Month: October 2011

BUSINESSES in Ennis have turned up the heat on local councillors by calling on them to vote against proposed changes in retail policy that could facilitate the development of a new “district centre” on the outskirts of the town.

Dozens of business owners have expressed concern over a proposed variation to the Ennis and Environs Development Plan, which would allow for the development of a new district centre at a site at the junction of Limerick Road and Tobertascáin Road. Planning permission is being sought at the five-hectare site for the development of a major retail centre.

The proposed variation will be voted on by members of Ennis Town Council and Clare County Council.

At a meeting to discuss Ennis Chamber’s submission on the proposed variation, speakers appealed to councillors to vote against including a new district centre in the plan.

The Chairman of the O’Connell Street Traders Association said it was the view of businesses on the town’s main street that it would be “too risky” to allow the proposed development to proceed. Gearoid Mannion told the meeting that the “town centre is practically on its knees”.

He said councillors should do whatever they can to oppose proposed changes in planning policy. Those views were echoed by Noreen Twomey Walsh of the Parnell Street Traders Association.

Another businesswoman Gwen Culligan (County Boutique) said that if councillors in Ennis “really care about the town of Ennis, they should re-think this proposal”.

John O’Connor (O’Connors Bakery) said that Limerick City centre is “dying” because of retail parks. He warned that the same would happen in Ennis if a similar policy were pursued. He said it is incumbent on councillors to oppose the proposed changes.

Councillor Frankie Neylon (Ind) said elected representatives have “no hand, act or part” in planning decisions. He said the planning application at Tobertascáin is separate from the preparation of the Ennis and Environs Development Plan.

Cllr Neylon said there had been numerous objections when Dunnes Stores proposed to set up in the town centre. “It was going to close the centre of Ennis. It did the opposite. It built up,” he said.

In relation to the proposed development at Tobertascáin, Cllr Neylon said it was important to look at the “bigger picture”, adding that Ennis had lost shoppers to shopping developments in Ennistymon, Kilrush, Limerick and Galway. Cllr Neylon said he would welcome job creation in any part of Ennis.

Describing a proposal to develop a large shopping centre at Tobertascáin Road as a “monstrosity”, Cllr Paul O’Shea (Lab) said he would vote against changing the zoning provision at the site.

THE family of a young Shannon man who is undergoing treatment in the US for a brain tumour have appealed for assistance to help cover the costs.

34-year-old Keith Gibbons is currently in Texas on clinical trials for the tumour. Keith was initially diagnosed four years ago and after undergoing treatment in Ireland, the tumour disappeared and Keith returned to work.

In May 2008, he got married to his long-time girlfriend Brenda McGuane from Shannon. The couple tied the knot in Las Vegas and anticipated a long, happy future together.

Sadly, however, in March 2010, a routine scan showed that the tumour had returned.

His wife Brenda recalled what happened at that stage.

“Keith had another surgery in April where the tumour was fully resected once again. Gliadel wafers, a type of chemotherapy, were inserted at the tumour site. We hoped, like we always did, that this would be it and the tumour wouldn’t return. Keith returned to work again but the tumour returned almost straight away so Keith had another surgery in September 2010,” she recalled.

“We learned then that the tumour had been upgraded to the most malignant grade four tumour called Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM). Keith did not go back to work for a long time after this surgery. He also had a seizure and has had a couple since then. Keith had to under go more oral chemotherapy which seemed to help until the course of it finished and the tumour started to get more aggressive and spread to the other side of his brain. He was then put on an IV course of chemotherapy,” she said.

“All the time we were researching other options. We were always being told by doctors that Ireland had everything treatment-wise that was in the US but we didn’t believe that. The chemotherapy was making Keith very tired and took a lot out of him. We knew we had to pursue other options.

“Around March, I found out about a clinic in Houston, Texas, called the Burzynski Clinic which specialises in a treatment that involves a drug called Antioneoplastons. It is genetargeted treatment that has seen very good results on brain tumours. It is not a form of chemotherapy and is non-toxic.

“Dr Burzynski’s treatment is not seen as a fully approved treatment yet even though for years he has being curing people that were told there was nothing more that could be done for them after conventional treatment didn’t work. We sent off all scans and paperwork and after a lot of correspondence over and back we heard that Keith was accepted for treatment at the clinic. We knew we had to go for it,” said Brenda.

The couple travelled to Texas in recent weeks and remain hopeful that the treatment will be a success.

“So here we are in Houston hoping that treatment at the clinic will work out. Treatment is very expensive here as all medical treatment in the US is but we can’t let that stop us. We really hope that one day we can say the treatment has worked and finally one day we may be able to get on with our lives like every other couple in their 30s. Keith so deserves this to happen to him as he is the most amazing man you will ever come across,” said Brenda.

Friends of Keith and Brenda have organised a fundraiser to help cover the costs of the treatment. It will take place at the Mill Bar in Sixmilebridge on Friday night at 8pm. Tickets at a cost of € 10 are available on the door or phone 087 9370395 with donations.

A GROUP of dedicated Clare parents have achieved the impossible by raising an incredible € 4.2 million in just three years to build a new adult Cystic Fibrosis unit for their children. The sod will be turned later this month on the new facility which will become the first and only facility for people with CF over the age of 16 in the western region.

The facility has been made possible by the TLC4CF group, which is a group of parents from Clare, Tipperary and Limerick, who have worked tirelessly to fill this gap in the services provided by the HSE and provide priceless treatment for their children.

The facility will be built entirely with money raised by TLC4CF and while the HSE has committed to staffing the facility – the parents group now face the challenge of rais- ing the final € 1 million needed to equip the facility.

Over the last three years the group have already raised enough money to employ the region’s first adult consultant for people with CF and then set about tackling the greatest gap in the system – the lack of any real facilities for people with CF once they turn 16.

“TLC is a combined front from parents in the three counties because the services were so bad for adults with CF in this entire region and you are considered an adult at 16 years of age. So we wanted to fight for better services and better conditions for our children,” said Linda Drennan, who has two children living with CF.

“This new facilities are vital for our children. TLC has raised € 1.2 million in the three counties and we have received € 3 million from the JP McManus Pro Am – so the money for the build is there, the fundraising now is about raising the money to equip the building.”

Facilities for adults with CF are currently very poor throughout the country. The achievements made by the TLC4CF group have inspired other groups in other parts of the country to begin projects of their own.

“A massive effort has been put in place by people in Tipperary, Limerick and Clare. We have reached the stage now where we just need to raise € 1 million to finish the project outright. The building will start sometime in October and will take around 18 months – we just need to make sure that the money is there to equip the building once it is finished,” said Marcella Clancy of the TLC4CF. For the full stor y a bout the rema r ka ble a chievements of TLC4CF tur n to page 44 a nd 45.

HEALTH Minister James Reilly has pledged to put measures in place tackle the alarming rate of absenteeism in Ennis General Hospital, which has been exposed as the worst in Ireland when it comes to members of staff not turning up for work due to illness or ailments.

The county hospital was exposed as an absenteeism blackspot of at the weekend, when an audit of all hospitals operated under the auspices of the HSE revealed an average daily rate of sick leave of nearly 10 per cent of staff at the Ennis facility.

These alarming scale of these figures exposed the fact that absenteeism levels in Ennis, running at 9.43 per cent is almost double the average for HSE hospitals around the country that stands at 4.85 per cent, while the HSE’s target absenteeism rate is 3.5 per cent.

In Ennis, each day an average of 22 staff are missing from the hospital’s daily workforce of 238, a rate of absenteeism that impacts on the day-to-day operate of the facility, resulting in the HSE having to employ temporary outside staff to cover for sick workers.

And, a breakdown of these has revealed that the rate of absenteeism is worst among general support staff when it’s running at a staggering 18.01 per cent.

“We are putting in place a new initiative around this,” vowed Minister Reilly. “I’m not at liberty to say what it is just yet, in the next couple of weeks I’ll be able to announce it.

When questioned specifically about the situation in Ennis, Minister Reilly said “there has to be reasons behind it and they need to be addressed. There is cause and effect, so let’s look at the causes and then we can deal with the effect.”

The three worst hospital for absenteeism are all in the mid-west region. The Limerick maternity have 7.93 per cent of employees – 25 out of 319 out sick every day, while it’s running at 7.72 per cent in St John’s Hospital in Limerick, which represents 21 out of 280 being absent every day.

“This is clearly a management issue which needs to be addressed,” said HSE chief executive Cathal Magee. “The cost of absenteeism to HSE West is estimated to be in the region of € 60 million annually,” he added.

FIFTY years on from Che Guevara’s visit to Kilkee, the artist who met him in the West Clare town and drew the iconic image that’s known around the world is handing copyright back to the revolutionary’s family.

Jim Fitzpatrick, who gave the keynote address to the inaugural Che do Bheatha festival in Kilkee over the weekend has told The Clare People that “copyright for the image belongs to the Guevara family”.

In February, Fitzpatrick first revealed his intention to launch a legal bid to finally secure copyright of his image of Che Guevara, that was in- spired by a chance meeting the artist had with the father of the Cuban revolution in Kilkee.

“I disliked the commercial use, that’s why I have taken the copyright back,” Fitzpatrick revealed. “I never sought royalites for it. It is not about commercial usage, it is about remembering someone who was executed very brutally and who was a prisoner of war at the time,” he added.

“Che’s flight was grounded in Shannon and his driver brought him on a trip to the sea and he came into Marine Hotel where I was working,” revealed Fitzpatrick of his famous encounter.

“After getting a copy of Korda’s photograph of Che I created my own image of Che for Dublin-based magazine Scene . It was a call to arms – it was pretty violent. It was like Pearse’s speech about the blood and wine of the battlefields. I was so frustrated that I sent it to different magazines, but I couldn’t give it away. Publishers didn’t want to know. I made the image copyright free for the simple reason that I wanted it promulgated as worldwide as possible because I felt this man had a message.”

The Che do Bheatha festival celebrating Guevara’s visit to Kilkee in 1961 was launched by Cuban ambassador to Ireland, Teresita Trujillo on Friday, while festival organiser Tom Byrne secured a replica of the 1939 Norton 500cc motorbike that Guevara travelled across South America on in the early 1950s and inspired his book The Motorcycle Diar ies .

The ambassador stayed overnight in Kilkee on Friday, appropriately in Room 2 of the Strand Hotel, where Guevara stayed in 1961, while she also viewed and signed the guestbook that Guevara an his entourage signed 50 years ago.

“The festival was a brilliant success,” said Tom Byrne. “It was different and great for Kilkee to remember Che, with large images of him all over town and on one of the seawalls as well. It was unique,” he added.

THOUSANDS of top-quality, high tech jobs could flow to Clare over the next decade following a new approach by the IDA which will see the M-18 marketed as a technology corridor.

This new approach will see Limerick, Shannon, Ennis and Galway marketed collectively as a place for investment for high tech foreign companies. According to the Western regional manager of the IDA, Jim Murren, this approach could have massive implications for Ennis and Shannon – as both will be seen as close enough to attract skilled employees from the large university populations in Limerick and Galway. The plan is conditional on the completion of the M-18 Gort to Galway bypass which would see a full motorway connection through Clare from Galway to Limerick.

“It is all about reaching a critical mass. The type of companies that the IDA are trying to attract to Ireland now are looking for critical mass and for the universities, the institutes of technology and the companies to be interacting with each other,” Mr Murren told The Clare People .

“When the M-18 is completed Limerick and Galway will be linked like never before. There is already a strategic alliance between the two universities and I would expect to see a lot of development along that corridor. This has happened before in other countries where you have seen individual towns located between two gateway locations benefit greatly from development. This is my ideal on the matter and how it could be developed.

“There is a lot of potential for somewhere like Ennis of this technology corridor become a reality. The companies would see Ennis as a place where they could recruit from both Limerick and Galway – and attract people from both ends of the talent pool.”

The completion of the M-18 is seen to be a critical step towards the creation of the western technology corridor. The BAM Balfour Beatty consortium were chosen as preferred bidders to complete the € 500,000 motorway but contracts drafted last year were never signed. The NRA is reportedly in contact with two groups in an effort to get the motorway back on track

“The final section of the motorway is very important. The completion of this would make a huge impact on the ability of people to commute and communicate between the two places. It is very very important. Road infrastructure in the places that we are competing with is taken as a given by investors. So we are at a serious disadvantage to begin with,” continued Mr Murren. “There is a herd instinct with these companies they want to be located close to other companies where the expertise is. So we could see an extension of the biomedical companies that have been such a success in Galway to other high technology companies.”

THE announcement that Shannonbased technology support firm Sykes Enterprises is to shed up to 75 of its works will bring to over 800 the number job losses in the Shannon Free Zone over the past two years as Clare’s unemployment levels reach crisis level.

The jobs losses at the call service company that employs over 50,000 worldwide represents the third time in the last three years that the company that it has sought to downscale its operations here.

The latest round of job losses for Shannon brings to 855 the number that have gone over the past two years – a domino effect that has seen some of the Free Zone’s leading em- ployers shed sizeable numbers of its workforce. The darkest period in Shannon’s jobs history was started in July 2009 when Element Six, formerly De Beers Industrial Diamond Ltd, announced a closure of its Shannon operation with the loss of 370 jobs.

The company blamed “the high cost of operating in Ireland” for its decision to end manufacturing at its plant that was one of the Free Zone’s biggest employers since being established there in 1963.

In October 2009 telecoms firm Technotree shed 80 jobs at its Shannon plant, while in the same month GE Money let 50 of its staff go. A further 207 jobs were lost on ‘Black Thursday’ in October 2010 – 107 at Shannon Aerospace and 100 at scientific publisher Elsevier, while 80 jobs were lost at Shannon insurance firm Lloyds Banking Group in February of this year.

Figures secured by The Clare People reveal that in 2010 there was a net loss of 461 jobs at the Shannon Free Zone, while from a five-year period from 2003 to 2008 there were the figure stood of 250 net job losses.

These contrasting figures hammer home the extent of the hemmorahage of jobs from the county’s flagship industrial base, with the latest round of job cuts coming in the same week as government figures revealed that 15 jobs had been created in the county from the Dell European Globalisation Fund that was established for the region in 2009.

Sykes established in the Shannon Free Zone in 1987 and at its peak of operations employed 380 at the facility, which is one of the company’s 80 global centres.

Sykes’ biggest growth phase came in 2006/2007 when it was one of the fastest growing companies in the mid-west region, with the company’s general manager for Europe, Colin Mitchell saying at the announcement of 100 new jobs, “Sykes Shannon has invested several million in equipment; furniture and fittings and leasehold improvement over the past ten years. This expansion, whilst increasing head count, will also provide an additional revenue flow to the Irish economy in terms of employer/employee contributions, and local spend on professional services, telecommunications and general domestic expenditure.”

A RECRUITMENT firm in the midwest is bucking the trend and has 200 jobs to offer in multinational companies. CareerWise Recruitment has recruited two new members of staff to cater for a surge in vacancies. The company currently has 200 vacancies on its books as employers in the mid-west are struggling to fill the positions.

An increase of vacancies in the multinational sector has led to an increased flow of business in the midwest. Company director Joe Robbins told The Clare People that the skills required by the various companies in the IT, engineering, pharmaceutical and food sectors are not available. His company deals exclusively with multinational companies.

Mr Robbins said that Ireland is a nation of two economies – one in turmoil and generating job losses, the second buoyant and unable to fill vacancies.

“Food is having a tremendous comeback. We can’t get the people,” said Mr Robbins, who lives in Sixmilebridge and operates a business in Ballycasey, Shannon. “Back in 2001, the tech bubble burst and career guidance teachers were telling people not to do IT or electronics. We had a gap of four to five years when people didn’t study IT or engineering. There is no-one to fill the jobs at the moment. The science graduates are not there to fill the jobs,” he said.

Mr Robbins has companies in the mid-west, Cork, Galway and the Midlands on his books.

“The high skilled graduates are not there. It sounds amazing when 440,000 people are unemployed,” said Mr Robbins. “Building, retail and pubs and nightclubs have had drastic losses but the multinationals have been doing well,” he added.

He said that the companies are receiving numerous applications, but the required skills are not available.

“They don’t have the skills set. We are not getting the right people. There is a shortage of skills and a shortage of people doing science,” he said.

“Despite current job loss announcements, multinational companies are still very much open for business, and recruiting,” he said.

“We are actively updating our database of suitable candidates and are seeking a very broad spectrum of capabilities ranging from management accountants; mechanical design engineers; senior system administrators; human resource generalists; production team leaders; test, software and materials engineers; a senior technical scientist; we need to find people to fill a lot of vacancies.

“It sounds unreal in a time when job loss announcements seem the norm. It’s not the exception that some companies are recruiting; it’s a reality that a large number of multinationals have jobs to fill. Perhaps it’s time to summon some of our emigrants home; we’re doing an executive search to find the right people,” said Mr Robbins.

GARDA services in Clare face one of the largest upheavals in the history of the force early next year when the number of Clare gardaí who have retired since the recruitment embargo will force a major restructuring of services throughout the county.

The number of guards retiring from the force since the ban on new recruits was introduced will reach 37 in March of 2012 – with no guards being replaced and only one being transferred into the county.

Speaking at last night’s Joint Policing Committee meeting in Sixmilebridge, Clare Chief Superintendent John Kerin said that all of the major Garda stations in the county were safe from closure but could not comment on the future of smaller, rural stations. The Chief Superintendent did admit that law enforcement in Clare would have to undergo a major change in the months ahead.

“Last year, 18 gardaí retired in Clare and there was no recruitment. This year we lost one garda, sadly, through illness and five others have retired so far. We have seven who have indicated that they will retire before Christmas and another seven or eight who will retire early next year, before the end of February. The people who are retiring are hugely experienced and valuable gardaí.

“I can’t tell you exactly what is gong to happen but there are going to be changes, there is no doubt about that. We have to provide a professional police service with less resources than we have had in the past. Later on this year or next year, the whole situation is going to have to be looked at, especially in late February or early March. We will have to see what is going to happen.”

Ennis Superintendent Peter Duff has been tasked with the job of saving money in the Clare area and it was stressed that no decisions on any station closures have been made yet.

Meanwhile, the crime figures in Clare for the first nine months of 2011 have shown a reduction across the board in most categories compared to the same time in 2010. Robberies are down 40 per cent, sexual offences are down 15 per cent and public order offences have also been reduced.

“There is no doubt that the public order reduction has been caused by the economic recession – people don’t have the money to go out that they once had,” said Chief Supt John Kerin. “But that said, we are satisfied with the figures and satisfied that we are working hard to tackle the situaton. Having said that, there is still the equivalent of a burglary a day in County Clare.”

PLANS to develop an incinerator in the county to help deal with the disposal of waste in the mid west region have been scrapped, a decision that comes ahead of the imminent closure of the Inagh landfill facility.

The incinerator, labelled a thermal treatment facility, was earmarked for Gillogue, near Clonlara in south east Clare and with the application lodged by Energy Recovery Limerick in conjunction with Clare County Council. The move to develop an incinerator was first mooted in 2009 when then Minister for Defence, Willie O’Dea, launched Energy Recovery Limerick, which pledged to invest € 80m into the mid west economy by developing thermal treatment facilities for the Clare, Limerick and Kerry catchment.

News of the decision to terminate the project, for the time being at least, for the Gillogue site has been learned by The Clare People this week, with An Bord Pleánala confirming that a preapplication consultation by Energy Recovery Limerick and Clare County Council has now been withdrawn.

An application was submitted to An Bord Pleanála in October 2010, but the Clare Green Party immedi- ately railed against the proposal with Cllr Brian Meaney saying “this is not a solution to our waste problems and I would be opposing any application that involves thermal treatment”.

However, the development of thermal treatment facilities for the county is contained in the 2005-2011 Clare County Development Plan, with the blueprint noting that “within the greater Limerick area there is a need for a thermal treatment facility to treat residual combustible waste”.

A feasibility study found that the “Limerick/Clare/Kerry Region could benefit from the development of thermal waste treatment capacity” and that “thermal waste treatment is environmentally, technically, and economically feasible at the recommended scale”.

However, plans for developing such a facility at the old Burlington factory in Gillogue, which was considered a suitable given its location away from high density residential development, were terminated with An Bord Pleánala signing an order to this effect on September 22. The Clare People contacted the environment section of Clare County Council this Monday, but a spokesperson was unavailable for comment.