Month: June 2011

LITTER laws are criminalising landowners rather than people who engage in illegal dumping, a meeting has heard.

Councillors yesterday backed a motion calling for the “Litter Act to be amended to state that where there is a reasonable doubt that landowners are not penalized for illegal dumping”. The motion was put forward by North Clare councillor Michael Kelly (FF). At yesterday’s meeting of Clare County Council, Cllr Kelly explained that farmers are being hit with enforcement orders when rubbish is dumped on their land.

He said landowners are now “guilty until proven innocent”. He said he was aware of one incident where a farmer’s fence was cut and a sofa and armchair were thrown in.

He acknowledged that Council staff are doing everything they can to stop illegal dumping but farmers and landowners are still being penalized.

Cllr Pat Hayes (FF) said he had received numerous complaints from landowners about illegal dumping and encampments.

“There has to be protection for landowners. A lot of litter was dumped in my field and I had to take responsibility for it.

Cllr Joe Arkins (FG) said Council staff had been successful in identifying culprits and removing “lorry loads of rubbish”. He added, “We should engage in dialogue before we get into business of enforcement.”

Cllr PJ Ryan (Ind) told the meeting that “there is only one thing to be said and that the Act has to be changed.” Cllr Joe Cooney (FG) called for the imposition of “stiffer penalities”. Cllr Johnny Flynn (FG) described the current litter legislation as “bad law”. He added, “It criminalises the victim rather than the culprit.”

Cllr Gerry Flynn (Ind) said the majority of people are compliant with the litter laws. He said there are only two environmental wardens in the county. “They are doing the best they can but there are not enough resources,” he added.

Cllr Arkins urged greater promotion of the Council’s 24-hour confidential litter hot-line. He said the number should be marketed on all of the Council’s publications, stickers and biros. “Everyone should be a litter warden,” he added. Cllr Kelly said people engaged in dumping are more likely to throw rubbish onto other people’s lands in the middle of the night rather than the middle of the day. He added, “The wording of the act has to be amended.”

Director of Servce, David Timlin confirmed that the Council have two full time environmental wardens. He said that there were other members of staff designated to remove litter and carry out clean-ups of areas around Clare.

CLARE County Council is to hold a special meeting on the ongoing controversy over the iconic Ballyvaughan sign.

At last night’s Council meeting, a group of councillors put a forward a motion requesting a meeting to discuss the removal of the sign which has been strongly opposed by residents and business people in North Clare. The motion also proposed that the sign be re-installed at its original location and that it be listed as a protected structure.

Cllr Brian Meaney (GP) asked if the Council could provide a list of accidents that have occurred on the road near the sign. He said that it was within the remit of the Council to place a conservation order on the sign.

He added, “It was iconic and had particular relevance for people of Ballyvaughan and its removal was due to a vacuum of information.”

Cllr Joe Arkins (FG) said that signage is a big issue in Clare. He told the meeting that there are three different spellings of Lahinch and two different spellings of Ballyvaughan. He said, “If you were a tourist in this county you wouldn’t know whether you were coming or going.”

Cllr Arkins added that the different spellings of towns and villages had made Clare an “international laughing stock”.

Cllr Richard Nagle (FF) called for the National Roads Authority (NRA) to take a more realistic approach to signage. He said the removal of the sign had left people in North Clare feeling “outraged” and “victimised”.

He added, “The people in North Clare are relying on the sign for their livelihoods and this should be pointed out quite forcefully to the NRA.”

Cllr Tommy Brennan (Ind) told the meeting that if the NRA had “nothing to do but to look at signs, it should be abolished”.

County Manager Tom Coughlan said there had been contacts on an hourly basis between the Council and the NRA. He said he could not comment too much on the current situation regarding the sign, as he had not yet had a chance to speak with the Director of Service.

However he added that as far as the Council was concerned, it was the view of the NRA on Friday evening that the sign should not go up.

Cllr Patricia McCarthy (Ind) described the level of ambiguity coming from the NRA as “dreadful”.

MOVES to name a significant piece of infrastructure after the founder of the world’s first Duty Free Zone, Dr Brendan O’Regan, was begun yesterday by Clare County Council.

The Sixmilebridge man – who died in 2008 at 90 years of age and was key to the development of industry and tourism in Clare – established Ireland’s first hotel school in Shannon in 1951 and was Chairman of the Irish Tourist Board from 1957 to 1973.

Following a motion put forward by Cllr PJ Ryan (Ind) at last night’s meeting of Clare County Council, the County Manager, Tom Coughlan, has been asked to make contact with the Shannon Airport Authority to discuss renaming a major road in the area after Dr O’Regan.

It was suggested at last night’s meeting that a section of road from Drumline to the airport would be name The O’Regan Way, while it was also suggested that an area of road between Drumgeely to the airport also be renamed.

“He seems to have been honoured in every other county and every other country except for his own county. In the airport itself there has been very little recognition for him in the place where he contributed so much to,” said PJ Ryan (Ind). “I wouldn’t have a problem with the suggestion that the council talk to the airport authority in relation to this. But I know that airport authority does not move too fast so I would hope that Tom Coughlan would move this forward sooner rather than later.”

Meanwhile, a disagreement concerning the council’s financial operations broke out last night meeting when Cllr PJ Kelly (FF) suggested that the local authority was not complying with its own rules for reporting budget deficits to the elected members. Cllr Kelly said that, while he did not entirely support the laws as they stood, the council was in breach of Section 104 of the Local Government Act.

County Manager Tom Coughlan said that the local authority had not overspent on its overall budget in the last two years and that the elected members would be advised before any over spend would take place.

Mr Coughlan did admit however, that minor over spends in some areas had taken place, but that these were balanced off with under spends in other areas. He said that if the Council was to take a very strict interpretation of Section 104, it would make the day to day running of the local authority almost impossible.

“Towards the end of last year the Council was able to get some extra funding from the NRA – between € 1 million and € 1.5 million. If I had to wait for four weeks to tell the [elected members of the] Council that we would be spending that money then there wouldn’t be a hope we could spend it in time,” he said.

“If there is going to be over expenditure I will, of course, bring that issue before the council. There is over expenditure in certain areas but then there’s under expenditure in other areas, but we balance the budget. If the council was to apply very strictly the issues outlined in 104 then we would be back before the Council every week. It would be impossible if I had to go back to the Council every single week.”

MEMBERS of Clare County Council last night narrowly voted to nominate Independent candidate Seán Gallagher to contest the 2011 Presidential Election.

Despite legal advice that the Council was not entitled to nominate a candidate before the election writ is officially moved, a majority of members present voted 16/15 in favour of supporting Dragon’s Den panelist Gallagher.

A decision on the motion was delayed last week after councillors requested legal advice.

Prior to last night’s vote, County Manager Tom Coughlan said that he had to draw attention to the legal advice that stated that any challenge to the Council’s proposal to nominate Gallagher would be likely to succeed. He added that the Council would then be liable to pay costs.

The motion, put forward by Cllr Michael Begley (Ind), stated, “That we the members of Clare County Council pledge our commitment to nominate Seán Gallagher to contest the 2011 Presidential Election.” The motion was seconded by Cllr Gerry Flynn (Ind).

The motion was strongly critcised by Cllr Brian Meaney (GP) and Fine Gael councillors.

Cllr Meaney described it as “extraordinary”, adding that he felt sorry for the normal members of Fianna Fáil whom he claimed were being forced to support Mr Gallagher, “a de-facto member of Fianna Fáíl”. Mayor of Clare, Cllr Christy Curtin (Ind) reprimanded Cllr Meaney asking him not to comment the decisions of other political parties.

Cllr Meaney said that if Mr Gallagher is a “de facto Fianna Fáíl candidate” then he should be declared as the party’s official candidate.

Fianna Fáil councillors asked Cllr Meaney to withdraw his remarks. Cllr Johnny Flynn (FG) told the meeting that he would be voting against the motion.

He added, “I’m a bit concerned that this is a bit premature.” Cllr Joe Ar- kins (FG) said that the motion represented “closing the stable door before the horse even got in”. He added, “We can’t formally nominate a candidate before the writ is moved.”

Cllr Tony Mulqueen (FG) warned that the Council could be legally exposed if the motion was passed.

When a vote was taken, 16 voted for and 15 against. Fianna Fáíl councillors present voted for the motion while Fine Gael councillors present voted against. Labour councillor Pascal Fitzgerald voted in favour of the Council nominating Mr Gallagher. The Labour party has nominated former Galway TD, Michael D Higgins, as its candidate in the Presidential Election.

A QUIN woman has won an award for her new business, which develops learning support computer games for children with reading difficulties.

Linda O’Sullivan’s company Footbridge Interactive won first prize at the LEAP Business Awards at the Limerick Institute of Technology (LIT) last week and earned a prize of a € 50,000 investment from AIB’s Seed Capital Fund.

Footbridge Interactive games are aimed at improving reading fluency and comprehension for children with dyslexia. It is integrated into fun stories, which makes it appealing for children. It is aimed at seven to 12-year-olds, initially in Ireland the UK and possibly further afield at a later stage. The games are designed for children to play independently, at home or at school.

Linda established her company in 2010, as she felt there was an opening in this area. She won the award after she did a 12-month (LEAP) Enterprise Acceleration programme at LIT.

“I set it up last year. Jennifer Keane joined the company in January of this year. Jennifer has a background in animation and design. My background is in developing content for kids TV. I worked with a number of companies in Galway (including the Galway Film Centre),” said Linda.

“There wasn’t a huge choice of products. We have worked very closely with dyslexic experts and educational experts in all of this. We have worked closely with Limerick Dyslexia Support Centre as well,” said Linda, whose 14-year-old son Oisin Mac Criostail is dyslexic.

She explained how the new game works. “The child logs in and plays with the game. The game progresses the child. The child’s strengths and weaknesses are tracked. It is very good for learning resource teachers in schools. It is for the child when relaxed at home. In a computer game environment, they are quite happy to repeat things which they need. It compliments the work they do in school,” she said.

Linda has enjoyed the path to setting up her own company.

“My first step was I got a feasibility grant from Clare County Enterprise Board. It allowed me to look into the feasibility of it. I got an innovation voucher from Enterprise Ireland. We got further Enterprise Ireland funding from there,” she added.

“Everybody was very enthusiastic about it. It will be available from September. It will be a subscriptionbased production,” she said.

In advance of the final touches being put on the games, Linda will have a few very busy months ahead. “We are going to be working very hard over the summer to get the product released for the start of September. We will have a big launch in the UK and here,” she said.

A DUBLIN man has appeared in court in connection with an alleged burglary that took place in Sixmilebridge last year.

Simon Gentles (26) with a previous address at 23 Casement Grove, Finglas, Dublin, appeared at Ennis Circuit Court on Thursday.

However, the court was told that the accused no longer lives at this address. It is alleged that Mr Gentles committed a burglary at Ardkyle, Sixmilebridge on January 7 (2010). Mr Gentles is also charged with possession of a firearm, to wit a medallist over and under shotgun.

Counsel for Gentles, Michael Collins BL, told the court that his client had been forced to leave his home in Dublin because he had “received a threat on his life.” As a result, Mr Collins explained, his client had since been on the move from “place to place”.

Mr Collins described his client’s ongoing attempts to supply Gardaí with an address as a “work in progress” due to his present situation.

He told the court that Gardaí are satisfied that the threat against Mr Gentles is serious.

Detective Garda, Kevin O’Hagan, told the court that he agreed with Mr Collins’ summation of events. He said the only outstanding matter was for the accused to provide gardaí with an address and for that address to be deemed acceptable by gardaí.

Referring to the accused’s current situation, Judge Donagh McDonagh said: “Not to put too fine a point on it, he’s going into hiding”.

Judge McDonagh added that gardai had advised against Mr Gentles signing on at a local garda station.

Mr Gentles supplied a written ad- dress to Detective O’Hagan and Judge McDonagh. Detective O’Hagan said he accepted the address.

Judge McDonagh re-admitted the accused to bail on the condition that he resides at the given address. He also ordered that if Mr Gentles intends to change address, he must inform Detective O’Hagan of the change in address, in writing, prior to moving. The accused is due to appear in court again at a later date.

THE centre of Ennis town should be developed as much as possible, in an effort to attract shoppers.

That’s according to the local Chamber of Commerce, in the wake of the County Development Plan’s publication yesterday.

As part of the retail strategy, which is incorporated into the Development Plan, the challenge for Ennis is to improve its retail representation, particularly through the provision of large modern shop units in the town centre, without harming its attractive historic character.

The strategy also states that there is scope for improvement in the range of non-bulky and bulky comparison goods offered in Shannon.

It states that the growth of retail floor space should be encouraged so that the town centre can improve its quality of service in Shannon.

Among the groups to make submissions was Ennis Chamber of Commerce. CEO Rita McInerney said there are several positive parts of the plan.

“The big message is to develop a strategy that keeps a core in the town. We would be in favour of that; developing the core of the town as much as possible. There are a lot of new places opening up and we want to make sure they stay and we have to foster that,” she said.

“The one thing I picked out of it [the plan] is the commitment to develop town centre improvement strategies to make town centres more attractive for shoppers,” said Ms McInerney.

She believes that the content of the plan is achievable, but everyone must work together to ensure it happens.

“It’s implementing the elements of the plan within the timeframe that is important. A lot of work has gone into it. It’s a vision. Now we need to make it a reality. Otherwise we are going to have more businesses closing,” she said.

“It’s a combination of efforts; the local authorities in conjunction with local businesses and ourselves. We all have a job to do. We all need to get on board and work progressively,” she said.

“It is very much a balancing act. We have a unique town centre. You need to provide customer choice and diversity. We are located between two cities that have high street stores. We have to think very carefully about what type of companies we want in terms of retail. Is it viable to compete with those? There is a lot of interest in Ennis from retailers but they find it difficult to get town centre locations of the right size. We need to look at combining units in the town centre whilst keeping the character of the town centre. Everything is achievable,” he said.

“Overall the vision of the plan is very good in terms of retail. We just have to follow through on them,” said Ms McInerney.

PARTS of Shannon Airport are at risk of being totally submerged underwater in the event of a major flooding event taking place in County Clare.

That is according to a special report on flooding in the Shannon area which formed a central part of the Strategic Flood Risk Assessment in the Clare County Development Plan which was officially published yesterday.

The report predicts that a one in 200 year flooding incident, made worse by the effect of rising sea levels, could result in overtopping or a breach in the Shannon flood defenses. In this event the report predict that two separate areas close to the international airport could become seriously flooded. A large section of land between Carrigerry and Ballycally would be flooded in the event of a major flooding event as would an area around Rinnanna South – which includes part of the airport and there Shannon Golf Club.

The flooding in the Rinnanna South area would also threaten the Oil Storage Depot at the airport. The Shannon area was chosen as a site for special study in the development plan because of the danger that rising sea level poses to the area and because of the strategic importance of Shannon Airport.

Shannon Airport was granted “gateway status” in the National Spatial Strategy and the importance of Shannon International Airport as a driver of regional growth was also highlighted in the development plan.

The development plan also makes provision for a € 900 million pumped-storage hydroelectricity plant to be located somewhere in Clare. It is hoped that by taking a pro-active approach, the local authority might attract private sector investment in such a project.

Plans for a pumped-storage hydroelectricity plant were rejected by the local people in the Ballyvaughan and Fanore area last year because of fears that the facility might negatively impact on the local environment.

Pumped storage works by using wind power to pump water up a hill into a storage tank during the nighttime and this water will be released through electricity generating turbines during the day when the demand for electricity.

The plans also suggests that Clare should aim to become Ireland’s first clean-tech county with the likes of the Shannon Free Zone, Shannon Airport and the County Council Offices being powered by renewable energy.

THE future designation of Special Protected Areas (SPAs) could undermine much of the good work done by Clare County Council for the renewable energy sector in the Clare County Plan, which was published yesterday.

That is according to Clare businessman and chairman of West Clare Renewable Energy Ltd Padraig Howard, who says that SPAs and renewable energy projects cannot take place in the same places and that an area’s designation as a SPA puts a “green blanket” for development over a region.

Mr Howard, whose own proposal for the development of a € 200 million wind energy project at Mount Callan is currently before An mBord Pleanála, says that the County Plan is a positive step forward for the industry in Clare.

“The plan as it stands is fully in line with European environmental legislation but a problem arises when it comes to SPAs. I believe that there are moves afoot for the rolling out of further SPAs in the county. SPAs and renewable energy are not compatible bedfellows and it is widely considered in the industry now that if an SPA is placed on an area you can forget about the development of renewable energy. There is this fear the further SPAs would be rolled out – they are like putting a green blanket over an area,” said Mr Howard.

“What is critical now is that this plan is implemented. The people of the county need to take ownership of the plan and realise that this is not about large utilities that they have no say in – this is about their future.”

The plan has designated areas of the county which it feels are ideal for the creation of wind-energy. While there is no guarantee that planning will be granted to projects in these areas, it is thought that the plan will help developers to avoid wasting time and money on projects in undesirable locations.

“Not only does this look at the environmental impact of projects but it looks at the wind resource and the grid structure when deciding where would be suitable for wind-farms,” continued Mr Howard.

“One of the key parts of this strategy is that the council wants to see a community gain. That is something that is really important. The people need to be encouraged to take ownership of these projects and to get a real gain from them. If the communities can take ownership of these projects they go from something that could be contentious to something that will be welcomed – and that is something that can sustain farm families and rural communities into the future,” added Mr Howard.

THE outgoing Mayor of Ennis, Councillor Tommy Brennan (Ind), and Cllr Peter Considine (FF) cut the ribbon on a new € 240,000 playground in Ennis yesterday,

Ennis Town Council entered into a contract with the Crawford Group in January 2011 for the provision of the new playground facilities at Tim Smythe Park.

Speaking at the official opening Mayor Brennan said, “The provision of playground facilities at Tim Smythe Park is appropriate having regard to the playgrounds location at the centre of the town and its established use by many families. The new facilities are a recognition by the Council of the importance of play and playground facilities in the lives of children.

“It is encouraging to see such investment by a public authority at a time of economic recession. I would like to compliment my fellow councillors for their vision and indeed the management staff of the Council for developing and overseeing the provision of these facilities which will benefit the community for many years,” added Mayor Brennan.

The playground is designed to provide universally accessible, imaginative and interactive play. There are three play areas. The 0-12 years area has a variety of equipment including swings, a parrot see-saw, a spring rocker and a roundabout.

A rope net climbing structure, cable runway, drop shot and a trim trail are just some of the facilities of the teen play area, while the adult exercise area will incorporate exercise for all abilities.

The scheme has been complemented by CCTV and a public lighting scheme, as well as a pedestrian crossing at the northern end of Tim Smythe Park leading to the relocated playground.

Cllr Peter Considine who presided over the opening of the original Tim Smythe Park playground during the 1980s said: “The play facilities have been provided by the Council to supplement and enhance the sport and recreational facilities in Ennis. The Council is proud of its achievements in recent years by the providing of playground facilities in Cloughleigh, Stonecourt, Lees Road Sports and Amenity Park and now these fabulous facilities at Tim Smythe Park.”