Month: October 2005

A €5,200 TRIP by Ennis Town Council mem- bers and officials to a famous wine-growing region in the south of France last Summer has run into controversy.

Two councillors say the three day trip by five councillors and three officials to St. Paul de Fenouillet, at the invitation of the local mayor last July, was bad value.

During their time there, the Ennis delega- tion would have been able to visit St Paul de Fenouillet’s famous vineyards. In common with previous trips by the Town Council overseas, this one was accompanied by little or no publicity.

Fine Gael councillor, Johnny Flynn who didn’t go on the trip said this week: ‘I was elected to put in place policies for the town council and monitor the work of the execu- tive.

“The trip would not have assisted me in my duties as a councillor. I don’t think it is rel- evant.

‘The general public has become very cyni- cal over the work of central and local gov- ernment and a trip such as this would make the public even more cynical, where money needs to be spent on local services.”

Cllr Donal O’Bearra (GP) said, “From my experience of overseas trips for the Council, nothing is implemented by the Council that has been viewed abroad.”

Councillor O’Bearra travelled abroad with the council on a number of overseas trips in- cluding Bruges and St. Paul de Fenouillet, but opted not to go on this year’s trip.

“The people of St Paul de Fenouillet have been very, very good to the council and I went there with an open mind before as to the value of the trip. But all the evidence suggests that it 1s just a junket.”

Town Mayor, Frankie Neylon (Ind) said that the twinning arrangement with St Paul de Fenouillet “has provided an amount of benefits for Ennis”.

Ennis Town Clerk, Eddie Power said, “The cost of the trip was €5,200. The Council has a budget of €24,000 for town-twinning and associated expenses.

“The Twinning arrangement continues to be an opportunity to promote Ennis as a place to visit. This is particuarly relevant in the context of additional low cost airlines fly- ing the Shannon to Girona route, as the St. Paul de Fenouillet region is easily accessible through Girona.”

CHARGES against a 27-year-old an- tiques restorer who had been accused of involvement in two hit and run acci- dents have been dismissed.

Keith Russell, of 30 Cahercalla Heights, Ennis, denied he was the driver of a van involved in two accidents, dur- ing which €7,000 damage was caused to four cars, on June 12, 2004.

Taxi driver Michael O’Connor told Ennis District Court he was driving along the Clare Road towards Captain Mac’s cross at around 2am and stopped AMA eCoM DECAL RODW OSLO mK SLOD

He said a van came along behind him and crashed into the back of his car, be- fore driving off.

He said “Clare Van Hire” was writ- ten on the van and he took down the registration number. The driver was a young man in his early 20s with sandy hair but he could not be certain as to his identity.

It was alleged in court that the van then took a sharp bend, hit two parked cars outside a house in Gallows Hull, and continued on to the home of the ac- cused, where it was found parked in the CTU AoANe WA

Garda Mark Murphy went to the scene

of the accident and noticed a trail of lig- uid on the road, which he followed.

The trail turned right into Cahercalla Heights and stopped at the home of the accused. Gda Murphy said a white van was parked in the accused’s driveway, bearing the same logo and registration identified by the taxi driver.

He said a young man came running out of the house. “I asked him who was driving the van. He said, ‘I was driv- ing. No-one else in the house’,” said the garda. He said the accused was drunk and was unsteady on his feet.

When cautioned, the accused then strenuously denied driving the van.

Results of an intoxylser test taken by the accused showed there was 75 micro- grams of alcohol per 100 mls of breath.

He had the van on loan from Clare Van Hire and said he had full use it.

According to the owner of the van, the accused was ‘the only person to have access to it’, said gardai.

Defending solicitor Eugene O’Kelly applied for direction on a number of points including that the State’s case was built on circumstantial evidence.

Judge Mangan said “I have to hold with the defence. If the State wants to seek judicial review, it is a matter for the SIF Kone

THE ‘Taoiseach has this week LoysVebuenlo(eMmBn I MER, SUL ONOTcammOer-l Mmm als continuation of acute care at the Mid West Regional Hospital En- nis “remains a Government com- mitment”’.

His strongest indication to date that Ennis’s 24-hour accident and emergency service will remain Open came in a letter to the chair- man of the Ennis General Hos- pital Development Committee (EGHDC), Peadar McNamara.

A member of the EGHDC de- scribed the letter as “political soothing noises.”

The letter stated, “…. capital investment of €20 million indi- cates the Government commit- ment to keeping a fully function- ing Accident and Emergency Department in Ennis.

“It is not just in the capital side that we have made clear our commitment to Ennis A and E. Dedicated Emergency Care phy- sicians have also been employed providing round-the-clock med1i- cal cover to Ennis A& E. A & E Consultants sessions have been introduced from July 2005.

“Eight nursing staff have been upgraded to CNMI Level at En- nis and clerical staffing at the Ennis A & E Reception has also been extended.

‘There has also been structural reconfiguration of the A & E de- partment carried out to improve patient flow; this included a new reception area.

‘T would hope that our commit- ment to acute care is clear from our investment thus far, and the continuation of this acute care remains a Government commit- ment,’ Mr Ahern continued.

‘T would also take this opportu- nity to reiterate any commitment to continued planned investment in Ennis General Hospital’s serv- ices with a programme of new hospital facilities, new consultant posts and consultant led services, and new paramedic services.”

The PRO for the EGHDC said yesterday “we can have all the political soothing noises, but we have to hear that the para- graph (referring to A & E) in the Hanley Report will not be imple- mented.”

‘There are three people in this

trinity, the Minister for Health, the Taoiseach and _ Professor Drumm. We now want to get a meeting with Professor (Brendan) Drumm, CEO of the Health Serv- ice Executive,’ he said.

The spokesperson for the lobby group also expressed annoyance that a journalist had been leaked the letter, dated October 6, be- fore the intended recipient had received it.

He called into question the Government’s “way of doing business,” describing the leak as appalling.

CLARE County Council yesterday launched a ‘zero- tolerance’ policy against those engaged in anti-social behaviour across local authority estates in the county.

In the wake of the Council securing its third exclu- sion order against unruly tenants from a Council estate in recent times, the local authority unveiled its Strate- gies in Combating Anti-Social Behaviour at its Octo- ber meeting in Ennis on Monday.

Those found dealing drugs or engaging in violence will face the Council applying to the courts fora three- year exclusion order against the entire household.

The policy document states that “anonymous com- plaints will be recorded but not investigated by the Councils, unless a pattern is seen to be occurring”.

The chair of the Council’s Housing Special Policy

Committee (SPC), Cllr Joe Arkins (FG) told

THE construction arm of controversial US multi- national, Halliburton is set to scoop the contract to construct the €370 million Shannon tunnel.

The National Roads Authority (NRA) has iden- tified the “Direct Route” consortium, including Kellogg Brown & Root Limited as “the most eco- nomically advantageous tender” to complete the project.

As the construction subsidiary of Halliburton, KBR employs 64,000 people in 43 countries around the world and it is part of the same “Direct Route” consortium that has won the contract to construct the N8 Rathcormac-Fermoy bypass.

The other companies involved in Direct Route in- clude the Austrian company, Strabag AG involved in the Ennis by-pass; John Sisk & Son (Holdings) Limited, Lagan Holdings Limited and Roadbridge Ltd. The Texas-based Halliburton conglomerate is the biggest private contractor for American forces in Iraq and has received contracts worth some elev- en billion dollars for its work there.

US vice-President, Dick Cheney was chief execu-

tive of Halliburton in the five years immediately prior to becoming Vice President and Mr Cheney earned €45 million during his tenure at the world’s largest oil-and-gas-services company.

One of the many contracts that Halliburton has se- cured from the US Government is the €37 million deal to build prison camps in Cuba’s Guantanamo Bay for suspected terrorists — the company has had more than 35 of its contractors killed while work- ing in Iraq.

The NRA is to now proceed with discussions with Direct Route with a view to appointing it as the Provisional Preferred Tenderer. If such discus- sions prove successful and Direct Route are ap- pointed Provisional Preferred Tender, that is likely to lead to an award of the Contract for the Project in Spring 2006 with work expected to start around the same time. As part of the deal, the Direct Route consortium stands to generate €456 million in tolls from the route over a 30-year period.

The Direct Route consortium is also one of four pre-qualifying consortia for the controversial M3 Motorway, which skirts and the Hull of Tara.

SIPTU, representing over 500 workers at Shannon Airport and the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA), are on a collision course over the future of Shannon. Last month, talks between SIPTU and the DAA’s Director for Change, John Horgan broke up after Mr Horgan produced a document proposing the exiting from ca- tering and the outsourcing of the majority of functions at Shannon.

SIPTU’s National Industrial Secretary, Michael Halpenny has proposed the parties reconvene for fresh talks this Wednesday, October 12.

However, in a strongly-worded letter to Mr Horgan outlining SIPTU’s concerns, Mr Halpenny has con- firmed to Mr Horgan that the production of the docu- ment at the union-management meeting “is unaccept- able and indeed unhelpful to the process, insofar as it is premised on the exit of catering and the outsourc- ing of what appears to be the majority of functions in Shannon’.

He said, “The undue focus on an exit package — al- beit to be “negotiated” — detracts completely from what should be the focus, the future of Shannon and the place of our members therein. We have proposed discussions based on the following: no change without consultation and agreement with the Unions; nothing is agreed until everything is agreed and no compul-

sory redundancies.”

Mr Halpenny said that a SIPTU official would meet with a DAA representative in the two days prior to the meeting to examine the financial status and projections for the airport. He added that the meeting scheduled for October 12 would agree an agenda for discussions and agree a schedule of meetings going forward.

He warned, however, “In this context, it is important to repeat we cannot accept exit from catering or out- sourcing of functions as part of that agenda.”

Mr Halpenny suggested that the parties agree to Seek the services of a Facilitator to assist them, with- out prejudice to their rights to refer disputes in the nor- mal course to the LRC, Labour Court and third party NOLO NMOS EON

The talks are taking place with the DAA, as the Shannon Airport Authority (SAA) has yet to become a legal entity because a business plan for the airport has yet to be approved by Government.

Shannon is on course for a record year in 2005 with the first nine months showing passengers numbers be- ing in excess of 2.5 million — an increase of 36% – while the lucrative US troop traffic has accounted for almost a quarter of a million passengers and estimated to have generated over €25 million for the Shannon Airport Authority (SAA).

Last year, the Airport’s loss was €2.5 million on a turnover of €95 million.

IT has been a fruitful but confusing week for economic statistics. First we had the end-September Exchequer Re- turns. Then we had the Central Statis- tics Office (CSO) figures for the second quarter of this year, with conflicting figures from the Economic and Socials Research Institute (ESRI) hot on their heels.

According to a statement issued on Tuesday, October 4, by the Minister for Finance, Brian Cowen, an Exchequer deficit of €1,123m was recorded in the first three quarters of this year. This is substantially greater than the Excheq- uer deficit of €418m for the first three quarters of 2004, but well under the budgeted deficit of €2,988m for 2005 as a whole.

The Current Account Balance at the

end of September showed a surplus of €2,238m, not much different to the sur- plus of €2,348m for the same period last year. The budgeted surplus for the full year of 2005 is €4,092m.

The Capital Account Balance at the end of September showed a deficit of €3,361m compared to a deficit of €2,/66m for the same period last year.

The budgeted deficit for 2005 as a whole is €7,080m for 2005.

The CSO then released figures for the second quarter of this year showing that the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was 4.1 per cent up on the same quarter last year, at €37,784m. The Gross Na- tional Product (GNP), which excludes the earnings of foreign-owned compa- nies, grew at 3.1 per cent for the same eau lelee

Soon afterwards, the ESRI disagreed with these figures. It said that econom-

ic growth, as measured by real GDP, would grow by 5.7 percent this year and 5 per cent next year.

“Strong economic growth will contin- ues for the foreseeable future,” it said. It based this upbeat prediction partly on the large increase in employment shown by the latest Quarterly Household Sur- oe

SW ilommcaviseet-lKOeMMolciAWiocor mech iO best IKon me ls mainly down to different interpretations of what exactly is happening to produc- tivity.

The government explanation is that productivity has fallen owing to the loss of manufacturing jobs and their re- placement by less productive work. The ESRI, on the other hand, says that there has been a large increase in the numbers employed but that it sees no evidence of a downturn in productivity.

MAKING sure that they are not breaking the law and keeping up with rapidly changing employ- ment legislation is one of the top worries for business owner man- agers, mid-west business people were told at a meeting last night. The group were being briefed by the Chamber of Commerce on a new service which will help take the pain and the risk out of employer/employee dealings. The new Chamber HR service for the first time in Ireland, offers employers an interpretation of the law, expert advice on human resources management as well as indemnification against the legal and award costs associated with responding to a claim in the La- bour Relations Commission or Employment Appeals Tribunal. Announcing the service, Chief Executive of Limerick Cham- ber Maria Kelly said, “feedback from our members strongly indi- cates that businesses, especially SMEs, struggle to understand

and keep abreast of changes in employment legislation. Yet they are responsible for compliance and implementation.”

Poor HR practice is not a de- fence in court, the gathering heard. “Chamber HR seeks to protect those who endeavour to comply with the law but lack the expertise to do so,” the CEO said.

Those attending the briefing were told that recently, the La- bour Court awarded €15,000 to a Congolese temporary call centre employee who was dismissed af- ter he made a 24 minute long dis- tance phone call while at work.

In another case quoted to the meeting, the Employment Ap- peals Tribunal awarded €3,000 to a bar worker for unfair dis- missal having been sacked for allegedly selling cannabis to col- leagues while at work.

“A potential fair dismissal can become an actual unfair dis- missal if good procedures are not scrupulously followed. When it comes to employment law, igno-

rance 1s no defence,’ the Cham- ber CEO said.

The service is supported by the Chambers of Commerce of Ireland (CCI) and is being part- nered by Peninsula Business Services, the largest employment law consultancy in the UK which has offices in both Dublin and Manchester.

Peter Done, Managing Director of Peninsula added that, “From personal experience, I know that common sense doesn’t count and owner managers need expert ad- vice and support. That is the gen- esis of Chamber HR. Peninsula is proud to be involved in providing this unique and indispensable service.”

The Chamber HR service 1s also providing details on “Chamber Business School” a FAS funded Chamber initiative that provides members with local access to training courses on people and performance management skills.

Details of how to avail of the service can be had by contacting any chamber of commerce.

WITH a glut of rental property available lo- cally, Clare investors have cast their property investment net a lot wider, in recent times. In response, two Ennis businessmen, Martin Guerin and Gerard Lynch, have launched Blue Ten Properties, to facilitate investment in a carefully selected portfolio of overseas proper- Woe

Blue Ten has opted for a wharf-side develop- ment in central Birmingham as its first foray, and so far, just a few weeks after launch and based primarily on word of mouth, 35 of the 40 units have been snapped up. Martin Guerin confirmed, “over 90 per cent of the take-up has been from Clare based business people’.

Guerin has over 20 years experience working in the financial services sector and he believes that his reputation within the county has al- lowed investors to place their trust in him. But

Guerin and Lynch have also played safe with their first choice.

‘Holliday Wharf’, Birmingham, has been built by the very reputable builder, Charles Church. It overlooks Central Canal, in an area of the inner city in Birmingham which has undergone huge regeneration in recent years. ‘Having analysed the rental market, we decid- ed to reserve one-bedroom apartments only, as the rental return is very steady. Investors can expect to achieve rent of stg£625 per month on these properties, which are priced from £143,000 to £151,00”. The price range reflects whether or not the apartments include a park- ing space and their specific location within the building.

‘Holliday Wharf’ incorporates 155, one and two bedroom units and interestingly, Guerin said, ‘it’s estimated that over 55 per cent will be owner occupied.”

By buying in bulk, off plans, Blue Ten was

able to negotiate discounts of up stg£14,800, per unit, on behalf of its investors. Guerin ex- plained, “investors have to pay a 10 per cent deposit to reserve a property and the remainder is due on completion, which is anticipated early next summer.

“We have sourced a management agency, called Assets, to oversee the rental of the prop- erties on behalf of our investors, although if investors wish to pursue their own rental path, that’s fine. While many fittings are included, we have sourced a package of loose furnish- ings at acost of stg£5,000, again whether or not the investor wants to take up that option is at their own discretion. We have also negotiated a very cost effective conveyancing fee, with a local firm of solicitors, at £550 per unit”.

Guerin is convinced that this investment op- portunity is a safe bet. The rejuvenation of Bir- mingham continues at pace and it is anticipated that the face of England’s second city will have

utterly changed within the next five years.

“We have achieved substantial discounts that are not available to the one-off buyer. The dis- counts achieved are as much as some investors hope to make in their first two years”.

Certainly, there 1s consensus in the market that the UK continues to be a good area for property investment. According to recent re- search by Cambridge University the UK will experience a 1.4 million homes shortfall by 2021.

Guerin and Lynch may not confine them- selves to the UK however. “We are looking at potential investment properties as far away as Montreal.” But, Guerin conceded, “Birming- ham is a very good place to start. They speak the same language and you can hop on a plane and be at your investment property within a couple of hours, should the need arise”.

For further details on Blue Ten Properties, contact Martin Guerin on 087 2524639.

THE Irish Lourels Classic at Curra- heen Park Cork took centre stage for greyhound people over the weekend. The second round heats were held on Saturday night the here the banker of the night Student Pass duly obliged and progressed to the next round.

The dog is trained by Owen MckK- enna for Claremen Cathal O’Doherty and Vincent Meaney and was available at odds of 10/1 to win the classic before the weekends racing. Deerfield Mover, who finished third in heat was bred by Gerry Burke of Miltown Malbay and is now owned by Bryan Dalton of the USA.

Dalcash Sweettea, owned by Patrick Meade of Miltown Malbay, got Clare owners off the mark in Galway on Thursday night. Housed in box three the winner, who was making his first outing, recorded a winning time of PEt

Race 7 on Thursday nights card was heat 3 in the Texaco Retailers A4 over 5S25yds. Here Mary Jones of Scariff had a welcome change of luck with Fossabeg Sparkie winning in a time of 29.42.

Rockmount judge owned by Shane Flanaghan advanced to the next round after filling second spot in heat in heat 4,

The feature race on Friday nights card in Galway was the final of the A5 Tote Stake where Now It’s Nancy owned by Eimear Lillis and Ian Kelly came up trumps. Prize money of €800 went to the Cooraclare winner. Baby LLeyton, owned by Bertie and Mary O’ Doherty of Clarecastle had to settle for minor prize money after finishing third in the Croi Buster Final. Next Friday night’s card is a benefit in Aid of Fianna Fail. There is a big entry of Clare dogs in all the race, heats for which have been held over the past number of weeks.

There is some decent prize money going to stake winners and managers are expecting a huge attendance.