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FUNDING has been approved for a major upgrade of a “vitally important” wastewater treatment plant in Ennis.

Clare County Council has received confirmation from the Department of Environment, Community and Local Government that it is committing the necessary capital funding to enable the local authority to award the contract for the upgrade of the Clonroadmore Wastewater Treatment Plant.

Reacting to the announcement, Mayor of Ennis Cllr Mary Coote Ryan stated, “The provision of the most modern wastewater treatment facilities is key in terms of the continued progressive development of the town of Ennis. I want to acknowl- edge the contribution and patience of the elected members of the town council who have been pursuing an upgrade of the town treatment facilities for a long number of years.”

Mayor of Clare Cllr Joe Arkins welcomed the news describing the project as “vitally important” and central to ongoing efforts to expand the quality and scale of the wastewater infrastructure in the county.

“The town of Ennis is our capital town and it is vitally important that the standard of services is what one would expect in a major urban centre. This is a contract of major significance for Ennis, Clarecastle and surrounding areas and will provide for a significant upgrade of Clonroadmore Wastewater Treatment Plant,” added Mayor Arkins.

Clare County Manager Tom Coughlan noted, “As we move towards the period when Irish Water assumes Clare County Council’s statutory role as a Water Services Authority, I think this announcement demonstrates the capability of the council to design, procure and progress major water services schemes.

“I would like to take this opportunity to thank the water services staff, present and past, for the significant contribution they have made to the provision and operation of the water services infrastructure. I also wish to acknowledge the role played by the elected members in devising policy and assigning the financial resources to build up the infrastructure to what it is today,” concluded Mr Coughlan.

Clare County Council confirmed it intends to complete the contract formalities with the successful tenderer so that the works can commence as soon as possible.

IT WAS Bah Humbug and goodbye to any curse that Biddy Early might have over the Clare hurling on the last Saturday of September when the All-Ireland was won, but there was no keeping the bould Feakle woman down in the earliest days of October.

All because while the county was still on a natural high following the All-Ireland final victory over Cork, the county was preparing to enter the stratosphere with the news that a new form of cannabis has been named after famous Banner witch, Biddy Early.

The seed, one of five new strains developed in recent years by Magus Genetics in Holland, was described as growing to between 1.8 metres and 2 metres high and is ready for harvest in early October.

Selling and buying cannabis seeds is currently legal in Ireland but cultivating these seeds for person use of sale is a criminal offense. The Biddy Early strain has been specially bred to allow it to grow outdoors in a European climate.

Biddy Early is synonymous with Clare hurling because of the 81-year curse which the East Clare woman placed on the Banner county.

According to the Marijuana.com website, the Dutch company chose the Biddy Early name because her connection with witchcraft.

“Biddy Early is named for a 19th century woman accused of witchcraft, whose story became the subject of folk ballads and entered Irish legend. Magus, from the Latin for ‘priest’ or ‘sorcerer’, felt kinship with Biddy Early’s plight given the similarity between the witch hunt hysteria in times past and the current war on drugs.

“Biddy Early is the first variety that Magus Genetics specifically formulated for outdoor gardening in temperate regions. Although an even mix of sativa and indica, this plant exhibits the strong lateral growth typically seen in sativas.

“Biddy likes to branch out. The branches are very elastic and pliable, easily trained or tied like vines to suit the available space. Outdoors, this suppleness makes the plant storm proof or resilient to harsh weather,” the website stated.

The seeds are no longer available from Magus Genetics who have transferred distribution rights for Biddy Early to another Dutch company, Serious Seeds.

THE Mayor of Clare opted to spread Christmas cheer this year by redirecting his € 1,000 Mayoral Christmas Card Allowance to two local voluntary groups.

Each year the first citizen of the county is allocated € 1,000 from the council coffers to send Christmas cards.

This year however, as charities struggle to raise funds the mayor, Cllr Joe Arkins decided to give the funds to the Clare Filipino Community and the Clare Branch of the Irish Kidney Association (IKA).

Both charities benefited by € 500 each.

“I am delighted to contribute my Christmas card allowance to the respective fundraising efforts of both of these organisations who for very different but important reasons rely on such donations,” stated Mayor Arkins.

Commenting on his donation to the Clare Filipino Community, he said, “The entire world watched on in horror as a Super Typhoon wreaked havoc on the Philippines during November. Since then, fundraising efforts have been underway all over Ireland to assist those whose lives have been affected by the tragedy. Clare, and in particular Shannon, has a thriving Filipino community and I am delighted to pledge part of my Christmas card allowance to their fundraising efforts.”

The mayor also paid tribute to the work carried out by the Clare Branch of the IKA and its volunteers.

“I want to thank members of the association for their commitment to promoting organ donation and tireless fundraising efforts to support IKA services. I also want to pay tribute to the many donor families around Clare for their immense courage and compassion in donating their loved ones’ organs, as well as acknowledge those who carry organ donor cards,” stated the mayor.

AN ENNIS man has received a fivemonth prison sentence after admitting breaking into a family home in Drumcliffe earlier this year.

Stephen Moloney (34) used a rock to smash the back window of the house in Drehidngower on the outskirts of Ennis on May 22, 2013.

Mr Moloney stole € 200 from the house, Ennis District Court heard on Thursday.

Imposing a five-month sentence for burglary, shoplifting and criminal damage offences, Judge Durcan said he had to bear in mind the impact Mr Moloney’s actions had on his victims.

Judge Durcan said the confidence of the victims of the burglary at Drehidnagower “must be shattered”.

“The message must go out loudly and clearly that private living spaces are inviolable,” he added.

Detective Garda Mike Kelly of Ennis Garda Station told the court the house, which is owned by a 66year-old man and his wife, was unoccupied at the time of the burglary. He said Mr Moloney was arrested after CCTV footage of the area was viewed.

Det Kelly said the accused made full admissions but had not paid € 40 compensation to cover the cost of the broken window.

Mr Moloney, with an address at Oakwood Drive, Ennis, also pleaded guilty to theft of items including X Box games, dog food, bottles of wine and a toothbrush from Tesco, Lynch’s Centra and Boot’s Chemist between June 24 and June 29, 2013.

He also admitted throwing a rock through a window of Ennis Community College on June 27.

Insp Tom Kennedy said the accused has 69 previous convictions, with over half of those for theft.

Solicitor Tara Godfrey said her client, a father of one, says he was drunk when he broke into the house.

Of the incident at Ennis Community College, Ms Godfrey said her client was very drunk and went to the Garda station afterwards to tell them what he had done.

Judge Patrick Durcan said Mr Moloney had gone on a “complete rampage”.

Of the burglary offence, Judge Durcan said, “I don’t know this family but its not just the pane of glass that cost € 40 that would have affected them, their sense of confidence must be shattered.”

He imposed sentences totalling five months. Recognizances were fixed in the event of an appeal.

NEARLY 600 hundred years to pay off a loan – that was the judgment handed how in Ennis District Court on November 1 when Judge Michael Durcan ordered that a financiallystrapped mother of five should only pay € 5 a month on credit union loan.

The previous month the credit un- ion made an application before Ennis District Court last month for an installment order against the woman for a debt of € 35,070.76.

After hearing of the woman’s financial circumstances in which she is struggling to pay bills and keep five children, three of whom were in third level education, Judge Durcan told her his conscience would not allow him to agree to her offer to repay € 20 a month to the credit union. Instead Judge Durcan reduced the figure to € 5 a month.

“This woman is doing a fantastic service to the State and to her family,” said Judge Durcan, who made an order reducing the amount the woman must pay back on a monthly basis.

He ordered she pay back € 5 a month to the credit union. It could take the woman up to 583 years to repay the loan in total.

The woman became emotional as she thanked Judge Durcan for his ruling. On this repayment schedule the loan would notionally be repaid in 583 years.

She told the court she would pay the installment every month.

RYANAIR never left Shannon but its presence in Clare’s international airport was back with a big bang in October thanks to the low-cost airline’s new target of one million new passengers as it geared up to reach 2007 levels when its traffic numbers reached a record 1.9m.

This vision and commitment of the low-cost airline for Shannon was sounded out at the airport on October 24 by deputy chief executive Michael Cawley, at the announcement of eight new Ryanair flights out of Shannon that will commence in April 2014.

“My ambition for Shannon,” said Mr Cawley, “we talked about one million passengers. I wouldn’t lessen that in any way. We can move on. 300,000 is a very good start – this is a very significant step, almost doubling our business,” he added.

In 2011, Ryanair pledged to grow traffic numbers in Shannon by one million, provided it secured the same incentive deal that was being afforded to Aer Lingus by the Dublin Airport Authority at Dublin Airport.

Now the commitment of delivering 300,000 new passengers to Shannon as early as 2014 comes on the back of the announcement of new routes to Berlin, Munich, Krakow, Paris, Nice Fuerteventura, Warsaw and Faro as well as increased frequency on the Stansted route.

“I think we have to walk before we run. I would characterise the an- nouncement as running fairly fast,” said Mr Cawley. “As the economy grows from a very low level, we would see great opportunity as well as putting new spots on the map. It provides us with a platform. “Once these can be bedded down and successful we can grow more. We take one step at a time. That is critical in our business too. We bed down what we have and we move on. This is a very big step,” he added. The Ryanair deputy chief refused to disclose the terms of the new deal, but said, “Shannon wouldn’t be doing it if it wasn’t good for them; Ryanair wouldn’t be doing it if it wasn’t good for us. All we want is Shannon to be competitive and they have been competitive on this issue and we have a very good understanding. We have met in the middle on that – the tax has been a critical ingredient in making it happen. We are committed for a good number of years under this deal, so is the airport. “We have 30m more passengers that we want to allocate to airports over the next six/seven years – we want to be with people we can ring up and say ‘are the terms the same as the last time’, ‘can we extend it further’. “I would be very disappointed, now that the shackles of the Travel Tax are removed, that Shannon doesn’t participate, at least pro-rata or possibly more so, in that 30m expansion. We are here to stay, we are here to grow,” he added.

A MAJOR employment boost could be on the way for North Clare in the months ahead as Ennistymon based sign company Data Display are on the verge of signing a landmark contract with the New York City Department of Transport.

The company, which has been one of Clare landmark industries over the last 30 years, has developed a unique solar-powered signage system that can display the length of time until the next bus arrives at a bus stop.

The system, which is currently on trial in the Staten Island area of New York City, could be spread city wide as part of a major upgrade of the entire public transport system due to take place in 2014.

While the tender process for this redevelopment has yet to be undertaken, Data Display are understood to be in pole position to win the lucrative signage contract.

The new solar-powered signs allows busses to contact directly with signs to give real-time information about how far away their bus actually is.

“In many respects public transport in the US, both in terms of quality and usage, has lagged behind its Eu- ropean counterpart for many years, but they are now looking to leapfrog ahead with live signs and apps,” said Paul Horan of Data Display.

“One of the key aspects is the low power usage.

“This low power system which can be powered by solar panels means that they don’t need any wires,” he said.

Data Displays, which already employs hundreds of people in its Ennistymon factory, gain a foothold in New York after electronics giant Siemens brought it in as a sub-contractor to install signs in the city’s subway system in 2005.

“Data Display has always had an international focus, managing to provide electronic displays from Seattle to New York, from Dublin to New Zealand,” continued Mr Honan.

“Customisation is a very important part of what we do, with customers not only desiring a finish that fits with their own specific environments, but also having different background systems with which we must interface.”

While no details of the 2014 citywide contract for New York City have yet been released, it is understood to include thousands of sign and will be worth millions of dollars to whatever company is successful.

IT WAS Clare manager Davy Fitzgerald who memorably told the Troika, Angela Merkel, Mario Draghi and anyone of our European partners who were watching the Clare homecoming celebrations in Ennis on September 29 that “the recession can go to hell”.

Well, come October it was revealed that the recession did just that around All-Ireland time and that the words of Clare’s All-Ireland winning manager were proving prophetic.

Early estimates of the spending power of the Clare public during those heady September days into early October suggested those memorable celebrations were worth € 1m to the local economy alone.

Meanwhile, while players’ attention turned to the club championship in October, it was also time to look forward to the end of year celebrations.

The team holiday destination of Mexico was decided in October, while as part of the fundraising drive for this trip of a lifetime for players and mentors an official team and team calendar were organized dur- ing the month to go on general sale around the county and beyond.

The Clare Hurling Supporters Club asked members of the public to be wary of pirated versions of pictures or calendars on sale, as none of the proceeds of this merchandise would be going to the hurlers’ holiday fund.

Chairman of the Clare Hurling Supporters Club PJ Kelly told The Clare People that the fundraising for the player’s holiday fund would be stepped in October and continue for the rest of the year.

“Of course the players and man- agement deserve a holiday for all their incredible achievements and the sacrifices they made this year,” he said.

“We would ask the Clare public to get behind the team as we try to raise money for that trip. With this in mind we will be making an official team photograph with the Liam McCarthy Cup available for sale shortly. It will sit perfectly beside the pictures of the 1995 and 1997 All-Ireland winning squads,” said Kelly, a former treasurer of the Clare County Board and father of All-Ireland winning goalkeeper Patrick Kelly.

A SUB group of the Regional Drug Taskforce was established in Kilrush in November amid fears a growing heroin problem in the West Clare capital.

The Garda move is seen as a move by law enforcement agents to see if there is a serious deep-rooted heroin problem in the town.

Gardaí in Kilrush, in conjunction with the National Drugs Unit, have been tackling the supply issue with a special five-month undercover operation spanning the end of last year and the first quarter of this year.

A total of 1,400 Garda man-hours were used in the investigation and sting that resulted in at least eight arrests that have come before the courts so far. The Clare People learned that a special “drop-in clinic” for drug addicts was opened in the town eight weeks ago, to deal with the sociocriminal problem that has taken hold for the last year.

Regional drugs coordinator with the HSE Rory Keane said a heroin issue in a town of this size is usually attributed to a social-economic issue and supply.

Meanwhile Mr Keane said the health service has been aware of a problem in the town for the last year. He added that a specialist team made up of the HSE Drug and Alcohol Service, Mid Western Regional Task Force, Bushy Park and the Commu- nity Substance Misuse Team, were now working in the town to examine the general drug issues including heroin.

The special drop-in clinic will close in the next few weeks and the body will regroup to assess the situation.

“It has been a concern for the last 12 months that there does seem to be a pocket of heroin use in Kilrush that would not be on other parts of the county,” said the drugs specialist.

“Availability would be an issue. The other concerns would be social-economic factors and issues of unemployment, motivation and poverty.

“A drug problem might come up centred around a few individuals or a supply issue in a rural area,” he explained, adding that the concern in Kilrush was the problem was established for longer than would be expected in a town of its size.

“It is too early yet to say if it is a deep-rooted problem or a long-term episodic issue. We are not in a position to predict what will happen,” he said. “My sense from talking to people is it is definitely a social and economic issue here,” said Mr Keane adding that it is no coincident that you see an increase in drug use at times of economic difficulties.

NEWS of a major data security breach in Ennis travelled around the world in November after it was revealed that a cyber attack had taken place on the Station Road-based company LoyaltyBuild.

The Data Protection Commissioner said the credit card details of over 500,000 people across Europe may have been compromised by the data breach at Loyaltybuild.

The company was sold in 2008 by businessmen Dominic Considine, Domhnal Slattery and Sean Lyne for € 25 million to American company, Affinion.

Suspicion about a possible breach emerged on Friday, October 25, and a team of “expert forensic investigators” was appointed to determine what had happened.

On Wednesday, October 30, it emerged that a breach may have occurred and it contacted the Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) on November 1.

An inspection team from the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner has also confirmed that the names, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses of around 1.12 million clients were also taken.

Billy Hawkes said his office has now made contact with colleagues across Europe to inform them of the security breach.

Loyaltybuild runs special offers and incentive schemes for major retailers, utilities and service providers in Ireland, the UK, Scandinavia and Switzerland.

The ODPC said an inspection team has confirmed that the full card details of over 376,000 customers were taken.

Of this figure, over 70,000 were SuperValu customers and over 8,000 were AXA Leisure Break customers.

The details of another 150,000 clients were also potentially compromised. It said initial indications are that the breaches were the result of an “external criminal act”.

Managing director Peter Steenstrup has said he is deeply sorry for what is described as a major security breach at the company.

He urged customers to check their bank account statements and report any suspicious activity.

Mr Steenstrup said Loyaltybuild takes data security very seriously and the company is working to ensure that this will never happen again.

The Data Protection Commissioner said the criminals who breached security have all the information they need in order to use the payment cards.

LoyaltyBuild stated that the system breach was discovered last month, and that they have been working around the clock with their security experts to get to the bottom of matter.

“From the moment we first detected a suspected security breach on Friday, October 25, we immediately engaged the services of an expert forensics security team and have worked tirelessly to try to rectify this situation,” they noted.

“The DPC and the Gardaí will be kept informed of any further developments.”