Month: October 2012

THE festive season could come to the streets of Ennis earlier than usual following a proposal to switch on the town’s Christmas lights in November.

Ennis Town Council is proposing to pedestrianise Abbey Street and O’Connell Street on December 15, 22, 23 and 24.

According to the council, the imminent opening of the Inner Relief Road would facilitate improved traffic flow during the period.

The council is now inviting submissions from members of the public. The matter came before last week’s meeting of Ennis Town Council. Town clerk Leonard Cleary stated that a previous attempt to pedeistrianise Ennis’s man streets was abandoned after traders blamed the policy for a fall in business.

Mr Cleary said the proposal had been brought forward to October to allow “adequate time to progress consultation/procedures following the December meeting”.

He continued, “The implementation of pedestrianisation in Ennis remains an objective of the council as stated in the Ennis and Environs Development Plan. The purpose of the pedestrianisation of these streets on the dates specified is to facilitate shoppers and the general public in terms of ease of movements on days that traditionally would be busy in the town.”

Consultation will now take place with the Gardaí in relation to traffic management. Mr Cleary said discussions have yet to take place with the business community.

Last December parking was applicable to the town’s 759 off-street and 783 on-street public car parking spaces up to 12pm daily on Saturdays during the festive period.

Ennis Chamber of Commerce has called for the council to repeat its 2011 policy. According to Mr Cleary, a proposed Christmas parking incentive will be discussed at the council’s November meeting.

Town manager Gerard Dollard appealed for businesses and members of the public to engage in the consultation process. Mr Dollard said the council is aware of the view that O’Connell Street should be pedestrianised only.

Cllr Johnny Flynn (FG) welcomed the proposal, saying that the council should consider switching on the town’s Christmas lights in mid-November to capitalise on and boost festive shopping.

Cllr Michael Guilfoyle (Ind) said the street radio initiative introduced in 2011 should be repeated this year.

Looking ahead to next year, Cllr Frankie Neylon (Ind) urged the council to hold the 2013 St Patrick’s Day parade on a Sunday.

The comment prompted Mr Dollard to jokingly remark, “Let’s get over Christmas first!”

A PROPOSAL to introduce X-Factor style auditions for buskers in Ennis has been rejected by members of Ennis Town Council.

Fine Gael’s Mary Coote Ryan was among four councillors who voted against the motion put forward by her party colleague Johnny Flynn at the council’s October meeting.

In a notice of motion, Cllr Johnny Flynn (FG) called on “Ennis Town Council draw up street entertainment byelaws to deal with busking and the provision of small street public performance spaces (spotaí ceol) to enable performers book at targeted time”.

Cllr Flynn told the meeting that similar byelaws had been introduced in Dublin while other areas such as Galway, Killarney and Westport auditioned buskers. He said he had brought forward the motion to ensure there is a high standard of singers and musicians performing on the streets of Ennis. He said his proposal would give opportunities for young musicians to perform. Supporting the motion, Cllr Mary Howard (FG) said the quality of some of the buskers in Ennis could be questioned.

She said the proposal could pave the way for a busking festival to bring the best performers from Ireland and around Europe to Ennis.

However the Deputy Mayor of Ennis, Cllr Tommy Brennan (Ind), told the meeting that he strongly opposed the motion, saying, “we are tying ourselves in knots with byelaws”.

He said there are only four or five buskers regularly performing in Ennis every week.

Cllr Brennan added, “I’ve never seen an influx of buskers into Ennis, not even for the Fleadh Nua. There is no music on the streets of Ennis.”

Cllr Michael Guilfoyle (Ind) said there is a need to allocate specific areas for busking. However, he said the introduction of byelaws could cause problems for the council and performers.

Cllr Frankie Neylon (Ind) said Ennis “cannot compete” with towns like Westport because they have more hotels. He said the town should be looking to capitalize on the opportunities created by new coach parking facilities.

Town Manager Gerard Dollard said that while he agreed with the sentiment of the motion, the drafting of new byelaws would require the allocation of significant resources, which the council cannot spare. Mr Dollard said there is also a view that byelaws would take from the spontaneity of street busking.

He added, “I don’t think there is a significant issue with busking on the streets of Ennis.” The motion was put to a vote. Councillors Tommy Brennan, Mary Coote Ryan, Frankie Neylon and Michael Guilfoyle voted against. Councillors Johnny Flynn and Mary Howard voted for. Cllr Paul O’Shea (Ind) was not present at the meeting due to another commitment. Cllrs Peter Considine (FF) and Brian Meaney (GP) had left the meeting prior to the vote being taken.

NEIGHBOURS from hell are causing house prices to fall further in some areas of Ennis, a meeting has heard.

The claim was made at the October meeting of Ennis Town Council. Fine Gael councillor Johnny Flynn told the meeting that estate agents in the town had told him that the behaviour of problem tennants are bringing down the value of property.

Cllr Michael Guilfoyle (Ind) said he was aware of one woman who had trouble getting rent from a problem tenant. He said that the man stole heating oil from the tank when he finally left the house.

Councillors were discussing a motion tabled by Cllr Flynn calling for tougher legislation on to deal with anti-social behaviour and “neighbours from hell”. He stated there is a need for “strengthening of bad neighbours and bad tenants sections of private tenancy legislation currently being drafted”.

Cllr Flynn continued, “Anti-social behaviour in estates, whether private of local authority, is destroying peoples lives and needs also to be addressed by a range of effective legislation including terms of access or withdrawal of state benefits, low cost alcohol.”

Cllr Flynn told the meeting that the Private Rental Tenancies Board (PRTB), the body tasked with dealing with disputes between third parties and landlords, “is not effective or user friendly”.

He described the level of anti-social behaviour in some private estates in Ennis as “appalling”. Deputy Mayor of Ennis Cllr Tommy Brennan (Ind) said he would support the motion of the reference to low cost alcohol was removed.

Cllr Mary Coote Ryan (FG) also expressed support for the motion. “It’s a different ball game now,” she said.

Cllr Frankie Neylon (Ind) said similar motions had been ignored by Clare TDs and Senators in the past. Cllr Neylon said the council is getting the brush off from Ministers. “They’re saying shut yer mouths or ye’ll be done away with.” Cllr Neylon said the Taoiseach should be invited to Ennis to see the problems caused by anti-social behaviour. Th e w in t e r is slo w ly a n n o u n c in g it s e lf, w it h so m e c h illie r d a ys b u t m ild e n o u g h fo r t h is t im e o f ye a r.

THE National Roads Agency (NRA) have been accused of incompetence, in their approach to signage of the M18, by councillors at yesterday’s meeting of Clare County Council.

In a joint motion put forward by Cllrs Michael Kelly (FF), Bill Slattery (FG) and Joe Arkins (FG), a call was made for Clare County Council to begin to interact vigorously with the roads agency in an attempt to improve mistakes and omission in signage.

A call was made for the review of all signs on the M18, with all areas which were signed on the old N18 to also be included on the motorway. A number of popular tourist attractions are currently not included on the motorway – with Cllr James Breen (Ind), offering to sing Spancil Hill, if it would help the NRA to recognise the famous townland.

“I’m not happy at all with this reply at all. This is typical NRA speak. It is them saying that we don’t have a say down here; they know what is best for us. At the present time, there are areas of high tourism that attract a lot of people to the county, but yet when they come here they can’t find the place because there are no signs,” said Cllr Michael Kelly.

“The NRA has decided that businesses in places like Ruan, Tubber and Kinvara don’t deserve a sign anymore. We need to write back to the NRA and tell then that these places didn’t become obsolete with the creation of the M18.

“You have a body like the NRA come in here and changing the spelling of places like Ballyvaughan, Lahinch and Corofin. They think that they know better. I think they need to come down here and engage with us.”

During the debate, Cllr PJ Kelly accused the NRA of making serious mistaken on the signage on the M18, including signs which indicate that drivers are getting further away from Galway, even as they are driving towards Galway on the M18.

Responding to comments from the councillors, Director of Services Ann Haugh, said she would interact with the NRA more in the future.

“This is a matter for the NRA. There are prescribed rules for signage from the NRA which dictates where tourism signage is placed,” she said.

“I haven’t engaged with the NRA before this motion came forward today, but I will be engaging with them in the future.”

CLARE County Council may be strapped for cash but it recognises there are people much worse off in the country that need “a helping hand”.

As a result it will propose that the Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, and the Government to set up a voluntary organisation or foundation entitled A Helping Hand, which will do exactly what it says in the title.

The brainchild of West Clare councillor Gabriel Keating (FG), the purpose of the organisation is to provide financial support to the most vulnerable people in society.

It is proposed that the organisation would seek financial aid from the wealthy and better off in Ireland and abroad, and it would also devise other ways and means to meet its targets through sponsored projects or fund raising events.

“As the recession continues all voluntary organisations have seen an increase in the numbers of people seeking help. Voluntary organisations are not immune from the recession and they have witnessed a dip in donations from ordinary individuals and as well as that corpo- rate donations are not as regular as they were during the good times.

“Through our history we have a reputation for helping people all over the world. When other countries suffer disasters such as famine, earthquakes or tsunamis, Irish people continue to respond generously. Here at home, somehow people continue to respond generously to the many deserving causes, promoted by organisations such as West Clare Cancer Support and many others.

“In the early years of our freedom and independence we built new hospitals and institutions to help the sick. These were funded by an Annual Irish Sweepstake Draw that attracted worldwide support,” said the councillor.

“While the Lotto was set up since 1987 to help fund good causes, I believe that it is clear now at this point in our history that a National Voluntary Organisation – made up of people with vision, talent and imagination – is needed to bridge the gap in funding for those who are most in need.”

The Helping Hand Foundation by the Government would target the financially well off for funding.

“I am thinking par ticularly of wealthy Irish people who are now living abroad and who would love to contribute to this countr y but maybe they have never been asked. It would also utilize people who have a proven track record in volunteering and through their work have earned respect from the people such as reti red presidents, bishops and people in public life, entertainment and sport.

“In these very difficult times or recession and hardship we cannot and must not forget the most vulnerable in our society. We must extend a helping hand to those who most need it,” he said.

AS MANY as three letters from the Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan failed to clarify the future financial health of Clare County Council.

At last evening’s meeting of the local authority, County Manager Tom Coughlan was perplexed as to what exactly the reply from the minister’s private secretary to the council meant.

The council had asked the minister to clarify if there was any chance of it receiving all or some of the € 247,000 cut from its budget in July.

In the letter to the council, the department stated, “Household Charge income will be kept under constant review and it is a matter for local authorities, including Clare County Council, to use their local knowledge to follow up on non-compliant households in order to maximise collection of the charge and the information available from the data-sharing exercises underway centrally to identify households that may be liable to the household charge.”

In a personally signed letter to Deputy Pat Breen (FG) and Deputy Joe Carey (FG), the Minister referred to a conversation he had with the deputies last week.

“I’ll be reviewing the position for all local authorities in November and will have regard to their respective Household Charge compliance rate,” he said.

Mr Coughlan said he was not sure from those responses if the Minister was going to review the € 247,000 cut or not.

“It is not for me to interpret,” he said.

The manager and councillors were also in disagreement about the department secretary’s suggestion that, “I am satisfied that the revised general purpose grant allocations provided for 2012, together with the income available from other sources, will enable local authorities, including Clare County Council, to provide a reasonable level of services to their customers.

“The budget as adopted is under pressure and there is very little scope for reductions going forward,” said the manager.

He said the council made a decision in July to continue with the budget as adopted and that is what he would do until otherwise directed.

He added he would make savings wherever possible.

IT WAS an issue that took over the airwaves two weeks ago, and last evening it ironically became one of the talking point in the county council chamber.

The decision by Clare County Council to include a reminder about paying the household charge with third level grant application letters became an issue when it was interpreted that the council would not pay the grant if the household had not paid the controversial tax.

Cllr PJ Ryan asked that the council would inform its elective representatives of any announcements of public interest, prior to the media being informed.

“It is not nice to get a call at 7am from someone from Morning Ireland to see if you had any comment,” he said.

“Then you go to the local shop to field a barrage of abuse from local ladies who asked “what are you f-ers doing?” I don’t know how this was put into the media. Was it the Min- ister’s office or Clare County Council?”

Describing it as an embarrassment to councillors, Cllr Christy Curtin said it the letter was ill conceived and caused confusion on processing the grant.

Cllr Pascal Fitzgerald added that the issue was “all over facebook” the night before the story broke.

“I went into the shop and people were asking why are you a councillor if you don’t know what is going on.”

Co Manager Tom Coughlan said the council was not aware it was go- ing to become an issue and if he did he would have informed the councillors.

He said, “An individual who got a letter decided to publish it on the internet.

“The first I heard of it was at 11pm that night.”

“ Morning Ireland picked up the story that Clare County Council was not going to pay the grants, but that was not the story.”

It was an administrative decision to send out the letter and to return to the council chamber every time such a letter was to be issued would be unworkable micromanagement according to the manager.

He added, “You just don’t know when the next story is going to break.”

“We made it clear during the day that we were not withholding the grant, but what compounded the issue was Tipperary County Council who said it was going to follow Clare County Council and withhold the grant,” he said.

“We were never withholding the grant,” he said.

NEARLY half of Clare’s population was born outside the county, a new set of statistics relating to the 2011 National Census of Population have revealed this week.

The figures released by the Central Statistics Office in its ‘Migration and Diversity – A profile of diversity in Ireland’ report have been broken down into seven different categories – those born in Clare, those born in counties in the State outside Clare, those born in Northern Ireland, England, Walsh, Scotland, the United States and also a category for other countries.

Accordint to the census returns 60,174 people who are resident in Clare were born in the county, a figure that translates into 51.3 per cent of the county’s total population of 117,196, with the remaining 57,022 born outside the county.

The majority of these are made of up people who were born in other counties in the State – 36,863 in total which account for 31.45 per cent of the population. This large number of Irish nationals born outside the county can largely be attributed to the fact that Clare has been with a maternity hospital services for over a quarter of a century, a state of affairs that seen most of the county’s births taking place in Limerick and Galway.

British subjects make up the largest category of Clare residents born outside the country. A total of 7,529 were born in either England or Wales, 971 in Northern Ireland and 345 in Scotland. This mean that British nationals, which number 8,845 in total, make up 7.5 per cent of Clare’s population.

There are 1,732 American citizens resident in the county, a figure that translates into 1.5 per cent of the county’s population, while residents who were born in other countries number 9, 582, which represents a percentage of 8.1.

OVER ten per cent of Clare’s population are non-nationals, the latest report from the findings of the 2011 National Cenus of Population has revealed. The sixth bulletin report on the census, entitled ‘Migration and Diversity – A profile of diversity in Ireland’ has found that British and Poles make up the majority of the county’s non-national population.

The figures show that 12,076 nonIrish nationals were living in Clare at the time the census was taken in April 2011, a figure that accounts for 10.5 per cent of the total population of the county that stands at 117,196.

The report presents a profile of the non-Irish nationals living in Clare in April 2011, along with results on recent migration, foreign languages and ability to speak English.

“This report provides further analysis of the non-Irish population living in Clare at the time of the last census,” says Deirdre Cullen, a senior statistician at the Central Statistics Office.

“It examines aspects such as mixednationality households, age structure and marital status, numbers by towns, as well as new data on ability to speak English by year of arrival into Ireland. Clare has become an increasingly diverse society over the past decade and the different nationalities that make up the population of Ireland have an increasingly im- portant impact on the economy and society,” she adds.

The figures for Clare show that the county is running below the provincial and national average when it comes to non-national residents. The national average of the non-national population is 12 per cent, while in Munster it stands at 10.6 per cent.

Of the 12,076 non-nationals resident in the county, 3,622 were UK nationals – the largest non-Irish nationality in the county, followed by Polish nationals with 2,658 persons.

The census results show that of the 53,267 persons who arrived in Ireland in the year prior to April 2011, 1,010 were living in County Clare. Of these 627 or 62.1 per cent were non-Irish nationals.

ALMOST half of the fees paid to Clare solicitors under the criminal free legal aid system were paid to just under 20 per cent of those on the legal aid panel.

Figures from the Department of Justice show that solicitor Tara Godfrey was the highest earner from criminal legal aid cases in the county for the second year in a row.

The Ennis solicitor earned € 144,434 last year, a decrease of € 19,265 on the previous year when her payment reached € 163,699.

The payment to solicitors in Clare last year was down more than € 100,000 on the previous year in total.

In 2011 € 468,892 was paid to solicitors in Clare, with a further € 235,723.60 paid towards the provision of up to two counsel or barristers, doctors, psychiatrists, engineers, forensic scientists and language experts for defence cases in criminal hearings in the Clare District and Circuit Courts.

Among the other top earners on the Clare legal aid panel last year was Ennis-based solicitor Darragh Hassett who earned € 96,092. Mr Hassett had graduated from third to second place on the top earners list. In 2010 he earned € 110,130 but was then surpassed in earnings by Ms Godfrey and former Kilrush-based solicitor Eugene O’Kelly.

Mr O’Kelly who was appointed to the bench in March this year and is now a district court judge in Limerick, earned € 71,602 from free legal aid cases in 2011.

He earned € 135,748 the previous year.

Judge Kelly’s clients are now served by his former legal partner of five years Patrick Moylan.

John P Casey, based in Ennis, earned € 30,293 from legal aid work in criminal cases last year; Jenny Fitzgibbon from Shannon earned € 29,838; and, according to the Department of Justice, William Cahir Solicitor took in € 29,287.

In total, the top six earners on the legal aid panel earned € 257,112 between them. There were 23 solicitors or firms named in total.