Month: April 2009

Bonuses for council top brass may be scrapped

THE top brass in Clare County Council may have to go without their bonuses on a permanent basis as a new opposition proposal to scrap all non-pay or expenses related pay- ments gathers steam.

At present the position of county manager with Clare County Council carries with it a salary of just under €150,000. This income is also sup- plemented by a number of perform- ance-based bonuses which are paid on reaching a number of different performance targets.

However, a new proposal which would see the performance bonuses for the county manager as well as the council’s five directors of services being abolished is expected to come before a general meeting of Clare County Council before it breaks up for the local election this June.

Mayo-native Tom Coughlan is ex- pected to be formally ratified as the new county manager at next week’s April meeting of Clare County Coun- cul. As aresult of the current embargo on recruitment in the public service, Mr Coughlan will only be appointed in the €146,845 a year position on a care-taker basis.

“County managers and directors of services are more then well remuner- ated for the responsible job that they carry out. Their positions are guar- anteed and so are their pensions,” said Cllr Martin Conway (FG), who is proposing the scheme.

“I do not see the point in having a bonus scheme in place which would appear to be self-audited, payable ir- respective of results and costly in a way that could not be sustained in good times never mind bad times.”

According to Cllr Conway, this scheme could save millions if im- plemented in all local authorities na- tionwide.

“We have a very tight budget situa- tion at the moment and the payment of bonuses across the civil service 1s something that we should seriously be looking at. It you consider that the bonuses paid in an average-sized

council could be between €50,000 and €100,000 – this proposal could lead to millions in savings if it was introduced throughout the country,” he continued.

“The people who have to pay for the current economic situation should be those at the higher levels. It is the people at the top levels of employ- ment who should have to carry the

major burden in the current situation, not those on the lower levels of pay.”

According to Cllr Conway the scheme could also be spread to other Government agencies such as Bus Eireann and the ESB.

TOM McNamara is hoping to end a Kilmaley famine on Clare County Sees

The first candidate from the area in 30 years, Mr McNamara declared as a Fianna Fail candidate last week when he was put on the ticket by the party’s head office.

With the change in the electoral area boundaries coming into affect in June, Mr McNamara can but ben- efit from the addition of even more of Kilmaley into Ennis West.

The former Assistant Director of Nursing with Clare Mental Health Services is well known for his com-

munity involvement and work with eo OraVae

A life-long member of Fianna Fail, he comes from a long political pedi- eree. He is a nephew of Joe Ryan from Inagh who was a member of Clare County Council from 1944 to 1984 and is the first person from Kul- maley Parish to contest an election since Martin Cahill in 1979.

Married to Mary, with two teenage sons, he played a leading role in the development of community services for mental health in Clare and was involved in setting up ‘Meitheal’ Kilmaley Development Associa- tion in 1995. He was chairperson of Meitheal for seven years.

In recent years, he has coordinated the training of 35 parishioners in CPR and installed two defibrillators in the parish.

In the new four-seater area of Ennis West, he will be running on the same ticket as Fianna Fail candidates Cllr Peter Considine and Garett Greene.

With just four seats for the taking he will also have to see off strong can- didates such as former Fianna Fail councillor and Independent TD James Breen and Cllr Brian Meaney (GP).

Chamber of Commerce CEO Rita McInerney is also running in the area as an independent candidate as is Tony Mulqueen for Fine Gael and Sean Hayes for Sinn Féin.

A MAN telephoned an east Clare garda station stating he was going into the Shannon to “end it’, an in- quest into his death has heard.

Ennis Coroner’s Court heard that the body of the 36-year-old unem- ployed man was taken from the water just hours after the telephone call.

The inquest heard that the man telephoned Killaloe Garda Station shortly after midnight last October and identified himself.

‘He said he had enough and his nerves were at him. He had suffered with his nerves for years. There were voices in his head to do good things and bad things,” recalled the garda, last week.

“He said he was going into the Shannon to end it,” he said.

The garda said the man gave him his brother’s mobile phone number. He felt that the caller sounded in- toxicated but he told the garda that he had not drank for more than 10 (era

The garda tried to encourage the man to call to the garda station, but

he said he was going into the river. Asked where exactly he was, he evaded the question and hung up a short time after. The garda tried to call the man back, but the call went directly to his voicemail.

The garda said he directed a patrol car to search for the distressed man. They found clothing and a mobile phone beside a river and the man’s body was taken from the water some hours later by Killaloe/Ballina Search and Rescue.

An autopsy carried out on the man’s body at Limerick Regional Hospital showed there was no alcohol detect- ed in his system. His death had been consistent with drowning.

Clare County Coroner Isobel O’Dea said she was conscious of the fact that the man had telephoned the garda station and said an open ver- dict was appropriate.

She acknowledged the efforts of the garda who had received the phone call at Killaloe garda station that morning.

She also paid tribute to the rescue Services, “who come out in all sorts of weather to carry out searches.”

CLARE’S Kieren Fallon has pledged to become champion jockey in Brit- ain once he returns from his 18- month suspension for testing positive for a banned substance after a race at Deauville in August 2007.

‘People can look at me whatever way they like, it won’t bother me,” a bullish Fallon said as he continued with track work at Newmarket for his former training boss Sir Michael Stoute.

“Tl re-establish myself when I get on the track by riding winners and if you ride winners, trainers want to use you. I’ve always liked a challenge and I set my targets high. I would love to get back riding 200 winners. I’ve done it three or four times on the trot and I found it easy. If I can get back riding that many winners in a season, I am going to be there with a shot of winning another champion- ship, which I think I’m capable of.

‘I’m relaxed, the cloud is gone and I’m just really looking forward to getting back. I’ve got a few months to go, but I think it will do me the world of good. I know I’II be a lot fit- ter when I get back riding than I ever was. It’s just a matter of time now before I can get back on and see if I can prove myself again, get the sup- port of trainers and their confidence back and kick on from there,’ Fallon added.

Fallon is recognised as the greatest flat jockey of his generation, having won six British championships, three Derbys and two Prix de |’Arc de Tri- omphes in a glittering career.

FOUR petrol bombs and quantities of drugs have been seized by gardai, as part of a major investigation into a vicious feud between two Traveller families in Ennis.

The recovery of the items follows an ugly brawl in the Cloughleigh area of Ennis, in which a woman sustained a broken arm, while a man had his jaw broken.

Gardai fear that the feud – which is the latest in a number of Traveller rows to hit the town in recent years – will escalate further.

They are appealing to those in- volved to stop fighting and are con- cerned about the latest sinister twist in the feud.

Peace talks were due to take place in recent days, but gardai are con- tinuing to patrol the area, amid fears that further violence will break out.

Ener Connolly and Bernie English