Month: March 2008

After last week ‘French kiss’ with her French counterpart, Michel Barnier, the Minister for Agriculture, Mary Coughlan, is turning Japanese this week by leading an Enterprise Ireland visit to the far eastern nation WNL oo) .@

While the emphasis of the visit will be on food innovation as well as spe- cific sectoral innovation in the soft drinks and seafood processing sec- tors it is expected that the visit will facilitate the development of new trading opportunities.

“Japan is a world leader in pioneer- ing and developing the food and functional foods industry. This visit offers an opportunity to explore the potential for future collaborative research projects between Japanese and Irish food companies and food research institutes,” she said.

“The functional food and beverag-

es sector has grown to be one of the biggest global trends in food supply over the past 20 years.

“Ireland’s traditional strengths as a dairy and beverage producer along with our strong pharmaceutical in- dustry base, ample availability of quality raw materials, state-of-the- art food and drink research centres, and world class third level institu- tions, position us to become a lead- ing force in the functional foods sec- tor,’ he continued.

“We are also committed to emu- lating the collaborate approach be- tween Government, industry and the research community that has proved so successful in Japan.”

Also on the plane will be Mike Feeney, Director of Internationally Traded Business Sectors, Enterprise Ireland.

“A number of Enterprise Ireland clients are already collaborating with Japanese food companies who

are experts in this field of food sci- ence and processing,’ he said.

“Not alone will it benefit our clients to learn from Japanese expertise, but collaboration will also benefit Japa- nese food companies, offering them access to our leading-edge food sci- ence and technology research and access to a valuable and growing EU market for Functional Foods and Beverages.’

Six Irish soft drinks companies are participating in the Soft Drinks In- novation Study programme whereby they will meet with a number of key Japanese soft drinks manufacturers to evaluate emerging technology, packaging and product innovations in the sector.

In conjunction with Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM), six Irish seafood processing companies, will be in ex- amining the latest freezing technolo- gies with a view to transferring them back to Ireland.

IT’S 5.45am, South African time and the phone is ringing in the hotel room, an alarm call to get going. Downstairs in the SIlver Springs the dining room has opened early for the Irish. The bus for Mission- vale will leave at 6.30am. An array of every kind of cooked food, cold meat, cereal and exotic fresh food greets us as we stumble in, bleary eyed. It’s our first day on the Build- ing of Hope project. We arrived yesterday after travelling for thirty hours and thanks, Aer Lingus for adding more than three hours on to that with the loss of the Heathrow connection. There are almost 170 Clare volunteers who will be cross- ing you off the Christmas card list. And it’s only 4am back home for God’s sake! But the cheerful banner crew are undaunted. We board the bus and before a hammer is lifted we re greeted by staff of the centre, singing, waving Clare and Irish flags and then we get the tour of Mission- vale and the surrounding township. The level of deprivation is hard to take in on first sight, it contrasts con- fusingly with the neat, clean dress of the children who come to school in

the centre and play in the yard where later we eat lunch.

After the first lunch-break, kitchen staff start gathering up the leftovers.

“Do you compost that or feed it to the dogs or what?”’, a volunteer asks. TMC oD remot Misa URN Ce TIN LONG ers will eat whatever we have left. There is not enough money in the kitty to provide packed lunches for them as well as the Irish volunteers and we are used to eating while they are used to going hungry. It’s the last day that anyone eats a full lunch. But then, there’s none of us likely to starve anytime soon.

By day’s end at 5.30, 6pm or later as the week marches on, there are little clusters of children waiting in the playground. They love to talk to the Irish, and the smaller ones wrap themselves around you, climb on laps and stroke the women volunteers’ hair in fascination at the straightness. They are mostly orphans, hungry not just for food but for affection also.

By day two a lot of the volunteers have bought bags of sweets to give to the children who wait at the gate for work to finish. It’s a heart-rend- ing exercise.

The children, anxious for any bit of a treat mob the volunteers and it’s

impossible to have something for everyone, there are so many.

The staff and African workers on the project ask on day one _ that volunteers leave them their clothes When they go home. The women want trainers, t-shirts and shorts. The men ask for work-boots. One of the Africans is using a whacker with no shoes on his feet.

Each evening, the volunteers hit the showers and go down for food and cold beer. Some evenings, with the red African dust lining our throats, the cold beer is the first priority. By ten everyone is singing, laughing and oar Denes

Missionvale may exist in the midst of poverty and death. But being here, and helping to build hope, we have never felt more alive.

THE biggest thing about the tiny baby boy is his eyes. They stare in alarm out of a face that is sunken and a body that is covered in the open sores which are the tell-tale sign of infection with the HIV virus.

He is nine months old, but to lift him up is to discover that he weights little more than a large teddy-bear.

His mother looks almost as sick as he does and there is no alarm in her eyes, only defeat.

Sr Ethel wants to introduce the pair, who have come for help to the Mis- sionvale clinic, to a volunteer.

When the young mother leaves Ethel confides that her little boy will probably not live to see his first birthday.

“We have to work very closely with her now. She is close to giving up. She’s saying ‘what’s the point?’ It’s when people go that far down that they slip away”, says Ethel. “This is the face of AIDS in Africa.’’, she SEAS

Hope is a very valuable commodity at Missionvale, particularly for the children who come every day to be fed as part of the Orphans and Vul- nerable Children programme.

Around 3pm, they arrive and sit in lines on the grass of the school playground. There are 500 or more children involved. They sing togeth- er and then sit quietly with hands outstretched for a sandwich and the

jOLOLB Cod O1 Mo) ONTO SloXO MM OM UDLMMCDMDOL Gm Zen(on| kitchen staff have been preparing all morning.

The older children help marshall the younger ones into lines and they carry the crates of sandwiches for distribution.

These are the children who have had their childhood snatched from them by being made heads of house- holds often before they are ten years old. The AIDS virus has taken their parents and caregivers. Look into their eyes and you will see adults looking back.

Parents don’t have to be dead for a child to be an orphan in the town- ship. Many have parents who are too ill to provide care for them. Many more belong to families who have been defeated by poverty, hunger, disease or alcoholism.

Sr Ethel feeds these children and also supports the older children who have been cast into the parenting role to ensure they can continue going to school, getting an education which will provide them with wings to fly the grinding poverty trap.

Her investment in the future of the youngsters is already paying off.

Many who came to her when her only facility was the shade of a tree are now working as care-giv- ers, teachers and clerical staff at the centre and many more have fulfilled their contract with Missionvale and have gone out into their brave new Ke) u lem

SR ETHEL Normoyle is trying to decide exactly how many beds will be provided in the medical ward of the new care centre and hospice built by the Irish.

“Tm thinking thirteen beds, be- cause I want families to be able to come and spend time with the pa- tients – we don’t want them on top of each other’, she says,

The thinking is typical of the ethos of Missionvale. “Only the best is good enough for the poor’, is a say- ing often on Ethel Normoyle’s lips.

The 9,000 square foot centre will help her to provide much more of the best. The best quality of care, the best quality of life and the best chance for many of the children who have nothing else.

One section will be used as a treat- ment room, where treatment will be holistic . Drug regimes will be drawn up but clients will also be giv- en space to tell the care givers and medical staff about other aspects of their lives and needs.

The wards are places where the very sick will be taken care of and while

many will find in them a place to end their lives in dignity, many more will be treated with retroviral medication and rehydration and go back to their families to fight another day.

The social worker and administra- tors who deal with a spaghetti junc- tion of red tape in securing state al- lowances and grants for the people of the township will have a space of their own to work in.

Another room will provide an edu- cation facility for people who are ill, to teach them how best to manage the HIV virus, to try to stay as well as possible and most importantly, the try to educate the township’s popula- tion in how they can prevent AIDS from claiming new victims.

Finally, there is one room which will constantly be filled with hap- piness. That is the room where pro- grammes for the orphans and vulner- able children will be held. That room will be where they will be taught, fed and valued. It will be constantly filled with song and laughter.

LIMERICK City Council was yes- terday accused of seeking to achieve a boundary extension by stealth through purchasing houses for peo- ple on its housing list in south-east ETc

Fianna Fail TD Timmy Dooley said the policy was “unacceptable” and that the council’s actions had the potential to create local authority ghettos.

“Clare County Council carefully implements a housing policy of en- suring there is a spread of local au- thority tenants in housing estates in the interests of social harmony.

‘However, if Limerick City Coun- cil is purchasing in these areas you won’t get the balance right. What Limerick City Council is doing is en- tirely wrong. It is not acceptable and should not be seen as a solution to the

problems that Limerick City Council eke

“Where do you stop with this? Will Limerick City Council be able to purchase homes in Dublin? The mat- ter needs to be regulated and legisla- tion may be needed.”

Clare County Council has written to the Limerick City Council Man- ager, [om Mackey, on the matter.

The Clare letter asked to know Where the houses had been pur- chased.

In response, Mr Mackey stated, “You will appreciate that in the inter- ests of both protecting people’s right to privacy and in promoting social integration, it would not be appropri- ate for me to make public the details requested by your council.”

Cllr Cathal Crowe (FF) of Meelick said, “If Limerick City Council is ex- porting into Clare the small minority of families that have been causing

trouble, it would be met with staunch Opposition.

“However, as a councillor in the area, I would be the first to welcome genuine people into the community fabric in south-east Clare.

“It is regrettable that Limerick City Council could not have been more honest and forthright in relation to its policy.”

Describing Limerick City Council’s attitude as “cavalier”, Cllr Crowe said that he believed that Limerick City Council had purchased up to seven homes in Westbury.

“I believe that the city council has enquired about purchasing homes in Clonlara, Meelick, Parteen and Ard- nacrusha,” he said.

Cllr Crowe said that he had request- ed Limerick City Council to provide details of the number of homes it had purchased in Clare, but that the city council had refused.

SR ETHEL Normoyle’s heart is so big you’d wonder where she finds room for any other vital organs in tes mm BUS W AB Bes BO Non

She is clearly very uncomfortable when people describe her as “a liv- ing saint” or most often the “Mother Theresa of South Africa”.

The Lissycasey woman will look at you in bemusement and say “but I met Mother Theresa – she was a truly wonderful woman.”

Yet every person who meets Ethel will say there is a light about her, a huge ability to comfort, to pay atten- tion and to make the person she is speaking to feel like the only person in the universe.

When Ethel Normoyle told her family in Lissycasey she was going to join the Litthke Company of Mary, there were – according to those who know her – a few disbelieving eye- brows raised.

The attractive young woman who loved singing and the company of her friends and neighbours seemed an unlikely candidate for the veil, it TST BLO

When she was asked to go to Africa as a trained nurse, she has no hesita- tion in admitting she didn’t want to leave her beloved county Clare.

“My family predicted I’d last six months”, she says, looking back on more than 30 years in Africa.

Ethel’s first posting in Africa was to Pretoria and while this was a chal- lenging post, her next assignment left her totally at a loss at first.

She arrived in the township out- side Port Elizabeth and was totally stunned by the extent of the poverty and the need.

In 1988 she had no base, no build-

ing, no introduction and no blueprint for how to proceed.

A white woman in Apartheid South Africa, walking among people living in dire poverty in shacks, she was taking a huge personal risk.

“IT just kept coming back and talk- ing to people. I wore my veil in those days to try to let people know I was not siding with whites who support- ed Apartheid,’ says Ethel.

Her first breakthrough was when a township woman who had a tree

in the yard beside her shack offered Ethel the use of the tree.

“IT wondered at the time, what use can I make of a tree? Then summer came and I saw just how important a tree is in giving shade.”

She began with a small school for the children under that tree and moved on to set up a clinic in a metal container.

Shortly afterwards, sympathetic members of the business community in Port Elizabeth built three rooms

for her in the township and that was the beginning of Missionvale.

Over the years, she has suffered personal physical and verbal attack, being forced out of her home by white neighbours who didn’t want people from the township calling to a door in their neighbourhood.

Once, she was kidnapped and stabbed. The plucky daughter of Lis- sycasey fought off her attackers, and drove herself to hospital after being stabbed through the lung.

The love she has for people shines out of her.

She rarely talks to anyone with touching them, and she distributes hugs with genuine joy.

Her attenae is always tuned to be- ing helpful and when a deadline is approaching for stories to be sent to

FOR the last six months, the people of Clare have been turning out in droves to support every possible kind of fundraiser to help send the volun- teers to South Africa on the Building of Hope Project.

There is, as yet no final figure for the amount raised through the hun- dreds of events which were arranged across the length and breath of the county and further afield.

While those travelling to Mission- vale for the project were required to raise €3,000 apiece to cover the costs of their travel and accommoda- tion, as well as a contribution to the cost of the building, most raised far in excess of that.

One volunteer raised almost €29,000 and many raised more than €10,000 as the generosity of the Clare spirit overflowed.

“It’s unbelievable the amount of money that came out of one county”, said one of the project organisers, Olive Halpin. “Every single per- son in Clare must have contributed in some way. So much has already

come in and it’s still coming in. Peo- ple in Clare have been incredibly supportive.

The fund-raising events were as ingenious as they were useful. One volunteers company colleagues held a “guess who’s bum it 1s’, competi- tion, with photos of colleagues’ der- rieres.

All manner of items were auc- tioned, from pieces of art and furni- ture to the services of a fine stallion.

Another volunteer even auctioned his wife’s kisses!

Then there were the companies who contributed cash and all-impor- tant time off for their staff.

Lourda Doyle, said her employers, Isevier allow two days for taking part in voluntary work, called Care DEES

“I received a fantastic €1000 do- nation from Brenda Curtin MD of Elsevier. Gerry Gallagher organised a quiz at Christmas this collected €430. Liza raised €395 and I raised €900 in sponsorship from friends and colleagues in the company. They were brilliant’, said Lourda.

When all the cash is accounted

for, it’s expected that the full cost of the building of the care centre and hospice at Missionvale will be re- deemed.

But with a population of €125,000 in the township, living in the worst imaginable conditions and devastat- ed by disease, there is always a call on the Missionvale purse.

On-going support and funding is needed and Clare fundraisers are soon to set about a campaign to get standing orders to help run the school and the newly built centre.

The last thing which the final volun- teers did before they left Missionvale was to walk the ground and plant a tree, where it’s hoped the Irish will return again in 2010 to build homes for AIDS orphans.

THEY said that it couldn’t be done, the people who know about big building projects. But more than 170 determined Irish

people and eight weeks of hard labour, sweat and blood later, the Banner was celebrating in South Africa as the new care centre and hospice at Missionvale in Port Elizabeth was handed over to Sr

Ethel Normoyle, to bring hope, comfort and dignity to the pov- erty and disease stricken people of the township.

THE ability of Ennis to achieve a rise in population to 38,000 by 2015 is under serious threat due to the current inability of the town’s infra- structure to allow new housing de- velopments.

That is the view of Green Party councillor, Brian Meaney who made his comment yesterday after Ennis Town Council raised doubts over granting planning permission to 133 houses on the northern outskirts of Ennis due to the current capacity of the Ennis sewage system.

The background issues paper on the drawing up of a new Ennis Develop- ment plan anticipates that there will be a population of 38,000 in Ennis by 2015.

However, the local council has now adopted a policy of not granting planning permission to only portions of large scale development due to the incapacity of the town’s sewage treatment plants to cater for the de- velopments.

Currently, a new €75 million sew- age treatment plant to be built in the Clareabbey area and the council must source €30 million of the cost

through developer contributions.

Ennis Town Manager, Tom Tiernan said recently that it may not be until complete until 2102.

However, in the meantime, Cllr Meaney expressed concerns that the growth of Ennis will be stymied and the town will not reach its 2015 pop- ulation target due to shortcomings in the local infrastructure.

“Unless new sewerage infrastruc- ture can be put in place, planners will be unable to plan Ennis on a sustain- able basis.

“It has been clearly flagged that the sewage capacity is exhausted,” he

Sr nLe

Cllr Meaney made his comments arising from the town council putting a plan by Keco Ltd on hold.

The construction firm is seeking to build 133 homes near Ballycorey on the northern outskirts of Ennis.

In its letter to the developers, the council states, “The Planning Au- thority has concerns at present re- garding the capacity of the main sewage treatment plant at Clonroad- more to accommodate large housing developments.

A decision is due on the planning application later this year.

THE West County Hotel was the venue last week for the 2008 Teagasc clare Dairy Seminar.

The meeting was chaired by Paddy Rynne, Teagasc adviser, who opened the meeting by reflecting on what was an exceptionally good year for the dairy industry in 2007.

The seminar was designed as a fo- rum to now look forward to the pos- sibilities and indeed challenges for the future of the industry.

Teagasc Specialist, John Norris, gave an in-depth review on dairy farm returns in 2007 based on profit

monitor analysis which showed that net profit increased by an average of over 7 cents/litre. He also considers that the prospects for 2008 are very positive with the current price likely to be maintained and the possibility of a 2 per cent increase in quotas. He did however point out that costs are increasing and that this rise could be in the region of 2.5 cents/litre, so he cautioned farmers to keep a close eye on costs.

The second presentation of the evening was delivered by Don Crow- ley who focussed on the whole area of mastitis control and keeping so- matic cell counts (SCC) low, so as to

avoid penalties on milk price.

He stressed the importance of hav- ing machinery serviced annually, and highlighted the absolute necessi- ty to have liners changed every 2500 milking or at least twice a year.

Frank Buckley spoke about the cur- rent trial work that is ongoing in the area of crossbreeding the dairy herd, which involves mainly Holstein Frie- sian cows being crossed with Jersey and Norwegian Red.

He outlined what crossbreds were delivering in real terms especially in the whole area of fertility, and he said how this may well be a very real op- tion as a “quick fix” solution in herds

with extreme fertility problems.

The final speaker on the night was Aidan Bugler who outlined some of the urgent requirements for farm- ers under the nitrates directive. He pointed out that derogation farms (those over 1/Okgs Organic Nitro- gen per hectare) required fertiliser records to be completed for 2007 and returned to the Department of Agri- culture by the March 1.

These farms also require a fertiliser plan be prepared for 2008 showing the maximum amount of Phosphorus and Nitrogen that may be applied. This plan must be prepared by the March | and retained on farm.