Month: February 2008

THREE Romanian nationals have appeared in court charged in connec- tion with alleged criminal damage to a bank ATM in Shannon.

The two men and one woman were brought before Shannon District Court last Thursday where the men were remanded on custody and the woman was released on bail. One of the men is also wanted in Mullingar on foot of outstanding warrants.

The three were charged in connec- tion with an ongoing garda investiga-

tion into an alleged ATM skimming operation in Shannon, which could involve tens of thousands of euro.

Pavel Cirpaci (27) whose address is ‘unknown’ gave a false name to gardai when arrested. Garda Kieran Nash arrested the accused on Febru- ary 14, on foot of two warrants is- sued at Mullingar District Court in 2007. The accused told gardai that his name was Paul Negrea.

In evidence, Garda Martin Cham- bers of the Immigration Unit at Shan- non garda station said he carried out tests on an identification card which

the accused had in his possession and found it to be false.

He said he later established that the defendant’s name was Pavel Cirpaci and that he had arrived in Ireland in June 2005.

The court was told by the accused’s solicitor Steven Walsh that the de- fendant had voluntarily offered his real name at 12.45pm. While the garda confirmed this, Judge Joseph Mangan said that he was “not at all impressed that the defendant vol- unteered his real name at 12.45pm” more than an hour after court had

commenced.

Garda Nash also told the court the accused has had 13 bench previous bench warrants issued against him. While he also faces charges in Mull- ingar, he is charged with two counts of causing criminal damage to an ATM at Shannon Town Centre.

The second accused, Craciun Ca- vacio (23), claimed he lived at 21, Dominick Street, Dublin. However gardai could not confirm that the ac- cused lived there.

A third defendant, Ms Gabriella Lupo (20), also with an address in

Dublin and who was on bail from Gort District Court, gave evidence that Mr Cavacio lived at 21, Domin- ick St, Dublin, as he claimed. Asked by Inspector John Galvin how long he lived there, Ms Lupo said “a few rpetoyalee tne

When she was asked when Mr Ca- vacio left that address, she replied “December.”

Ms Lupo also faces one charge of criminal damage to an ATM ma- chine at Shannon Town Centre.

All three will re-appear in court later this month.

A COURT has heard that a young man who was carrying a _ baton dropped it as gardai arrived at the scene of a late night disturbance in /Syeyeb ay

William Roche of St Michael’s Villas, Ennis, and Colm Connick (31), of John Paul Park, Murlintown, Wexford, appeared in court arising out of an incident at 3am on October DePAUerE

Roche was charged with possession of a baton, while Connick was ac- cused of possession of a knife. Both pleaded guilty.

Garda William Delaney told En- nis District Court on Friday that an altercation took place at O’Connell Street, Ennis.

“An independent witness pointed out Mr Roche as having dropped a baton when gardai arrived,” he said.

“He denied this initially, but admit- ted it later on,” said the garda.

He said that Connick had a knife in his back pocket. Roche claimed to gardai that he had the baton for his own protection as he had been threat- ened by a group of people earlier. He denied that he had used it.

It was, he said, the type of baton you would get on holiday and had the

word *“Lanzarote’ written across It.

Inspector Tom Kennedy said that there were no complaints in relation to the use of a baton, while it was not being alleged that the knife was pro- duced.

The court was told that Connick, a tradesman, had travelled from Wex- ford to do work on his friend Roche’s house.

Defending solicitor Tara Godfrey said there was “no inference” that Connick had produced the knife.

She said that Roche was carrying the baton “in case it was needed for protection.”

“It’s an offence to good taste rather

than anything else. There was no evi- dence that he wielded it as such,” she SrnOe

“If anyone was going to attack him, he felt he should have it. If anyone ar- rived at the scene and saw ared baton from Lanzarote, they would prob- ably die laughing. The fashion police might be on their back as well,” said Ms Godfrey.

“T don’t think any self-respecting criminal would be seen dead with that,’ she added.

Judge Joseph Mangan asked what was the baton for, if it was not for criminal activity.

Ms Godfrey replied, “The mind

boggles.”

Inspector Kennedy pointed out however, “A wallop from that would be no different to a wallop from any 0} Tos mm As Ole Oyen balcie a0 bee Ces 01 ime

“Just because Lanzarote was writ- ten on it doesn’t make light of his re- sponsibilities,’ said the inspector.

Judge Mangan imposed a _ four- month jail term on both men, sus- pended on condition that they keep the peace for six months.

He ordered both to enter a bond to behave for two years and fined them €1,250 each.

He fixed a bond in the event of an appeal.

THE Christian attitude adopted by the family of a young man who lost his life in a road accident a year ago was commended by a judge, at the end of a trial relating to the death.

Judge Rory McCabe paid tribute to the family of Eamon Scully, after they expressed the opinion that they did not want to see a man convicted in connection with the death to go to jail.

James Freeman was acquitted of dangerous driving causing death, but was found guilty of careless driv- ing, arising out of a road accident in which Mr Scully lost his life, one year ago this weekend.

Counsel for the State Stephen Coughlan said Mr Scully’s family did not bear Mr Freeman any “ill will” and had no desire to see him sent to jail.

Mr Freeman’s barrister Michael Collins said the accident was “a low

speed collision, by way of both ve- hicles.” He said his client was genu- NIA U SON uNOROTE

He asked that his clent’s good character be taken into considera- tion, pointing out that he had no pre- vious convictions.

“Vd ask you to take into account the Christian attitude of Mrs Scully and family. The nature of the care- lessness of this case was an error of judgment,” said Mr Collins.

Judge Rory McCabe said the case

was “an enormous tragedy.”

“Life will never be the same for the two families and the two extended JE-VOODU O(c MaN Slomcr-BLOE

“The consequences for the Scully family are enormous. They lost a young man.

“Also for the Freeman family. Mr Freeman will live with this for the rest of his life,’ he said.

“I’m extremely impressed by the at- titude of the family of the deceased. It’s Christian. It’s caring. It recog-

nises the fact there are no winners,” he said.

“IT am not certain in the circum- stances a prison sentence would re- flect the circumstances in this situa- tion,” said the judge.

He fined Mr Freeman €1,000 said he was not imposing a driving ban, because, “I accept what was submit- ted by Mr Collins this was a momen- tary lapse of attention and I really hope it was not his decision to run the stop sign.”

THE Competition Authority has been called upon to investigate claims of a ‘closed shop’ that prohibits over 400 Clare taxi and hackney drivers from operating out of Shannon Airport.

Bye-laws dating back 14 years en- sure that there is no conventional taxi rank at Shannon Airport and, instead, passengers seeking a taxi must hire a hackney cab based at Shannon.

Despite the massive growth in pas- senger numbers at Shannon Airport

in recent years, where last year 3.6 million people travelled through it, only 34 hackney cabs operate out of the airport.

Yesterday, the Shannon Aijrport Authority (SAA) declined to say how many new licences have been issued in recent years, stating only that the numbers have increased ‘slightly’.

Since the deregulation of the taxi business in November 2000, the number of licences has increased four-fold to 467 in Clare.

However, Shannon Airport remains a ‘closed shop’ and Deputy Dooley

said yesterday, “The taxi business at Shannon shouldn’t remain closed to others. It is anti-competitive and should be opened up to everyone.”

In his letter to the chairman of the Competition Authority, William Prasifka, Deputy Dooley said, “I am very concerned that since de-regu- lation of the taxi service, the num- bers of all public service vehicles in Clare has increased from 177 in November 2000 to 467 in December of 2007.

‘Based on these figures, I see no ar- gument to have this practice in place

at Shannon Airport.”

Deputy Dooley has also written to the Chief Executive of the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA), Declan Collier, and the Director of the Shan- non Airport Authority (SAA), Mar- tin Moroney.

He wrote, “I am concerned that the services provided are not in keeping with competition law or indeed in keeping with the spirit of de-regula- tion in the taxi sector.”

Deputy Dooley has also written to the Commissioner for Taxi Regula- tion, Kathleen Doyle, on the issue.

In response, a spokesman for Shan- non Airport said, “Shannon Airport complies with all applicable legisla- tion governing taxis and other small public service vehicles.

‘The current arrangement at Shan- non as operated is applied under leg- islation 1.e. S.I. 425 of 1994 (Airport Bye Laws).

“Since the establishment of the Taxi Regulator, we have been in reg- ular communication with them and they have outlined their satisfaction that the current operation adequately meets the needs of our passengers.”

THE Minister for Agriculture, Mary Coughlan, was in Paris on Valen- tines days courting her French coun- terpart, Minister Michel Barnier, for support on WTO and the CAP Health Check.

Speaking after the meeting, which Coughlan described as being “very useful’, the Irish Minister said that there were many shared views on WTO and both sides had concerns about the way in which the negotia- tions were going.

“The latest negotiation paper from Geneva on agriculture contained a number of areas with which both sides are unhappy we feel that over- all there is a lack of balance,’ she SrnOR

“I have agreed to liaise further in the coming weeks and, in particular, in the run up to next week’s Council of Agriculture Ministers meeting in Brussels.”

The Ministers also discussed devel- opments in the CAP Health Check and had a very useful exchange of views on the positions being taken in Seale

“As with WTO, there was a huge degree of a commonality on the overall approach to the CAP and to its long-term future,” she continued. We discussed various current mar- ket issues and focused in particular on the pigmeat sector. On this, we agreed on the importance of EU sup- ports and on the need to continue and extend these.”

Meanwhile, President of 14,000

member-strong Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association, Jackie Cahill, has warned that the Government is facing an extremely embarrassing reverse on the Lisbon Treaty Refer- endum unless a serious and coher- ent effort is mounted immediately to convince the electorate of the merits of a ‘yes’ vote.

Speaking from the Brussels confer- ence of the pan-European dairy farm- ers organisation, the European Milk Board, Mr Cahill said that while he is personally in favour of the Treaty and will be urging a *Yes’ vote, he is “spectacularly unconvinced” by the campaign waged so far by both the Government and the other pro-treaty oy Na Bone

“ICMSA is a farm organisation and SO 1s, quite literally, a grass-roots

movement. Our political antennae are quite sensitive and we’re picking up decidedly mixed messages on the prospects for the passage of the Lis- bon Treaty,” he said.

“IT am personally in favour of the Treaty and am quite optimistic that our National Council will come out in its favour. But I am spectacularly unconvinced by the quality of the ‘Yes’ campaign so far and I’m warn- ing both the Government and the other pro-treaty parties that if they don’t get their act together — and fast — that they are heading for an unmer- ciful shock.”

MINISTER for State at the Depart- ment of Agriculture with special responsibility for Forestry, Mary Wallace, last week launched a DVD entitled “Bringing The Bogs Back To LIFE” at the ENFO Headquarters in Dublin. It has been produced by Coillte to promote its EU LIFE fund- ed bog restoration projects across the country and to demonstrate the work that went into them. It is available free of charge from Coillte.

“T am delighted to be here today to launch this informative DVD which tells the story of the great work done

by Coillte under the EU funded LIFE initiative in restoring both raised bogs and blanket bogs in Ireland,” she said.

‘Having had the chance to view the DVD it provided a very comprehen- sive record of the projects and I com- mend all who were involved in its production. I know that Coillte is also successfully implementing another important LIFE-Nature project — on the restoration of Priority Woodland Habitats, which I had the pleasure of launching recently and I wish you well with both the DVD and your ongoing work in this area.”

Also speaking the at the launch

was David Gunning, Chief Execu- tive of Coillte.

“Coillte manages its forests com- mercially but, in doing so, we pay a lot of attention to environmental and social considerations,’ he said.

“Our forests are certified by the Forest Stewardship Council as being well managed in accordance with Strict environmental, social and eco- es eRew Kure

‘Nature Conservation is an integral part of forest and land management and 15 per cent of Coillte’s estate is managed with nature conservation as the primary management objective.

“The DVD produced as part of

these projects will stand as a record of the work done and the contribution Coillte has made in restoring some of these valuable habitats across the country. Copies are available free of charge by contacting Coillte or via our website — www.coillte.ie.”

The blanket bog project has just finished involved 20 sites Clare as well as Donegal, Sligo, Mayo, Gal- way, Kerry and Laois.

The promotional DVD has been produced to highlight the objectives, actions and expected results of Coill- te’s two bog restoration projects. You can read more about the Bog Resto- ration projects via www.coillte.ie.

A PRIVATE operator has lodged plans for park and ride facilities in Doolin and Liscannor to serve the €31.5 million visitor centre at the Cliffs of Moher.

A similar proposal for Liscannor by the Mermaid Partnership was withdrawn after locals railed against the accompanying retail element.

Now Atlantis Development has lodged plans for a park and ride at Doolin and Liscannor.

The company is seeking to put in place 385 parking spaces along with spaces for 10 buses in Liscannor. In Doolin, the company plans to put in place 120 parking spaces along with spaces for three shuttle buses.

The planning documents lodged with the council list John Declan Flanagan as a director of Atlantis Development.

Mr Flanagan also spearheaded the ill-fated Mermaid Partnership bid.

Cllr Martin Conway (FG), of north Clare, welcomed Atlantis Develop- ment’s move.

“IT would welcome park and ride as a standalone development in order to deal with the traffic congestion that is evident around the cliffs.

‘The charge that is imposed by the developers may prove cost effective for the consumers as it costs €8 at

the cliffs at the moment.

‘Any competition is healthy and the park and ride could result in a spin- off for the local communities, where people may stay overnight in Liscan- nor and Doolin rather than using the cliffs as a stopping off point between Kerry and Galway.”

Cllr Conway said that he very much welcomed the applications, as long as they were not conditional on them being accompanied by shops.

Last month, the Mermaid Partner- ship withdrew €15 million plans 24 hours prior to an anticipated deci- sion.

Applications are usually withdrawn at the last minute in this way when developers are told informally that the application looks set to be re- GU oLem

The proposal was facing wide- spread opposition in Liscannor, which suffered a population loss in the most recent Census.

The developers had also made ef- forts to allay the concerns of locals by reducing the size of the plan.

Last year, the Mermaid Partner- ship lodged a proposal for the park and ride facility that also included a major retail component with a total of 6,322 sq metres.

The applicants scaled back the re- tail component by almost two-thirds but continued to face opposition.

aETSMR OU Tes Ona neren A price check carried out by north Clare county councillor, Martin Con- way (FG), revealed that a single one- way ticket from Maynooth to Dublin costs just €3, compared to a fare of €8.60 from Ennis to Limerick. This is despite both journeys covering roughly the same distance and run- ning high levels of occupancy. In addition to this, a day return ticket from Maynooth to Dublin

coast €5.40 compared to €15.70 for the same type of ticket on the Ennis to Limerick line.

“This is a clear example of double standards for people living in Clare and is not encouraging people to take the environmental option. If it was a private company operating the rail service, it would be a different story but this service is funded by all the tax-payers in the country, not just the people in Dublin,” said Cllr Soe

“What we have here is a situation where the taxpayer in the east of the country 1s effectively getting a dis- count compared to the taxpayer in Clare. This is a public State-spon-

sored body. There should be no argu- ment about this. It’s a criminal situ- ation, totally unbelievable when you consider the amount of people who use this service.”

Responding to the survey, business development manager with larnrod Eireann in Limerick, Jim Gallivan, claimed that rates on the Ennis-Lim- erick line compared favourable to bus charges on the route.

“We feel that this survey is not comparing like with like. They are different categories of stations. The Maynooth to Dublin service is an in- ter-urban service while the Ennis to Limerick service 1s an inter-city serv- ice,’ he said. “The rates we have on

the Ennis to Limerick service com- pare well to the bus service between Ennis and Limerick and the route has proved very popular to date.”

Cllr Conway has called for a pay- per-kilometre system to be intro- duced. ““Irain fares throughout the country should be charged on a per- kilometre basis, not discriminating against people in different parts on the country,’ he said yesterday.

“If we are talking about real equity in this situation, this is the only way that we can continue. I am now call- ing on Minister Tony Kileen and his colleague Timmy Dooley to raise this matter with Noel Dempsey as a matter of urgency.”

WATER levels covering the flooded Ennis to Limerick rail line rose this weekend, despite almost two weeks without rain.

It now looks like the estimated 600 Clare commuters who use the serv- ice each day will face a further two

weeks’ wait before normal service will be restored.

Commuters have been forced to use bus transfers for more than a week, following severe flooding of sections of the track as a result of heavy rain earlier this month.

Some of the flooding is more than 17 inches in depth with little or no

drop reported to date.

“We are still monitoring the situ- ation closely and it appears that the flooding is starting to level out at least. We recorded a quarter-inch rise in water levels on the track over the weekend,” said business develop- ment manager with larnrod Eireann in Limerick, Jim Gallivan.

“This is a very minor change and indications are that the amount of flooding is starting to level off. The water at the moment is 17 inches above the track level and we will have to wait for that to subside before service can be restored.

“The next few days should tell a lot. We have had two weeks of fairly good weather but the major rivers are still very full with water around the oe) Aaa

Meanwhile,

MINISTER of State Tony Killeen has given fresh hope to the possibil- ity of a train station being provided at Crusheen along the route of the Western Rail Corridor.

Stating that the development “should not be discounted”, the Clare TD said Iarnrodd Eireann had not ruled out the proposal and “would consider any evidence to suggest that such a development would be war- ranted”.

In a letter to Minister Killeen, Iarn- rod Eireann chief executive Dick Fearn said that the reopening of the Crusheen station was not included in the reopening of the Ennis to Athen- ry line because of the very limited

development forecast for Crusheen in Clare County Council’s North Clare Local Area Plan 2005.”

Minister Killeen said he reminded the CEO that detailed additional in- formation has been collated by the local community, with assistance from Clare County Council, regard- ing the potential future use of the proposed rail stop. This information along with undertakings relating to the provision of adequate car parking CUTE U em OEIC BROMINE cot have been submitted to Iarnrdéd Eire- EMOvOe

“In light of this new information, I have requested the company to re- view the potential for the establish- ment of a rail stop at Crusheen”, he SrALGe

The minister said he had also re- ceived confirmation from larnrod Eireann that it would be keen to work with developers who would fund a Station scheme, as is the case at a number of locations elsewhere on the national rail network. ;

“Recent reports that Iarnrod Eire- ann has categorically ruled out the future opening of arail stop at Crush- een could not have been further from the truth.

“The company has expressed its willingness to consider any evidence supporting the establishment of a rail stop at Crusheen, as part of sched- uled passenger services between En- OVA BaLG aN H Slo) OD ae

He added that there remained a strong case for the provision of a rail

stop in Crusheen.

‘Two stops are being provided for between Gort and Athenry and none on the very long stretch of railway between Ennis to Gort.

‘“Crusheen is an ideal location for people coming from Ruan, Corofin, Tubber, Boston and elsewhere in North Clare as well as Tulla and oth- er areas of East Clare’, Mr Killeen concluded.

Track renewal works on the first phase of the Western Rail Corridor project started late last year and are expected to take 18 to 24 months to complete.

Once completed, an expected seven trains per day will travel from Ennis to Athenry with stops at Gort, Ardra- han and Craughwell.