Month: January 2012

THE primary school sector in Clare is to undergo its biggest single change since the foundation of the state in the coming weeks with a mass retirement of more than 29 of the county’s most experienced teachers – including at least 12 school principals.

A special investigation carried out by The Clare People last week has revealed that more than 1,000 years of collective teaching experience is to be lost to the schools of Clare at a stroke in February, as a hoard of teachers call time on their teaching careers ahead of the February 29 pension deadline as set out in the Croke Park Agreement. The Clare People last week contacted each of the county’s 145 primary schools in an effort to establish the scale of the retirements. More than 100 schools responded to the survey, with schools in North Clare, the Shannon area and Ennis the worst hit by the retirements.

Primary schools in one area of North Clare will see a massive principal turnover, with Michael O’Connor (Moy), Kevin Glynn (Lahinch), Declan Kelleher (Corofin) and John Hehir (Lisdoonvarna) all retiring, while John Reynolds (Liscannor) will be retiring at the beginning of this school year and Michael Canavan (Ballyvaughan) took up a position at a Galway school earlier this year.

Former Clare hurling manager, Ger Loughnane, is also to retire from his principal’s role at St Aidan’s in Shannon, while two other principals in the area will also retire.

The final count of teacher retirements is likely to be higher than the 29 confirmed in The Clare People survey, with many schools reporting that senior members of staff are still making up their minds as to whether they will call it a day or not. A number of schools also declined to take part in the survey, preferring to keep the number of teachers who plan to retire private for the time be- ing.

Under the terms of the Croke Park Agreement, teachers who retire before February 29, 2012, will have their pension and lump sum calculated on their pre-cut salary or the salary they were earning before the pay cut imposed in January 2010.

A teacher who retires after 36 years of service – on a current salary of € 61,683 – will receive a lump sum payment of € 88,839 and an annual pension of € 28,387 should they retire before the end of February.

A MAN has been convicted of the burglary of Ennis Golf Club last year.

Paul Daly (22) with an address at 13B Considine Road, Ennis, pleaded guilty to charges of burglary, theft and handling a stolen prescription pad at Ennis District Court last week.

Insp John Galvin told the court that gardaí found the accused on the premises of Ennis Golf Club on February 20, 2011, after they responded to a burglary call.

He said that on November 4, 2011, Daly was observed on CCTV getting into a parked car outside the Snack Shack at Abbey Street car park. He was approached by gardaí who not- ed that he was wearing gloves, the court heard.

On November 14, 2011, the court heard, gardaí received a call that a prescription pad had been stolen and given back to the Family Medical Centre in Ennis.

Insp Galvin said the accused was identified and subsequently arrested.

Solicitor Tara Godfrey said her client found the prescription pad, made use of it and returned it to the doctor who then telephoned the gardaí.

In relation to the incident outside the Snack Shack, Ms Godfrey said the owner had been in the back of the premises getting ready to open. She said the van was open and her client entered it looking for a roll because he was hungry. She said it wasn’t his intention to steal the car.

In relation to the burglary at Ennis Golf Club, Ms Godfrey said that while her client had been on the premises when the gardaí arrived, “he certainly did not make away with anything”. Ms Godfrey said all of these offences were committed in the “context of a serious drug addiction”. She said her client had commenced a methadone programme and is getting on well with it.

Judge Aeneas McCarthy convicted Daly on the burglary charge and sentenced him to eight months in prison, taking into account his guilty plea. He imposed a further two-month sentence to be served consecutive to the previous sentence.

Recognances were fixed in the event of an appeal.

AT LEAST 12 school principals are to leave their posts in Clare over the coming weeks, along with well over 30 teachers, as the primary school secto r in the county struggles to cope with the volume of retirements.

A special investigation carried out by The Clare People last week has revealed that more than 1,000 years of collective teaching experience is to be lost to the schools of Clare at a stroke in February, as a host of teachers call time on their teaching careers ahead of the February 29 pension deadline as set out in the Croke Park agreement. The Clare People last week contacted each of the county’s 145 primary schools in an effort to establish the scale of the retirements. More than 100 schools responded to the survey, with schools in North Clare, the Shannon area and Ennis the worst hit by the retirements. Primary schools in one area of North Clare will see a massive principal turnover, with Michael O’Connor (Moy), Kevin Glynn (Lahinch), Declan Kelleher (Corofin) and John Hehir (Lisdoonvarna) all retiring. John Reynolds (Liscannor) will be retiring at the beginning of this school year and Michael Canavan (Ballyvaughan) took up a position at a Galway school earlier this year.

Former Clare hurling manager, Ger Loughnane, is also to retire from his principal’s role at St Aidan’s in Shannon, while two other principals in the area will also retire.

Meanwhile as worried teachers gathered at the West County Hotel Ennis on Monday to discuss the impending loss of mainstream positions in rural schools across the county, it was accepted that the two one teacher schools in Clare are about to be a thing of the past.

The educators are instead fighting to sustaining adequate number of teachers in schools with less than 86 pupils.

General Secretary of the INTO Sheila Nunan said the proposals had caused unnecessary fear and anxiety in rural Ireland because they lack any overall plan or proposal for sustainable small schools.

Clare INTO Executive and Mullagh NS principal Sean McMahon said; “It is particularly difficult to accept for rural communities and small schools to absorb these amazing changes at this point and time considering we just paid € 1.25 billion to a failed bank and those that control it.”

HUNDREDS of families in Clare are unknowingly living with a silent killer with Ennis being a particular black spot for high concentrations of the cancer-causing gas radon, .

According to leading scientists hundreds of Clare homes with high levels of the gas go undetected. As many as 22 homes in the county have been found to have high levels of radon in the last seven months, with two, in Newmarket and Ennis, found to have more than five times the acceptable level. Radon levels above what is considered safe were also found in homes in Clarecastle, Sixmilebridge, Ballymurtagh, Kilkishen, Killaloe, and Ruan

ENNIS’ bid to become host town for the 2013 Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann has received a huge boost with the news that the Ulster Council of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann has come out in opposition to bringing the flagship festival of Irish traditional music to the north for the first time in its 60year history.

The Ulster ruling body delivered its verdict on Sunday night, six days ahead of the crucial vote at Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann headquarters in Dublin where Ennis, Sligo and Derry are the three town competing to host the 2013 festival.

By way of a secret ballot vote, the 31-member ruling body of Comhaltas will decide between the three centres on where the festival – worth € 30m to the host town’s economy – will be staged.

Up until Sunday, Derry were considered favourites to win the threeway race, principally on the back of the political weight that was thrown behind their 2013 Fleadh bid by Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland, Martin McGuinness.

“Derry has all the key ingredients they need to host an amazing Fleadh in 2013,” said Mr McGuinness. “If successful this bid would make history, giving our young people the opportunity of a lifetime to experience this rich cultural event,” he added.

In December, senior members of the Comhaltas, including Chairperson Labhrás Ó Murchú, met to discuss Derry’s bid after their recent trip to meet with civic leaders in the city, which has been designated as British City of Culture in 2013.

However, the Derry bid could now be in ruins following the decision by the Ulster Council. “We understand that it was based on the perceived threat from dissident republicans to families and visitors celebrating Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann in Derry,” a spokesperson for Comhaltas Dhoire said.

“We believe this decision is a mistake and plays into the hands of those who want to hold back any efforts to bring opportunity to our city and region. Derry’s bid for the Fleadh has been acknowledged as being one of the best packages ever presented to Comhaltas and yet we have been denied our right to celebrate our Irish culture.

“We will be appealing the decision to ensure the voices of everyone who sees the value in celebrating Irish culture and those who support our bid is heard,” the spokesperson added.

Last year, The Clare People revealed that there were elements of Comhaltas Ceoiltóirí Éireann in the north who didn’t what the festival in Derry, principally because it’s the British City of Culture designation in 2013 The Ennis bid to host the 2013 Fleadh was made earlier this month when the local committee that draws together the local branch of Clare Comhaltas, Clare County Council, Clare GAA, Ennis Town Council and Shannon Development re-activated the 2012 submission to host the Fleadh.

The Clare submission identified 25 venues in Ennis that would facilitate the event that would cater for up to 200,000 music lovers from across the world, with the Clare County Council headquarters on New Road designated as the hub of operations.

Ennis previously hosted Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann in 1956 and 1977.

SERIOUS crimes figures in Clare are down by almost one fifth in the last year, according to preliminary Garda figures.

Despite having to cope with a drop of 41 members in the Clare force since last March, An Garda Síochana in Clare has overseen a reduction in almost all crimes, with two exceptions – homicide and theft.

There were no murder cases in the county in 2010, with two people killed in 2011. These cases are now before the court.

While theft from the person has reduced by 75 per cent, general theft has increased by two per cent due to the increase in theft of domestic oil from private homes.

The theft of copper was also increasing these figures, although gardaí have prosecuted a number of gangs specialising in this theft in the last number of months.

Chief Superintendent John Kerins said that theft of copper reduced from 20 per cent in the first half of the year to just two per cent in the second half as a result of arrests and the reduction in the value of copper.

Theft of domestic oil continues to be an issue, with gangs specialising in this crime.

A group of plain clothes gardaí last week stopped a car in Sixmilebridge and arrested a group from Limerick who had sophisticated oil stifling equipment with them. The chief superintendent said that the strongest deterrents against such crimes and the best chance of a successful arrest are a good neighbourhood watch.

Sexual offences reported were also down last year by 15 per cent.

Many of the cases reported were also years old, in some cases older than the investigating garda, according to Ennis Superintendent Peter Duff.

In total the top 11 crimes had reduced by 18.6 per cent, with public order offences also reduced.

The supply and sales of drugs has reduced by 19 per cent in the last year with drug possession down 40 per cent. In total the gardaí from the Clare Division recorded 20,821 incidents on PULSE last year, an equivalent of 400 per week or 57 incidents per day.

JOB creation will not happen overnight and it will be painful.

That was the message from Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Richard Bruton (FG) when he addressed Shannon Chamber last week.

“If we are to create the jobs and growth we so badly need, we are going to have to undertake radical reform across the entire economy to make it easier for businesses to create employment. This means above all reducing costs, improving access to finance, providing better and more supports to job-creating businesses, and putting innovation at the centre of everything we do.

“This will not happen overnight. We will have to grind out the reforms one by one if we are going to achieve the Government’s ambition of making Ireland the best small country in which to do business,” he said.

They will be painful for some peo ple, particularly in sheltered parts of the public and private sector, and we will need support if we are to drive them through. However, if we are to build a strong economy with solid foundations this is where the hard work must start.

“In next month’s Action Plan for Jobs, we will begin a rigorous, monitored process of driving changes across government and the economy to improve the business environment and enable the creation of the jobs we need,” he added.

One company present who was not waiting for a Government-led job’s initiative was the Shannon-based CREGG Group.

Through lateral thinking, it enhanced its existing operations and brought a major international brand to Shannon – ZAGG International.

President of the Shannon Chamber Damien Gleeson said, potentially 130 extra jobs are being created by CREGG at Shannon, as a result of the company’s initiative to identify a company in the US with a similar process to itself and a desire to cite an operation within Europe.

“This has had a positive outcome for Shannon/Ireland – 70 of the jobs have been filled in the past nine months. It has sustained the company’s existing base at Shannon and brought in new skills and new products,” he said.

AN Ennis man with a “serious drink problem” stole two mobile phones from the solicitor’s bar-room in Ennis Courthouse, a court has heard.

Jamie Clune (34), with an address at 4 Bridge View, Roslevan, Ennis, pleaded guilty to theft and public order offences at Ennis District Court on Wednesday.

The court heard that the accused took two phones from the courthouse bar-room on April 5 (2011).

Insp Tom Kennedy told the court that Clune was later questioned and admitted his involvement in the theft.

Insp Kennedy said the phones were sold to an unknown person and had not been recovered.

Court documents showed that the phone belonged to barristers Stephen Coughlan BL and Patrick Marrinan.

In relation to the public order charge, Insp Kennedy said Gardai were forced to arrest Clune after he behaved aggressively in the Market area of Ennis on November 5 (2011).

He said the accused had 99 previous convictions, mainly for public order and intoxication offences.

Solicitor Tara Godfrey told the court that her client had behaved in a drunk and disorderly fashion last November, following a row with his sister.

She said Clune has a “serious drink problem”.

She added, “He’s quite an intelligent man who has had a sad upbringing and has used alcohol to cloud the memory”.

Ms Godfrey said her client is now clean and sober.

The court heard that the accused is currently serving a sentence.

Judge Aeneas McCarthy convicted Clune and sentenced him to six months in prison.

Recognances were fixed in the event of an appeal.

CLARE farmers could find farming “unworkable” if some of the suggested new CAP reforms are pushed through in their current form. That was the opinion of the ICSA president Gabriel Gilmartin, who warned EU Agriculture Commissioner, Dacian Ciolos, that his proposed reforms of the Common Agriculture Policy were too “revolutionary” and far too disruptive to Irish farming.

Ciolos was in Dublin last week for a number of meeting with the Minister for Agriculture, Simon Coveney (FG) and representatives of the Irish farming organisations.

“While there may be a welcome for a greener, more equitable CAP in theory, ICSA is concerned that, in practice, the Commissioner’s reforms are too revolutionary and will simply be unworkable in Ireland,” he said.

“The moving to a flat rate payment and the introduction of a greening top-up has the potential to severely stunt the growth of successful and productive farms in the country.

“We cannot have a fair reform that imposes severe cuts on family-sized farms. Due to spiralling input costs, the average farmer is now more reliant than ever on their single farm payment (SFP) from the EU.

“Strong factory prices are being counteracted by the rising costs of fuel and other operational costs, therefore excessive cuts in the SFP has the potential to drive farm families out of agriculture.”

Speaking after the visit, Minister Coveney said that he impressed upon the Commissioner the key CAP reform priorities for Ireland.

“The reform of the Common Agricultural Policy will set the policy framework for Irish and EU agriculture, so it is important that we get it right. I have told Commissioner Ciolos today that the first priority from an Irish perspective is to secure the maximum possible funding from the EU budget negotiations in order to provide for a strong and well-resourced CAP,” he said.

“The second priority is to ensure that Ireland’s funding for both direct payments and rural development is maintained at current levels. In addition, we must provide the maximum possible flexibility for Member States to implement the payment models and transitional arrangements that best suit their farming conditions.”

The minister emphasised the commitment of both Ireland and the Commission to sustainable intensification of production, responsible environmental stewardship and the maintenance of a vibrant rural economy.

CLARE farmers can look forward to another 12 months of decent farming conditions, with the level of growth likely to maintain steady into 2012. That is according to a new study released by Teagasc last week which indicated that the next 12 months will be a period of consolidation for local farmers.

The Teagasc Outlook 2012 Report found that the prospects for Irish agriculture, while still broadly positive, are not as good as they were at the beginning of 2011. The forecast for the sector as a whole remains highly dependent on circumstances in the wider EU and in the developing world.

Higher agricultural commodity prices over the last two years have made most sectors of Irish agriculture more profitable and farmers around the world have responded by increasing production.

However, with the EU likely to enter recession for a period in 2012 and the US economy also struggling, demand for agricultural commodities in advanced economies may weaken in 2012. This is likely to create a situation where most agricultural commodity prices fall slightly in 2012.

According to Teagasc economist Trevor Donnellan, little change is expected in overall production costs for most sub-sectors of agriculture, with lower feed prices being offset by increased fertilizer prices. “Overall, most Irish farmers are likely to experience a decline in profitability in 2012, but the sector will remain in a much better position than it was at the onset of the recession,” he said.

The pig sector, which endured considerable losses in 2011 due to high pig feed prices, is likely to be an exception to the general trend for 2012. Teagasc pigs specialist Michael McKeon said that profitability in the pig sector is set to be restored in 2012 as pig prices rise and the cost of feed decreases.

Despite these warnings, the ICMSA’s newly appointed beef chairman is optimistic about the price of beef in 2012. “The first thing to note is that farmers producing beef have been operating in a loss-making situation for many years and current prices are required to keep the farm business viable,” said Michael Guinan.

“Farmers are now operating in a more positive environment but that progress is coming from a very low base over the last decade and we should also acknowledge that we operate in an increasingly volatile market strongly influenced be outside factors, such as the current economic crisis.”