc- tion in Ireland and the UK with only 20 currently in existence in England.

THE County Coroner has described as a “great pity” a fishing trip by a eroup of friends that ended with the death of a Polish man.

Isobel O’Dea was speaking at the inquest into the death of Dariucz Dzikowski. Mr Dzikowski died af- ter he was swept from rocks on the coastline at Kilkee on October 28, 2007.

Ms O’Dea said weather conditions on the day were particularly bad. She said, “My recollection of the day is that it was a pretty miserable one. It was a great pity that people went fishing. I would like to pay tribute to the rescue services who went out in those conditions.”

Ms O’Dea returned a verdict of death by drowning as result of fish- ing off the rocks near Kilkee.

In giving her decision, Ms O’Dea

said, “I am aware that there is a lack of witnesses in the court, but I am satisfied there is no foul play.”

No members of Mr Dzikowski’s family or any of the witnesses present at the time of the accident were present in the Coroner’s Court in Ennis last Wednesday.

Ms O’Dea said she was aware there had been difficulty contacting wit- nesses and that the Polish embassy was anxious to get a death certificate. She said she would be writing to the Polish embassy to appraise them of the situation.

Inspector John Galvin read to the court the deposition of the deceased’s brother-in-law, Wojech Wilk. He described how Mr Dzikowski was swept into the sea. “It was a Sunday afternoon and we went fishing down past the Pollock holes in Kilkee. I was with Dariucz and our friends, Jan Krsten and Adam Kurzalkowsk1.

At about 1.30pm, a wave hit Dariucz and brought him into the sea. Adam threw him a lifejacket but we couldn’t see him.”

Tony O’Mahony of the Shannon Helicopter Rescue Service told the court, “We located the body within 10 minutes and we administered CPR immediately.”

Garda John Reidy told the court that at 1.40pm on the day of the in- cident he had received a report that a person had fallen into the sea near Kilkee golf club.

‘I searched the area and could not see anyone or find anyone who could help. I realised that the accident had occurred on the cliffs at the far side. I resumed the search there.”

Mr Dzikowski was airlifted to En- nis and was pronounced dead at En- nis General Hospital. Inspector John Galvin extended his sympathy to the family and friends of Mr Dzikowsk1.