Month: February 2008

ARCHITECTURAL firms received significant Clare County Council payments to consultants last year.

The council paid such firms over €1m of the €4.9m which consultants received.

Yelland Architects Ltd received €213,400 which was the highest amount paid, according to figures which the council released in re-

sponse to a freedom of information request.

Murray O’Laoire Architects Ltd received €213,233, Byrne O’ Donnell Scully Architects received €142,924; Henry J Lyons and Partners received €89,190, Dermot and Sean Merry re- ceived €70,877 and Paddy Coleman and Associates received €44,955. All payments are inclusive of 21 per cent VAT.

Payments to architectural firms

would primarily relate to firms de- signing council housing schemes and reflects the upsurge in council house eluunCeuberee

The company that designed the award-winning Cliffs of Moher visitor centre, Cork-based Reddy O’ Riordan, Staehli was paid €63,779.

Regarding other payments to con- sultants Brendan McGrath and Asso- ciates received €42,580, PH McCa- rthy and Partners received €29,249,

Michael Leahy and Paul Conway received €26,961, while Brady Ship- man Martin received €12,298.

A number of engineering firms also received substantial council pay- ments. RPS MCOS Ltd, which car- ries out work at the local authority’s central landfill at Inagh, received €581,936. White Young Green (Irl) Ltd received €284,283, while Nicholas O’Dwyer and Partner re- ceived €241,325. John B Barry and

Partners received €192,557, while Mott McDonald Petit Ltd received € 147,179.

Farm Business Advisers Ltd re- ceived €284,283. Patrick J Tobin & Co Ltd received €138,556 while Er1- naceous Consult Services (Ire) Ltd received €134,394.

The council insists that the pay- ments are subject to various internal and external council and Department of Environment controls.

TOMMY Tiernan’s live shows gen- erate plenty of laughter, but when the comedian takes the stage in Ennis tomorrow night, it will be for a dif- ferent reason.

The Navan comic will be in The Old Ground Hotel as part of the ‘Living Faith in 2008’ series of Lenten talks, organised by the Franciscan Friars. The talk is due to start at 8pm.

The most successful Irish comedi- an of his generation, Tiernan’s shows are guaranteed sell-outs. His choice of material and his willingness to tackle difficult or taboo subjects so publicly have been criticised.

Part of his 2007 “OK Baby’ show dealt with integration in society, fo- cusing on people with Down Syn-

el Keyne ten

The jokes invoked the wrath of Liveline with members of Down Syndrome Ireland saying that some of the jokes had greatly upset them.

Tiernan said at the time that many of his friends with Down Syndrome had found the routine funny, and were happy to see the jokes form a central part of the show.

As well as Tommy Tiernan, two other talks are planned for the ‘Liv- ing Faith’ series.

William Reville,

has received a number of complaints from north Clare locals in recent days, concern- ing a section of the R479 which, they claim, is extremely dangerous.

The number of motorists using the road increased dramatically over the last six months since Clare County Council temporarily closed the main Ballyvaughan to Fanore route.

“The road in Fanore is very narrow and we need to preserve as much of the width of that road as possible.” said councillor, Martin Conway.

“I was in Fanore on Sunday and it would amaze you the amount of people who were there. There was a

lot of traffic there and access is the big issue. I reported it to the county council”

The local authority has just 10 days left to take action and improve access on the road, as they are prohibited from undertaking hedge-trimming work in the area during the bird mat- ing season from March | until Au- eau

Meanwhile, Doolin Search and Rescue was involved in two rescue

Operations in the north Clare area this weekend. A foreign national had a lucky escape after falling while walking outside of the official view- ing area at the Cliffs of Moher.

‘We made contact with the man and managed to winch him to safety. He was brought to the hospital where he was treated for minor injuries includ- ing a broken leg,’ said Matty Shan- non of Doolin Search and Rescue.

At 4.30pm that afternoon, a young

boy went missing while walking with his family in the Mullaghmore area in Corofin. The 12-year-old boy had been climbing with a number of family members when he became separated from the group.

The Doolin Search and Rescue was called to the scene but the boy was found and rescued before any major search effort was began.

The boy suffered no injuries in the incident.

HOUSE-BUYERS across Clare are facing massive hikes in house prices arising from contentious new Clare County Council charges.

Yesterday, council officials unveiled new draft proposals that would result in development levies increasing from less than €5,000 to €21,360, a 400 per cent rise.

House builders constructing homes on unzoned land who currently pay €4,180 will have to fork out a levy of €12,456 under the council’s Devel- opment Contribution Scheme 2008- 2011.

Those seeking to build holiday homes are facing a 300 per cent levy

increase from €9,500 to €27,050 per home.

The council imposed the levies on house builders to finance water, sew- erage, road and community infra- structure. They must be paid before houses are occupied.

The council is proposing the in- creases in order to raise €105 mil- lion to pay for new infrastructure across the county between 2008 and 2011, according to the draft docu- ment published yesterday,

The new charges came under fire yesterday. Ennis-based auctioneer, Philip O’Reilly describes the pro- posed hikes as “incredible”.

“This is a conspiracy against the first time buyer, builders, employers.

How are these figures justified when it takes six weeks to see a planner?”

At the council’s Special Policy Committee (SPC) for Planning yes- terday, Cllr Patrick Keane (FF) said, ‘These charges place on unfair bur- den on young couples wishing to construct a new home.

“IT can’t see why new home builders are the only ones to pay for roads and water where everyone will benefit.”

SPC chairman, Cllr Richard Nagle said, “I think that we are all agreed that the charges are unfair.

‘This is a policy foisted upon us by the Department of the Environment and its water pricing policy and they have passed the problem on to the council.”

Cllr Keane said that it was now important that the council came up with an alternative way to raise the money.

According to the draft document, €34 million has been collected in the existing scheme covering 2004 and 2007.

Senior council official Monica Meehan said that the proposed €12,456 charge for homes in un- zoned land would not apply in most cases as house builders would be covering water and sewerage costs themselves.

Cllr Nagle told the meeting that the charges would not be agreed at the SPC but would go before the coun- GIMME Kes mestccnnitee

ONE is every nine Clare rental prop- erties inspected by Clare County Council was found to be in breach of the Private Rented Dwelling Regula- tions, it was revealed at last night’s meeting of the local authority.

A further 25 rental properties were found to have “serious faults” by the Clare Fire Authority, with legal ac- tion being taking against a total of six landlords who failed to resolve potential fire hazards when warned by Clare County Council.

Only 434 rented properties were registered with the Clare County Council last year. Of these, 53 were

found to be in breach of the Rented Dwelling Regulations.

According to Fine Gael council- lor Joe Arkins, many Clare people on low incomes are afraid to report poor housing conditions to the local authority. The Ruan native claimed that there is a double standard of rents in Clare.

“There is a problem with the qual- ity and choice of rental accommo- dation in this county. In relation to apartments, we have two main types. Those for the well-heeled people who are moving onwards and up- wards and those for people on the breadline who live in places where they will take rent allowance,” said

CiUlr Arkins.

“This is another case where the de- partment is calling the tune but it 1s not prepared to pay the piper. We just do not have the money to carry out these inspections to a satisfactory standard.

‘The people who are not complain- ing about their apartments are those on the lower echelons of society, peo- ple who have a fear of losing their tenancy. We need to get the fund- ing so we can really put the wind up these landlords.”

The motion was seconded by Cllr Pascal Fitzgerald (Lab) who claimed that many landlords are not even on the council’s register.

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modations out there. There are land- lords there ripping off young single parents, people who don’t have an option but to live in these places. A lot of these landlords are not even on the register,” said.

Commenting on the motion, Cllr Martin Conway compared the cur- rent situation to that of Michael Dav- itt and the land wars.

“We are dealing with a culture of landordism in this country. Land- lords and absentee landlords, the same as Davitt rose up against. Some of what I witnessed in rented accom- modation would absolutely horrify any person. We need to up our game in terms of inspection.”

CLARE planning agents and archi- tects have been accused of profiteer- ing by drawing up plans for one off rural houses that have no chance of receiving planning permission.

The accusation came at last night meeting of Clare County Council Where Councillor Martin Lafferty (Ind) called on Clare people seek- ing planning to ensure that their sites fulfil basic planning requirements before they engage the services of an

architect.

“It has come to my notice that when a person decides to go building a house they go straight to an agent be- fore they do anything else,” said Cllr Poua

“In a lot of these cases some of the agents don’t tell them about the four basic issues in one off rural planning. Sight distance, percolation and de- sign and designation of the land.

“I find that a lot of people go to agents, get them to draw up plans and then they are told by the architects to

go to their local councillor to sort it out for them.

“If people who are out there look- ing to build a house, before they go for plans they should ask a few sim- ple questions.

‘They are going to the agents and architects and they are happy to take their money. Some agents are just drawing up their plans, collecting up their money and walking away.”

Cllr Curtin asked that a simple document be drawn up in which the basic conditions of planning in rural

areas be explained for any perspec- tive builders.

The motion was seconded for Cllr Pat Keane (FF) who said there was ‘a major problem” with the current system and joined in the calls for a single document to be produced which would aid people seeking to build in a rural area.

‘This document should outline all of the criteria that 1s required to pass these tests and it should be written in as simple a language as is possible,” he said.

GARDAI in Ennis are advising peo- ple to remain vigilant as enquiries continue into an ATM scam in En- nis.

An estimated €54,000 was stolen from bank accounts after a Bank of Ireland pass machine in Ennis town centre was used to copy the details of ATM cards.

The scam involved the installation in the bank machine of a tiny piece of electronic equipment called a skim- ming device which reads the specifi-

cations of installed ATM cards.

A small camera like those used in mobile phones was secured to the top of the machine to record individual PIN numbers as they were being en- ousee

The information from the skim- ming device was then used to make copies of the card. Gardai believe the bogus cards were used to with- draw sums of money from different accounts from locations around the mid-west.

Part of a skimming device was found on a pass machine in Ennis a

fortnight ago and several people had money taken out of their accounts.

A Garda spokesperson said enquir- ies were continuing and urged people to remain vigilant when using ATM machines.

He said, “Enquiries are ongoing at the moment. Quite a substantial amount of money was taken from a number of different bank accounts. The money would have been drawn out at different locations, in Kerry, Clare and Limerick. The information for the cards was taken from a pass machine in Ennis.”

He added, “The most important thing we would say to people is that they exercise caution when they are using ATM machines. In this case, the PIN number was recorded with a camera overhead. When people are using the machine they should block the keypad with their hands.”

He said that if people have concerns or notice anything suspicious at pass machines, they should report it 1m- mediately to gardai.

Three people are due to appear in court next week in connection with a similar ATM scam in Shannon.

has found that three mem-

bers of Clare County Council tabled

no notices of motion whatsoever at

monthly meetings of the local au- thority last year.

Cllr Patrick Keane (FF) and Cllr

Tony O’Brien (FF) tabled no motions during the 11 meetings of 2007. IIl- ness for much of last year prevented Cllr John “Mashen’ McInerney (FG) playing a significant role at meet- iba

Cur Tommy Brennan (Ind) tabled no motions on his own but he did ta- ble one joint motion during 2007.

The survey found that Cllr PJ Kelly (FF), as part of his crusade to reform planning in Clare, tabled the highest amount lodging 22 motions for the 11 meetings of last year. Others to score highly include Cllr Michael Kelly FF (18), Cllr Martin Lafferty Ind (17), Cllr Pat McMahon FF (17) and Cllr Steam Grane ecmeue?

The survey established that four councillors tabled less than five mo- tions in the year. They were Cllr Sonny Scanlan (FG) and Cllr Paul Murphy (FG) who lodged one mo- tion each, Cllr Bill Chambers (FF) who lodged two and Cllr Pat Daly (FF) who lodged three.

BY HIS own reckoning, this must be the year Galway deliver or his time across the border will be regarded as a failure. That Galway had enough in the tank to see off Clare on Sunday won’t send any tremors across the country, but condisering Cork’s cur- rent status, the time couldn’t be bet- ter for an attack on the super powers ome nlenabberee

Ger Loughnane come out of the dressing room on Sunday gushing about the present atmosphere in his new hurling home.

“It’s brilliant,” he says. “It com- pares to anything I have ever been involved in before. They want to suc- ceed. These are really, really great Feels

But there’s a proviso.

“T still think we need something defensively, someone like Ollie Can- ning. I still think he could do a great job for Galway. But I am delighted to see Ger [Farragher] back. I said

to them all in the dressing room that he’s an example to all of us. He spent all of last year on the sideline and was up in the stand for the All-Ire- land quarter-final against Kilkenny and never came on. He could have walked away or he could have sulked. We spoke to him last October. We told him the talent he had and what he had to work on. He worked so hard over the winter and you see the results out there today.”

Like his old colleague Mike McNa- mara, Loughnane also had an opin- ion on refereeing.

“The problem is you can do any- thing you want with your body but any little tap with a hurley and you’re going to get a yellow card. And when you’ve got one, then it’s very easy to get the second. Referees are under fierce pressure. I thought Seamus [Roche] applied the rules as they are now. It’s not Seamus or any other referee that’s at fault. It 1s the peo- ple that are making these rules. They are going to destroy the game com-

pletely if they keep going like that. There will be no physical contact in it whatsoever.

“Seamus did nothing wrong. He is going by the rules. He has some guy up in the stand watching him and he has to try and not lose too many points. I understand he starts off with 100 points and then they are deduct- ed as he goes along.”

Galway’s poor end to the game and Clare’s late flourish also left him dis- appointed.

“People will go away and say Gal- way, Jesus, they gave away all their scores in the last few minutes. This is One monkey we’ve got to get rid of and we’ve got to get rid of it in the league. We have to face someone when it’s level with ten minutes left and we’ve got to fight out of that situ- ation and win the game. Unless we do that, you can’t really say that Gal- way have arrived.”

THE four-point losing margin cer- tainly flattered Clare, but Mike Mc- Namara gladly took it at the end of his debut league game in charge. An- yway, the result wasn’t of concern to Clare on this day, because winning isn’t everything in the earliest days of McNamara’s time at the wheel.

ed WaTompushiUN mm c-h0 Me mao orsl mm peel oe)me- 001 me McNamara told a posse of reporters after the game. “We were looking for character in players more than any- thing else today. We’re new and we’re on the road now and were looking for character and I think we found it.

“We went a little disjointed when we went down to 14 men. It was a new team, with new boys. An expe- rienced team would be able to cope with a loss like that. We haven’t that experience yet.

‘I would be extremely pleased with the manner of the performance and the character of the players. We’ll have to accept that it’s going to take a while to get a team game going. Individual performances all over the field were quite good, but you have to accept with Clare going forward that it’s going to take a while to put the team effort in place and play as a team, particularly this year when we have no ball-play done at all,” added McNamara.

Character then is going to be the template of McNamara’s steward- ship — his thesis being that only by throwing players in at the deep end will character emerge. Give me the boy and I’ll make the man could be- come a byword for McNamara’s first season in charge.

“We spoke during the week that if we all came through unscathed it

would be a miracle. If you put six or seven debutants on a team and five come through unscathed, you have a ereat day’s work done,’ McNamara revealed.

“We can take a lot of positives from it. don’t know what we scored but 3- 15 (3-17) or whatever, with five lads playing in the forwards who didn’t play league before. It’s going to take time to generate team play, team spirit and a team itself.

“We’re down the road now, we’re up and running and we can only look forward to getting better everyday. I’d be very surprised if the perform- ances don’t increase and the tempo doesn’t increase in Clare hurling and that players, individually and collec- tively, will increase their perform- ances,” he added.

Starting with Laois in Cusack Park this Sunday.