Month: July 2007

PLANNING issues once = again threatened to overshadow last night’s meeting of Clare County Council with councillors engaging in a half hour long shouting match about plans to conduct an audit of planning pro- cedures at the local authority.

Following a heated debate in coun- cil chambers, it was decided that a cross party committee would meet before the next meeting of Clare County Council and draw up the boundaries in which an audit could take place.

Concerns were raised by council- lors as to whether an audit was the best way to proceed and also if any audit could be completed before the next local election.

“I could say to the county manager he doesn’t need any audit, I could bring him in the car up to north Clare and show him houses built that should not have been built.

“T’m all for change in the planning process but we have been promised this over and over again,” said Cllr Martin Lafferty (Ind).

Clare’s planning authority was de- scribed as being “an emergency situ-

ation” by north Clare Cllr Michael Kelly (FF) while Labour’s Pascal Fitzgerald raised fears that the audit would take in excess of two years to complete and that the coulcil was “going around in circles’ on the is- sue.

Responding to these remarks, May- or Patricia McCarthy (Ind), said that no planning files would be ommited from the investigation by the auditor.

“The purpose of the audit is not to pick which cases to examine and which ones not. Every file would be examined by a specific person and that person would give us a report,’

she said.

“At least we will have something solid to talk about. An academic would quickly be able to look through the system and find out if files were missing.

“We need to try and find a balance between what the elected members and the planning officials are saying.

‘However, I did not say that all discussions on planning would stop while this was going ahead.”

Delegates are now to be chosen for an eight person cross-party commit- tee to decide how the audit will oper- a1 Ken

PEOPLE who live in rural areas all their lives are being turned into urban dwellers who can’t get permission to build homes, it has been claimed. Speaking on a motion he tabled for last night’s county council meeting, Cllr Joe Arkins(FG) said that people, “who have been brought up and lived their lives in rural areas, surrounded by green fields are being urbanised because this council has drawn a line around their homes and re-zoned.” The councillor wanted the county

development plan interpreted as, he Said, was discussed with a former senior planner, to ensure that people who enjoyed the status of local rural person status should not have that status “eliminated by virtue of re- zoning the area of their birth”’.

The councillor said that much of the land which had been rezoned “will not be developed in the lifetime of this plan. Meanwhile, sites are sell- ing for figures that resemble foreign mobile phone numbers. It’s virtually impossible to buy a site.”

Councillors supported the motion

and detailed how people who had lived in the country could not now get planning permission to build if they wanted to build even a few hun- dred yards down the road.

Cllr Cathal Crowe (FF) described it as, “absurd that a person can have a line drawn around them and be told they are urban when all around them are green fields”.

Cllr Madeleine Taylor Quinn (FG) said that when the council had origi- nally discussed the issue “we were conscious of people coming in and buying up land. Now we have a situ-

ation where local rural people are be- ing actively discriminated against.”

In a reply to the councillors motion, planners said that the result of doing as the councillors had asked would be “to remove any need for any land- owner to show they have current links with the rural community.”

Replying at the meeting, senior planner John Bradley said that what councillors had asked of planners in the past was “to be consistent”.

“You don’t want us flip-flopping. You want to see consistency in deci- sions,” he said.

A 55-YEAR-OLD man has been found guilty of making more than 8,000 nuisance phone calls to the garda emergency line in Ennis, over a five-month period.

Eddie Kirby, of Glenoir, St Senan’s Road, Ennis, was found guilty by a jury on nine charges, at Ennis Circuit Court on Friday. However, the trial judge indicated he was not likely to jail him.

Kirby admitted making the calls between October 2004 and March 2005. However, he argued that he suffered from a paranoid delusional disorder at the time.

The trial was told that on one oc-

casion, Kirby threatened to carry out a public hanging on public property. He was asked who was to be hanged and he said himself. During another phone call he made a reference to “corrupt gardai”.

On another occasion, he told gardai he had a rope around his neck. Each time, a garda car was dispatched but did not get any response.

The majority of the calls were made late at night and during some of the conversations, Kirby was abusive and often appeared drunk. His calls regularly clogged up the emergency line and he was told to stop ringing the 999 or 112 emergency numbers but continued to do so.

“Some nights the whole night was

taken up answering calls to this in- dividual, just ringing and ringing and ringing,’ Sergeant Michael Ha- ran told the trial. A log was set up at Ennis Garda Station where the calls were tracked.

Kirby’s barrister Michael Fitzgib- bon said, “This poor man has an ob- sessive compulsion.”

He said the accused was “not a bad man. He’s a misguided man. It’s not his fault. He suffers from this ill- ness.”

Kirby’s psychiatrist Dr John O’Mahony said that in his opinion the calls had been motivated by his condition. “He has a_ personality structure that’s of a paranoid nature. He feels that figures of authority and

other people conspire against him or do him harm,” he said.

He said another psychiatrist con- cluded that Kirby was “like a ter- rier with a bone. Once he gets it, he won’t let it go.”

Kirby told the court he was “very sorry he had to go to that extreme to try to express” himself through his phone calls to Ennis Garda Station.

He said he was abused by a farmer, when he was aged 11.

He made a complaint to gardai in Limerick, but the DPP directed that no prosecution be taken. He said he was sorry he ever made that com- plaint.

He told the trial he was socialising in Galway in 1997, when he was as-

saulted by aman who put his “fist into my mouth and burst three crowns.”

He made a complaint to gardai about that, but was upset that nobody was held accountable and admitted he was “obsessed” about it.

In his closing speech, Judge Sean O Donnabhain told the jury, “If you believe the defendant was entirely delusional or partially delusional, you have to give him the benefit of the doubt.”

The jury found Kirby guilty on all charges. Judge O Donnabhain ad- journed sentencing until a later date, but said he did not believe a prison term would be appropriate.

‘IT don’t see any merit in imposing a custodial sentence,’ he said.

And so it’s finally about to come to pass. Clare versus Galway. And the real thing too, not a league game forgotten about once it’s over, but a championship encounter with much at stake.

Bragging rights for one, between the two neighbouring counties. That’s always there anytime Clare and Galway meet, but this time it’s a little bit different. It’s all to do with Ger Loughnane, and Tony Considine

too.

Whether they like it or not, eyes will be fixed on Ger Loughnane and Tony Considine. As much as it’s Clare v Galway, it’s Ger v Tony. Two golfing buddies who once stood shoulder to shoulder in the salad days of Clare hurling.

Now, they could go shoulder to shoulder as they occupy different worlds. Loughnane trying to build a team to deliver an All-Ireland to Gal- way. And as Loughnane said him- self, “If within two years we haven’t

it done, we will be a failure here. Our eroup will be a failure. It will be time to get somebody else.

“But I don’t aim to be a failure — I don’t even contemplate that word failure. I never contemplated in my life in any area. I have a total belief that despite the huge task that’s out there, the huge competition, that our eroup — the players, county board, management and supporters can be successful in that two years.”

Considine wasn’t talking All-Ire- lands on his first day, but talking suc-

cess at the same time: “I think Clare are up there with the best of them but there’s no point being up there with the best of them. You have to be the best,” he said when assuming office.

It means something has to give — for the victors the likelihood is that they’ll have the easier of the All-Ire- land quarter-final. That means safer passage to the All-Ireland semi-final, where the All-Ireland is only a game AeA

That’s what Loughnane and Con- sidine are aiming for, for Galway

and Clare respectively, but for them- To AVone

All because, it’s all about them, even if Considine was quick to re- mark after the victory over Antrim “it’s not about Tony Considine or Ger Loughnane, none of us are going to hit a ball. It’s going to be done by the two teams. It will be down to them.”

Tony Considine and Ger Loughnane will puck every ball with their teams though. They wouldn’t have it any other way, as their two tribes go to eve

TONY CONSIDINE was drinking furiously from a small plastic bottle that contained one of those pro-biot- ic potions. Danone Actimel it was — strawberry or blackberry in flavour.

Thing is, the lifelong and devoted non-drinker could have been forgiv- en if this particular potion contained a thimble or two of Bushmills’ finest whiskey. Some malt even.

All because this hurling game was thirsty and stressful work and with each pro-biotic swig Considine was restoring some normal service and colour to his cheeks. His words be- trayed this — his team had just en- dured a rocky ride before securing the win.

“Relieved,” he says in the Case- ment Park corridor outside Clare’s dressing room. “They’re the words. Relieved, because we were on a hid- ing to nothing coming up here. To win was great. They put it up to us for a very long time.

“You can see that Antrim are no bad team. They’re well able to hurl and I was a happy man when Gilly buried that ball. It was looking dicey there for a while. I only relaxed when Gilly put that ball away.

“We said at half-time that there was going to be a period in the second half when we were going to have to really battle. They came at us and we showed a bit of character. It was the most important game I’ve had since being manager of Clare. It looked scary at times but 3-21 isn’t a bad score, no matter who you’re playing,” adds Considine.

Another swig of his pro-biotic po- tion, before Considine nods in the direction of Galway in Cusack Park. “The win colours up everything,” he says “and we know we still have a lot to do because we’re up against a good team next week.”

Then back to Antrim: “A win was important here, going home with the two points. If it was two points to one, we’d have been happy enough.

You could say that we were in trouble but they held on.

‘“Boc (Brian O’Connell) was tre- mendous at midfield and took the game to them all through. Diarmuid McMahon got great scores. It’s lead- ership we wanted and they showed leadership. There were leaders all over the field. Gerry Quinn, Conor Plunkett and Brendan Bugler who gave a great display.

“It was also an apprenticeship for the lads that came in. Those lads are going to be involved with Clare when I’m long gone. That’s what the game is about. It’s not about managers and coaches — it’s about fellas coming on, young players coming on and fight- ing for the cause of the jersey.”

They’ fight on their backs on Sat- urday next. They’ll have to when two Eee Te MOF E aoe miele. qmsi ments game of the weekend.

A NEW survey by BT Ireland sug- gests that many Clare men and wom- en are living secret online lives visit- ing websites, but hiding it from their family and partners.

The survey of browsing habits claims that 10 per cent of Irish men and 7 per cent of Irish women hide the websites which they visit from their loved ones.

The survey revealed that seven per

cent of men hid the fact that they were viewing pornographic material online from their partners while only two per cent of women admitted to secretly visited adult websites. How- ever, two per cent of women admit- ted to buying clothes and other goods online without the knowledge of their partners. The survey was carried out

by BT Ireland during May. ‘This research has thrown up some really interesting findings,” said

Emer Kennedy, spokesperson for BT

Ireland. “While men and women are spending more and more time online and seem to share a lot of the same interests, they are also very different in terms of the amount of time spent on the internet, the sites they use and the things they buy.

“While the internet has clearly im- proved the quality of life of all those who use it regularly, it is interesting to see males and females developing different habits, many of which will be familiar to the growing number of

regular internet users in Ireland.” Almost 30 per cent of females ad- mitted to using networking sites such as Bebo and Myspace, twice the percentage of males using similar websites. Also 17 per cent of males and 13 per cent of females claimed to be secretly ashamed of things they had done on the internet with online gambling being one of the main rea- sons. According to the survey more than 80 per cent of Irish adults use the internet at least twice a week. It

also claims that 56 per cent of people use the internet every day, with a fur- ther 30 per cent of males and 26 per cent females using the internet every second day or twice weekly.

The research was carried out among a sample of 200 men and women over the age of 18. More than 44 per cent of those surveyed were between 18 and 24 years, 22 per cent were aged between 25 and 34 years, 18 per cent between 35 and 44 and the remainder were 45 years old and over.

that its architect was in Kilrush dur- ing the week to sign off on the fitting out of the building.

“The terms and conditions of the lease have been agreed and it is with the solicitors to be signed off,’ he nee

He said once the documents had been signed the OPW would be able to hand over the building. In the meantime, the remaining staff des- tined for the Kilrush office continue in their current assignments. The ten staff transferred from other depart- ments reported by prior arrangement to Kilrush on Monday week last.

‘As a temporary measure while Revenue is awaiting approval to oc- cupy the designated accommodation in Kilrush and due to the unavail- ability of suitable alternative accom- modation and facilities in Kilrush, these staff were allowed home,’ a spokesperson for the Revenue Com- missioners said.

“The position is under constant review in the light of on-going con- tact between Revenue and OPW,” he aXe Celoren

Revenue staff were expected to ar- rive in Kilrush on June 11, but the OPW said it had not put any date on the move. In total 70 civil servants will be employed in 50 positions in the Kilrush offices. Some of the staff will avail of part-time work or job sharing.

A third of them are believed to be coming from Ennis, another third from Limerick and one-third from Dublin.

Decentralisation of Government offices to Kilrush was first mooted in 2001 at a meeting chaired by Sena- tor Brendan Daly (FF). When con- tacted yesterday, Senator Daly said the delay was due to “bureaucratic lolenerca pustcaae

“This is most unsatisfactory for staff left in limbo for the last year or so, when this could have been expe- dited.”

THE number of US military person- nel going through Shannon Airport in the second quarter of this year increased by 135 per cent on the number that went through the airport between January and March.

According to figures published by the Shannon Airport Author- ity (SAA) yesterday, the numbers of troops that went through Shan- non from March to June was 63,827 with 27,104 passing through in May alone.

Some 27,070 US military person- nel went through the airport between January and the end of March.

According to the Executive Chair- man of the Shannon Airport Author- ity (SAA), Pat Shanahan, Shannon Airport outdoes all other airports in the world in terms of service levels for the various military carriers.

Last year, profits from the US mili- tary traffic kept the SAA in profit. 280,785 military personnel used the airport’s facilities, which was a drop of 17 per cent or 59,903 on the number that went through Shannon in 2005.

The airport made a profit of €9 mil- lion from the troop traffic in 2005. The profit last year is an estimated ae esneeleyee

“Shannon has a tradition of han- dling military traffic. We do it very well and we have the infrastructure to do so.

“Geographically, the airport is ide- ally located between the two great continents,’ said Mr Shanahan.

“It is a business we do very well. Obviously the ultimate decision is a Government decision. While there is a business opportunity we will certainly capitalise on it. Shannon captitalises on it more than airport that I know in the world in terms of friendliness and in terms of the serv- ice level we give the various carriers that operate that business.”

Asked would the authority be look- ing for additional military business, Mr Shanahan said, “We’re good at that business, but if opportunities come along, certainly, but it is not a business you can rely on or predict a certain level of income, it fluctuates oA AAW NCCU RA

“It is not a business we will basing our future on, but it is a reasonable revenue generating business when there is an opportunity to capitalise One

“It is not a predictable business, but it is a business that we are happy to be in 1f the Government is happy to allow the carriers to go through Shannon,” said Mr Shanahan.

concerning reports that a number of people had been sent to Sweden for treatment for a serious lung disease which could not be dealt with in this country.

The HSE spokesman said that he could only confirm that a female patient from Clare had been sent

abroad for treatment for a serious lung disease.

The spokesman said he could con- firm that one case had been referred abroad. He was not aware of any other cases and could not confirm reports that up to 13 people from the Clare area had been sent to the Swedish hospital or that one of these patients had subsequently died.

The HSE would not release any further information about the nature of the lung disease, nor could they say which part of the county the ill woman was from because of of pa- tient confidentiality.

AN UNCLE of stab victim Michael Doherty has been warned about his behaviour, following an incident out- side Ennis Courthouse on Friday.

The matter caught the attention of the judge, minutes after a young man charged in connection with the 14- year-old’s death appeared before the Children’s Court.

That case was dealt with in a matter of seconds shortly after 1lam and the accused left the court.

However, as other cases were being

dealt with, the judge noticed a group of people related to the deceased who had gathered outside the courthouse near a window. Some were speaking loudly.

Judge Joseph Mangan twice or- dered that the matter be addressed. He told the court garda to go out and “get people away from the window.”

The judge then noticed that a young man had jumped on a window sill and was peering into the courtroom. The lower glasses on the courtroom are frosted, but the upper panes of glass are transparent.

The judge pointed out that the Chil- dren’s Court was not open to the public and ordered that the man be brought before him.

The young man identified himself as Edward Sherlock. “Yes I jumped up on the window,’ he told the

judge.

Judge Mangan asked him, “Why did you do that?”

He replied, “My nephew was

stabbed. I’m here to see justice.” Judge Mangan warned him about

his behaviour. “If you don’t conduct

yourself Ill have you barred from

court when that case is at hearing again.”

The accused, a 17-year-old teenager who is charged in connection with Mr Doherty’s death, was remanded on continuing bail.

He 1s charged with production of an article capable of inflicting serious injury, at O’Connell Street, Ennis, on Saturday, June 23 last.

Superintendent John Scanlan of Ennis Garda Station applied for the case to be adjourned until September 28. Judge Mangan agreed to the ap- plication.