Month: April 2008

AN exhibition that highlights so- ciety’s dependence on forestry has opened in the Sean Lemass Public Library.

The ‘Wood of Life’ exhibition is a traveling, hands-on, interactive ex- hibition on the social, economic and environmental importance of the world’s forests through education for sustainable development.

The exhibition is aimed primarily at pupils from fifth and sixth class and second level students.

Run by Just Forests, the exhibition has been a big hit in galleries and li-

braries around Ireland. Just Forests was founded in 1989 in response to global deforestation, making it one of Ireland’s longest established non- governmental organizations. The eroup works solely on global pover- ty-related and tropical forestry/tim- ber issues from a local development perspective.

Just Forests uses society’s depend- ence on wood and the on-going de- cline in global forests as a tool to establish links between the loss of terrestrial biodiversity, development, conflict and poverty.

Tom Roche, spokesperson for Just Forests, said one of the key features

of the exhibition is interaction be- tween the public and the exhibits.

He said, “Its not a typical exhibi- tion. It’s very much hands on, we want people to touch the exhibits. There is an activity sheet that peo- ple can fill out. It’s very much aimed at kids and we’re hoping that all the schools in Shannon will get the chance to come down.”

With the exhibition booked to run in venues around Ireland until May 2009, Tom believes that given the current climate, people are keen to learn about environmental issues.

He said, “We have been touring the exhibition for a while now, but there

are new elements to it. It is an envi- ronmental exhibition and though it we try to explain how important it 1s to manage forests. We have to con- sider why forests are so important in our lives. It is very topical at the mo- ment, because of all the debate about eae oy VM c-v meen be lcame

In association with Just Forests and the Wood of Life Exhibition, Coillte, the Irish Forestry Board has agreed to donate 10 native trees to all schools that visit the Wood of Life Exhibi- tion. Interested schools can forward details to woodlife @justforests.org

‘Wood of Life’ runs in Shannon un- til April 4.

A SHANNON priest who left the parish to minister to the poor in Ec- uador has led the first ever Easter celebrations in his new parish of El Bautismo del Jesus.

Fr Colm Hogan decamped from Shannon to work with the communi- ties in Ecuador who are leaving their homes in the county and living in wooden huts on the outskirts of the city in the hope of better employment opportunities.

But the Shannon curate is already making his mark, having led a con- eregation in the first ever Easter cel- ebrations in the community of the poor and now he’s planning to build a church there.

In letters back to his former Clare parish, Fr Colm explained that they have had to cope with monsoon rain- falls since the beginning of the year, in a place with no running water and no toilets.

“Some days the roads to my par- ish are impassable, there are huge craters, not potholes, developed in the mud roads and the roads that were tarred have either collapsed or just washed away. In all honesty the mud tracks on my brothers farm at home are in much better condition,’ he wrote.

Fr Colm is working with people who are living on the outskirts of a city which is steeped in wealth while his parishioners don’t even have a minimum wage.

“I was chatting to one guy today who is a mechanic in a garage in the city centre, and for 45 hours work every week, he takes home $80, his lunch break each day is ten minutes. Many of the families in the parish where I am based live in straw huts with no sewage or water facilities and basically only one big room, for families of up to ten people. Nights of heavy rains destroy such homes very easily.”

But despite their poverty, the people have “great dignity” and have made him welcome, Fr Colm and his pa- rishioners have now begun work on a small chapel which will hold about 100 people.

‘Much more facilities are needed in time, a central church location, a

parish house to live in, development of some of the schools which are in terrible conditions, a medical clinic and who knows what more,” Fr Colm Said.

There are two accounts open to support Fr Colm’s work, an account in Shannon Credit Union which can be accessed through the Shannon parish office beside St John and Paul Presbytery and the Fr Colm Hogan Ecuador Relief Fund account. The account number 1s 04613076 and the sort code is 93-22-72-AIB Birr.

LOCALS in Gillogue near Clonlara will meet tomorrow (Wednesday) night to discuss ongoing concerns they have with the operators of an enterprise centre which is the cause of heavy traffic passing their homes on a daily basis.

The 323,000 sq ft former Burling- ton plant was sold by Shannon De- velopment in controversial circum- stances in 2006 and is now home to several companies including a heli- copter maintenance facility.

Local residents are concerned about safety in the locality, especially with dozens of trucks and other vehicles using the narrow road on a round- the-clock basis.

“As long as the factory was in op- eration, going back many years, we always had concerns about safety, especially along the road where we live which is the main access route to the facility. Now that the plant has changed hands, we still have a number of concerns,” a residents’ spokesman said.

A second meeting due to take place on Thursday has been postponed. Residents were expected to meet the facility’s owners as well as officials from Clare County Council but a spokesman for the plant said that a consultant’s report commissioned by them would not be ready and that they had to postpone the meeting.

The manager of the facility, Brian Whelan, said, “We will do all in our power to alleviate the concerns of locals. When we took ownership of the plant, we promised locals that we would sit down with them and we have already had one meeting. We have already committed to contribut- ing towards the construction of a foot- path and other associated road repairs from Larkin’s Cross to the plant.”

Local councillor Paschal Fitzgerald (Lab) said he had met with the op- erators and local residents and was hopeful that both sides could come to a satisfactory resolution.

The original sale of the former State-owned property at Gillogue was halted early in 2005 after local residents, politicians and business interests expressed concern about the manner in which the sale was being conducted.

Shannon Development pulled out of a deal after the State’s spending watchdog, the Comptroller and Au- ditor General, reviewed the proposed sale. Late in 2006, Shannon Devel- opment finally accepted a tender be- lieved to be worth around €8m from two mid-west-based businessmen for the purchase of the former factory and 27 acres of land. The company retained 89 of the 116 acres at the site although it had originally intended selling all the land, along with over 300,000 sq ft of buildings, for just €3.25m.

“NAPPIES should not cost the earth” is the message being delivered by Clare County Council ahead of an unusual event aimed at encouraging parents to think about the alterna- tives to disposable nappies.

A Real Nappy Day will take place at Dunnes Stores Foyer in Ennis on Wednesday, April 9, from llam to 3.30pm, when real nappy suppliers will speak about their products and

their benefits for parents, babies and the environment.

A real nappy is one that is washable and is used over and over again. Sig- nificant advances in real nappy tech- nology mean modern parents need not return to washing nappies, safety pins and folding.

Research shows that by using real nappies, parents can save over €1,000 on the cost of keeping a baby in disposable nappies and at the same time protect the environment by di-

verting a huge amount of waste from going to landfill.

According to Joan Tarmey, Clare County Council’s Environmental Awareness Officer, “There have been amazing advances in technol- ogy, even in the past five years. Real nappies come with poppers or velcro for quick and easy fitting, are incred- ibly soft and comfortable, and are available in lots of cute styles, shapes and colours. So, you get many of the benefits of disposable nappies, more

money in your pocket and you are helping the environment.

“Using real nappies helps prevent up to 2.5 tonnes of waste being gen- erated. So that’s good news for the environment. But you can buy your entire real nappy kit for 2.5 years for about €300.

“The same amount of money would only buy 12 to 16 weeks of dispos- able nappies. So it makes economic sense too.”

The upcoming information event in

Ennis will also feature the launch of the new Limerick/Clare/Kerry Real Nappy Voucher Initiative. There are 10 €150 vouchers to be won by par- ents of babies of 18 months or under who agree to participate in surveys at three, six and 12 months once they start using the real nappies.

Entry forms for the vouchers will be available on April 9 at the real nappy event in Ennis and will be ac- cepted until April 17, after which 10 lucky winners will be drawn.

NINETEEN members of Clare County Council claimed over €30,000 each in salaries and ex- penses last year, new figures released yesterday show.

Overall, the 32 members of Clare County Council received €1.37 million in salaries and expenses in 2007.

The figures released by the council show that former mayor Cllr Flan Garvey (FF) claimed the highest amount, netting over €45,000 dur- ing 2007.

Cllr Garvey was followed closely behind by the current mayor, Cllr Pa- tricia McCArthy (Ind) who claimed €43,631.

They are just two of 19 councillors that received over €30,000 in sala- ries and expenses last year.

The figures also show that it cost 228,585 to fund councillors’ travel to conferences all over Ireland and some overseas activities as well.

Mayors receive an annual allow- ance of €27,000 per annum. Both Cllr Garvey and Cllr McCarthy re- ceived €13,500 each last year.

Councillors receive a salary of €16,/52 after tax, while they also

receive monthly allowances to attend statutory meetings.

These allowances range from €6,000 to €7,500 each year.

Senior members of the council who are chairs of its Special Policy Com- mittees (SPC) receive an additional allowance of €6,000 each.

These members, Cllr Joe Arkins, Cllr Pat Hayes, Cllr PJ Kelly, Clir Ri- chard Nagle, and Cllr Tommy Bren- nan also attend meetings of the coun- cil’s Corporate Policy Group (CPG)

The policy group is involved in drawing up the agenda for each month’s council meeting.

The figures show that Cllr McCa- rthy also received an allowance of €4,500 through being chair of the County Development Board from January to September 2007.

Cllr Brian Meaney (Green) and Cllr Bill Chambers (FF) shared an allowance of €9,000 for being dep- uty mayor.

For the first time last year, council- lors were able to claim a maximum of €600 for usage of mobile phone Viste Reon

The allowance is to represent 50 per cent of total vouched mobile phone costs associated with a councillor’s public duties.

IARNROD Eireann has lost as much as €1 million as a result of the 50- day closure of the Ennis to Limerick eNO Maelo

The service, which carried up to 600 passengers daily until the track became flooded on February 6, reopened temporarily on Thursday morning before closing for some of the weekend.

The weekend closures were due to routine maintenance and not directly related to the flooding.

Although officials from the rail company declined to comment on losses incurred as a result of the

flooding, it is estimated that as much as €300,000 was lost in direct rev- enue over the 50-day stoppage.

It has also been estimated that more than €300,000 was paid out to finance the replacement bus service. Passenger numbers are also expected to be down until confidence in the service is restored.

“I can’t reveal exactly how much was lost as a result of the flood- ing. That is commercially sensitive information, it would weaken our hand in the future if the need arose to contract someone to operate a bus service. The less people know about this, the better,” said Jim Gallivan of larnrod Eireann.

‘The service is very reliable. We advertise a 40-minute journey but each day we are coming in at around 35 or 36 minutes.

“It is a very reliable service. The public impression of the service is still strong.

“We don’t have numbers yet but we would expect passenger levels to be back to normal capacity quickly, maybe in about two weeks.”

It is as yet unclear what corrective action will be taken to prevent future flooding but an investigation is due to start in the coming days.

‘The OPW are looking into the sit- uation. It’s not just a question of how the water came. It’s also a question of

how the water soaks out in the area.

‘There are a number of different things to be looked at before a deci- sion 1s made as to how best to deal with this situation in the future,’ continued Mr Gallivan.

“It is a turlough and that makes it a very complicated situation to deal with. Last year was an exceptionally heavy year for rain and it was prob- ably water from last November and December that caused the flooding and not rain from this year at all.”

Jarnrod Eireann last month gave cuarantees that the re-instigation of the Western Rail Corridor, due to take place next year, will not be de- layed by this flooding.

IT WAS business as usual at Shan- non Airport yesterday despite it be- ing the date on which the Shannon stopover officially ended.

But while yesterday was the offi- cial date for the Open Skies agree- ment to take full effect, the impact of the ending of the stopover actually struck late last year.

A spokesman for Aer Rianta said there was “nothing done and no statements issued to mark the end- ing of the stopover because it had already ended”’.

A schedule of landing one flight in Shannon for every three flights land-

ed in Dublin over an 18-month pe- riod was put in place under the Open Skies talks. This came into operation in the winter 06/07 schedule.

Subsequently, a number of airlines fulfilled their obligations under the schedule and stopped landing at Shannon. American Airlines was one and it ceased its routes into Shannon while continuing to fly into Dublin last year.

“We have already had the impact of it. There will be nothing different in the scheduling next week than there was last week,’ the spokesman said.

He added that Aer Rianta are “very happy that post-Open Skies, we still have seven routes to the US with

Continental, Delta with two routes, USA Airways and Aer Lingus with three cities”.

Open Skies is the agreement be- tween the EU and US that will allow EU-based airlines to fly from any city in the EU to any city in the US and vice versa. It has lifted long-standing restrictions on what routes airlines can fly between the two areas.

Proponents say the deal will boost competition, increase flight frequen- cies, reduce fares and create jobs on both sides of the Atlantic.

But tourism and business interests in the region are concerned that the ending of the stopover, combined with a weak dollar, has already im-

pacted on business.

Hoteliers in Clare are reporting losses of up to one third of their US business bookings for this year and the Irish Tourism Industry Confed- eration is predicting that 250,000 bednights will be lost in the region over the first year of Open Skies. It will take up to three years to recover those bednights, the confederation said.

However, Deputy Tony Kileen said that the introduction of a US customs and border protection post at Shan- non would boost transatlantic traffic.

‘| think the facility will far outweigh the potential losses under Open Skies in the long term,” he said.

A MAN died in his car after suf- fering a heart attack yards from his home, the Coroner’s Court heard last elo

Sean Corry drove 100 yards from his home in Dunmore, Doonbeg when he fell ill, causing the car to strike a stone wall. Mr Corry was on his way to feed cattle when the acci- dent occurred. At the inquest into his death, a jury at the Coroners Court in Ennis found that Mr Corry died of natural causes.

Mr Corry was discovered by a

neighbour, Ann McInerney. She told the court that she was dropping her daughter to school when she saw Mr Corry’s car.

She said, “I saw the car of the left side of the road. The car had hit the stone wall. When I was coming back I noticed Sean Corry slumped at the wheel”.

Garda John O’Brien was called to the scene. He told the court, “I saw a green Opel Vectra embedded in a wall two foot high, 100 yards from Sean Corry’s house. I had known him for the past 12 years”.

Garda O’Brien said he believed Mr

Corry had “suffered a heart attack before the car mounted a wall near where he was going to feed cattle”.

Pathologist Dr Elizabeth Mulcahy carried out the post-mortem on Mr Corry’s body at Limerick’s Midwest- ern Hospital.

In her deposition, Dr Mulcahy told the court that there were no exter- nal injuries and that Mr Corry had a clinical history of ischemic heart Oberon

She said “In my opinion, Mr Corry had a heart attack in the previous 12 hours and then had this terminal Vo 0 ee

Dr Mulcahy said death was due to cardiac tamponade, secondary to a micro-cardial infraction.

County Coroner Isobel O’Dea told the jury “I would suggest that in the circumstances, and based on the fact that it wasn’t caused by an accident,

the verdict should be natural causes.

Ms O’Dea said, “I extend my sym- pathy to Mr. Corry’s family on this huge loss. It must have been a huge shock”. Supt Gabriel O’Gara ex- tended his sympathy to Mr Corry’s Je DOepe AYA

DOUBTS have been raised over the way in which Clare County Council allocated funding following the deci- sion to grant the Lisdoonvarna Play- ground Project more money than it had actually asked for.

Following a heated discussion at the local area council meeting held in Ennistymon yesterday, the decision was made to award the playground €35,000 from the Community Play- eround Grant Fund, even though it had only asked for €30,000.

The fund, which this year totals €83,000, is competed for by differ- ent groups all around north Clare.

“IT would favour the Lisdoonvarna development, but I think we would be setting a dangerous precedent in giving people more than they asked for,” said Cllr Flan Garvey (FG), be- fore leaving the meeting.

The overpay situation arose follow- ing concerns raised by a number of councillors over a validity of a pro- posed playground to be located in the Michael Cusack Centre in Carron.

“IT don’t think that the Carron scheme

fits in with the playground scheme at all. There has to be unlimited public access to the playgrounds,” said Cllr Joe Arkins (FG).

“Tam also disappointed that there aren’t more applications in from oth- STUCCO) napa SL UODAL eK

Council engineer Hubert Newell confirmed that the Carron playground did not meet the normal criteria in terms of access for the children.

‘The people in Lisdoonvarna have spent nearly a million and a half on this project and are putting together a real integrated scheme for the whole

community.

“They got the short straw last year so I think it is only right that they should get the funding they are look- ing for this time around,’ said Cllr Martin Lafferty UND).

Of the €83,000 on offer, €12,000 was allocated for the construction of fencing for the Corofin playground.

Of the remaining budget, €35,000 was allocated to the Lisdoonvarna facility and €35,000 was allocated to the Carron playground, provided it was made easily accessible for local Oi elon

THIS Wednesday, Clare County Council will face its first ever pros- ecution by the Environment Protec- tion Agency (EPA) for alleged non- compliance with the terms of its waste licence at the Central Waste Management Facility in Ballyduff Beg in Inagh.

While the Kilrush court appear- ance 1s the first ever attempted prose- cution, the issue of Ballyduff Beg has proved one of the most controversial in Clare over the last decade.

The facility was first mooted in

February of 1998 when potential sites Kilmaley, Lissycasey and In- agh were identified by Clare County Council. In the summer of 1999, tests were carried out, with Ballyduff Beg being determined as the most suit- able location.

In January of 2000, Clare County Council began to compile an Envi- ronmental Impact Statement at the Inagh site and in August of the same year applied to the EPA for a waste management licence.

By the closing date of October 2000, locals lodged a total of 247 submissions with the EPA. Despite

this local opposition, the EPA issued a formal proposal to grant the licence in December of 2000 and, despite further local opposition, granted a licence on June 13, 2001.

In April of 2002, the Community Liaison Committee was established as one of the conditions of the EPA licence. Locals and members of the committee meet each month to dis- cuss issues arising from the opera- tion of the facility.

The Central Waste Management facility officially opened for business in September of 2002. There was no official ribbon-cutting ceremony.

In December of 2005, a feature un- (su k-l cone) y