The Clare People Archive

show that there are more clerical or administrative staff employed in the hospital than “medical staff’.

Nursing staff made up 134.07 of the August staffing numbers, 22.47 of the whole time equivalent staff were defined as Allied Health Care, 34.77 as Medical staff, 43.07 as cleri- cal/admin and 51.86 as Attendant/ patient services staff.

The number of support service staff was 23.7, making up 310.08 staff in Ole Ne

When the HSE imposed a recruit- ment freeze at the beginning of Sep- tember, it did so because the national budget was exceeded by €245 mil- lion.

At the time it was critical for the Ennis hospital’s overspend claiming that it exceeded its staff ceiling of 292 by 19.

The most up-to-date figures from

August also show that the per cent- age of staff missing due to sick leave was as high as five per cent.

The percentage of people absent due to sick leave was highest among the support services where 13.46 per cent of staff went absent as reported by the HSE.

Cllr Meaney said that no assump- tions should be made however as to why absenteeism is so high in certain areas but the underlying cause could be the pressure of work coming on staff in a health system that is con- stantly under pressure.

The figures did not include holiday leave. The only area in the August spend that came under budget was education and training.

€70,000 was allocated for educa- tion but just €50,000 was used for this purpose.

Although there were more cleri- cal staff listed than medical staff the budget for clerical staff went over by just €10,000 compared to medical staff pay which went over by €440,000.

The budget to pay paramedics went over by .03 million, catering and housekeeping by €.1 million and others by €.01 million.

Clinical cost were half a million euro more than predicted, with ca- tering and cleaning another half a million over.

TWO young men who stole cider from an apartment in Ennistymon have been warned if they offend again they may face time behind bars.

The warning, from Judge Michael White, came at Ennis Circuit Court as Noel Mullane (25) and Robert Molloy (19), of Ardnaculla, En- nistymon, pleaded guilty to stealing a guitar bag and cans of cider at an apartment in Ennistymon, on August 17, 2006.

In the district court last April Mul- lane had pleaded not guilty and opted to have the case heard in the circuit Co) U ae

Garda Colm Collins told the court that Andrew Hertz left his apartment in Ennistymon at 6am with friends. He didn’t lock the door of his home, but had assumed that the main door of the apartment block was locked.

His neighbour woke at 8am and heard noise from the apartment block. She saw the two accused walking into Mr Hertz’s apartment and then leaving it, with what she thought was a black bag. She alerted the owner of the apartment and the ee KOre

When gardai arrived at the scene, the two accused were sitting on a bench near the apartment block. They were highly intoxicated, said Garda Collins, and he arrested them under the Public Order Act.

“I conducted a quick search of the area and found a black guitar case

on top of a shed close to where they were sitting. It was full of cans of Bulmers,” said the garda.

The guitar case was used to hold the drink, the court heard.

Mullane’s barrister Lorcan Con- nolly said his client was “heavily intoxicated” that night, having been

on a “complete drinking binge in La- hinch and Ennistymon”.

Molloy’s barrister, Michael Fitz- gibbon, said his client had also been drinking for several hours.

“The burglary was solely todo with drink. It could hardly be regarded as a sophisticated crime. The gardai came on the scene. They made no at- tempt to make a getaway. They were caught drinking the cans of Bulm- ers,’ said Mr Fitzgibbon.

Addressing the two accused, Judge White said, “Mr Mullane, this is your fifth conviction since 2002. You are skating on thin ice. There’s one way you will go if you offend again. You’d want to be very careful. Drink isn’t an excuse for this type of behav- elu e

“Molloy, you’re only 19 years of age. You’re in a similar situation. A judge is going to have very lit- tle choice but to send you to prison. That’s the direction you’re going.”

He imposed a one-year jail sentence on Mullane and a one-year detention term on Molloy. Both sentences were suspended for two years.

A YOUNG girl has told a court that her father turned into an “unkind evil daddy” and hurt her a lot.

The girl was giving evidence in the trial of her father who is accused of sexually assaulting his two daugh- ters. The 36-year-old man, who is originally from Clare and cannot be named for legal reasons, has pleaded not guilty to 11 counts of sexual as- sault on the girls on dates between September 2001 and December 2004 in a County Offaly town.

Dublin Circuit Court last week heard evidence via video-link from

one daughter who told prosecuting counsel, Una Ni Raifeartaigh BL, that she couldn’t remember how her father behaved when he was minding her while her mother was at work.

The man’s other daughter told the trial that her father used his penis to put cream on a rash on her bottom.

She said she was aged between four and five when the alleged offences took place. She said her father used to lie on top of her on the bed and push her head onto the pillow.

She said he would do this to her every night her mother was at work. She said she noticed that her father used to be kind to her, but that he

became “evil” and “turned into an unkind evil daddy”.

‘“He’d hurt us a lot and he didn’t used to,” she said.

She told defence counsel, Mr John Phelan SC, in cross-examination, that she had previously said her fa- ther used the cream when she was “a baby” and in further reply to counsel she replied: “A baby is until the age of two.”

The accused’s wife told the trial that both she and her children were petrified of her husband but that they loved him. When asked by counsel if she still loved him, she replied “Yes.”

She said she first went to gardai af- ter one of her daughters told her that her father “pretended to put cream on my bottom” but had hurt her. “She said, ‘Mammy, he really hurt me’.”

She explained that she then went to the Garda station two days later to make a report.

Ms Ni Raifeartaigh told the jury in opening the case that a medical examination was performed on the children and gardai took bedclothes from the house for forensic analysis.

The trial continues in legal argu- ment and will resume on Thursday, before a jury of five women and sev- eee

CLARE is in line to become com- pletely self-sufficient for energy in less than a decade through the con- struction of a state-of-the-art wave energy system off the county’s west coast.

An area of water some 15 miles off Spanish Point has been earmarked by the Irish Marine Institute as an ideal location for the creation of the world’s first full-scale wave energy testing centre.

The institute will next month choose from three shortlisted sites for the test centre, with locations off the Kerry and Mayo coast also in the running.

A Galway-based company is likely to be the first to put its technology to the test in the centre and has already expressed an interest in developing a 200-megawatt wave farm off the Clare coast.

Wavebob is one of just 90 wave en- ergy companies worldwide, and one of just three who have managed to produced electricity in large-scale eet hS

“There is a recognition out there that Clare has huge potential in Ire- land for wave energy. Clare is a very attractive area, not just because of the waves, but also because of the strong erid connection at Moneypoint,” said

Andrew Parish of Wavebob.

‘The ESB have also said that they have an interest in developing a wave energy facility off the Clare coast.”

The construction of a Wavebob farm off the Clare coast would pro- duce up to 200 megawatts of energy, or roughly twice the domestic annual energy required for the county.

Moneypoint currently produces some 900 megawatts of electricity annually. However, the Government has committed to producing 75 meg- awatts before 2012, and 500 mega- watts before 2020 from wave energy, with Clare likely to produce a large proportion of this.

“Even if the Marine Institute de- cide to go elsewhere for the test cen- tre, private companies like ourselves will be looking very closely at the undoubted potential that Clare has for wave energy,” continued Mr Par- 0

“Any farm in Clare would be locat- ed roughly on the horizon, so people will be barely able to see them, if at all. At worst they would look like a fishing boat at the very tip of the ho- rizon.

“As well as this, Wavebobs have no impact at all on surfing. Unlike other facilities, like the Wave Dragons in Cornwall, the Wavebobs are much smaller and won’t impact on the waves at all.”

THE Government has opened a huge area off the Clare coast for explora- tion by oil and gas companies.

New exploration licences will al- low firms to explore a section of the Porcupine Basin, located between 100

and 200kms off the Clare, Galway and Kerry coasts. The 63,500 square kilo- metre area is located beside the Span- ish Point and Burren oil and gas fields which are currently under exploration by Providence Resources.

Speaking at the announcement of the new exploration licences, Green

Party TD Eamon Ryan said profit- able oil and gas fields could reap huge sums for the Exchequer.

“Treland’s oil and gas is a resource of the people. I want to ensure that our waters are fully explored and also that we get a proper return to the State,” he said.

SIXTEEN General Practitioners in Clare were among the 600 nationally that received more than €240,000 through the Primary Care Reim- bursement Service (PCRS).

The fees paid by the HSE include medical card fees and separate fund- ing provided for practice support de- velopment.

Practice support usually includes a practice secretary or practice nurse.

As many as six Clare GPs received more than €240,000 in medical card Koro DLO) se

There were no doctors in Clare among the 18 nationally that received more than half a million euro under the scheme.

These figures are only representa- tive of the fees received under the public health schemes and do not include, for example, the earnings receiving by GPs through their pri- vate/retail concerns.

Dentists in Clare were also among the top earners in the country under the Government scheme, although their payments did not reach that of their GP colleagues.

Just two dentists in Clare received more than €100,000 under PCRS.

The Primary Care Reimbursement Service makes payments to primary care contractors (general practition- ers, pharmacists, dentists and op- tometrists/ophthalmologists) | who have contracts with the Health Serv- ice Executive to provide services to medical cardholders.

In addition, the Primary Care Re-

imbursement Service also reimburs- es the primary care contractors for services provided to other eligible re- cipients under a variety of commun1- ty drug schemes including the Drugs Payment Scheme, the Long Term IIIness Scheme, the Dental Treat- ment Services Scheme, the Primary Childhood Immunisation Scheme, the High Tech Drugs Scheme, the Methadone Treatment Scheme and the Community Ophthalmic Serv- ices Scheme.

Publishing the 2006 PCRS Over- view, the HSE confirmed that a total of €2.07bn had been paid in 2006, representing an increase of €194m new Olo

Over 160,000 more people were entitled to benefits under the vari- ous schemes in 2006 compared with PAU Oey

There are now over 2.91 million people registered as eligible for ben- efit under the GMS (Medical Card) Scheme, the Drugs Payment Scheme, the Long Term [lIness Scheme, the Dental Treatment Services Scheme, the Community Ophthalmic Serv- ices Schemes and GP Visit Cards in paul eres

This compares with 2.74 million eligible in 2005.

MORE than 11 per cent has been wiped off the value of four-bedroom homes in Clare since June, according to fresh data released this week.

According to results released by property website Daft.ie, the aver- age asking price for four-bedroom houses in the county has plummeted from €375,000 in the second quarter of 2007 to just €332,000 in July, Au- gust and September. The same survey revealed that the average asking price for two-bedroom houses in Clare has dropped from €231,000 to €221,000 while three-bedroom houses have dropped by €6,000 on average.

It was not all bad news for Clare home-owners this week, however, as a survey released by rival property website, MyHome.ie, revealed that

the asking prices for larger houses in the county (four-bedroom detached and larger) actually increased by more than half a percent.

‘These surveys can be misleading as they are based on asking prices and we all know that there can be a big change between asking prices and what people actually get,’ said Samantha Coote of Philip O’Reilly Property Partners in Ennis.

‘First-time buyers in Clare are see- ing so much conflicting information that a lot of them are sitting on the bench. They are so confused with the situation that they are sitting back and waiting to see what happens.

“The market is currently stagnant in Clare but as interest rates continue to stabilise, we would be expecting thing to pick up again from April or May of next year.”

JUST after Mike McNamara finished his address to the board, Clare’s new football manager, Frank Doherty highlighted the challenge that lies ahead of him next season. Along with Kieran Kelleher and James Hanrahan, Doherty reckons Clare football has the right men to guide the ship but he realises some choppy waters are in Store.

“Clare football 1s down and has been down for the last few years and I don’t need to talk about that. It’s all been said before. The only way to go is forward and up. It’s going to be hard, it’s going to be a battle that I look forward to because I have never walked away from a challenge or battle before. And we’re going to try and drive it as best forward as we can, we are going to leave no stone unturned in relation to looking for the talent that’s out there.”

He added that the presence of Kel- leher and Hanrahan and their knowl- edge of the club scene in the county will be a huge addition but like Mc- Namara, he recognises the value in having the correct stepping stones in je eleen

“T think that it’s vitally important in the football side of things to have proper structures because if we don’t address that now, the conveyor belt is going to stop. It’s hugely important for the underage players and I’ve al- ready spoken to the county board in relation to that.

We have our programmes laid out, we have lads put into position and we will give them as best as we possibly

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AER Lingus is flying in the face of commercial logic, according to the Atlantic Connectivity Alliance (ACA).

The Alliance has claimed in its re- port on the commercial analysis of the removal of the Heathrow slots from Shannon to Heathrow shows a complete absence of any business ecle(eyeted e

The ACA’s findings show that Bel- fast-Heathrow passenger traffic has dropped alarmingly in recent years.

The ACA compiled its report fol- lowing its analysis of the Interde- partmental Report into the Shannon- Heathrow issue.

Statistics show that the region on

this island with by far the greatest fall-off in traffic on Heathrow routes is the Belfast region, where passen- ger traffic has dropped by 43 per cent in the years 2000 to 2006.

During the same period traffic vol- umes in Shannon grew by 6.3 per cent while Dublin dropped by 10.9 per cent and Cork increased by 9.0 percent.

In 2000, more than 1.6 million people were flying from Belfast to Heathrow. That has now decreased to 425,516.

In the same period, the Shannon passenger figures grew from 303,937 Kee Pelee

The ACA, in its analysis, found that Belfast share of total Ireland-Heath- row traffic has fallen from 28.5 per

cent in 2000 to 19.5 per cent in 2006. At the same time, the Shannon share of Heathrow traffic grew from 7.4 per cent to 9.5 per cent.

“How then can the (Interdepart- mental) report possibly determine that the Belfast-Heathrow option could constitute a valuable commer- cial opportunity and that Shannon- Heathrow is underperforming?” the ACA report asks.

“It may be the case that there are Opportunities to develop commer- cially viable routes from Belfast Al- dergrove (16 miles outside Belfast) for Aer Lingus but Heathrow is not one of them given that the city is already served in this market by a strong incumbent carrier (BMI with eight daily Belfast City Airport serv-

ices to and from Heathrow).”

The report also points out that there is already an established carrier (BMI) on the route operating from Belfast City Airport, which is more attractive for higher yielding busi- ness travellers.

“Aer Lingus will be offering an in- ferior product to the incumbent car- rier with half the number of daily flights from an airport that is less convenient than the alternative locat- ed closer to the city centre,” the ACA report said.

“Furthermore, to replace its lost traffic on Shannon-Heathrow (320,000 passengers), Aer Lingus will have to capture almost half of the current Belfast-Heathrow market with an inferior product offering.”

has learnt that Air India is selling slots into Heath- row. A proposal has been put to the minister that at least one of these slots is purchased and the slot leased to Continental be returned to Aer Lingus when the lease is up in 2008.

Those proposing such a move ar- gue that as these slots are already in place there will be no drawn out set up process.

Meanwhile ACA, the action group comprising of key industry, tour- ism and community leaders in the Shannon and western region and set up in response to the announcement that Aer Lingus’s Shannon Heath- row slots were to move to Belfast, has lodged an application for slots at Heathrow.

The application has been made on behalf of the action group by Astrae- us Airlines, an established provider of chartered and scheduled services

throughout Europe, Africa, North America and Central Asia.

The authority responsible for slot allocation and schedule facilitation at all major airports in the UK – Air- port Co-Ordination Ltd has received the application, which seeks landing and take off slots at London Heath- row in line with the existing schedule of air services between the interna- tional hub and Shannon.

Mayor of Clare and Alliance mem- ber, Cllr Patricia McCarthy said the Alliance had taken it upon itself, its members and the people of the region to engage with Astraeus Airlines in seeking to ensure that the slots are

retained for Shannon into the future.

According to John Brassil, Chair- man of the Atlantic Connectivity Al- liance said the Alliance had formed a special limited company – Shan- non Air Link Ltd. – to enable man- agement contracts to be entered into with Astraeus should we be success- ful in securing the slots at Heathrow.

Capt John Mahon, Director of Flight Operations with Astraeus said, “We are an experienced airline with an expanding base and would be very happy to provide services on the Shannon-Heathrow route on be- half of the Atlantic Connectivity Al- liance. Our board has considered the issue and will work with the Atlantic Connectivity Alliance on progress- ing the proposal.

Based in Crawley in England, Astraeus operates scheduled and chartered flights for around 50 tour Operators specialising in serving destinations in Africa, Europe, and Canada. It also specialises in pro- viding operational capacity to com- panies, and has worked with Iceland Express, Air Asia, FlyBe and Ster- ling to commence or enhance their ol MIA

Its main bases are Manchester Air- port and London Gatwick Airport. Astraeus Ltd flies over 4,700 seats worldwide per week.