Month: November 2005

A RUAN publican in his late fifties, who was beaten repeatedly with his walking stick in a frenzied random at- tack, has told how he feared he would be beaten to a pulp.

Michael Moloney was giving evi- dence in the case of Fergus Casey (23), of Ruan, who pleaded guilty to assault- ing the publican and also assaulting Donal Brohan, in Ruan on September 7, 2004.

Gda Brian O’Donnell said Mr Molo- ney was going for a walk, shortly after closing his pub, when he heard a noise.

He went to see where the noise came from and saw the accused, Fergus Ca- Seas

Casey took his stick from him and struck him up to 30 times. Some of the blows were to the head and he was still being beaten while he bled.

Fr Pat O’Neill went to the assistance of the man being beaten as did another man, Donal Brohan, who was hit with a rock to the head.

The accused said to the publican: “you think that you own the village,” the court heard.

“There was no obvious cause to it. It was a frenzied attack that happened when he was out waking his dog,” said Gda O’Donnell.

Casey’s barrister said his client was involved in two altercations with Mr Moloney prior to this incident, but Gda O’Donnell said he had no knowledge of that.

Casey, who has four previous convic-

tions, including two for burglary and one for assault causing harm, took his victim by surprise.

“I know Fergus Casey since he was a child and I wouldn’t expect he would do this,” said Mr Moloney, adding that the accused was in his pub earlier that night.

“He was in a frenzied mood. It was very frightening.

“From that day to this, I get night- mares. Only for Fr O’Neill I wouldn’t be here.

‘He would have beaten me to a pulp.”

When the accused’s barrister apolo- gised to Mr Moloney, he replied, “‘apol- ogies aren’t much good to me if I was found dead in Ruan, part of the stats. This man needs to get help.”

Casey’s sister told the court he has en- dured considerable difficulties through- out his life.

‘Fergus needs help. It’s been a con- tinuous cry for help,” said his sister, who accepted that Mr Moloney could have been killed.

Judge Carroll Moran said, “Mr Molo- ney got a dreadful hiding and whether or not there was something behind it, there was certainly no need for it.

“It was a cowardly, mean thing to do … nasty.”

He said a lengthy prison sentence might go nowhere towards solving the accused’s problems.

He adjourned the case for a year to see how he behaves and said he would not rule out a prison term of three to four years.

PROPERTY owners across the county are being pursued under leg- islation to curb derelict buildings. Shannon Town Manager Ger Dol- lard has confirmed that owners of 15 such properties in Shannon – mostly houses – are currently being pur-

sued, as are owners in other parts of the county.

According to Mr Dollard the council’s main aim is to bring these properties out of dereliction.

This could be partly achieved by applying a levy of three per cent of the market value, payable by the owner, onto such properties.

“It was never meant to be a rev- enue generating thing,” he said.

Mr Dollard added that it was par- ticularly important to deal with the issue if better results were to be achieved in Tidy Towns competi- tions.

“IT wouldn’t say it 1s a crisis, but there are examples. We are serving

notices, which give people an op- portunity to do something about it.

“They will have plenty of oppor- tunity to sort it out,’ said Mr Dol- lard.

A number of Shannon ‘Town Councillors spoke out on the issue Clerks NM N else NN OTSe

Councillor Geraldine Lambert

(FF) said that, in some instances, the landlords were only interested in collecting rent and not maintaining the property.

Cllr Patricia McCarthy (Ind) said, ‘People should be aware of how se- rious it is.

“Until such time as the council takes action, it will carry on.”

CLEAN drinking water must be supplied to the residents of En- nis in the event of another boil notice being issued.

That was the call being made last night by members of Ennis Town Council who are seeking a guarantee from the County Man- ager that more will be done for the residents in the event of an- other boil notice being imposed on the water supply for Ennis and its surrounding environs.

“It is so serious at this stage that a guarantee should be sought” said Mayor Frankie Neylon at Monday’s meeting. Cllr Neylon went on to add that providing a suitable solution can be arrived at, a temporary water filtration system should be installed while the town waits for a new €13 million water treatment facil- ity due to be constructed in two years time.

The Council was debating the issue following a motion tabled by Councilors Donal O’Beara (GP) and Johnny Flynn (FG),

calling for the continuing un- acceptable quality of Ennis drinking water be declared an emergency and that the County Manager use his available pow- ers. “The supply is unsuitable for the weakest in our society, that is children and the elderly, while others can take their chances if they want, is the approach sug- gested by the Council. This is totally unacceptable” said Cllr O’Beara.

Also present at Monday’s meet- ing were members of the newly- formed Campaign Committee who were protesting outside En- nis Town Council about the poor quality of the water supply. The committee was formed after a public meeting was held in En- nis on November 2 to discuss the contamination of the Ennis wa- ter supply. It is composed of lo- cal political representatives and members of the public.

Town Engineer Tom Tiernan said that the council was cur- rently reviewing a number of proposals concerning temporary water filtration systems for the town’s water supply. He said that the Council is treating the prob- lem very urgently but that any solution must be appropriate for the Ennis supply.

Mr. Tiernan stated that the er- ratic nature of supply in Ennis imposes extra complications on any solution and that there very few examples of successful 1m- plementation of temporary wa- ter filtration systems around the world. He revealed one of the proposals before the Council is a Russian system that has yet to be used outside the country and that any proposed project would cost between €600,000 and €1m.

THE number of people arrested for drink driv- ing continues to rise in Clare, despite repeated warnings and images of its devastating ef- ee

Up to this weekend, two hundred and twenty motorists had been arrested for the offence so far this year. This is a ten per cent rise on the same period last year.

There were further arrests over the weekend. Up until Sunday, two motorists had been ar- rested in west Clare. On Sunday, another driver was arrested in Shannon, in the early hours.

The head of the Clare Garda Traffic Unit, Inspector Kevin Moynihan says the growing number of arrests is as a result of increased Garda enforcement, allied to the fact that peo- ple are not listening to warnings on the dan- gers of drink driving.

“It is a sizeable increase. People don’t seem to be heeding the warnings. . . and it’s also down to increased enforcement in the traffic corps,” he said.

Accident & Emergency Consultant in Ennis and Limerick, Cathal O’Donnell says while many people believe young men are the main culprits, offenders range in age and class.

“Young males are a large part of it, but I have seen people from every social class and every age group involved. It is still happening despite warnings and despite active measures from the gardai,” he said.

Mr O’Donnell said drink drivers are, on oc- casion, responsible for leaving “innocent peo- ple dead.”

Mr O’ Donnell believes that old, careless hab- its are again returning to some motorists, after an awareness campaign in recent years.

“We have personal responsibility to other hu- mans. My impression is that there was a dip a

couple of years ago, but it seems to be creeping up again.

“Tt [drink drivers] has a huge impact on our departments at weekends. Road traffic acci- dents take from our time. We don’t mind doing it but it is preventative, as opposed to a person who has a heart attack, for instance.

“It happens on week nights and at weekends, day and night and doesn’t seem to be going away, he said.

Fine Gael TD Pat Breen expressed disap- pointment that the drink driving figures had again increased in Clare.

“Obviously the message hasn’t been driven home. We must have zero tolerance in relation to drink driving. Gardai will have to reinforce their campaign coming up to Christmas and Garda resources have to be increased in rela- tion to inspections late at night,” said Deputy Dior

that two fresh complaints had been made to him this year, one against a priest in Ennis and another against a priest in the ‘wider Ennis area.’ Both were relat- ing to incidents in the 1960s and both priests are now deceased.

Dr Walsh confirmed that the diocese made the most recent payment of €70,000 this year. He said that €100,000 was paid out last year, with €265,000 paid out in 2003. The money came from the proceeds of a €1.5 million land sale at his Westbourne residence in 2001.

Dr Walsh said that if the need arose, the diocese would sell off further land to make payments to victims. “We will do everything in our power to support and help victims.”

He stressed that no money towards the pay- ments had come from Sunday offerings. How- ever, in future, “1f it happens that we have to use other money to make payments, full information will be made to the people and priests”.

Dr Walsh said over the past 11 years he had re- ceived 25 complaints relating to 10 priests, who were now all deceased. The complaints date back to 1957 and all the complaints relate to incidents before he became Bishop in 1995. Multiple com- plaints were received about four priests.

“I do believe the complaints. I have no evidence of complaints coming to me which were not true,”

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Dr Walsh said he was devastated by the con- tents of the Ferns report.

‘We knew that the Ferns report was going to be quite bad news, we really had no idea that it was going to be that bad.

“There is a sense of pain and shame about the whole thing and that goes right across the priest- hood, up and down the country. I’m devastated by it and people who are suffering the real pain are the victims themselves.”

The Rape Crisis centre in the mid-west has re- ceived an increased level of calls, in the wake of the publication of the Ferns report.

“When something like this is prominent in the media, it triggers calls,” said spokeswoman Miri- am Duffy.

THERE has been angry reaction to Clare being left out of recycling grants totaling €9m nationally, including a €2.6 million cash boost for Limerick recycling projects.

Dick Roche, T.D., Minister for the Env1- ronment, Heritage and Local Government announced last week that he was making a further €9m from the Environment Fund in capital assistance for local authority recy- cling facilities.

Limerick’s grant is the highest in the list with projects for the county and Mungret at- tracting €2,605,547.

An angry Green Party representative and Clare County Councillor, Brian Meaney, said that blame for the dearth of cash com- ing the Clare way had “to be laid firmly at the feet of our lacklustre national represent- atives. Limerick has strong clout in terms of its TDs and Ministers and it shows, when it comes to the amount of money that has been allocated.”

OTA rian y Ne Mdet-lmmaelomcet iA ae moe ce ing out for proper recycling facilities. The main recycling facility in Ennis doesn’t even open until noon. We need bring centers and we need a substantial facility in East Clare and Shannon, in particular, needs a bring centre. I’m just at a loss to see how Clare can be left out.”

He added that there should be “urgent investment in facilities in Clare if we are serious about diverting waste from landfill. Clare has got the rough end of the stick in Web ne

Announcing the grants, Minister Roche said that he was “aware that other local au- thority proposals are being developed or be- ing evaluated by my Department and I will be announcing further allocations as local authorities develop and formally submit their proposals.”

The Capital Grants Scheme 1s provided for in the Regional Operational Programmes (2000-2006) which are managed by the Re- gional Assemblies and is targeted towards the provision of recycling infrastructure, which reflects the waste hierarchy.

Other areas given grants under the scheme included Wicklow County Council, which received €1.1 million, Cork County Council, which received €530,400 and Fin- gal County Council, which was awarded €541,650.

In a statement accompanying the an- nouncement of the grants, the Minister said that he was “confident that these additional projects now being funded will help to build on the already significant awareness of the need to recycle and will further improve the levels of recycling throughout the country.”

FARMERS have received a stay of execution from an EU directive requiring them to have a prescription when obtaining animal medication that previously would have been available over the counter.

Late last week the Minister for Agriculture and Food, Mary Coughlan, confirmed that she was finalising new regulations on veterinary medi- cines following consultation with the statutory Animal Remedies Consultative Committee and interested groups. This follows concern in the farming community that the EU directive would lead to huge increases in cost for farmers, who would require a vet for each prescription.

The Minister said that the new regulations will transpose aspects of the EU Medicines Directive while also amending aspects of existing national feat ETBTODee

The EU directive requires that all medicines for food producing animals should require a pre- scription but also contains a mechanism for ex- cluding certain medicines from that requirement. The EU has not yet decided on the medicines that will be granted this exemptions but it must do so

before January | of 2007.

In the interim, existing national prescription arrangements can remain in place. In essence, this means that most medicines currently avail- able without prescription will remain so until the 2007 deadline and farmers can continue to get these medicines in the normal way.

However, intramammaries that contain anti- biotics are highly unlikely to qualifying for ex- emption at EU level and consequently such medi- cines will become subject to prescription. It is hoped that the new deadline will allow further time to finalise arrangements for prescriptions to be written in the context of mastitis control programmes implemented by co-ops and avoid the prescription requirement applying to differ- ent products from varying dates.

‘IT am pleased that the Department has seen sense in holding back on the regulations,” said Clare County Councillor Michael Kelly (FF). “The proposal that only vets could prescribe drugs would add considerably to farmers work when they are already struggling to survive.”

‘Farmers are subject to the most stringent reg- ulations already and I have not seen one shred of evidence of how the proposed new rules would

benefit the quality of our produce. At the same time we allow Brazilian beef into our country ev- enthough foot and mouth is in existence there.”

“However, it 1s essential to treat cows with in- tramammaries at the time of infection,’ he fin- ished.

Meanwhile, because of the temporary suspen- sion of the farm medicine directive the prospect of allowing people other than vets to write pre- scriptions has also been shelved. However, the Minister stated that this option could come back on the table in the future if requires.

A number of measures have also been put in place in an attempt to lower the cost to farm- ers. These include a removal of the requirement for mandatory farm visits by vets prior to writ- ing a prescription, the extension of the life of a prescription from the current 31 days up to six months and the introduction of a new require- ment on vets to issue written prescriptions 1n all or one

In addition, according to the regulations pre- scriptions must now indicate at least two prod- ucts where a suitable alternative was available in order to give farmers more choice as to the appropriate product.

MILLIONAIRE movie star and accomplished pilot John Travolta jetted into Shannon Airport on Thursday on board his private Boeing 707 jet which underwent a maintenance check before he con- tinued his journey to London Hea- throw late on Friday.

Mr Travolta, who recently turned down an opportunity to play the next James Bond, has been in Shannon at least three times this year and is thought to spend sev- eral thousand Euro annually on refuelling, landing charges and other services at the County Clare “bu oe a

On this occasion, the star’s jet which he flies himself, was seen being towed from a maintenance hangar at the airport. While au-

thorities at Shannon are reluctant to speak about private visits to the airport, a source confirmed that “there was no problem with the jet, it was just a routine technical check.”

During his last visit to the region in May, Travolta and his entourage, comprising as many as twenty four people, stayed at Adare Manor for a number of days. The wealthy ac- tor is known to have played several rounds of golf during his stay. Last March the star made a brief refu- elling stop while returning from a movie premiere in London on what have now become regular stopo- (ouSe

Travolta does not often enter the main terminal but usually parks his aircraft 1n a more remote area of the airport where he is “handled” by a private company. On this oc- casion however, the star mingled

with passengers in the departures lounge before boarding the jet.

The stars 40 year old jet parked at stand 37 at the airport’s main terminal building where it was refuelled. The superstar’s Boeing 707-138, appropriately registered N707JT, was first built in 1964 for Australian Airline Qantas and still retains the airlines old livery. Tra- volta purchased the jet from Qan- tas six years ago.

Plane mad Travolta, who named his son Jett, earned his wings in 1974 and also owns a Gulfstream II jet. He bought an airport near Ocala Florida and built a home right next to the 7,500-foot run- way. His Boeing 707 is equipped with bedrooms, a recreation room and three dining areas. The avid aviator 1s also accompanied on his transoceanic flights by two other captains and an engineer.

SCARIFF people campaigning for 24-hour am- bulance cover for their area are bitterly disap- pointed that Health Minister, Mary Harney, has refused to meet them.

The group had planned to send a deputation to present the Tanaiste with a petition containing thousands of signatures, calling for 24-hour am- bulance cover for Scariff and surrounding areas.

But when asked in the Dail whether she would meet members of the newly-formed group, Min- ister Harney said that in her view, “any request for a meeting in relation to this matter would be appropriately addressed to the Executive.”

Group members have vowed not to give up, and are now planning the next move in their campaign to provide cover between 7pm and midnight, the time when the ambulance is without a crew.

‘We are very disappointed but we are not going to stop now,” said Cora Long, one of the founder members of the group.

“At the first meeting we had, it was said that everyone deserves the same quality of health care, whether they live in a city or in a rural area and that is true. We had bargained on being able to put our case to the Minister, but if she won’t meet us we will just find another way to progress,” said Ms Long.

The group is now calling another meeting for this Thursday to decide what the next move should be.

“We will open it up for ideas and we will have to put our thinking caps on but we won’t go away. Accidents happen between 7pm and midnight, and that is the reality,’ said Ms Long.

The group was formed after locals experienced difficulties in getting an ambulance to come to a

fatal house fire in June while last month, a seri- ously injured motorcyclist lay in pain for almost an hour waiting for an ambulance after a crash. Meanwhile, Fine Gael TD, Pat Breen, has called for the Minister “to stop ducking her re-

sponsibilities. Increasingly, the Minister is pass- ing the buck to the Health Service Executive when questioned on health issues. Every time a parliamentary question is submitted, she replies that the responsibility lies with the HSE.”

AT a consultation meeting held at stately Carnelly House last Thursday, Ray Kelliher, Managing Director of Dublin-based developers Master Group, outlined his company’s €50m proposal for the development of Ire- land’s first retirement village, on the 75 acre grounds of Carnelly House, just outside Clarecastle.

The planning application to develop the village, replete with 120 houses of various sizes, 35 apartments and a 64 bed retirement home, will be lodged

imminently with Clare County Coun- cil. Plans include the restoration of the existing, stunning Georgian prop- erty, as well as the build of additional accommodation. The ambition is to house 300 residents within the ‘vil- lage’. If planning is granted by early 2006, Master Group will have the vil- lage up and running in 2007, with the creation of 100 jobs.

The retirement village will include facilities such as a leisure centre with 12 metre pool and a specially equipped gym. The restored mid- 18th century Carnelly House, which was designed

by the Irish Palladian architect, Francis Bindon, will be used as a country club for the enjoyment of village residents with library, meeting rooms, snooker rooms, card rooms and other facilities, while a club bar and restaurant will be sited in the restored stables.

Ray Kelliher, Managing Director of Master Group, said, “the retirement vil- lage concept has long been established in the United States, Australia, New Zealand and Scandinavia and more recently in the UK. “The proposal at Carnelly envisages houses and apart- ments in a mature wooded setting, us-

ing the main house and courtyard as the pivotal hub”.

Kelliher further stated, ““our ethos will be governed by the safety, comfort, dignity and medical welfare of all our residents. This retirement village will be operated to the highest standards with 24-hour nurse on call, alarms fit- ted to each home, on-site cardiac am- bulance and 24-hour security”.

Carnelly House, the former home of the late Dermot and Rosemary Glee- son was snapped up by Master Group, when it went on the market earlier this year, after a nation-wide trawl seeking

an ideal location for this innovative project.

“Carnelly Hall the perfect location for a retirement village. It’s close to hospital facilities at Ennis and Limer- ick, to provide the necessary back-up, to the on site medical support facilities and it is easily accessed from Shannon Airport, Ennis, Limerick and Galway. The grounds are spacious and mature with woodlands and walkways, pro- viding a tranquil setting for a relaxed and healthy lifestyle for your future residents”.