Month: September 2005

‘(01 HONDA ACCORD

A CLARE county councillor has suggested that TV consumer ana- lyst Eddie Hobbs should carry out a “Rip Off Clare” investigation.

Councillor Christy Curtin (Ind) was speaking at yesterday’s monthly Clare County Council Meeting, on hearing a report of the council’s draft financial re- port.

A reduction in the amount of waste going into the county’s JE NeTeNCUUMAY SOU uciUllambemr:MenKejomti mets county council’s coffers.

This, coupled with a reduc- tion of €208,000 in Government funds, is likely to put financial pressure of the council over the coming year.

Following the presentation of the report covering the first six months of the year, councillors agreed to write to the Environ- ment Minister, to request he re- think the current funding system for local authorities.

Members of the council will also outline their concerns about the effect the overall reduction will have on the local authority.

The financial report showed that 48 per cent, or €45 million of the annual budget was used in the county from January to June, keeping the budget on target for the end of the year.

“Maintaining this position will be challenging,’ the report warned. The reduction in funds from the Government “will nega-

tively impact Local Government Funds receipts in the second half of the year.”

The members of the council are claiming that the rates they are collecting from industries, such as the ESB in Moneypoint, are being off set by the reduction from the Department.

Cllr Patricia McCarthy (Ind) asked where else the council was to get the money from, if the Minster didn’t provide it.

“On one hand, he is telling us to look after the ratepayers and not to be too hard on them and on the other hand, he is cutting our funding because we have a few big ratepayers in the county,” she said.

Cllr Madeleine Taylor-Quinn

(FG) said the on going monitor- ing of the landfill at Inagh needed constant attention.

‘Are we going to ask ratepayers of Clare to make up deficit by the Minister?” she asked.

She said that €10 million in rates were going to the govern- ment every year from Money- point, yet funding was not avail- able to upgrade the roads for the increased traffic to the planned JON) owe sKevie

The County Manager assured the councillors that the financial situation “should be okay for this year’. But he said it was the ex- ecutive’s duty to flag stormy seas ahead.

A CLARE County Council demand that a 5,000 year old bog oak tree that forms part of a sculpture be cut by one metre, was described as “impractical and crazy’, this week.

The criticism came from the Kilballyowen Development Association, which has defiantly refused to reduce the height of the tree to three neo b Rene

The sculptor of the piece, rural-rights cam- paigner, Jim Connolly said this week: “The tree can’t be reduced. I have never heard the likes of it in my life. I hope the Council accept the sense of what I had to say.”

The tree is to be complimented by two three- quarter size bronze figures of Diarmuid and

Grainne. It forms part of a twin-memorial ded- icated to the memory of five west Clare men, who lost their lives just off Loop Head in 1862, and ties with west Clare. The men were all pi- lots who helped navigate ships up the Shannon estuary in the 19th century.

Kilballyowen association chairman, John Bonfil explained this week: “The pilots went out in a currach to a ship that was about to come up the estuary. It was a case of whoever got to the ship first, would get the bounty in steering the ship Unfortunately, they all lost their lives.”

A song, “The Five Pilots” had been written in their memory.

In response to the association’s planning

proposal for the monument, the council raised concerns over the height of the proposed struc- tures on the boat house site and the Diarmuid and Grainne site. The Council stated: “Please reduce height of both structures to three as well.”

In the initial documents lodged with the Council, no mention was made by the appli- cants of the age of the tree. It formed part of the Diarmuid and Grainne display, which was initially on show at Shannon Airport. It was removed due to major renovations at Shannon, according to Mr Connolly.

In May, the applicants lodged a photomon- tage of the memorial, stating that the Diarmuid and Grainne display was 5 metres. In August,

they stated that the memorial was now 4 metres high and refused to go lower.

Mr Bonfil said this week: ““We are confident that the proposed memorial will get planning permission. It is a community-based project. It is a positive for the community.

“We have received €20,000 for the two me- morials through Leader and also a contribution from the Foynes Harbour Authority. We hope to unveil the memorials at the 3rd annual Loop Head Gathering Festival next July.

“Both the Shannon Airport Authority, who commissioned the sculpture, and Jim Con- nolly the sculpture who created the piece, have agreed to donate the work to the community in Kilbaha to form part of the proposed develop- ment of the area,” he said

after Shannon town councillors called for a superintendent to be based in the town. Ennis-based Supt John Kerin currently has responsibility

for Shannon.

A letter circulated to councillors from the Department of Justice stated that local Garda management in Clare did “not believe that the necessity exists for the creation of a fifth district headquarters station” in the Clare division. It added that local management was satisfied that the existing available resources at Shannon (53 gardai) were adequate to meet the present policing needs of the town.

Chief Supt Quinn said, “Shannon now has a population equivalent to other areas served by a superintendent and that is where the argument comes from. However other factors come into play and the situation is unlikely to change at the moment.

‘When it comes to making decisions like that, statistics and logistics would influence that decision. It has been raised and examined and con- sidered. We have an inspector – Tom Kennedy – who has responsibility for Shannon, which we don’t have in any of the other stations,” said Chief Supt Quinn.

He accepted that there were anxieties about the lack of a superintend- ent in Shannon. But he said, “It wouldn’t necessarily improve the service there.”

However, Cllr Gerry Flynn said it was “absolutely ludicrous” that the second biggest town in the county did not have a superintendent based in the area and so operated as a sub-district, rather than a district.

Cllr Tony McMahon agreed, “We need to be upgraded to a district sta- tus. We don’t have a courthouse here. We don’t have anything”’.

Cllr Greg Duff said, “Because of increased US military travelling through Shannon in the past six months, the airport is a priority and because of the commitment to the airport, we need more people.” If there was an air-rage incident at Shannon Airport, six gardai would be sent in to deal with it, he said.

Cllr Patricia McCarthy said the town had lost quality gardai who left the town when they saw no opportunities for promotion.

‘Kilrush had a long history of gardai staying for a while and the prob- lems there got out of control,” she said.

THERE was no playing politics with the Clare County Council Play Pol- cy when it came before the members of the council yesterday.

Supporting the policy, the council- lors present suggested that the play- ground plan could reduce a prevalent ‘“yob culture’ and prevent anti-social behaviour in the future.

The plan includes a long awaited and much welcomed Skateboard Park for the town of Ennis.

The county council plans to apply to the Department of the Environ- ment for funding for the Skateboard Park in the Lees Road Sports and Amenity Facility, in Ennis.

A representative group of parents of skateboarders must in the interim develop a safe solution as part of the application.

The play policy, which was pre- sented to the council by Cllr Pat Hayes (FF), also states funds of up to €2 million should be provided for playgrounds over the next four years.

Some €300,000 of the annual budget will go towards a playground in each of the electoral areas, while

the remaining €200,000 will ensure playgrounds for areas in need.

The new policy also proposes that in residential developments of more

than six houses, developers should be required to make provision for a hard surface play area and for active recreation.

This met with some concern from the County Manager, who said that the burden of this section of the poli- cy “might just be a little to high.”

Cllr Patricia McCarthy (Ind) was adamant however, that the funding should be found and the policy in its entirety, implemented. She said the council had shied away from such a policy for too long.

The Shannon councillor said that anti-social behaviour was getting worse. Early intervention with such facilities would help prevent a “yob culture”.

‘We have to go for it and hope we meet our aspirations,” she said.

Meanwhile, the council is to apply for funding through a department playground grant scheme.

Should this funding become avail- able the council considers Bally- vaughan and Kildysart play ground committees in a position to respond immediately to the funding. If these two communities are not in a position to draw down the possible funding, it will go to Lisdoonvarna, in the case of Ballyvaughan being unable to ac- cept, and Sixmilebridge, if Kildysart is not in a position to avail of it.

THE Chairman of the Clare County Board said it was an “an easy decision to appoint Michael Brenann and Donie Buckley” as joint managers of the Clare Senior Footabllers.

The decision was ratified at a meeting of the Clare County Board on Wednesday night. Their names were put forward after a seven man committee had spent the last month deliberating over who should suc- ceed John Kennedy. Noel Welsh, who seconded the appointment af- ter Robert frost had proposed the motion, said Michael Brennan de- served to be viewed in “the same category as John Maughan”. Both

men currently reside within the county and have previously worked together at NUIG. Michael Bren- nan, a retired army officer, is an ex- Galway footballer who featured in the 1983 All-Ireland final against Dublin. Originally from Kerry, Donie Buckley has been closely in- volved with Clare football for the past 15 years.

He has enjoyed good success as a manager winning county cham- pionships with Miltown Malbay in 1990 and the Faughs in 1994. He also guided Eire Og to an interme- diate championship in 1995. The decision brings to an end weeks of speculation about who was going to be in the Clare hotseat for next term. Ever since Clare’s defeat to

Sligo in the All-Ireland qualifying Series, it had been unclear whether John Kennedy was going to remain in the job. Kennedy stepped down last week, and is now being heavily linked with the vacant managers position in Limerick.

Michael McDonagh paid _trib- ute to Kennedy for his service to Clare football over the past three years. “He was a gentleman from the top of his head to his toes and along with his fellow selectors, we were very lucky to have men who were sO committed to Clare foot- ball”. His sentiments were echoed by John Keane who said that John Kennedy had “made history with Clare by lifting the Tommy Mur- phy Cup in Croke Park”.

ENNIS’ Tricia Mangan will be the key figure on the Irish ladies golf team on their history-making mission in Dundalk this week as they attempt to win the Home Internationals for the third consecutive year.

Irish champion Mangan, who is in the form of her life and currently ranked number nine in Europe, 1s joined on the eight woman Irish team by Shannon’s Heather Nolan.

Ireland have not won on home soil since 1907, but with an ever improving side, the Irish are quietly con- fident of lifting the trophy for a third time following wins at Cruden Bay in 2003 and Royal Porthcawl in Auer

“We were very happy with our practice over this ex- cellent parkland course last week” commented team captain Sheena O’Brien-Kenney.

“We know our opposition will be stronger than ever this year but we’re most excited to have the opportu- nity to challenge for an unprecedented three-in-a-row. A good team morale added to the expected healthy home support will help tip the balance in our favour”

she added.

England look most likely to upset Ireland’s plans and hope to avenge last year’s first day defeat by Ireland which saw them finish the tournament tied second BLAS E: Doh

THE highlight of the past weeks greyhound racing was the win of ‘Knappogue Roy- al’ in the final of the Galway Hurling Board A4 stake at the Galway track on Friday night.

The dog had been a good servant to owner Martin McDermot of Kilrush, win- ning some valuable races over the summer months and collected a cheque of €2,000 on this occasion. ‘Larch- ill Wood’ owned by Ciara Donoghue of Ennis took his chance after coming in as a reserve in trap 2 to win ina

time of 29.32 on Thursday night.

The final of the A5 Stake takes place this week, and also looking forward to a stake final at the weekend will be a long time supporter of the game Tom Flanna- gan of Ennistymon. His dog ‘Mythical Flyer’ secured his spot in the final after dead heating for first place in race 3. Race 7 on Thursday night’s card went to ‘Aulton Nikiata’ owned by Pat Hog- an of Barefield, the winners time was 30.96 seconds for the 550 yards trip. Excite- ment also continues this coming weekend for Ennis

man Frankie Sheehan. His dogs ‘Sheehans Cottage’ and ‘Joint Cottage’ did enough in there respective races on Fri- day and Saturday night and are now in line to collect big prize money.

‘Baby Lleyton’ owned by Bertie and Mary O’Doherty of Ennis was Clare’s only winner at the College Road venue on Saturday night. This was the dogs first win housed in trap one, the win- ners time was 29.78 *Lisnac- ulla Dream’ owned by Gerry Lang of Ballyea and ‘Rex the Rocket’ will also be in the line up at the Loughrea Hurling Club A3 Stake Final

this coming weekend.

Seamus and Aidan Dug- gan of Ennis kept the Clare flag flying at Limerick on Thursday night, winning race 2 with ‘Plenty of early’ in a time of 29.56. The same partnership returned on Sat- urday night with ‘Castleweir’ to finish second in the Tote retention scheme. There is €10,000 to the winner here and the Ennis lads will be hoping to maintain they’re interest over the coming weeks. Sixty dogs went to traps for the first round heats on Saturday night.

Sentencing of a man who exposed himself and masturbated in front of a female hitch-hiker has been adjourned, pending a probation report.

Joe Clynes (33), with an address at 154 Hermit- age, Ennis, and formerly of 15, Millstream Court, Mill Road, Ennis, was convicted of the offence, which occurred at Dehomade, Lissycasey, in ALvb iter

The victim told a previous court sitting that she

had been hitching on the outskirts of Ennis on June 11, 2002, and accepted a lift from Clynes. A short distance from Ennis, she said she saw his hand on his “groin area” and his “elbow was mov- ihre

After a while, she saw “the head of his penis.” When she tried to get out of the car, the accused told her “it’s all right now” and he offered to drive her the rest of the way to Kilrush. The woman said she got out of the car and was “pretty scared”’ at that point.

In June, Judge Joseph Mangan adjourned the matter until last week’s court sitting at Kildysart, pending preparation of a probation report.But, when the matter came up, the judge was informed that there appeared to have been some misunder- standing, as Clynes had changed address. Clynes told the court he now lived at Hermitage, Ennis.

Judge Mangan told Clynes he would not accept any excuses at the next court sitting. “If you don’t hear from the probation services, you get 1n touch eLNemealsse me

IT’S clear that the govern- ment, and the computer software industry sector are seriously worried about the fall-off in interest in careers in ICT Gnformation and com- munications — technologies), science and engineering.

The question being asked is where are the innovators of the future going to come from? More basically, as Bill Harris the director general of Science Foundation Ireland said last week: “without en- gineers, how are we going to make things?”

So, national and regional partners in the ICT industry have now come together in a concerted effort to promote the ICT industry as a career, by sending role models work- ing in ICT companies into schools to talk about their careers. The idea is to encour- age secondary school students to take science and technol- ogy based subjects at Leaving Certificate level, and to con-

sider ICT-related courses at third-level, including compu- ter science, science and elec- WUCereU oT aNieunetee

As part of a nationwide ef- fort to promote the take-up of high-tech careers, the ICT Champions programme was launched in Shannon last week, with a briefing work- shop in Intel Communications for the role models taking part in the programme.

Three Clare schools have already signed up for visits from the ICT’ Champions – St Caimin’s in Shannon, En- nistymon Secondary School, and Kilrush Community School. The Champions will be visiting them to tell the students what roles, oppor- tunities and challenges ex- ist within the industry. Intel, which has a cutting-edge re- search and development facil- ity in the Shannon Industrial Estate, and Dell and Chorus in County Limerick, have supplied over 20 volunteers to visit schools.

“Intel will be approaching other Clare schools to see if they are interested in the pro- gramme,’ Hannah Grene of ICT Ireland told