Month: May 2013

DISABLED people in Clare are preparing to wage war on the Government in an effort to protect themselves from “the big squeeze” which many believe is coming their way this year.

A public meeting will take place in Ennis on Friday, May 24, and disability activists are hoping to send out the message to government that disabled people living in rural areas will not be swept under the carpet.

According to co-organiser Anne Marie Flanaghan, many disable people in Clare have in the past been too scared to stand up to the Government – for fear of being given even deeper cuts.

“We are seen as a quite group in society who can be easily targetted. There are disabled people in a position to speak out, so that is why it is important for everyone who can and the family of friends of disabled people – to speak out now,” she said.

“There are a lot of disabled people in Clare who are scared. People are on the very fringes of society already and they are afraid that if we speak out that we be cut even more – that is a horrible siuation to be in.”

Clare disabled people have seen a cuts to their Personal Assistant Services and are currently bracing themselves for cuts to the Mobility Allowance and the Motorised Transport Grant.

Meeting co-organiser Dermot Hayes believes that the time has come for disabled Clare people to take the fight to the Government.

“For people to live independently you need to be able to get out and about. Disabled people are not living in any kind of luxury; we are just about surviving,” said organiser Dermot Hayes.

“There is a feeling that there is a big squeeze coming down the road for disabled people. There are sneaky cuts, and you don’t realise how much of an impact they have until they are gone.”

The public meeting will take place on Friday, May 24, at the West County Hotel in Ennis. All people with disabilities, their families, friends and interested citizens are asked to attend.

THERE have been calls for public walkways to be developed along the River Fergus while work is underway on a major flood defence project in the town.

Work on the estimated € 7.1 million project from Bank Place Bridge to Doora Bridge has already commenced at locations around Ennis town centre.

It is anticipated that the works will take approximately 18 months to complete and will lead to the protection of 849 residential and 425 nonresidential properties on completion.

Defences including enhanced river walls, pumping stations and new drainage systems are included in the project, which is aimed at protecting Ennis against a 100-year flood event. Among the feature of the project is the installation of a pumping station in the park in front of Ennis Courthouse.

The issue of walkways was raised at yesterday’s meeting of councillors in the Ennis East electoral area.

In a motion, Cllr Johnny Flynn (FG) stated that, subject to agreement with residents and landowners, walking and cycling paths could be put in place along the bank of the River Fergus.

He said this could be done in conjunction with the current flood protection works from Bank Place to Doora Bridge.

He added, “If this path was constructed it could ultimately be continued down to Clarecastle, linking the village with Ennis.”

Cllr Flynn told the meeting that the planned car park development near Cusack Park could create an opportunity for a river walk in the area.

Senior executive engineer Eamon O’Dea stated that the provision of walkways on the river embankments would be separate project from the Lower Fergus Certified Drainage Scheme.

He continued, “The new embankments will have a wider embankment crown than the previous embankment. Environmental assessments, consultation with landowners / residents adjacent to the embankments, risk assessments formal public consultation process and funding stream will be required for this project.”

Mayor of Clare, Cllr Pat Daly (FF), and Cllr Paul Murphy (FG) both welcomed the proposal. Cllr Tommy Brennan (Ind) said the Gardaí may not permit a public walkway so close to the Garda station.

Cllr Flynn also requested that regular meetings be held by the Contractor Wills Brothers Ltd with public businesses and residents affected by works.

In reply, Eamon O’Dea stated that the OPW Lower Fergus Certified Drainage contract provides for a community liaison person for the OPW and the contractor.

He continues, “The community liason persons have been in contact with householders and businesses. They recently met with businesses in the Newbridge Road and Abbey Street car park and further meetings are being arranged with residents and businesses.”

Council officials have also met with the contractor.

AN AREA of Ennis should be pedestrainised to prevent traffic “choking” the town centre, a meeting has heard.

Cllr James Breen (Ind) raised the matter in a motion submitted to yesterday’s meeting of councillors in the Ennis West electoral area.

He called for the “street from the Friary car park to Abbey Street to be pedestrianised on a permanent basis.”

Cllr Breen claimed that most cars turning onto Abbey Street travel though the town centre before leaving Ennis without stopping.

He said the number of cars travelling through the centre of Ennis is causing major traffic congestion. He said, “We are choking our town with traffic needlessly.”

In reply, senior executive engineer Eamon O’Dea stated that the pedestrainisation of this section of Francis Street could not be considered on its own.

He stated, “This section of the road is closed by Gardaí for short periods of time at weekends in the interest of public safety. Ennis Town Council would have to evaluate the adjustments to the road network and traditional traffic flows in the town. This would require consideration of alternating the Francis Street car park layout to provide a turning area at the end of a cul de sac or provision of an exit into Friar’s Walk car park. This section of Francis Street is used during pedestrianisation of Abbey Street to turn traffic out onto Lower Abbey Street.”

Mr O’Dea told the meeting that some businesspeople in Ennis would say there are advantages to allowing traffic through the town centre. He explained that visitors to the town might come back after passing through.

Town manager and director of services Ger Dollard said pedestrianisation of Ennis is a “difficult issue”. He said the exit from Francis Street is important for traffic flow in Ennis. He added, “There is a long way to go before we can achieve a solution.”

Mr O’Dea said the council may consider signage around Tescos advising shoppers of alternate routes to exit Ennis.

Cllr Tony Mulqueen (FG) said the council could consider reversing traffic flow in Ennis. He told the meeting that the original Ennis Development Plan contained a proposal for cars to travel from O’Connell Street down Abbey Street.

CLARE County Council will formally ask Clare’s six Oireachtas members to jointly propose a motion that would strengthen the local authority’s powers to move on illegal encampments.

The motion, which was put forward by Cllr Richard Nagle (FF) was aimed specifically at rural seaside towns during the summer months. According to Cllr Nagle, members of the Travelling community are consistently taking up residence in public areas in seaside towns – even though they have already been provided with accommodation elsewhere.

“We are now is a situation where we are not talking about just transient visitors, we are talking about people who have accommodation and choose to park in public areas,” said Cllr Nagle (FF).

“We were told that when we provided accommodation in these [local authority Traveller accommodation] sites that this chaos would come to an end. The people were given guarantees, promises were made and they have not been kept.

“It is difficult to wind down about this issue; we are being told that we are essentially helpless. There don’t seem to be any regulations that will help us deal with this properly. I don’t know how we can be so proactive with some people, who will face the full rigour of the law for their indiscretions, but it doesn’t seem to apply to everyone.

“There seems to be no law at all in connection to this. It is a pity when the Traveller accommodation scheme was being discussed that people were not told that this would be the situation. I find this situation totally frustrating. I think we need to write to other councils about this, we need to put pressure on our Oireachtas members to put in a private members motion. This is putting an intolerable strain on local communities and it cannot be continue. This is very very frustrating.”

According to the council’s director of services, Bernadette Kinsella, Clare County Council have previ- ously made attempts to strengthen the legislation, but without success.

“In 2010 we made a submission [on this subject] to the department asking for a review of the provisions and strengthen the legislation. We do take action as soon as we hear about these illegal encampments but it does take time. We can only do that in regard to the existing provisions,” she said.

“After the submission this was also raised with Oireachtas members but we haven’t as yet been given any indication that this legislation will be strengthened.”

IRELAND’S oldest matchmaking festival is going pink this September with a gay and lesbian weekend being added to the month-long Lisdoonvarna Matchmaking Festival.

This year’s matchmaking festival will begin with The Outing – a lesbian and gay weekend involving concerts, matchmaking and other events, all hosted by drag-queen Panti.

The event is the brainchild of local hotelier Marcus White who has contracted the organiser of the Dublin Pride Festival, Eddie McGuinness, to manage the event. According to McGuinness, the event will the biggest gay and lesbian matchmaking event ever to take place, anywhere in the world. It is not as yet clear if Ireland’s last matchmaker, local man Willie Daly, will be directly involved in the gay and lesbian festival.

COMMERCIAL companies, including organisations that have a charitable ethos are erecting clothing banks on public and private property in Clare without permission, according to Clare County Council.

Some of these banks are duping people into believing they are donating to charity, while they are really contributing to a multi-million euro private enterprise.

Clothes recycling is a multi million-euro business in Ireland with charitable organisation using second hand clothing as a form of fundraising. What is not sold as clothing is shredded and used as industrial rag cloth. However not all clothes banks are for charity, including some that claim to be.

Clare County Council has adopted a policy of putting warning notices on offending banks and removing them from the sites if the warning is ignored. A lack of legislation however makes it impossible for the local authority to regulate clothing banks, and it is therefore impossible to calculate how many clothing banks are in the county.

Not all clothing banks are erected illegally however. Clare County Council has 17 sites with Clare County Council Clothing Banks on them. These include the five recycling centres and 12 bring bank sites. Some of these sites have a single clothes bank, while others have two, which is dependent on the amount of clothing being brought to the sites and if there has been a history of issues with clothing be dumped at sites with banks overflowing.

Clare County Council does not rent space to companies and clothes banks that are installed at Clare County Council sites as part of an agreed contract are not belonging to any charity at present. Charities have tendered for this contract however and it is expected that charitable contracts will be awarded shortly.

While the local authority only put Clare County Council clothes banks on council property, there have been issues with private individuals or companies illegally installing banks on council property. The council has issued warnings and removed these banks when they are discovered.

A spokesperson for Clare County Council said that there are a number of clothing banks also on private property, both with and without the owners’ permission. “Numerous companies and charities place clothes banks on private property including sites where Clare County Council have bottle banks. This may be with the agreement of the owner of the property and sometimes a financial agreement takes place between both parties. There are occasions where clothes banks are put on private property without the permission of the owners and Clare County Council have been contacted in relation to this, looking for the banks to be removed,” he said.

“There is no legislation in place for dealing with this and the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) do not consider clothing banks to be a waste stream, therefore waste permits are not required to install clothing banks on properties.

“A lot of clothes banks may advertise charities on them but the charity may not own the banks. The charities get a percentage of the profit from the banks. There are also a lot of questionable charity names on some banks,” he added.

OPPOSITION to a € 60 million fishfarm proposed off the Doolin and Fanore coast solidified this week week with Fianna Fáil, Sinn Féin and Clare TD Michael McNamara all coming out against the controvertial development.

The two main opposition parties have now both adopted policy documents against the proposed fish farm – and nine other large scale fish farms which are understood to be in line for construction along the west coast – should the Clare fish farm be granted a licence by the Minister for Agriculture, Simon Coveney (FG).

Michael McNamara has also become the first Clare Oireachtas member to put his cards on the table about the proposed fish farm. Following a meeting with North Clare fishermen and other connected with the fish-industry last month, the East Clare deputy last week raised concerns about the scale of the proposed development.

He also questioned whether Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM), who are proposing the construction of the fish farm, have done enough to promote the fish-related employment which already exists in North Clare.

“I would question whether the scale of proposals by BIM, in relation to the development of salmon farms, is compatible with marketing and developing our own indigenous inshore fishing sector. The on-going availability of fresh, high-quality fish is also crucial to our tourism sector and should not be jeopardised under any circumstances,” he said. “Speakers [at the North Clare meeting] said that the cages would be unsightly from Doolin and the revenue yielded by tourism to the Cliffs of Moher, Connemara and the Burren could be put in jeopardy.” Deputy McNamara also said that markets for species such as bass, cod, mackerel and velvet crab should be assisted by BIM rather than proposing to build a very large salmon farm and end up “destroying” the industries and activities on which the coastal communities depend. Tue07May13

THE futures of many of County Clare’s post offices are under threat, according to one Clare postmaster, as they could lose the contract for social welfare payments.

The Government must wake up to the threat to post offices in County Clare, the annual conference of the Irish Postmasters’ Union was told by Clare-born postmaster Tom O’Callaghan at the weekend.

Mr O’Callaghan from Kildysart, who is a postmaster in Upper William Street, Limerick, told the delegates to the conference in Fitzpatrick’s Hotel, Killiney, Co Dublin, that the future of hundreds of post offices nationally, and a number in Clare, were in the balance due to the fact that the social welfare payments contract is being internationally tendered.

“We understand that there is a very good chance that in the short term An Post will retain the contract but a second tender is to be issued in June that could result in a major transfer of the social welfare payment system to an electronic form,” he said.

“We are not against new technology or progress but the public are entitled to access their money in the way that best suits their needs. We do not yet know the full terms of the new tender but we are very concerned that it will force the successful tender to rush headlong down the e-commerce route.

“The Government should be very wary of the consequences, not just for an estimated 400 post offices that would close immediately if An Post were to lose the contract, but also for Irish society. It would be catastrophic,” the West Clare man warned.

Mr O’Callaghan, who represents postmasters in Clare, Limerick, Kerry and Kilmallock, told the delegates that the public were being forced more and more into using banks that don’t want to see customers, are forever increasing or introducing new charges and in whom the public have little trust. “As we saw last year people can also go weeks without having access to the cash in their bank account,” he said.

“Another issue we have with Government is their failure to utilise the outstanding network of 1,100 post offices throughout the country to provide additional services to com- munities,” said Mr O’Callaghan. “We commissioned the accountancy firm Grant Thornton to validate our figures and they established that by allowing the public to renew their motor tax in post offices it would save the taxpayer € 60 million.”

“We also believe there is a real opportunity to develop a system of electronic form generation where forms can be printed as required at post offices for a small fee; forms can be updated on request, and these services would save the Government money. Hospital charges could also be paid through our network.”

BED and breakfasts in Kilrush have a reported a 20 per cent increase in business compared to the May bank holiday last year.

The boost in bed numbers has been attributed to the National Famine Commemoration 2013, with event beginning on Friday night last.

Accommodation providers in West Clare from Lissycasey to the tip of the peninsula are also preparing for an upcoming busy week and weekend, as events building up to the National Famine Commemoration in the area’s biggest town attract new visitors to the west of the county.

The Kilrush marketing and development officer Síobhan Garvey said early estimates suggest that the 10 days of events and Sunday’s ceremony will give the town an economic boost of approximately € 100,000.

The full financial impact will not be known for a few weeks however.

Honorary secretary of Kilrush Chamber of Commerce Mary Rose Counihan added that while it is not known exactly by how much the town’s businesses will benefit, it will provide an economic boost.

She agreed it was likely to be worth over € 100,000.

“It is bringing people to the town who would not usually think of visiting the area,” she said.

“The town is literally buzzing. There are loads of people around that would not normally be around.”

In the past few days lecturers and speakers, along with their family and friends, have been checking into B&Bs and hotels in the area.

History enthusiasts have also been availing of the lectures and events that are being provided free of charge in West Clare, many staying a number of days.

This weekend 46 ambassadors are also due to visit Kilrush as part of the official commemoration ceremony.

It is understood some of these diplomats have already booked into the five star Doonbeg Lodge, with more expected to stay in other hotels in the county. And despite the inclement weather which endured during the opening ceremony in Carrigaholt, enthusiasm for this national event continues as week-long events have been organised by the local council and community.

A MAN who set fire to property owned by a man who harassed his mother did so out of “loyalty and love for his mother”, a court has heard.

Judge Patrick Durcan said he accepted that 21-year- old Aaron Moylan had a certain “motivation” for damaging garden sheds at The Hawthorns, Limerick Road Ennis on June 27, 2012. At Ennis District Court on Wednesday, Mr Moylan, with an address at 8 Abbey Court, Ennis pleaded guilty to two charges of damaging two garden sheds by fire.

Judge Durcan this was a “very seri- ous and dangerous offence to commit.”

The court heard that Mr Moylan set fire to a garden shed owned by former Dell worker William Keane (40). In January, Mr Keane, with an address at the Hawthorns, Limerick Road, Ennis, pleaded guilty to harassment of a woman.

The incidents occurred over a 12month period on dates unknown between October 1 (2011) and September 1 (2012).

Mr Keane was ordered by Judge Durcan not to have any contact with the injured party. On Wednesday, Inspector Tom Kennedy told the court that Mr Moylan had an issue with a person living in The Hawthorns who had been involved in a relationship with his mother.

Insp Kennedy said that Mr Moylan went to the man’s property and set fire to the shed with a small bit of fuel and a lighter.

A shed in a neighbouring house was also damaged by fire as a result of the incident. Mr Moylan has no previous convictions.

Defence solicitor Tara Godfrey told the court that William Keane had harassed and stalked her client’s mother. She said the woman installed CCTV at her home because she was afraid of Mr Keane.

She said Mr Moylan had “cracked.” “He did what he felt would attack Mr Keane’s sense of security,” she added.

Inspector Kennedy said a certain amount of provocation could be attributed to Mr Moylan’s actions.

He added, “Mr Moylan was way out of order in going to set fire to this property. It was very dangerous and could have got out of control.”

Judge Patrick Durcan said, “I accept his motivation was out of loyalty and love for his mother….but I also agree this was a very serious and dangerous offence to commit.”

Judge Durcan adjourned the case until September 4 to allow time for compensation to be paid.