Month: March 2008

LIMERICK are impossible to work out at the moment. From week to week, Richie Bennis has put out varying sides in an effort to unearth new talent but it has been the tim- ing of these alterations which has been most baffling. In their opening clash at home against Laois, Limer- ick used nine of the All-Ireland final side in their comfortable 3-23 to 2- 11 win but only a week later, Bennis just started three as Tipperary took the Shannonsiders apart by 2-20 to 2-9 in Semple Stadium. Then in a

challenge with former strikers Cork last Wednesday, Limerick used 13 of the 20 used in that defeat against Kil- kenny last September.

All this would suggest that Limer- ick are not too interested in the league and are focusing wholly on the cham- pionship but why not be more exper!- mental against strugglers Laois and in the challenge against Cork instead of having his young inexperienced side dismantled in Semple Stadium in the league?

There is always a keen interest in the neighbouring clash between Clare and Limerick so it will be in-

teresting to see which Limerick side Bennis picks for this Sunday’s game. Bennis has always claimed that there is never much between the counties and he has backed that up with the fact that even though Limerick had seven points to spare against the Banner last year in the All-Ireland quarter-final, Clare missed several goal chances which could have made the difference early on.

On the other hand, Mike McNama- ra is certain to put out his strongest available 15. On Sunday, he termed the healthy rivalry between the coun- ties as ‘unique’ but is unquestionably

gunning for the two points to boost the confidence in the side.

Injuries have hampered Clare’s preparations but aside from. that, Sunday’s game against Kilkenny will have given the Banner a posi- tive boost going into this weekend’s game.

Limerick have their injury wor- ries too but can expect chief scorer Andrew O’Shaughnessy back af- ter his Fitzgibbon Cup $action. O’Shaughnessy, who has amassed 4-9 in his two league games to date, was missing last week as Limerick lost by ten points to Cork and his

influence in invaluable to Limerick. For long periods, Limerick more than matched the hurling starved Rebels and it was only after Neil Ro- nan second half goal that Cork even- tually pulled away.

Both sides need a win but it will all come down to which Limerick side takes to the field on Sunday. Clare are clearly more serious about the league and this hunger might be enough to see them edge this battle.

A QUESTION mark hangs over Clare County Council’s plan to re- alise €300,000 from the sale of a rundown toilet block with panoramic views of Lahinch bay.

The sale of the site on which the toilet block is located, at the south- ern end of Lahinch prom, is expected to be a major financial contributor to the council’s plans to upgrade the re- sort’s promenade, including facilities for surfers.

However, the council has as yet been unable to confirm title on the dilapidated toilet block despite its in- vestigations into the property going back to late 2004.

“Investigations regarding title for property were commenced in late 2004 and the process for first reg- istration was commenced in late 2005.

“This process involves mapping, proofs and statements and I cannot say at this time how long more it will take. We are in constant contact with the Land Registry through the coun- cil’s solicitor and the property will be advertised for sale on completion of the registration process,’ accord- ing to acouncil spokeswoman.

“This is an application for first registration and this generally takes longer than a normal transfer of title. The council has responded fully to

all queries raised to date and must await the outcome of the registration 0) Kel ees Se

Cllr Martin Conway (FG) expressed his support for the proposed sale.

“The toilet block has not been used- for over five years and we are told the site may realise up to €300,000 if put on the open market.

“IT would always caution against the council selling its assets, but the sce- nario put to councillors is the sale of the toilet block is necessary in order to finance the upgrading of the beach facilities. It is a superb site with unri- valled views of Lahinch Bay.”

Only last Friday, the council signed a €234,000 contract to construct a new lifeguard station at Lahinch. A number of other developments for the prom are currently at design stage and will culminate in the prepara- tion of an overall masterplan for the beach and promenade at Lahinch.

Along with the lifeguard station, the masterplan includes a new serv- ices building incorporating toilets and showers, and improvements in traffic management and car parking.

The council spokeswoman con- firmed that last year, the council col- lected almost €200,000 in parking fees at Lahinch. In 2006, the amount received was €168,000. The monies from the parking fees are to go to- wards the financing of the Lahinch prom project.

THURSDAY night’s Galway Card at Galway Greyhound Stadium was backboned by the heats of a number of Sweepstakes – the finals of which will take place on Saturday.

In the opening semi final of the Bothar A3 Stake the PJ Fahy owned Tyrur Kim a daughter of Crash and Tyrur Tina was confidently expected to add to her opening round success as she ran from her favoured inside berth. And she certainly did not let her followers down as she stayed on really strongly to hold off the late rally of the striped jacketed Hello Sbubseon

In the second semi final there were reserves in traps three and six but as the traps rose it was the trap five runner Carhugar Bobsie that broke

best and he lead around the opening corner from Malbay Bart with Ross- cahill Pascal in third place turning down the far side.

Racing past the halfway mark the Michael Downes of Killaloe trained Carhugar Bobsie (Premier County- Blonde Lotto) set sail for home and as he rouned the penultimate bend he held a race winning three length ad- vantage over Malbay Bart as Sharons Baby moved in to third spot.

But Carhugar Bobsie was in com- mand for his owners, the Clare Con- nection Syndicate from Quin, and he won by over three lengths in 29.10.

The opening two contests of the night were both over the minimum trip of 325 yards and in the opener for SIO graders the Fiona/Kevin Troy of Kilkee owned West Clare Gael showed his rivals a clean pair of

heels throughout as he galloped clear to win.

The third contest was an A5 graded 525 yard contest for which the trap two runner Stonehall Mist for the Caseys of Newmarket went to traps the 6/4 favourite but she never count- ed as the white jacketed Shyan Yank (Mustang Yank-Shyan Chill) showed a decent turn of early toe to lead by three lengths and won comfortably Aner

Race ten on the card was heat number two of the 550 Stake where trap five runner Bold Teddy was away smartly and he led up on the outside from Cat Woman on the long run up with O’Garney Gold improving in to third place as they turned down the back straight. In the end, it was the Mrs Helen Coffey of Sixmilebridge owned O’Garney Gold (Droopys

Woods-O’Garney Mist) who was out in front by a length and she re- ally stuck to her guns up the sraight to win in 30.76.

There was a huge buzz of anticipa- tion around the stadium on Saturday as the top bitches in the country bat- tled for a place in the €26,000 to the winner final of the Tyrur Ted Cham- pion Bitch Stake.

Unfortunately, one of the leading fancies for outright victory in the Competition, Shinguan Stan, was an absentee due to a virus but there were also other nine runners which sadly saw two of the heats reduced to four runner contests.

Once again the sponsors repre- sentetive Tyrur Nadine (Droopys Scholes-Tyrur Fiona) was the focus of attention. But racing down the back’ Nadine’ led by three lengths

from Express Smasher with Florys Atrraction in third place. Racing out of the back tbough the leader pulled out more as she raced cleaar to book her place in the decider from Express Smasher in a superb time of 29.96 . The draw for the €26,000 final is as follows:

1. LETHAL FRANKIE

2. NEWBRIDGE JEWEL

3. STRANGFORD KATIE

4. EXPRESS SMASHER

5. FOREST BABY

6. TYRUR NADINE

The third contest on the night an A2 eraded 525 saw the Martin Cronin/ Jack Markham of Ennis owned Crag- brien Magic(T1) deliver a most 1m- pressive performance as he romped to a seven length victory over Bal- Were (ou

THE ‘closed shop’ that prohibits over 400 Clare taxi and hackney drivers from operating out of Shannon Air- port could be at an end.

This follows the Commissioner for Taxi Regulation, Kathleen Doyle, seeking a meeting with the Shannon Airport Authority (SAA) over the op- eration of airport by-laws that ensure that there is no conventional taxi- rank at Shannon Airport and instead passengers seeking a taxi must hire a hackney cab based at Shannon.

In spite of the massive growth in passengers at Shannon in recent years, only 34 hackney cabs operate out of the airport.

Ms Doyle is to meet with SAA offi- cials next week to discuss the present arrangements at the airport and has flatly denied a claim by the SAA that the commission has outlined its sat- isfaction that the current operation adequately meets the needs of Shan- non’s passengers.

In a statement, Mr Doyle confirmed that the commission is seeking “‘clar- ification from airport management as to whether or not a policy exists which excludes taxis from operation at Shannon airport”.

Since the deregulation of the taxi-

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

Deputy Timmy Dooley (FF) — who raised the issue with Ms Doyle and the Competition Authority last month — said yesterday, “I’m happy that the Commissioner for Taxi Regulation is taking an interest in the issue.”

Ennis based-taxi-driver, John Ka- vanagh has lobbied on behalf of Clare and mid-west-based taxi driv- ers for the current system at Shannon to be abolished.

He said, “We are very encouraged and hopeful by what the taxi com- missioner has had to say and that the jPACereL BU OTSMMAOE-T MB OTK oleio) IMDM EcRT elem

He added, “Taxi drivers in Clare are on the breadline and are being discriminated against because of this ENYA

“The taxi regulator states that the whole of Clare is a metred areas, yet the airport authority takes a different a (oa

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

A spokesman for the SAA declined to comment on the situation ahead of the meeting with the taxi regulator.

A FORMER Green Party MEP will be in Ennis this week to voice her op- position to her party’s stance on the upcoming EU Treaty.

Patricia McKenna, who contested the leadership of the party with En- vironment Minister John Gormley last year, has criticised the “sheer ar- rogance’”’ shown to the people of Eu- rope by their political leaders.

McKenna is the chairperson of The People’s Movement, an organiza- tion campaigning against the Lisbon

Treaty.

“Regardless of the fact that voters in France and the Netherlands have rejected the EU Constitution, it has been renamed, repackaged and put back on the table as if nothing had happened and we are being told to say yes or Ireland will be isolated.

‘There is almost unanimous agree- ment among EU leaders, including Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, that the sub- stance of the rejected Constitution hasn’t changed. The difference be- tween the original Constitution and the present Lisbon Treaty is one of

approach, rather than content.”

McKenna will speak at a public meeting in the West County Hotel this Thursday, March 7, at 8.30pm.

She has been asked to speak by the Ennis-based Irish Drivers As- sociation, who are also opposing the treaty.

“The blatant conspiracy by EU gov- ernments to deny their electorates the right to vote on this treaty is an affront to democracy,’ she continued.

“EU leaders openly admit that they have taken the rejected EU constitu- tion and renamed and repackaged

it in an unreadable format. Giscard D’Estaing said that public opinion will be led to adopt, without know- ing it, the proposals that we dare not present to them directly.

“All the earlier proposals will be in a new text, but will be hidden and disguised in some way. What was al- ready difficult to understand will be- come utterly incomprehensible, but the substance has been retained.”

Meanwhile, Ms McKenna will be back in Ennis on Monday, March 10 to debate Clare TD, Timmy Dooley (FF) on the treaty.

The pair will take part in a public meeting in The Old Ground Hotel next Monday, March 10, at 7pm.

Deputy Dooley is the vice chair- man of the Joint Oireachtas Com- mittee on European Affairs and will argue in in favour of the treaty.

Other members of the National Forum On Europe, on which is rep- resented all the political parties and leading national organisations, are expected to attend. Copies of the fo- rum’s recently-launched

under the Freedom of Infor- mation Act show that the proposed link had a benefit to cost ratio rang- ing from .13 to .17, pointing out that a 1.0 benefit to cost ratio is normally required.

The report points out that the link would allow a 25-minute journey to Limerick and a 65-minute journey to Crea

A note for the Minister for Trans- port, Noel Dempsey points out, “The poor outcome to the economic evalu- ation reflects the high specification of the line which is necessary to ensure an attractive service and the small benefits to users in time savings due to the relatively good road-based services serving the airport.”

A separate note for Minister Demp- sey concluded, “In essence, there is very significant capital outlay for a minimal return for passengers in terms of time saved.”

It continues, “There would be sig- nificant capital expenditure and on- going increase in subvention to ena- ble passengers to save very little time on their journeys.”

The report recommends that an ‘all bus’ option would give the same ben- efits at a much lower cost.

A separate memo concluded that the cheapest option of €245 million would involve an irregular service every 75 minutes at a cost 1n excess of that for the whole of the Ennis to Tuam Western Rail Corridor and would not achieve journey-time sav- ings. The report forecast that the most basic service would result in 260,000 journeys in the first year, while the full service, including fast trains to Galway, would provide one million journeys in the first year.

Apparently ending any hope of a rail-line into the future, the consult- ant’s report states in relation to popu- lation projections that “even the most optimistic projections do not materi-

ally alter the financial and economic analysis of the project”.

The report forecast that 15 per cent of airport users would use the rail- ihe

A separate memo points out that the “economic case for the rail-link is poor and that road-based public transport offers the best short term solution for public transport access to the airport”.

It goes on to state that at this stage, Irish Rail will be taking no further action on the issue and that it should be noted that the project is not in- cluded in Transport 21.

PLANS are running to schedule to open the first phase of the Galway to Limerick rail link next spring.

The move should see a connection between Ennis and Athenry up and running within the year.

larnnrod Eireann is seeking per- mission from Galway County Coun- cil for stations at Gort, Ardrahan and Craughwell. The company says that it is hoped that this section will be open for business next spring.

The investment to complete the re- development of the line between En- nis and Athenry is €106 million.

Chief Executive Officer of the En-

nis Chamber of Commerce, Rita McInerney, said that businesses would warmly welcome the opening of the link.

But she added that the issue of crossover connections needed to be addressed now.

“Crossovers need to be looked at for Athenry, Oranmore and probably Craughwell to ensure that the fre- quency of links is sufficient if there are problems like a breakdown.

‘We are very conscious of this, par- ticularly looking at what happened with the Ennis to Limerick line.

“That had to be closed because of flooding and that’s not a situation we want to see with Galway”, she said.

PASSENGER numbers on the En- nis-Limerick line have increased by almost 40 per cent since the line was re-opened in 2004.

Figures released yesterday by Irish Rail show that 200,000 journeys were made on the line last year, an increase of 39 per cent on the 144,000 journeys that were recorded on the line in its first full year of op- eration in 2004.

According to the Irish Rail Busi- ness Manager for the mid-west, Jim Gallivan, the 200,000 journeys that were recorded on the line last year represented an increase of 20,000 on the 180,000 journeys recorded in paul ete?

The 2006 figure was, in turn, an increase on the 166,000 journeys on 2005.

‘The steady increase is very posi- tive as it reflects that passenger num- bers on the line are on a continuous upward graph,” said Mr Gallivan.

However, the line has been closed since the first week of February due to flooding.

Mr Gallivan yesterday conceded that, at the earliest, it would be March 15 or 16 before the line would be re- opened. “All we can say at this time is that the line will be re-opened in March, sometime after those dates.”

Mr Gallivan confirmed that it was costing Irish Rail €4,000 to €5,000 a week to provide buses to replicate the train timetable. He also con-

firmed that there had been a 20 per cent drop off in passengers who were opting not to take the replacement bus service.

Mr Gallivan confirmed that the Office of Public Works (OPW) had engaged consultants to carry out an assessment of the flooding at the scene. He said passenger traffic on the rail-line had allowed Irish Rail to meet all operational costs in running the service. The service was facing increased competition from road transport but at peak-time, the train was the fastest method by far of get- ting into Limerick.

“If you are travelling by road when you get to the Coonagh roundabout outside Limerick, it could take you 10 minutes or an hour,’ he said.

THE Strand Restaurant and Guest- house, Kilkee and Murphy Black’s Restaurant, Kilkee are the latest es- tablishments to be awarded Seafood Circle membership by Bord lascaigh Mhara (BIM).

Both restaurants also have a lit- tle more in common than achieving Seafood Circle membership. Johnny Redmond, owner and head chef at The Strand Restaurant and Guest- house, and Mary Murphy (nee Red- mond), owner and head chef of Mur- phy Black’s Restaurant are brother and sister.

“My sister and I are thrilled we’ve both achieved Seafood Circle mem- bership,’ said Johnny Redmond.

‘More and more diners are order- ing seafood from our menus.

“The Seafood Circle plaque out-

side our doors will assure new and existing customers that both estab- lishments have excellent seafood and provide quality service.”

The total number of Seafood Circle members in Clare is now eight.

These are Cullinans Seafood Res- taurant and Guesthouse, Doolin; Morrissey’s Seafood Bar and Grill, Doonbeg; René Cusack, Ennis; Bar- rtra Seafood Restaurant, Lahinch; Vaughans Anchor Inn, Liscannor; and Burren Smokehouse, Lisdoon- Weve Ite

The BIM Seafood Circle recognis- es and awards hospitality and retail businesses that consistently deliver the highest standards of seafood and Service.

During February and March 2008, 132 Irish restaurants, pubs and sea- food retailers will be awarded BIM Seafood Circle Membership.

BRAZILIAN beef is back on the table, literally, after the EU bottled it’s month long ban on beef imports from the South American country.

The farming organisations have been up in arms about the decision to recommence importing cattle from Brazil, with Clare farmer and ICSA General secretary, Eddie Punch, de- scribing the decision as stunning and ObTSeabrianetee

“ICSA has always maintained that nothing short of a full ban would ever be acceptable, and we have proven that the Brazilians cannot be trusted. It is inconceivable that the Brazilians should be taken at their word, without FVO inspections, giv- en their history of unreliability,” said the Cratloe man.

The ICSA, in one of a number of farm organisations, who have lodged complaint with the EU ombudsman, questioning the EU commission’s duty of care towards EU consumers.

Another is the ICMSA, whose pres- ident, Jackie Cahill, has condemned the decision by the EU Commission to permit the importation of beef from 106 Brazilian ranches to the European market.

“The news that the Commission has rolled-over in these circumstances is unfortunately as predictable as it 1s disappointing,” he said.

Meanwhile, the IFA are attempting to put a positive gloss on the situa-

tion, with President Padraig Walshe saying that saying that the decision to place the 106 Brazilian farms on a list for export to the EU will have no impact on Irish cattle prices as the volume will be no more than 2,000 tonnes.

According to the farming leader, the volume is negligible and less than | per cent of the 330,000 tonnes of beef imported from Brazil in 2006 and 2007.

“Nothing has changed in Brazil — the deficiencies still exist and their standards do not meet EU require- ments,” he said.

‘The Commission decision makes a mockery of European food trace- ability standards, with stringent regulations for European farmers and non-compliance for Brazilians. It is incredible in the light of the ad- mission by the Brazilian Agriculture Minister Reinhold Stephanes that untraceable beef had been exported by Brazil.”

IFA Livestock Chairman Michael Doran said that prior to the IFA cam- paign Brazil was exporting beef from between 10,000 and 15,000 farms to Europe, which failed to meet EU standards. “Initially, Brazil had at- tempted to have 2,800 farms cleared for export, but this was rejected by the EU because they failed to meet the necessary standards. After sev- eral rejections by the EU, Brazil reduced the list down to 106 farms involving 86,000 cattle,” he said.