Month: December 2011

SHANNON Airport should be separated from Dublin Airport Authority control and placed under the management of a new company drawn from public bodies like Clare County Council and Shannon Development.

This is the chief recommendation given to Transport Minister, Leo Varadkar by Booz and Company – the team on international consultants hired by the Government to come up with a workable blueprint for the three state airports.

This landmark recommendation follows on from a month-long consultation process when interest groups and individuals were invited to make submissions to the consultants ahead of a November 30 deadline.

Now, The Clare People has learned that the report submitted by Booz and Company to Minister Varadkar in the past week has backed the biggest change in the airport’s 75-year history, ahead of a formal government decision that will be made at Cabinet level early in the new year.

Booz and Company have told Minister Varadkar that Shannon Airport, which has run up accumulated losses of € 24m over the past three years, is unsustainable in the current model.

The consultants warned that Shannon’s high cost base, plummeting passenger numbers that are expected to dip below 1.5m in 2011 meant that it might not have “a viable future” if the current model was maintained.

As a result the recommendation is that Shannon will be separated from the DAA, with responsibility transferred to a new public holding company, with business interests coming in to take over the management of the airport, with local public bodies like Clare County Council and Shannon Airport also having an “ownership” stake in the former hub of the aviation world.

According to Booz and Company, Shannon should maintain its international airport status, but that it that extra business ventures would have to be developed to boost traffic numbers and activity at the airport that last year saw passenger numbers decline by 37 per cent.

The consultants have highlighted the development of cargo traffic as key, a prospect that has been brought closer by Lynxs Cargo decision to establish a hub in Shannon.

Other suggestions that have been identified in the report tabled with Minister Varadakar include developing aeronautical businesses at the Shannon Free Zone and private plane traffic through the airport.

The current status at Shannon has been in place since 2004 – a half-way house whereby Cork and Shannon have their own boards but have limited autonomy from the DAA.

When he launched the consultation process on Shannon’s future in October, Minister Varadkar said the current status quo at the airport “cannot continue indefinitely”.

KILRUSH Town Council have given themselves just 36 hours to come up with a solution to a € 24,000 hole in the local authority’s budget or face the possible closure of Kilrush Town Council.

Councillors were unable to pass the 2012 budget at last Thursday night’s meeting of the local authority and were also unable to schedule a follow-up meeting before the evening of January 3, 2012.

The council is statutorily required to pass a budget within 21 days of being presented with the draft budget – meaning the council must have a balanced set of figures for 2012 in place before January 5.

This leaves the council just 36 hours to find a way pass the budget and little or no wiggle room to defer a decision on January 3. It is not clear what would happen should the local authority be unable to pass a budget before the 21 day deadline but in theory all operations undertaken by the council could be brought to a halt.

The € 24,000 hole in the budget came as a result of call by councillors for a number of cuts to arts and community schemes to be reversed and a cut of two per cent to the local rate by introduced. A second proposal for a rates cut of one per cent would mean a hole of € 16,000 in the budget, while the restoration of a number of arts and community projects by themselves would leave a budget deficit of between € 5,000 and € 6,000.

The difficulty began when local councillor Tom Prenderville (FF) suggested that a one per cent rates cuts would be of benefit to local businesses.

“We know that business people are struggling this year and they will not be able to pay their rates next year. If we continue like this we will erode our rates base because people won’t be able to stay in business,” he said.

“I think, as a gesture, if we were to reduce out commercial rate by one per cent it would send a message to business people that we are on their side.”

This sentiment was shared by Cllr Mairead O’Brien (Ind) who said that she would prefer a two per cent rate cut for 2012.

According to town clerk John Corry, the two per cent rate cut would result in a rates reduction of just € 2 per week for the vast majority of businesses in Kilrush – 201 of the 241 businesses.

When asked how the money could be raised they suggested cuts to the tourism development and promotion fund, savings made from the reduced cost of maintaining council houses and a possible increase in revenue from planning applications.

“Everything comes with a cost, we are looking at a reduction of € 17,000 in next year’s budget as a result of the introduction of free parking, it will be very difficult to find a one per cent reduction,” said town manager Nora Kaye.

“At the moment we have just under 74 per cent collection in rates – there are a lot of people now on a phased payment and they will not have their rates paid by the end of the year. I think that it will be a very difficult task to find € 16,000, never mind to find € 24,000.”

KILRUSH Town Council is set to ramp-up the number of inspections it undertakes on local authority housing in the town for 2012 – in an effort to reduce the amount of money currently being spent on repairing council houses.

At last Thursday’s annual budget meeting in Kilrush the local authority approved a plan to reduce the annual allocated for social housing repair from € 45,000 in 2011 to € 40,000 for 2012.

This reduction has been budgeted, in part, to take account for a number of major repairs currently being made by Kilrush Town Council to their stock of local authority houses.

The council has also decided to adopt a strategy of increasing the number of housing inspections taking place to local authority houses in an effort to reduce the amount of damage done by tenants in local authority houses.

According to Mayor of Kilrush Ian Lynch (FG), the council would hope to reap the benefits from this year’s capital expenditure in years to come.

“This year we will more proactive on making sure that houses are properly maintained. We would hope that we will see the benefit from this next year,” he said.

Kilrush town clerk John Corry confirmed that there will be an increase in the level of inspections of council houses in Kilrush in 2012 and that more staff had been delegated to the housing sections to help with this.

He also confirmed that the local authority was having a more difficult time in collecting rent from council property as a result of the recession.

In total Kilrush Town Council has allocated € 270,000 to be spent in the Housing and Buildings Section for 2012 in addition to € 40,000 to be spent on house repairs. They have also budgeted for just over € 300,000 to be raised in council rents locally in 2012.

COUNCILLORS at last Thursday’s budget meeting of Kilrush Town Council have described the nine per cent cut in central government funding to council as an attempt to “squeeze the life” out of local government.

The cut, which was announced in September, amounts to a € 40,000 reduction in the budget for Kilrush Town Council – or the equivalent of a seven per cent rates increase.

According to local council and former Mayor of Clare, Tom Prenderville (FF), the cuts are mak- ing local authorities more and more irrelevant.

“Local government was always on a life support scheme but I think, at this stage, the life has been squeezed out of it. The money has been pillaged from this council,” he said.

“When you look at a reduction of nine per cent in the funding that we are receiving, that amount to more than € 40,000 which would allow us to reduce the amount that we have to collect in rates by more than seven per cent. I wonder are we in this council becoming irrelevant? Are we just going to be a rubber-stamp for the decision made by central government.”

Cllr Prenderville made the comment as part of a debate about the 2012 council budget. The draft budget accounted for large reductions in both the Community, Sports and Recreations and the Entertainment and Arts budgets.

The budget calls for a reduction from € 20,000 to € 8,186 in the Community, Sports and Recreations Budget and a reduction from € 8,026 to € 4,143 in the Entertainment and Arts budget.

The councillors asked for between € 5, 000 and € 6, 000 to be reduced from these cuts in order to provide for a number of schemes in 2012.

“The community grants have such an impact on our community at as a whole and we should do everything we can to help them. The arts bodies have also been hit and people are not buying art anymore,” said Mayor of Kilrush, Ian Lynch (FG).

“We need to look at where we can find some money to help these people.”

A number of calls were also made to retain the budget for the annual community awards.

“The awards were well received by everyone who was there and the publicity that we received in the newspapers last week, money could not buy. We are talking about fantastic voluntary organisation, there is no profits being made by these guys,” said Cllr Paul Moroney (Ind).

“We want to take from the most vulnerable in society -the elderly and the young – it won’t happen while I am at this table. We need to find this money from somewhere else.”

Funding for these projects will be decided at the January 3 meeting of Kilrush Town Council as no decision could be reached at last week meeting.

CHANCES of a white Christmas taking place in Clare this year have melting away with meteorologists now predicting that Christmas Day could be as much as 25 degree hotter this year than it was in 2010.

Temperatures at Shannon Airport reached an Arctic minus 11.7 degrees on Christmas morning last year with the latest predictions now forecasting a balmy 11 to 13 degrees for the big day this year.

The last hope for a white Christmas in Clare would seem to hang on a cold-front which is expected to travel over the country on Thursday. This front is expected to be cold enough to generate some snow but it is thought to be very unlikely that the front will be able to last until the big day arrives.

Despite average temperatures for December currently well below the monthly average – the final 10 days of 2012 are expected to be well above the seasonal average.

“The cold weather over the past week has also brought the mean temperature in Clare down to 5.4 degrees, though this remains considerably lower than the mean temperature of 0.7c recorded in the same month last year.

The mean temperature for Decem- ber is normally a much milder 6.3c. We will see a dramatic rise in temperatures during the last 10 days of December,” said Connolly native and founder of Irish Weather online, Mark Dunphy.

“The total accumulated rainfall at Shannon Airport for December has already almost exceeded the average monthly rainfall of 99mm. This compares to 26mm recorded during the entire of December 2010.”

Clare County Council have also recorded a significant drop in river levels over weekend and have reduced the flooding alert level.

The Cliffs of Moher was also forced to close for a time last week due to high winds.

At 11.30am on Tuesday morning last the risk level at the Cliffs was changed from yellow to red – meaning that visitors were advised not to travel to the Cliffs.

A MAN and a woman bravely fought of a hatchet-wielding raider who broke into a business on the Kilrush Road in Ennis last week.

The incident occurred between 6pm and 6.15pm at Coote’s Shop last Thursday (December 15) when two men wearing balaclavas entered the premises. One of the men was brandishing a hatchet and the other was carrying a blue bag.

A woman working behind the counter was threatened and told to hand over money from the till.

The woman used a sweeping brush to fight off the intruders who caused damage to a number of items in the shop including the cash register and credit card payment machine.

An elderly shop employee, who was in the rear of the premises, came to the assistance of the woman and together they managed to force the intruders from the shop empty handed. The woman did suffer bruising to her arm during the incident.

A Garda spokesman explained, “The commotion was heard by an employee in the back and he entered the shop to see what was happening. The raiders were very aggressive and assaulted both employees who were injured as a result.”

He continued, “The man with the hatchet kept banging it off the counter and damaged the till and some charity boxes. The culprits fled empty handed running out the backdoor towards Eire Óg hurling pitch”.

Gardaí have released a picture of blue bag left by the raiders at the scene. They are appealing with anybody who might recognise the item or have information about the break in to contact Ennis Garda Station at 065 6848183.

Gardaí are also investigating a robbery that took place at Lakeview Stores in Ballyalla on Friday (December 16).

At around 9.35pm three men entered the premises. One man was carrying a knife. They knocked the owner to the ground while two of them stole the till and then fled on foot out the door. The owner was not injured. The raiders are described as follows (1) Wearing a balaclava, 5’ 8”, strong build, carrying a knife; (2) Tall slim build, late teens; (3) Very small, around 14 years-old. Slim build, wearing a blue jacket.

A car was parked about 200 yards away facing out at the housing estate of Radharc na Lacha with the inside light on. Gardaí believe the raiders left the scene in this car.

A FORMER Fine Gael Senator and former running mate of Taoiseach Enda Kenny has been appointed the district court judge for Clare.

Westport native Patrick Durcan, who was appointed to the Seanad in 1983, ran unsuccessfully for the Dáil on four occasions – 1981, twice in 1982 and 1987 – and served a term on Westport Town Council from 1999 to 2004.

Mr Durcan, who was recently appointed a district court judge, will replace Judge Joseph Mangan who retired in October.

He has practised as a solicitor in Westport for several years, prior to his recent judicial appointment.

He studied at University College Dublin and the Law Society and qualified as a solicitor in 1973.

Mr Durcan is not likely to take up the role as district court judge in Clare until March as he will spend the next few months in judicial training in Dublin. In the meantime, the county’s district courts will be presided over by judges from a panel. Since Judge Mangan’s retirement, Judge Aeneas McCarthy has presided over most of the district courts in the county.

A spokesman for the Courts Service told The Clare People that a decision to locate a newly-appointed judge in a district court area “is unusual but it’s not unheard of”.

The President of the Clare Law Association, solicitor Mairéad Doyle said the new judge will be most welcome to the county.

“We are delighted at the appointment this week of Judge Patrick Durcan to the District Court in Clare as successor to Judge Joseph Mangan,” said Ms Doyle.

“Judge Durcan had a long and distinguished career in the district court in Mayo and as a native of the West of Ireland he will be familiar with the type of cases that will be coming before him during the course of his work here in Clare. We welcome Judge Durcan to Clare and look forward to working with him,” she added.

Meanwhile, changes to court sittings across Clare have been rubberstamped and will come into effect in January, as part of a centralisation process.

Under the changes, there will be specific dates for crime hearings, separate dates for civil hearings and other listed dates for hearings related to traffic offences. Crime sittings will take place on Wednesdays, with road traffic matters and civil cases heard on Fridays. Also, most of the hearings will be centralised to Ennis. Kilrush cases will continue to be heard in the west Clare town, while cases from north Clare are to be moved to Ennis. Shannon cases are already heard in Ennis.

East Clare district court sittings will return to Killaloe in January, for a trial period of three months. O’Donovan’s bar and restaurant, Derg Court, Ballina, Killaloe, will host the sittings from January 3.

The court will sit on the first Tuesday of every month and will also sit on extra days – on the six second Tuesdays (January, March, May, July, October and December).

It will sit at O’Donovan’s for three months initially, with the option of extending the lease on a monthly basis.

TWO women found in possession of a petrol bomb in an Ennis pub last year have been placed on probation.

Evelyn McNamara (34) with an address at 19 Ros an Oir, Ennis and Jacinta McNamara (39) with an address at 45 Oak Park, Ennis, both appeared at Ennis District Court on Friday.

Each woman was charged with having in their custody, a petrol bomb, at the Lifford Bar, Newbridge Road, Ennis on May 31 (2010) contrary to Section 4 of the Criminal Damage Act.

Judge Aeneas McCarthy described the possession of a petrol bomb as a “very serious charge”.

In the case of Evelyn McNamara, Judge McCarthy placed her on probation for a period of 12 months, on condition that she attend all appointments as directed by the probation and welfare services.

He said this would include attending a day hospital and AA meetings. He granted the State and the probation and welfare services liberty to re-enter the case if there is non-compliance with the order.

Judge McCarthy said, “She seems to be doing well at the moment and I hope that continues”. In the case of Jacinta McNamara, Judge McCarthy said she too had been charged with possession of a petrol bomb.

Solicitor for Jacinta McNamara, Tara Godfrey, told the court that her client is attending adult education.

She urged Judge McCarthy to take the course of action recommended by the probation services.

Judge McCarthy ordered that Jacinta McNamara be placed on probation for 12 months. He ordered that she attend all appointments as directed by the probation and welfare services. He granted the State and the probation services liberty to re-enter the matter if there is non-compliance.

Judge McCarthy said he made the order with “reservations” but that it had been the recommendation of the probation and welfare services.

A TAXI driver in Shannon sustained multiple injuries in an assault after a dispute arose over a fare, a court has been told.

Arising out of the incident, Diarmuid Devanney (22) with an address at Cúl Na Gréine, Shannon, pleaded guilty to a charge of assault causing harm. Inspector Tom Kennedy told Shannon District Court on Thursday that the taxi driver was hit from behind with a crutch by the defendant, on February 20 last.

He said that the accused, his younger brother and a friend were in a taxi in Shannon.

He said that they were brought to the town centre and didn’t have the money to pay the fare.

“The taxi driver got out of the taxi and held on to one of them,” he said.

He said that while the taxi driver held on to the accused’s brother, the accused “assaulted him with a crutch”.

He said that the taxi driver sustained several injuries including bruises to the head, hands and arms, cuts to the lips and mouth, while he had a finger broken.

“It was minor enough in the Section 3 (assault causing harm) category,” said Inspector Kennedy.

Defending solicitor Jenny Fitzgibbon said that there was a misunderstanding on the night.

She said that her client’s brother had got out of the taxi to go to the bank machine to get money to pay the fare. “They realised they didn’t have money,” she said.

“There was a bit of a misunder- standing. I’m not sure if it was cultural or language,” she said.

She said that her client’s actions were “reprehensible” and he had “gotten out of control”, adding that he was “very protective” of his younger brother.

She said that her client has “very, very serious health concerns”.

Judge Aeneas McCarthy imposed a fine of € 300.

A DISTRICT court judge has dismissed an objection to the renewal of a licence for a pub in Ballinruan, after hearing from a garda that the premises is well run and has never generated a complaint.

Bernard Hassett, of Burrenview, Ballinruan, Crusheen, objected to the renewal of the licence of Hassett’s bar in Ballinruan.

Garda Declan Keavey, who is based in Crusheen, told the court that he has never had any complaints relating to the premises, which he described as well run.

“It is a typical rural pub. It is the social network of the local community. . . It is the centre of the community,” he said.

He said that the pub is located in a tiny village. “If you blinked you would miss it. There’s a church, a pub and a community centre,” he explained.

The age profile of those who frequent the pub is over 40, he said.

“I have never had any incident. I have never been called to the pub,” said the garda.

“The publican has never been convicted of any incident. There has never been a drink driving incident or traffic accident as a result of people leaving the pub,” he said.

Gda Keavey said there is never any anti-social behaviour in the village.

The publican, Paddy Hassett told the court that he bought the premises in 2003 and he and his wife run it. He said that the customers are mainly an “older crowd” consisting of locals, as the younger people from the area go to Ennis and Gort at night-time.

He said he opens the pub at around 8.30pm or 9pm every night and closes at 1am and there is Irish music at weekends.

During the weekday nights, there are generally just up to eight people in the pub and this increases to between 30 and 40 at weekends.

It was put to him that according to Bernard Hassett, people left the pub at 3.50am one morning and that a car was damaged. The publican denied this. He told the court that when Bernard Hassett moved to the Ballinruan area, there were no difficulties with him.

“He has gone to court with two friends of mine. That’s why he is hitting at me,” said the publican.

Bernard Hassett told the court that people left the pub one morning at 3.50am “and created anti-social behaviour”.

He said that his objection was based on CCTV footage. However, Judge Aeneas McCarthy told him that the footage was 20 hours in length, “predominantly a camera pointing at an empty road”.

“I am not looking at 20 hours of CCTV camera pointing at an empty road. It’s your business to edit it,” said the judge.

He dismissed the case. “I’m granting the licence,” said the judge.