Month: September 2007

ALMOST 63 per cent of the popula- tion of Shannon is in the labour mar- ket, according to figures released by the Central Statistics Office.

65 per cent of the Sixmilebridge population is working, while 58 per cent of those in Newmarket-on-Fer- gus are earning.

The labour force participation fig- ures, which have just been published, outline details of the results of the Census of Population, compiled in April 2006.

The figures show that 62.74 per cent of those aged 15 and over in Shan- non were in the labour force. This compares with Swords and Finglas

in Dublin, which recorded the highest proportion of people in the workforce nationally, at 75.3 per cent.

Of the 7,319 people in that age cat- egory living in the town, 3,737 were males and 3,582 females. 4,592 work — 2,673 males and 1,919 females.

61 people were looking for their first regular job, while 369 were un- employed. 655 people were students, while 726 were looking after their homes or their families. 601 people were retired, while 292 were unable to work, due to permanent sickness or disability. 23 people marked ‘other’ as the category that suited them best.

The vast majority of people living in Shannon are employees (4,225). 362 people are employers, five people as-

sist relatives.

2,379 of the employees are male, while 1,846 are female. 290 of those in the ‘employer’ category are male, with the remaining 72 female.

Of the 369 in the ‘unemployed’ category in Shannon, 22 are aged be- tween 15 and 19; 51 are aged between 20 and 24; 104 are between the ages of 25 and 34; 72 are aged between 35 and 44, while 66 are aged 55 and over. 213 of those unemployed are male, while 156 are female.

The figures also show statistics for Sixmilebridge and Newmarket-on- Fergus. They show that 1,268 people aged 15 and over lived in Sixmilebri- dge at the time of the census. 828 of those (65 per cent) were ‘at work’.

Eight people were seeking their first jobs, while 54 people were un- employed. There were 112 students, while 133 people were looking after homes or families. 72 were retired, while 60 people were unable to work, due to sickness or disability.

In Newmarket-on-Fergus, 58 per cent of those aged 15 and over were ‘at work’. There were 1,267 people in this age category living in the vil- lage, 740 of who were working. Four people were looking for their first job, while 57 were unemployed. 129 people were students, while 126 were looking after homes or families. 151 people were retired, while 56 were unable to work, due to various rea- sons.

THE organisers of Kilkee’s Cois Fharraige festival are preparing to run the doomed surfing competition within the next few weeks.

The summer weather conditions did not favour the short board com- petition, which was planned as part of the weekend.

Hailed in its conception as Ire- land’s first surf and music festival the three-day event was to include surf- ing competitions at the picturesque Doughmore beach.

Now organisers Sony Ericsson are hoping to hold the surfing element in Spanish Point when the surf condi- tions are more favourable.

Meanwhile Sony Ericsson has de- clared a “major success”.

Up to 5,000 music fans soaked up the sunshine and enjoyed a three-day music extravaganza with a differ- ence.

“The festival’s stellar line up, which included performances from Fun Lovin’ Criminals, Ocean Col- our Scene, Paddy Casey, Badly Drawn Boy, Roisin Murphy, Newton

Faulkner, The Enemy, Republic of Loose, The Blizzards and Majella Murphy to name but a few, ensured a phenomenal demand for tickets and a sell-out in its first year,” a spokes- person said.

“Cois Fharraige is not just a music festival, it’s a cultural music festival – an amalgamation of sea culture and music.

“There was a family friendly at- mosphere all weekend as music fans enjoyed sunbathing and swimming on Kilkee beach, craic agus ceol in local pubs and a carnival atmosphere

on the streets of Kilkee not to men- tion great bands in the Cois Fhar- raige Kayham tent.”

Colin Williamson from Sony Eric- sson said, “Cois Fharraige has ex- ceeded our expectations.

‘The music weekend has been a great success, the carnival atmos- phere was brilliant and the crowd were very chilled out and well be- haved.

“We are thrilled with the feedback we have had from the PJ Linnane, Mayor of Kilkee, local businesses and festival goers.”

CURRACH rowing is enjoying a revival in Quilty village as the local currach-rowing club and Leon Com- mittee make the final preparations for the Leon XIII Festival.

Starting on September 28 the fes- tival will celebrate the bravery of the local men who rescues the crew of the stricken Leon XIII 100 years ago.

Members of the local rowing club began training off Seafield at the beginning of summer in hopes of winning at least one race during the weekend long festivities.

Under the guidance of John Downes and trainers from West Clare Cur-

rach Club, several racing crews have formed to help fly the Quilty flag in the upcoming Leon Regatta.

The training regime has been given an added boost with the recent acqui- sition of a new racing currach, which will be in action during the Leon Re- gatta starting in Quilty village at 4 pm on Sunday, September 30.

This regatta will bring together teams from all over Clare to compete in the heats and finals of three main events – The Mixed Open, The Leon Trophy Men’s Open and the Wom- en’s Open Event.

Regattas were a feature in Quilty village up until the late 1950s and the rowing club and festival organis- ers plan to host the Leon Regatta on

an annual basis starting this year.

“Regatta Sunday” will commence with a special commemoration Mass in Star of the Sea Church in Quilty at 12pm.

Incorporating new musical compo- sitions created for the occasion, the Mass will be followed by open-air set dancing in Quilty village starting at 2pm.

Many people from the area now living abroad are planning to return to Quilty for the festival and the Regatta will certainly bring back fond memories to locals and visitors who remember the last occasions on which currach racing events were held in the village.

Beginning with the opening cere-

mony and unveiling of commemora- tive plaque at 6pm on Friday evening September 28, a full programme of events is planned for the festival weekend.

For further information, please take away one of the free programme fly- ers available locally or contact Agnes on 087 1355738 or Caroline on 087 2194541 for details.

A KILRUSH town councillor has questioned central governments pri- orities when it comes to providing essential services to the people of west Clare.

Cllr Marian McMahon Jones (FG) said that by law the people of Kil- rush are entitled to a public lavatory, but a laboratory for the nearest acute hospital does not seem to be a neces- sity.

The Kilrush town councillor also questioned why a busy Accident and Emergency service and a mammog- raphy unit was not considered a ne-

cessity, when an under utilised public toilet was an essential requirement.

“You are entitled to a lavatory but not a laboratory,” she said.

Cllr McMahon Jones was compar- ing the stark realities of government policies that threatens 24-hour Ac- cident and Emergency Care at Ennis General Hospital and the closure of the busy laboratory at the hospital.

“You are not entitled to breast screening in Ennis because the government could not be bothered spending money on it,” she said.

In contrast a public toilet must be provided in Kilrush town, at a cost of €34,000, according to Cllr McMa-

hon Jones.

This public amenity is underused and brings in just €2,000 to the council coffers every year.

This is €32,000 of taxpayers mon- ey going down the toilet according to the annoyed councillor.

It is compulsory for the super loo to be provided by local authorities, whether or not it is covering its own cost when people spend a penny.

“We are entitled to a public toilet, paid for by the tax payers, but we are not entitled to a mammography unit paid for by the people of Clare, an A&E, a laboratory, or even a basic hospital,” she said.

“You will not have a hospital in 20 months time, but don’t worry you will have a toilet – at great expense to the taxpayer,” she warned.

Cllr McMahon Jones has been sup- ported by her council colleagues in her call for Minister for Health Mary Harney and CEO of the HSE Professor Brendan Drumm to be in- formed of the councils concerns at the withdrawal of breast screening services and laboratory facilities at Ennis General Hospital. A second letter, proposed by Cllr Deirdre Cul- ligan (Ind) is asking for clarification from Proff Drumm as to the future of A&E at the county hospital.

THE west Clare capital has seen much prosperity and development according to the Tidy Town judges.

So impressed were the judges with Kilrush they gave the Heritage town 49 marks out of 50 for its overall de- velopment.

The majority of the infrastructural improvements were in keeping with the original landscape according to the judges, but such development had come at a small price.

While Kilrush secured almost maximum marks in all categories to secure a gold medal in the hotly contested tidy towns competition, tidiness remained an issue receiving just six marks out of 30.

“There is still a major amount of construction work going on in Kil- rush and in the environs. This leads to messy site areas and developers

should be encouraged to keep these areas as tidy as possible,’ said the adductors, who were also aware of the hard work of the local people in keeping their area tidy.

“Outside of the above there is goodwill on the part of the local community to contribute to keeping areas immediate to their properties in good condition and free from Itt- ter and weed growth.”

The judges were full of praise for the hard working tidy towns com- mittee especially in its efforts to mobilise people to contribute to the aeue

They paid tribute to the built envi- ronment of the town with its many attractive shop fronts and well pre- sented public buildings.

The standard of the landscape was described as excellent.

“The visual effect of colourful hanging baskets, window boxes, nu-

merous potted planting and roadside planting was exceptional,’ the judges said, who agreed that the planting undertaken throughout the town if of benefit to the wildlife of the area.

“The interesting Cappa Pier area and the Millennium Bridge Amenity are all suitable for wildlife conserva- tion. The Heritage Council will help you to identify wildlife pockets in the area,’ the judges told the Kilrush Loyeabasnianeron

The town of Kilrush has its litter under control according to the judges – “a testament to the great work of the committee 1n advancing the mes- sage of good litter control”.

Kilrush received an amazing 19 out of 20 marks under the “waste minimisation” category, loosing a mark for the “poor condition” of the recycling centre on the Plouzane Car Ane

“Evidence of bottles, boxes, rub-

bish bags were left by the recycling centre. This situation needs to be ad- dressed,’ said the judges.

Private residental areas were sin- gled out for praise, as were the roads, streets and back areas and all en- trances to the town.

“Kilrush has made great strides in the National Tidy Towns Com- petition to date. Despite its major transformation over the last number of years it retains its rural/maritime character. We look forward to even further progress in the competition,” said the judges.

CLARE County Council is to circu- late a questionnaire to every house in Ballyvaughan over the com- ing weeks, asking the local people for their opinions on how the town should be developed in the future.

That was one of the major decisions arising from a public meeting hosted by the local authority at the Burren College of Art in Ballyvaughan last Veto

The meeting, which was chaired by

Risteard Ua Croinin, conservation officer for Clare County Council, was an introductory public meeting hosted in preparation for the creation of a Village Design Statement for Ballyvaughan.

“It was a very positive meeting. There was a great turnout and we heard a lot of relevant concerns from the Ballyvaughan people, mostly about the local infrastructure. Eve- rything that was said was very posi- tive,’ said Ua Croinin.

“One of the major issues raised was

about water and the quality of water in Ballyvaughan. They were prob- ably the most controversial areas. There were also worries raised about the capacity of the sewerage system in Ballyvaughan and the density of future developments.” Ballyvaughan, along with Carriga- holt in west Clare, has been selected by Clare County Council’s Planning Policy Unit as an ideal candidate for this initiative due to its size and loca- tion. The project will be undertaken by officials of the Planning Policy

Unit in line with a series of public consultation workshops and meet- ings with local interested individu- als and groups. The unit will also be seeking the input of local public representatives at these meetings and workshops.

“The opinions of the local people will have a huge impact on how this policy is formed. This is a plan that will be developed by the local people and treated by the council as a Local Area Plan,” continued Ua Croinin.

“We didn’t get to address all the is-

sues on the table so there will be an- other meeting in the coming weeks. It was decided to circulate a ques- tionnaire to all the local people and we decided exactly what questions to ask at the meeting. The question- naire should be circulated locally in the coming weeks.”

Clare County Council hopes to ad- dress a number of issues during the drafting of the Ballyvaughan Village Design Statement, including the pro- tection and conservation of impor- tant buildings.

Despite the uncertainty surrounding the future of Shannon Airport, ten per cent of Munster employers ex- pect to recruit more workers by the end of the year, according to the lat- est Manpower Ireland survey.

This is the most optimistic figure of all regions nationwide and shows a three per cent increase 1n quarter- over-quarter results. In year-over- year comparisons, Munster also saw a four per cent increase and was the only region which reported an 1m- provement in year-over-year com- parisons.

Nationally only 12 per cent of Irish employers say they expect to hire

more people during the fourth quar- ter of 2007. These results are down a disappointing eight per cent on the corresponding quarter for last year and down three per cent on the Q3 results for 2007. The survey also shows that seven per cent of Irish em- ployers expect to reduce their work- force while 81 per cent anticipate no change over the coming quarter.

Conducted quarterly, the Man- power Employment Outlook Survey measures employers’ intentions to increase or decrease their work- forces over the forthcoming quarter. Ireland’s Net Employment Outlook for the final quarter of the year is just five per cent, down six percentage points from Q3 2007.

NEWS of massive investment in wa- ter and sewerage schemes in Clare is ‘bad news dressed up as good”, as there will be a massive shortfall in funding which the council will have to meet, it was claimed last night.

At a meeting of Clare County Council, Cllr Martin Lafferty (Ind), asked for clarification on how much the council was expected to contrib- ute to anumber of important schemes which have been granted funding in the county.

He was told that the shortfall would be in the order of €23 million.

‘This is bad news dressed up as good. The Government is not bring- ing in a proper financial basis for local authorities. They are making councils collect up the money for these schemes themselves,” he said.

Cllr Richard Nagle (FF) called for the council to “write to the minister to point out what an intolerable bur- den this puts on this local authority”.

Cllr Madeleine Taylor-Quinn(FG) said that on average, Clare County Council was being asked “to pay 60

per cent of the cost of these schemes. Where are we going to find that?”

Mayor of Clare, Patricia McCarthy (Ind) said that the council was facing a “very serious issue in going from a situation where Government fund- ing was 100 per cent to a place where we re being asked to pay nearly fifty nea Ae

In the case of one scheme, we are being asked for more than 90 per cent of the cost. We can’t expect peo- ple on the ground to pay for this.”

Green Party councillor, Brian Meaney described the announce- ment as “disappointing”.

He said he had spoken with Min- ister John Gormley twice and “out- lined the feelings of the council on DONIC OOF IA Kosa

He added that when he spoke to the minister last Thursday, he “assured me that he is going to reappraise the situation with allocations he will make next year and I will be follow- ing through with him on that”.

Councillors agreed they would write to the minister to express their concern about the effect the alloca- tions will have on council finances.

PLANNERS have been accused of “flying in the face of their own poli- cy” in relation to the granting of per- mission to mobile phone operators to erect masts.

Councillor Cathal Crowe (FF) said at a meeting of Clare County Coun- cil last night that he could not under- stand the mechanisms behind many of the permissions granted.

Referring to a presentation made to the council the previous week by an official of O2, the councillor said that

he was told “that there is a four mile radius coverage from these masts.”

Yet in many places, the masts are going up in clusters. In Meelick there are up to five in a one-mile area.”

Cllr Crowe said the frequency with which masts are given planning per- mission “flies in the face of the coun- cil’s policy on co-location”.

The councillor said it was “impos- sible to understand some of the per- missions given.

“In the case of Coolderry, a 70 ft mast is not considered to be visually obtrusive yet and ordinary dwelling

house in the same location is refused permission on grounds of being visu- PO RYAcO)0 10 UU Aone

Seconding the motion, Cllr Pat Hayes (FF) said there “has to be consistency here, particularly con- cerning these masts being visually obtrusive.

“It opens another issue entirely. More often than not an Bord Plean- nala overturns our inspector’s re- ports and this is something we have no input into.”

Officials told the meeting that each planning application is “dealt with

on it’s own merits, having regard to the site and the application”.

Cllr Crowe said he wanted “‘a justi- fication on how a a 6/0 foot mast is considered appropriate when a nor- mal dwelling isn’t. We need to start refusing some of these applications if we have any care at all for the people of this county.”

In a separate discussion on plan- ning matters, Cllr PJ Kelly (FF) told the meeting that people who were born and have lived all their lives in the county are having difficulty with permission because they cannot

prove they have been resident here for ten years.

“If someone is applying to build for the first time and they are living with their parents, how can they prove they satisfy the local rural person rule if they have no utility bills in their name because their parents pay the bills?” the councillor asked.

He also challenged the practice of insisting that people prove they have lived in Clare for the last ten years.

“If someone is a guest of the nation in Mountjoy for 18 months then they lost their status,” he said.

IN A BLOW to the Clare County Board’s plans to move out of Cusack Park to a purpose-built 42 ,000-seater Stadium, councillors from the Ennis area have decided not to rezone the existing ground for mixed-use devel- opment.

The rezoning of the park for com- mercial and residential uses is vital for the move to go through.

It is understood that one of the country’s most successful builders, Lisdoonvarna man Bernard McNa- mara of Michael McNamara and Company, and local developers, Sean Lyne and Noel Connellan, are the

GAA’s preferred bidders to exchange Cusack Park for the new stadium on the Quin Road in Ennis.

However, their €30 million pro- posal involves constructing a shop- ping centre on the site of Cusack Park which would require its rezon- ing into commercial use.

In January of last year, when the consortium announced its plans, a spokesman pointed out, “Planning permission for the construction of the new stadium in the Quin Road area and a shopping centre at the ex- isting Cusack Park is required before the proposal can be implemented.”

However, Cllr Frankie Neylon confirmed yesterday that council-

lors from the Ennis area were of the view that Cusack Park should not be rezoned. The item came up for dis- cussion through the review of sub- missions for the Ennis and Environs Development Plan.

The County Board did not make a Submission. Instead, the discussion arose from a submission from Paul O’Sullivan of Maddens_ Terrace, Clarecastle.

In his submission, Mr O’Sullivan said that Cusack Park should be re- tained as a people’s park.

Cllr Neylon, who has been a vocal opponent of the County Board plant to sell off the site to developers, said that the decision by councillors not

to rezone the park was unanimous.

He said, “It was made very clear at the meeting by the elected members that the park should stay as 1s.”

Cllr Neylon added, “I am still of the view that Cusack Park 1s part-owned by the people of Ennis.”

It is understood that the issue was discussed over two meetings as coun- cillors were anxious that their in- structions to planning officials ruled out the possibility of commercial use of the property.

It will still be open to the GAA to make a submission on the future use of the park when the draft Ennis and Environs Development Plan is pub- lished shortly.