Month: July 2008

JUST two months into his steward- ship of the Department of Agricul- ture and Minster Brendan Smith is already in open conflict with the Irish Farmers Association.

A huge row erupted last week fol- lowing the decision by the minister to reveal that farmers paid an average of just £1,895 in tax last year, com- pared to €4,943 by PAYE employees and €12,927 by the self-employed.

IFA President Padraig Walshe re- acted angrily to the revelation, de- scribing 1s as mischievous and mis- leading. “The average family income from farming is a mere €18,100

a year, compared to the €48,300 earned by public-sector workers. There is no mystery about the low tax yield from farmers,” he said.

“The real problem is low incomes and the minister should face up to this. Presenting income-tax pay- ments as a measure of farmers’ con- tribution to the economy is mischie- vous and misleading.”

Smith reacted by rejected the IFA presidents claims, saying that pub- lishing the figures in this was was standard practice as part of the De- partment’s Annual Review and Out- look for Agriculture.

He also pointed out that at the time of the publication of the Annual

Review and Outlook, he drew par- ticular attention to the value of the agri-food sector, accounting for 8 per cent of employment and 10 per cent of exports.

Minister Smith also took the oppor- tunity to highlight the huge impor- tance of farming and the agri-food sector to the economy, both from an employment point of view and also as a major contributor to regional development. The minister outlined the further employment opportuni- ties that can be created in the overall biosector.

Indeed the minister also pointed out that, on the same day as he published the Annual Review and Outlook, he

also published a report showing that the agri-food sector contributes ap- proximately one-third of the net flow of funds into the economy generated by manufacturing exports which the minister noted he described as pro- viding “a timely and accurate indica- tion of the importance of the sector to the economy”.

The minister concluded by say- ing that the Department’s Annual Review and Outlook was a compre- hensive and valuable report, detail- ing the performance of the agri-food sector and providing a range of use- ful statistical data and confirmed that he had no plans to significantly change its content or presentation.

IRISH fishermen could finally be set for a slice of good news if a new scheme for utilising over-catch is adopted in the EU.

Speaking at the Council of Agri- culture and Fisheries Ministers in Brussels last Thursday, Clare TD and Junior Minister in the Depart- ment of Agriculture, Tony Killeen, made a proposal to the European Commission for the introduction of a pilot project to address the discard- ing of catches by Irish fishermen.

The Irish Department of Agricul- ture and its agencies the Marine Institute and BIM, in conjunction with the Federation of Irish Fisher- men (FIF), are developing the pilot

project, which is proposed to run for one year.

It will target unavoidable by-catch- es, in particular in the prawn fish- ery, where large scale discarding of marketable fish such as cod, which are caught over quota, is a particular problem.

These fisheries occur in the Irish Sea, Celtic Sea and off the west coast. The overall object will be to use more environmentally-friendly fishing gear to avoid catches of small fish in these fisheries and to reduce the occurrence of discarding of mar- ketable fish that cannot currently be landed under EU law if quotas are exhausted.

“The proposed project would be operated in conjunction with the pro-

ducer organisations that make up the FIF,’ he said.

‘The minister asked Commissioner Borg to give urgent consideration to this new proposal and to bring for- ward EU measures, which would al- low the new pilot project to be imple- mented as soon as possible.

“The additional quota will mean that this small quota can be set aside for unavoidable catches of cod by Irish fishermen in the Celtic Sea. This will help to reduce discarding of marketable cod in this fishery.”

The minister’s proposals, which he presented to Commissioner Borg, would mean that fishermen would be given an incentive to participate in the pilot phase. Vessels targeting prawns would have to be allocated

an additional discard quota by the EU, which would allow the landing of marketable fish that would other- wise be discarded. Fishermen would be allocated a share of the sale price of the fish to cover vessel-running costs. The remainder would be allo- cated to a charity.

Also at the Council of Ministers meeting this week, an amendment to the TAC and Quota Regulation for 2008 is due to be approved that results in an increase of 44 tonnes in Ireland’s allocation of cod in the Celtic Sea.

This increase came after sustained pressure by Ireland, after indications of improvement in the stock came from fisheries scientists earlier this year.

THE managing director of Aer Arann has claimed that there has been an exodus of at least six carriers out of Shannon Airport since Rya- nair established its base there.

Addressing the Dail’s Transport committee, Gary Cullen said that the downside to Ryanair’s entry into an airport “is that its sheer strength dis- courages other carriers operating out of that airport”.

Two million Ryanair passengers are expected to fly out of Shannon this year and Mr Cullen said, “It is well known within the industry that other carriers avoid those airports we refer to as Ryanair airports like

the plague because they cannot earn a profit from operating out of them. The seventh carrier to withdraw was Aer Lingus, which withdrew the Shannon-Heathrow route.”

Mr Cullen said, “I am not privy to the books of Shannon Airport and I do not know whether that develop- ment is a good or a bad one. One could argue that Shannon Airport has gone further down the road with Ryanair but it has the transatlantic business as a balance.

“One can observe that Ryanair is a highly successful airline at driving volume through an airport, of that there is no doubt. It is a major suc- cess and good luck to it. There are downsides and other implications.

“With regard to Aer Arann operat- ing out of Shannon Airport, this is linked to what I have just said. We are wary about beginning to operate any UK services out of Shannon because of the strength of Ryanair there.

“We continually talk to long-haul airlines and if we get an opportunity to provide a feeder service contract to a long-haul carrier, we certainly would be interested in doing that.”

Mr Cullen did, however, open up the possibility of Aer Arann putting in place a new Shannon-Dublin serv- ice if it can agree with Aer Lingus to share on the route.

In answers to Clare TD, Timmy Dooley, Mr Cullen said, “Aer Arann operated the Shannon-Dublin route,

but withdrew from it because we could not make any money on tt.

“If we could reach an agreement with Aer Lingus whereby it would operate the morning flight and we would operate the evening flight and we could share in that way, we would do that, as that would make sense. We know that if we were to oper- ate that route on our own without a link with another carrier and had to compete directly with Ryanair, that would not work.”

Only last January, Ryanair pulled its Shannon-Dublin service after only two months on the route. He said, “If carriers co-shared the morning and evening flights, they could make a go out it.”

THE chief executive of City Jet said that his colleagues in Air France asked him if he was mad establishing a Shannon-Paris Charles de Gaulle Service.

Addressing the Dail’s Transport Committee, Geoffrey O’Byrne White said, “When we mentioned Shannon Airport to our colleagues in the Aur France planning department, they did not know where it was. They looked up Shannon on the internet and asked

if I was mad because nobody lives there. They were not aware of it. It 1s not on the globe as far as the rest of Europe is concerned.

He said, “We may find that hard to believe, but it 1s a fact. There are 500 million people in Europe who know about Connemara, but who do not know about Shannon. There is need, therefore, for a significant marketing and branding exercise.

He added, “Shannon has benefited from the investment in road infra- structure and should be seen as a

gateway, not just for the Shannon re- gion, but also for Galway. If the work can be completed on the Gort bypass, that would be a great step forward. Such initiatives are very important. A rail network is also significant.

Last year, in the fall-out of the deci- sion by Aer Lingus to end its Shan- non-Heathrow route, City Jet estab- lished its Charles de Gaulle route to compensate for the loss of connectiv- ity as aresult of the Aer Lingus deci- sion.

Mr O’Byrne White said that he sees

Shannon as the major western gate- way. He confirmed that City Jet will have a Shannon-based aircraft in October and that flights from Shan- non will leave earlier, and also said the airline have “a Shannon-London City Airport connection under active consideration.”

Mr O’Byrne White said that the Shannon-Charles de Gaulle route “‘is developing well and we plan to in- crease capacity by introducing 100- seat jet aircraft – our own Avro air- craft – as soon as they are available”.

THE chief executive of Aer Lingus has confirmed that he cannot give any absolute guarantees to Shannon in relation to the future of transatlan- tic services.

Addressing the Dail’s Transport

Committee, Dermot Mannion stated, “On the question of whether we can give an absolute guarantee to Shan- non in regard to long-haul services, the honest answer is “No”, just as we cannot give a guarantee to Dublin on long-haul services or to Belfast or any other place on short-haul serv-

ices.

“We must make decisions that are commercially focused. To put it mildly, we are very aware of the so- cio-economic factors associated with long-haul routes, especially given the loyalty of the Irish-American com- munity in the United States to the

Shannon route. We are very aware of that and it will weigh heavily on our deliberations on the Shannon routes, as it will on other long-haul routes.”

Mr Mannion ruled out for the mo- ment any plans for a direct service from Shannon to Chicago.

On the Shannon-Heathrow contro- versy, he said, “I regret the damage caused to our reputation in the Shan- non area during three or four months of last year. I would say, and Deputy Timmy Dooley acknowledged it, that a huge effort has gone in recently to rebuilding confidence, rebuilding the reputation of the Aer Lingus brand at Shannon and, although it is early days, we are beginning to see some positive effect from that.

Mr Mannion said that “we have not ruled out future short-haul opera- tions from Shannon”.

“I can assure the committee that Shannon, and the potential of Shan- non routes, are given every consid- eration in those deliberations. The deployment of long and short-haul aircraft requires similar analyses to determine the optimal deployment between Shannon, Dublin and other potential destinations.

“Just as we deploy long-haul air- craft we are doing a similar exercise in terms of determining the optimal deployment between Shannon, Dub- lin and other potential destinations,” he said.

THE latest Manpower Employment Outlook Survey, has found Munster employers remain the most optt- mistic in the country with seven per cent of employers planning on hiring more staff in the next three months. Regionally, Munster employers re- corded the highest outlook recorded by any region for the quarter. Ac- cording to the employment agency figures, this figure was “closely fol- lowed by Dublin employers (five per

cent) and Leinster employers (four per cent) who are, as a whole, remain- ing optimistic about future growth. In contrast, Ulster has reported the weakest employment outlook of mi- nus eight per cent, which shows a significant decline of 20 percentage points since last quarter. Connaught employers have also reported a dis- appointing employment outlook of minus two per cent.

Despite serious job losses and a sig- nificant number of business closures in Ennis. Official figures show that

Clare had just half the number of company failures in the six months to the end of June 2008 that it had in the same period in 2007.

Between January and June 2007, ten companies went to the wall in the county, This year, just five have closed their doors in that time.

The Manpower survey also shows that Ireland’s Net Employment Out- look for the next three months is just three per cent, the third weakest forecast of hiring intentions reported across the globe for this quarter.

The figure of three per cent is Ire- land’s overall ‘Net Employment Outlook’ figure which is calculated by taking the percentage of employ- ers anticipating total employment to increase and subtracting from this the percentage expecting to see a de- crease in employment at their loca- tion in the next quarter.

Ireland’s Net Employment Outlook of three per cent is second only to Spain (0 per cent) as the weakest em- ployment outlook while India (47 per cent), Peru (40 per cent) have report-

ed strongest employment outlooks. The Manpower Employment Out- look Survey, which measured 686 Irish employers’ intentions to in- crease or decrease their workforces over next three months, reveals that employer confidence in the mining and quarrying and the construction industry sectors has weakened by 33 and 27 percentage points respec- tively since last year. The restaurant and hotel sector has also undergone a steep decline, with employers report- ing a 22 percentage point decrease.

else terday Jim Power, Chief Economist with the Friends First Organisation said that while the situation is criti- cal in the county, the regeneration of Limerick may offer some light on the keleyZeyee

“The situation in Clare and right across the mid-west is perilous at the moment. One possible source of light is Limerick city and the regen- eration work that is due to take place there over the next months and years. GMA dereTmp tour DU lO (cre mmKO mee rlBNTLUComBatssO BLE could be a real help. But it’s going to get worse before it gets better,’ he Sr nLGe

In a bleak overall assessment, Mr Power noted that key employers such as manufacturing, construction and tourism face a tough time over the next 18 to 24 months.

According to the 2006 census, these sectors employ more than 15,000 people in Clare, or 27.9 per cent of the total employed. One major sec- tor which could grow in the county Thsere Faw (UN LAUD Kee

“Competition internationally has increased while at the same time we are losing ground in terms of manu- facturing competitiveness. I can’t see how manufacturing or construc- tion can lead us out of this current trough,” he continued.

“T would be more upbeat about the prospects for Clare farming. The issue of food safety and food secu-

rity is one that I think will become of greater importance over the next while. So the outlook for quality out- puts in farming should be good. “Clare suffers from a high depend- ency on US tourists and with the de- pression in America, the weakness of the dollar and prices in Ireland, we just don’t represent good value for money for American tourists at the

moment.

“There can be a positive outcome but we need to survive through the next 18 months. I would see the glo- bal subprime crisis working its way through the system next year which should return credit to a more work- able place. We have about 18 months of excess stock in the housing mar- ket to work through so I think it will

be 2010 before we see any kind of meaningful recovery.’

Mr Power’s bleak outlook on the immediate future was echoed by Ae) cTOMM ORC E-TIMES ONO NenmE(cenlbio in LIT’s School of Built Environ- ment.

“IT think the recession could poten- tially hit Clare quite severely due to the adverse trade effects upon a re- gion with a high dependence upon high value added trade via Shannon,” he said.

“The decision to permit the aban- donment of the ‘hub’ status of Shan- non may well exacerbate a reduction in regional competitiveness. Wor- ryingly tourism jobs, especially de- pendent on the USA will also take a vie

“These largely external threats make it imperative that infrastruc- ture spend from central government is maintained on roads, projects such as the tunnel, and higher education. Irish agriculture will also need ro- bust support at the WTO talks, since this staple of the local economy will take on even greater relative signifi- cance in a downturn.”

this week, both the Construction Indus- try Federation (CIF) and the Clare Plasterers Union called for the gov- ernment to fast-track projects such as the Gort/Crusheen Bypass, the Western Rail Corridor and the Ennis Main Drainage Project. “There is no doubt that the down-

turn in the housing sector, which is due to a number of factors including the liquidity of the banking sector, has had an impact on the construc- tion sector in Clare,” said director of the CIF’s Southern Region, Conor O’Connell.

“But it is very important that the skills built up over the years is net by the government in terms of rolling out the National Development Plan. It is vital that spending on public in- frastructure is not cut over the next number of years. This infrastructure will provide for the development of the next stage of our economy.”

The Clare Plasterers Union, which represents almost 1,000 builders in the county, called on an increased government spend in school build- ing.

“The government could do some- thing by tackling the prefabs in the schools. There aren’t proper class- rooms in Barefield or Ennis or in most schools around the county. If they could invest in this they would alleviate some of the unemployment in the system and boost the education system down the road,’ said Branch Secretary, Paddy Connelly.

‘The undercutting is getting cut- throat, and it’s not foreign compa- nies – it’s Clare builders undercutting Clare builders. People are undercut- ting by as much as 30 per cent. There is no profit in that they are working just to keep a cash flow going.

“A lot of people are emigrating, a lot have gone to Australia but it is hard enough to get in over there at the moment. A lot of ground workers

are heading to the UK in preparation for the Olympics and we would pre- dict that a lot of finishers like plasters would be going over there in a few years time.

“Things are very bad – there is mass unemployment in Clare at the moment. It’s not just Clare, the whole western seaboard is very badly hit. I would say that 60 per cent of the construction workers in Clare are idle. You can drive all around Clare, Limerick and Cork and they are idle. Some of them are on the dole, but there is a lot of undercutting going Oe Dem salem ett-Du. Colm

The CIF would like to see govern- ment spending on key infrastural projects speeded up in the county.

“In lots of respects Clare has some of the biggest infrastructural projects

underway at the moment. You have the Shannon Tunnel – I know it’s just outside of Clare but it will have an impact on Shannon and that catch- ment area. There is also the Crush- een Bypass and the Ennis to Galway Rail Link. All of these projects will have a significant impact on the county. These must be continued and if possible speeded up,’ continued Mr O’Connell.

“There is pent up demand in the housing market. The condition of the banking sector is effecting peoples ability to get loans and we need some government and industry working on this. It cost so much to build a house in Clare. If people believe that hous- es will fall dramatically then they are living in a pipe-dream. I can’t see how prices can continue to fall.”

CLARE has gone from being one of the counties least strangled by debt to being the county with the highest average debt.

That’s happened in just five years according to a recently published re- port by Business Pro, a Dublin com- pany which records court actions taken by people chasing up unpaid debts. The massive surge does not take account of mortgage debts.

The report found that in 2003, the

average debt to land a Clare person in court was €6,159.

This has rocketed in 2008 to €20,596 – a jump of 234 per cent. The debts which find their way into the report include unpaid personal loans, utility and tax bills.

Five years ago, just two counties had average debts of €10,000. That number has risen to seven today, with Clare topping the league followed by Kilkenny, Dublin, Galway, Kildare, Monaghan and Roscommon.

The Clare indebtedness figures are

against a national average of €8,900, the figure for which debtors are tak- en to court having failed to pay their bills or repay loans.

“There has been so much easily available and cheap credit in Ireland over the last five years that a lot more people have been borrowing money,” said James Treacy, managing direc- tor of Business Pro.

‘A certain percentage of those loans will always go bad. That is one of the reason debt will go up over the next 12 months.”

THEY say that figures never lie and if that’s true then there is no disguis- ing the poor state of the Clare econ- omy. According to figures obtained from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) unemployment in the county has climbed by more than 25 per cent since June of last year.

More worringly, the latest figures available show the greatest single jump in Clare people signing on the live register. Numbers shot up from

5,036 in May of this year to 5,505 in June or an increase of just under ten oaceonle

This increases represents the larg- est single, month on month, jump in unemployment figures in the county in more than five years.

Each area of the county has been hit with the spike in unemployment but Tulla appears to be suffering more than most.

Between June 2007 and June 2008 the amount of people signing on in Tulla increased from 446 to 678.

This increase of 232 people sign- ing on represents a massive jump of more than 40 per cent in the space of just a year.

Ennistymon has also been hit heavily by the increase with unem- ployment figures jumping from 573 to 806 (40 per cent) in the same pe- riod.

The situation is less drastic in oth- er parts of the county with number jumping in Ennis from 2,502 to 3293 (30 per cent) and in Kilrush from 609 to 728 (15 per cent).