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A RECENT spate of business closures in Ennis re-enforces the importance of customers shopping locally.

That’s according to one local businessman who said many small businesses in the town are “struggling to stay open”.

Gearoid Mannion, Chairman of the O’Connell Street Trader’s Association, said the closure of as many as a dozen small businesses in Ennis in recent weeks is “disappointing”.

“Even though there is this talk of green shoots and of an economy being in recovery, it shows that those green shoots don’t extend as far as small businesses who have been living on the edge for the past four years now.

“A lot of the talk about recovery is premature and based on optimism. The reality is a lot different. The reality is a lot of businesses are struggling to survive… We’re certainly not out of the woods yet.”

Mr Mannion said a lot of businesses are being left with no option but to pull down the shutters.

“It got to a point where a lot of people are putting their own personal money into the business just to keep going. That was never going to be sustainable long term and there comes a point where people just have to call a halt. There are a lot of businesses struggling to stay open, to meet their responsibilities and pay their staff,” he explained.

The well-known Leavy’s shoe shop on O’Connell Street is probably the most high profile casualty of the slump in retail activity.

Businesses on Abbey Street are equally concerned about the future with as many as nine vacant units on the street.

Mr Mannion said the spate of closures around the town empahsises the need for customers to support local businesses.

“If anything it just goes to show how important it is to shop local. The level of disposable income available to people to way down and people are certainly a lot more cautious about how they spend money. But what I would say is if you’re going to buy a jacket, or a pair of shows or whatever, shop locally and give the Galways and Limericks a miss,” he added.

Another local businessman Tony Mulqueen believes Ennis Town Council should focus on revitalising Parnell Street in order to breathe new life in the town centre.

“I know they are talking about this new covered market but I think they should put a roof on Parnell Street. It’s ideally suited to it. It could be easily done,” he said.

The Fine Gael councillor estimates that business at his own garden centre is down 80 per cent. “Things are very bad out there,” he added.

THE vast majority of people signing on the live register in Ennis are young people – under the age of 25.

A whopping 85 per cent of the of the people signing on the the live register in Ennis last month was aged 25 or under. A total of 5,085 people signed on the live register in the county town in February – of these only 751 were over the age of 25.

The percent of younger people on the live register in Ennis has increased since the start of the recession in 2007 – but not dramatically. Of the 2,459 who signed on in Ennis in February 2007, 2,011 or 81.7 per cent of the total were under the age of 25.

Gender also appears to be a factor in unemployment in Ennis since the start of the recession, with more men winding up on the live register than women.

Between February of 2007 and February of 2014, the number of men signing on the live register in Ennis increased from 1,351 to 3,051 an increase of 125 per cent. Over the same time period however, the number of women on the register increased from 1,108 to 2,034 – representing an increase of just 83.5 per cent

Overall however, it does appear the the unemployment problems in Ennis are improving – but the improvement is slow. A comparison of the live register figures for Ennis in each February since 2007 reveals that the register hit its peak in 2010, when 6,165 were on the live register.

These figures have dropped each February since and now stand at 5,085, which is still more than double the 2007 figures of 2,459.

SURVIVOR of prostitution and recovering drug addict Mia de Faoite left an audience in tears on Friday night last as she recalled the true, disturbing face of prostitution.

Ms de Faoite, who is an activist for Turn Off the Red Light campaign, told the gathering organised by the Clare Women’s Network that the only way to shine a light on the issue is to hear from those who lived that life.

Refusing to let her past define her, she said she could never forget the life she has left behind and how she entered it.

“My decision to enter prostitution seemed to me at the time quite a rational one. I had developed a heroin problem at the age of 33 having never taken a drug in my life before,” she said knowing she had one valuable commodity she could sell – her female body.

She thought she would not have to do this for long, just until she and her girlfriend, who also had a drug problem, would be “sorted”.

Life in prostitution “owned me in a short period of time” however, she explained adding that it was very difficult to see choices.

The softly spoken NUI Maynooth student brought tears to the audience’s eyes as she recalled “the inevitable” – rape.

Her first rape was in the form of a gang rape.

“From that night on I no longer lived. I just existed and in a world I could no longer comprehend. I could no longer make sense of. The only reason I coped was thought disassociation.

“The young woman who was with me that night did not survive. Her drug use spiralled out of control and she died alone of an overdose about two months later. To many her death was just another sad statistic but to me she would always be of value.”

A year later Mia was raped again. Afterwards she was sitting on the street, her money and phone also sto- len. One of her “regulars” pulled up in his car, he was a taxi driver. She told him what happened and he took her home, and even though he knew she had just been raped and robbed he insisted she have sex with him to pay the “fare”.

Her last rape was by two men on cocaine.

“We as prostituted women were a primary target for any man who wanted to fulfil his fantasy of rape. Only with us they can do it for real and get away with it. Society and the laws that govern it play a major role in keeping it that way, and it will remain unsuitable while it remains le- gal to buy a human being in the first place,” she said. She had to accept her rapists would never be brought to justice.

The drugs helped her cope with life on the streets, and she was caught in an never ending spiral.

She gave accounts of being humiliated by teenagers who threw eggs at her and men who urinated upon her.

One of her friends who were trafficked from Africa into Ireland was regularly beaten by her trafficker, her young post-pubescent body already almost broken from starvation.

While an addiction to drugs led Ms de Faoite into prostitution, many of her friends were trafficked into Ireland.

Ireland is targeted by these traffickers because of the law, and due to the prices that can be charged here compared to mainland Europe.

And the stories went on, as the tears flowed.

This mother of one was speaking from the heart about a cruel heartless world she inhabited and teenage girls and women continue to live in today in Ireland, Clare and small towns around the county.

She shared a letter from her daughter, who knew at a young age her mother would have to unwillingly leave her at night to sell sex, and how this changed her mother’s demeanour as night approached.

The only way to address this issue of prostitution, according to Ms deFaoite, is to criminalise the purchasers of sex and not to continue to further victimise those forced into prostitution.

Men of all ages and creed, as many as one in 15, buy sex every day.

These are often family men of high social standing – the “good citizen” according to Ms de Faoite.

She challenged everyone present in Ennis to reconsider their definition of a good citizen, and argued the law must lead if attitudes are to follow.

CONCERNS have been expressed that children unknowingly played on and close to asbestos material, while their patents fished at Lislanaghan Lake in Kilkee.

Local people said there was no signs to indicate any danger from asbestos at the site of the former reservoir prior to the issue being raised by former councillor PJ Linnane last June.

Clare County Council admitted this week that it did not know how long the asbestos was illegally dumped at nine sites in West Clare, stating “the material appears to have been deposited over an undetermined number of years up to June 2013”.

Described by medical profession as “the hidden killer”, asbestos can cause four serious lung and respiratory diseases that can take years to affect those exposed.

According to the Health and Safety Executive in the UK, these illnesses “will not affect you immediately; they often take a long time to develop, but once diagnosed, it is often too late to do anything. There is a need for you to protect yourself now.”

It is understood the asbestos material dumped in West Clare is from broken pieces of the council’s own Asbestos Cement Water Mains.

It is also not known how much of this waste was deposited at the council depot in Kilkee, four other sites at Lislanaghan, Kilkee; the Dunlicky Road, Kilkee; the council depot in Kilrush; Ballykett, Kilrush and Breaffa, Kilrush.

Clare County Council said that it has commissioned an external independent investigation into the circumstances surrounding the depositing of Asbestos-Cement materials and work is to begin this week on stage one of removing the dangerous substance.

It is ten months since Mr Linnane first reported the asbestos piping discovered near his home, and just over three months since the dumping in Kilkee was revealed in The Clare People .

In answer to a number of questions, a spokesperson for the council said yesterday that it had tested the pipe material at one of the sites.

“Some of the pieces of pipe consisted of white asbestos. Some of the pipes consisted of a mixture of white and brown asbestos. Asbestos cement pipes historically were made from white asbestos or a mixture of white and brown asbestos. All of the waste asbestos cement pipe material will be removed.”

Brown asbestos is considered by experts to be more dangerous to human health than white asbestos.

Meanwhile a Health and Safety expert told The Clare People that the asbestos pipes should have been identified before the process of removing them began. The asbestos material should then be double-bagged by those with special training and equipment before being removed by RILTA, the only organisation in the state qualified to do so.

“There is the potential of asbestos going into the air every time that the broken pipes were disturbed. This could be a danger to workers or anyone in the area that moved them in any way. The equipment used to remove the pipes would also be considered contaminated officially, but this would not pose a huge risk,” he said.

THE number of pubs, clubs and hotel bars operating in Ennis has dropped by nearly 30 per cent over the last five years, with a number of pubs expected to go under when the rates bills are delivered to premises later this month.

According to Clare head of the Vintners Federation of Ireland (VFI), Charlie O’Meara, at least 11 pubs have gone out of business in Ennis since 2009, with just 29 currently operating in the county town.

Speaking yesterday Mr O’Meara said that the economic recovery spoken about in parts of the country had yet to reach Clare.

“Christmas was okay but January and February have been very poor. This expected turn around in the economy has not been seen in Ennis yet, certainly not in the pub trade,” he said.

“Our biggest difficulty is multiples [large supermarkets] selling drink in Ennis at prices that we just can’t compete with. We have serious overheads and running costs but what can we say to people to who come and and say they can buy a bottle of vodka for for € 8 or € 9 and we are charging € 4 a shot for it.

“You can’t blame the punter on the street for looking for the best price that they can but it is a tough struggle for pubs at the moment just to compete. You are going to see more and more pubs disappearing.”

Mr O’Meara has warned that a number of pubs and other businesses are on the verge of going under in Ennis at the moment.

“The rates will be due in the next few weeks and we could be a few businesses going under then. If you are teetering on the brink, trying to keep your business afloat, the rates can actually bring you down,” he said.

“I might not seem like a lot but it you are just hanging on, a bill of a couple of thousand can be the final straw.”

THE use of unmanned flying drones could help halt the growing problem of illegal dumping of household waste at areas around Ennis, a meeting has heard.

In addition to the use of CCTV, Clare County Council is assessing a number of measures aimed at reducing illegal dumping.

The issue was raised at yesterday’s meeting of councillors in the Ennis West electoral Area where Fianna Fail’s Brian Meaney suggested the council explore the use of drone aircraft.

He requested the local authority to consider using CCTV to “counteract the upsurge in dumping of sorted domestic waste on roads in the Ennis west area”.

He told the meeting new technologies such as cameras and drones would make it easier for the council to enforce its litter laws while at the same time act as a disincentive to dump rubbish.

Cllr Tom McNamara (FF) agreed the council had to find a solution, describing the litter problem in the Ennis area as “absolutely awful”.

In his reply, acting senior engineer Paul Moroney said the council are currently dealing with dumping of domestic waste at various locations around Ennis. He said CCTV has been used at certain “problem locations in the county”.

He continued, “The Environment section are also dealing with a number of CCTV companies currently with a view to installing high grade cameras in the county. Decisions on the scale of the operation will be determined by a number of factors including site suitability, information technology compatibility and budgetary constraints.”

Mr Moroney said the adoption of new draft byelaws on waste collection would see the council begin a process of determining how individual householders and commercial operators are disposing of their household waste.

“The onus will be on the householder to either have a waste collection service or alternatively produce receipts from Clare County Council’s amenity centres when requested,” he added.

Mr Moroney said the illegal dumping of domestic waste at locations around Ennis is difficult to monitor “due to the sporadic nature of the activity”.

“The pattern of this type of dumping is that the waste is very rarely dumped at the same precise location but more likely to be dumped at varying locations on the same stretches of road. The difficulty is, recording this activity of CCTV cameras is not always possible due to the random nature of the dumping. Clare County Council environment section will continue to address the issue of illegal dumping.”

Ennis Town Manager Gerard Dollard said the council has significantly invested in measures to prevent dumping.

Responding to questions from Cllr James Breen (Ind) on farmers being held responsible for rubbish illegally thrown on the land, Mr Dollard said, “I agree it seems unjust and unfair but that is the law.”

FLOODING along a stretch of footpath at Ennis General Hospital is creating a dangerous situation for pedestrians and motorists alike, a meeting has heard.

Walkers are being forced out onto the road in front of the hospital after the footpath became submerged under a large pool of water in recent weeks.

Meetings yesterday of councillors in the Ennis electoral area heard the flooding is a high priority for the council.

Senior executive engineer Eamon O’Dea said a road sweeping truck has been “suctioning” water from the area, a course of action he described as “unsustainable”.

Mr O’Dea told the councillors the council has discussed the issue with the Health Services Executive (HSE). A CCTV survey to ascertain the exact reasons for the heavy flooding was carried out in recent days.

Mr O’Dea said it might be necessary to carry out work in the grounds of the hospital to solve the issue.

Cllr Tony Mulqueen (FG) said that if work is required, the council should seek to retrieve some of the cost from the HSE.

Cllr Johnny Flynn (FG) said pedestrians are being forced onto the road because the footpath is impassable due to water. He said this is particularly dangerous for elderly people living in the area.

Mr O’Dea said solving the problem is a “high priority” for the council.

The council is also to investigate the potential risk of flooding to houses in Victoria Court on Cusack Road.

Cllr Pat Daly (FF) said a number of residents are fearful their homes could flood. He has asked the council to seek funding from the Office of Public Works to deal with flooding in the area.

Mr O’Dea said the council is surveying the area so a “detailed flood risk assessment can be completed”.

“Subject to that assessment an application will be made to the OPW under the minor works scheme,” he added.

CLARE is in line for a double tourism boost with the news that the world famous Lisdoonvarna Spa Well is set to reopen to the public later this month and that country singer Garth Brooks is considering playing an intimate charity gig at the nearby Pavillion Theatre.

The wells, which have been shut for nearly four years, are set to reopen before the end of March – once the results of a chemical analysis of the famed spa waters are released. Once the water is certified, tourists will once again be allowed to visit the Spa Well and take the water.

More than 10,000 German tourists already travel to Lisdoonvarna each year, even though the wells have been effectively closed for a number of years, and this number is likely to swell once the wells reopen.

The proposed reopening of the famed sulfur baths themselves will require a large investment before it can be realised with Lisdoonvarna Fáilte estimating that € 1.3 million would be needed to brings the baths back on line. This figure includes between € 20,000 and € 30,000 worth of damage sustained during the recent storms.

The Minister for Tourism, Michael Ring, was in Lisdoonvarna last week to see the facilities.

“The wells are open at the moment and hopefully in a week or two, once the water is tested, we will be able to give it to people again. We will be giving people free samples, we won’t be charging for it,” said Lisdoonvarna Fáilte chairperson, Paddy Dunne.

“We will be able to get the pumphouse open but it will take some serious investment to get the bath houses open again. This will be a huge boost for the whole county. If we get the pump house going well hopefully an investment will be made available for the baths.”

Meanwhile, Mr Dunne also confirmed yesterday that Lisdoonvarna Fáilte has been in contact with representatives of Garth Brooks, with a view to bringing the US singer down to Lisdoonvarna for a one-off concert.

“There is the possibility of Garth Brooks coming for a private show. We contacted them, and they got back to us looking for more information, so you’d never know. They got back to us last Friday so we will see what happens,” said Paddy.

Lisdoonvarna Fáilte have recently elected a new Board of Management and are hopeful to add three new members to the board, especially people with a background in tourism.

The current board includes Tina O’Dwyer, Donie Garrihy, Pat Haugh, Kate Burke, Marie Urquhart, Gemma Dowling, Cllr Joe Arkins, Peter O’Dwyer and Tom Connolly. Anyone interesting in becoming involved is asked to contact 065 7075644.

THE people of Gort are in a state of shock following the tragic death of two local people in a house fire n the town last Thursday morning. The victims, who have been named locally as 38-year-old Ben Whiteman and 65-year-old Nuala Sweeney, died after a blaze broke out at 2.50am at Tom O’Donnell’s Flats on the Rail- way Road.

Numerous tributes have been paid locally to mother-of-four Nuala Sweeney and to Ben Whiteman, who worked as a mechanic. The pair have lived locally in Gort for more than a decade but had previously lived in the Caher area of East Clare. Four units of the fire brigade from Gort and Loughrea attended the scene and spent more than three hours bringing the blaze under control.

While the incident is not being treated as suspicious, questions have been raised after the first unit of the fire brigade to arrive on the scene had to delay entering the building for 25 minutes until a back-up unit arrived.

The normal complement of firefighters in Gort is nine, but for several months the station been reduced to just four. The four-man crew had to observe the protocol of having a back-up crew to support them before they could enter the building.

Galway County Council, which administers the service, has been attempting to recruit additional personnel, but has had difficulty in securing appropriate candidates for the positions.

“Would lives have been saved, or would the building have been as badly damaged – and there is a shopping centre nearby – if Gort was fully resourced?” said local Cllr Gerry Finnerty (FF).

“I know the council have been trying to recruit firefighters; I’ve seen the flyers, but we just don’t have too many people who are willing to work in our town. We have lost one-sixth of our working population since 2006.

“I’m very concerned at the impact of the under-resourcing of the fire service is having in the town and in south Galway, which is a large rural area.”

PRIESTS in the Killaloe Diocese contribute more than € 74,000 from their own personal resources to fund the running of the diocese in 2012.

The payout comes as parish donations to the diocese dropped for the second consecutive year forcing priests to dip into their own pockets to keep the diocese afloat.

According to the diocesan accounts for 2012, which were released last week, contributions from Killaloe’s 58 parishes were down 2.5 per cent in 2012.

This comes on the back of a 4.3 per cent fall in donation in the previous year.

It is not clear from the accounts how much was donated by each priest, or if each priest donated the same amount, but it is understood that the current basic salary for a priest in the diocese stands at € 22,000 and rises to just € 27,240 after a number of years of service.

The figures reveal that in 2012 parish donations totalled € 742,000, while in 2010, the figure was € 795,000. Bishop O’Reilly expressed concern at the year on year fall as these parish donations form the most significant proportion of diocesan income.

Despite the drop in donations from individual parishes, the overall financial situation of the diocese was positive with the Killaloe Diocese recording a net surplus of € 162,750 for 2012, when gross income for property and other investment portfolios were taken into consideration.

While the diocese’s overall accounts have shown surpluses in recent years, this has only been possible because of the additional contributions from Killaloe’s priests and donations and bequests.

“Such generosity cannot be taken for granted or predicted in future years,” said Bishop O’Reilly.

The contributions from priests was also supplement by a bequest of € 54,000 but even that sum is a massive drop from the nearly € 152,000 the diocese received in 2011 from such gifts.