Category: News

THE Clare Crusaders Clinic is calling budding barbeque party hosts to dust off the barbeque and hold an event to remember in aid of the children’s charity.

The event to be held on Sunday, May 26, and supported by Munster Rugby and Clare FM is encouraging families, friends and local communities to come together across Clare and fire up their barbeques to help raise funds for the Clare Crusaders Clinic.

As part of the event, those wishing to host a barbeque for the clinic will be asked to pay a registration fee of € 10 to the charity. In return, hosts will be entered into a draw for a number of prizes with an overall winner’s prize of Munster Rugby player appearances at their barbeque.

Each barbecue organiser will be supplied with a promotional pack containing clinic tee shirts, posters, flyers and a donation bucket together with a discount coupon, which can be used to purchase a specially prepared barbeque pack at cost price from their local Centra store.

Manager of the children’s clinic Ann Norton said, “Many homes around the county often enjoy having a barbeque on a summer’s afternoon. This year we are asking families and groups to organise a barbeque for Sunday, May 26, with their guests donating to the clinic. Who knows who might arrive at your door?

“The initiative forms part of our continuing season-long relationship with Munster Rugby which has seen players visit the clinic, support with our cook book and the charities match day experience, providing essential funds and greatly boosting our profile.”

The Clare Crusaders charity was formed in 2005 through the ambition of a small group of parents to overcome a lack of publicly available therapy for children with cerebral palsy and autism in County Clare.

The clinic has expanded from one therapist to four full-time and four part-time therapists expanding the range of services provided to over 200 children. Services are provided at no charge to parents and include speech and language therapy, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, special teaching and reflexology together with regular group therapy activities. The clinic is available to children of all ages from infants to young adults, ensuring early intervention at a young age or supporting a child’s progression through school life whether in the mainstream or special school environment.

A TEENAGER who suffered years of horrific neglect hopes her “voice will finally be heard” after the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) last week decided to appeal the leniency of a sentence imposed on her mother.

In February, the 38-year-old woman was given a suspended four-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to eight counts of neglect.

That prompted her eldest daughter to urge the DPP to appeal the sentence handed down by the Circuit Criminal Court.

Last week the DPP signaled its intent to appeal the sentence at the Court of Criminal Appeal.

Clare-based solicitor Patrick Moylan, who was instructed by the 17 year old to write a submission to the DPP, says the girl is happy with the decision.

Mr Moylan says, “She is very pleased that the DPP have taken into account her appeal and that the submission has been successful. She felt she wasn’t heard in the Circuit Court and she hopes now that, in the Court of Criminal Appeal, her voice will finally be heard.”

Last month Mr Moylan sent a letter to the Office of the DPP requesting that the case be appealed to the Court of Criminal Appeal “on the basis that the sentence handed down by Judge Carroll Moran was unduly lenient given the horrific nature of the neglect in this case”.

The appeal also highlighted a previous occasion that the woman had been before the courts.

The woman was initially sentenced to six months in prison but on appeal the presiding Circuit Court Judge gave the woman the benefit of the probation act.

Mr Moylan wrote that the “circumstances of this previous matter should have been brought to Judge Moran’s attention” prior to sentence.

The offences, which relate to seven children, took place on dates unknown between March 2001 and July 2010 in two areas of Clare. The eldest child is now 17 while the youngest child is now 4. The woman cannot be named for legal reasons. Her former partner has also pleaded guilty to eight counts of child neglect.

Harrowing details of the children’s “appalling” upbringing were heard as evidence against the woman was outlined in court in February.

The children often went without food and clean clothes. The court heard how a fridge and freezer in the family home were locked with a bun- gee cord.

In her victim impact statement, the eldest child recalled how she was left to look after her prematurely born baby sister when her parents went out drinking. She stated that she and her siblings were subjected to mental and physical abuse. The girl said she was beaten if the child cried at night. She described the couple as “vermin”.

Reports from HSE and Probation Services expressed the view that alcohol was a contributory factor to the abuse and neglect.

In sentencing Judge Moran said these same reports stressed the opinion that alcohol was not alone responsible.

In light of woman having stayed off alcohol and her guilty plea, Judge Moran said it would not be right to impose an immediate jail term. It could take up to 12 months before the appeal is heard.

THE manager of the St Francis Credit Union in Ennis has warned that financial pressures are driving people into the arms of moneylenders.

Louie Fay says people are being “pushed to extremes” and forced to pay exorbitant borrowing rates.

Mr Fay was speaking last month at a seminar hosted by Citizens Information Centre and Alliance of Social Protection of Recipients.

The event at the Temple Gate hotel highlighted the impact debt is having on Clare households.

Mr Fay said, “For me the push is to push people towards moneylenders. I use the word legal but I would use it with a question mark because I don’t believe there is such a thing as a legal moneylender. For example, € 500 over six months, a person will pay € 150 interest. Whereas if they go up to the Credit Union they pay € 15 interest. And that’s what happening. MABS will verify this. People are being pushed out to extremes.”

He also critcised the lending practices of some banks. Mr Fay said, “I had somebody come in to me lately. This lady had a job and wasn’t earning big money. She was saving € 500 a month. When I looked at her pay packet, I asked her how she could save € 500 a month. She said, “What I do is, I save first and then I live.” I thought that’s pretty serious. She had been saving € 500 for 60 months. That works out at € 30,000 saved over five-year period. She needed to get some work done on her house that was going to cost € 55,000. She went to the bank and said I need to borrow € 25,000 on top of my € 30,000. They took the application. She nev- er thought about this idea that she would be refused. It never crossed her mind. When she went back to pick up the money, she found that the bank had approved € 5,000.” He continued, “I thought about it afterwards, the bank didn’t refuse the loan. They offered her € 5,000. So in the stats that the banks are throwing at us saying they are lending, that (situation) did not come under refusal, it came under the customer not taking the money.” Mr Fay told the seminar that tough new regulations and the consolidation of smaller credit unions would have a big impact on the sector. The meeting heard that lending at St Francis Credit Union has fallen from € 20.3m in 2008 to € 11.8m in 2012. He said, “2013 is probably going to be worse than that. The issue is demand for lending has dropped. People have lost confidence. People are not confident about their jobs, they are not secure in doing what they want to do. Mr Fay said credit unions also had to shoulder some of the burden for fueling a lending market that caused the economy to crash. He said, “We’ve got to put up our hands because we were part of the problem, as credit unions we were part of the problem. We bought into some of that bad lending. Some credit unions did, some credit unions didn’t. We need to learn from what has happened in the last five years.”

THE pressure of household and personal debt is creating major mental health problems for people, a meeting in Ennis has heard.

Denis Corbett, co-ordinator of the Clare Money and Advice Budgeting Service (MABS), said the service is observing first hand the impact debt of having on families and individuals. He said, “I have seen the stresses and strains that indebtedness and the lack of money has on a person’s mental health. We are going to have to start putting resources into this. It is a problem.”

He was speaking last month at a seminar hosted by Citizen Information Centre and Alliance of Social Protection of Recipients.

The event at the Temple Gate hotel highlighted the impact debt is having on Clare households.

Mr Corbett also said that there has to be an emphasis in education on responsible budgeting

He explained, “In MABS we are talking about people drowning in a river of debt and we are there at the very end pulling people out. But somewhere upstream there’s been a hole in the ditch and people have been falling into it. What we need from an educational aspect is to block that hole in the ditch.”

Mr Corbett told the meeting that the profile of people seeking help from MABS has changed drastically over the past 10 years.

He said, “What we saw happening in the last number of years in this country was that it was indeed a financial tsunami that hit us. The thing about being hit with tsunami is that by the time it arrived at our doorstep and hit our homes, it started way back and way out at sea.”

He added, “At the start typically the profile of the person we would see coming into us would be someone with a difficulty with a loan, a credit card or a moneylender. That was the sort of profile of that we were dealing with. That all changed and the next thing we were dealing with people with mortgage problems.”

Mr Corbett said that while new personal insolvency legislation “isn’t ideal, it is a start”.

He added, “At least we have this now. We didn’t have anything like this in Ireland before. I’m hopeful that it will start to provide solutions and make things much clearer because what we need is stability.”

Liam O’Connell, a solicitor now working with MABS, said 10 years ago it was “virtually unheard” of that a person would have their home repossessed.

He added, “In 2007 there was only 50 houses in the entire country repossessed. That went up again in 2008. It went up to 96 properties from the mainstream lenders. Since then we know it’s gotten worse. It’s deteriorated. In the last quarter of 2012 there were 238 cases issued as regards repossessions. There were 178 cases concluded and 11 orders granted. That’s part of the mortgage crisis. It is a very, very significant problem.”

DELAYS in processing social welfare payments are causing major hardship for Clare families, a meeting has heard.

The Clare Citizen’s Advice Centre has said that many people seeking making social welfare claims have to wait up to nine months before receiving payments.

Ann Marie O’Reilly, Advisor for the Citizens Information Centre, was speaking last month at a seminar hosted by Citizen Information Centre and Alliance of Social Protection of Recipients.

The event at the Temple Gate hotel highlighted the impact debt is having on Clare households.

The meeting heard that the centre raised the issue with the Government in a pre-budget submission last year.

Ms O’Reilly said, “Everyone knows the waiting list for all benefits are extensive. There is no quick fix for a benefit. No matter what benefit you go for, you’re going to be waiting. Carers allowance, disability allowance, invalidity pension, you’re talking possibly nine months plus. It’s going to be at least six to eight weeks before you even get a text or a letter stating that. We’ve people coming in after six or eight weeks asking, ‘Will you ring them?’, ‘How long more will it take?’. You just have to wait. The delays in processing benefits are causing major hardship.”

Ms O’Reilly said the majority of queries to the centre in Clare relate to social welfare payments.

She continued, “In 2007 the majority of our queries were social welfare. That was it. In 2010 we had a significant increase in queries about redundancies, constructive dismissal, minimum wage, everything. It was a complete change for us. It’s been changing over the years. The main thing I find in particular in Clare is that it is all social welfare queries at the moment. You might get one or two queries about something else but at the moment it’s social welfare, employment and debt. That seems to be a major factor. We seem to be referring a lot more people to MABS.”

The meeting, chaired by Ennis man Dermot Hayes, also heard from Professor Kathleen Lynch, University College Dublin, and Siobhan O’Donghue, Director of Migrant Rights Centre.

ALLEGATIONS of council corruption led to an hour-long debate, that went round in circles in the council chamber on Friday evening last, and eventually ended up back where it started, albeit with a happier council membership and executive.

Elaborating on his questions into council contractors, how the contracts are awarded and if the contractors are compliant with employment law, Cllr Gerry Flynn (Ind) quoted a paper “Political Corruption is not just about Brown Envelopes” and presented by Frank Flannery at the MacGill Summer School in Donegal last year.

“Among the public there is a belief that corrupt practices are endemic in political life,” said the councillor.

County Manager Tom Coughlan was quick to raise concerns about any accusations of corruption that may be contained in quoting an article that specifically referred to political corruption.

“Are you alleging corrupt practices yes or no please?” he asked the Shannon Councillor.

Cllr Flynn said he was merely quoting from Frank Flannery, adding he carefully worded his motion with council workers and union representatives.

The county manager said that none of the issues had been brought to his attention when he met with the union just “a couple of weeks ago”.

“The chamber is not the place for these issues to be raised,” he added.

In reference to a query as to whether council staff, elected members or members of their immediate family, provide goods or services either directly or indirectly to Clare County Council the manager replied;

“It is a small county. A lot of people are related to a lot of people.

“You cannot expect me to carry out a witch hunt,” adding there was a contingency in place that put the onus on the contractor, employee or council members to reveal any such information.

“If any councillor considers there are any corrupt practices in this council let me know,” he said.

“You may not be aware but your members are aware that not all contractors are compliant,” said Cllr Flynn.

“You say you are aware. Will you give me that information?

“I don’t see how I can do something if I am not given the facts,” replied the county manager.

Cllr Cathal Crowe (FF) told the chamber the issue could not be disbanded with until Cllr Flynn made it clear who he was accusing of corruption, stating a grey cloud now hung over the council.

Different members of the council called on the controversial Shannon councillor to make clear his accusation.

In an attempt to bring an end to the debate, Mayor Cllr Pat Daly (FF) “I do not think anyone is corrupt”, to which Cllr Flynn said “I didn’t say the manager or the executive was corrupt.”

“We take it from that it was the councillors that are corrupt,” said Cllr Patricia McCarthy (Ind).

“She’ll know next year when the elections are on I’ll give her a chance to come back,” retorted Cllr Flynn.

“I am the only female member here to say her is to suggest he is referring to me,” she replied angered.

“Are you corrupt?” said Cllr Flynn.

“Take that back,” Cllr McCarthy replied.

“Not for one minute did I state Cllr McCarthy or the manager is corrupt,” he conceded.

The manager then noted there were now not allegations of corruption at executive level.

Councillors then called on Cllr Flynn to name who he considered corrupt.

“Don’t start the innuendo and walk away from it and leave the mud on the rest of us,” said Cllr Joe Arkins (FG).

Eventually Cllr Flynn conceded somewhat – “not once did I say the council elected members or executive are corrupt. I was speaking in terms of speech from MacGill Summer School.”

This was enough for the council and we all got to go on with our lives – one hour later.

THE issue at the centre of the question over shadowed by allegations of corruption at this month’s adjourned meeting of the county council seemed to centre on a change in method of hiring local authority contractors.

In the public gallery were council workers frustrated at a new IT system that calculated tenders on a point system.

In his motion Cllr Gerry Flynn (Ind) asked the County Manager to provide comprehensive information concerning contractors employed by Clare County Council.

He specifically asked for a list of any of the council staff, elected mem- bers or members of their immediate family, provide goods or services either directly or indirectly to Clare County Council “in the interests of accountability and transparency in Local Government.”

The Shannon Councillor also inquired if contractors were compliant with working conditions set out by the Local Government Advisory Board such as rates of pay, pension fund, sick fund, and revenue.

He also asked for the terms of reference governing senior engineers granting contracts and if the council supplied a list of successful contractors to the trade unions.

Speaking on behalf of the council executive, Senior Executive Officer Corporate Services Michael McNa- mara said the council was not aware of any Contractor or Sub-Contractor that was incompliant with the various statutory requirements.

He also assured the councillor that a list of all successful contractors is forwarded to the unions.

“The Council’s purchasing procedures sets out levels of expenditure which staff at various levels have authority to approve subject to availability of budget.

“It is the responsibility of each approver to ensure compliance with the various statutory requirements,” he continued.

Furthermore Part 15 of the Local Government Act 2001 provides for an Ethical Framework for the Local Government Service ensure that up to 137 employees and elected members complete a declaration of occupation, land ownership, shares, directorships annually and these are available for inspection.

Cllr Oliver Garry (FG) said that in his experience the tendering landscape has changed significantly in the last five years.

“I am a director of a company but I want to make it clear we do not tender for Clare County Council contracts.

“We do tender for other public contracts but not Clare County Council,” he said.

“Anything we tender for now is 100 per cent on price. Once it was on experience, or equipment or the engineer may even have had a say, but now the only concern is price.”

CLARE County Council have declined to conduct an audit of “black spots” in North Clare where illegal parking and encampments are endemic during the summer months.

According to councillors at yesterday’s North Clare Area Meeting of Clare County Council, antisocial behaviour is becoming a serious problem at certain illegal camping site in the Burren area – with the meeting told of a doorway of one home in the Tubber area being used as a toilet by illegal campers.

This follows a joint motion by Joe Arkins (FG) and Michael Kelly (FF), seeking that staking to protect black spot areas from illegal campers this summer.

“These people just want to flout the law. Many of these people are in rented property paid for my rent allowance, they have no need to be homeless, they decide to take to the roads for the summer months,” said Cllr Arkins.

“I think we need to look at possible areas that lend themselves to overnight camping and illegal encamp- ments.

“I think, rather than going to court to move people along, that we should where possible come up with an engineering solution to insure that this problem does not occur in the first place.

“I think an audit should be done – we can no longer have two fingers held up to us.”

Cllr Michael Kelly also called for the National Roads Authority (NRA) to improve the fencing on excess land beside the Gort/Crusheen bypass.

“I think the legislation is far too week.

“We should be getting legislation to insure that this sort of think does not happen,” he said.

“We need the NRA to come up to their responsibility and insure that these areas are fenced off properly.

“I know of a situation of people who were parked in front of our local hurling field [in Tubber] and a person camped illegally walked down into the front of a house of a local woman and he urinated right in on top of the door.”

Responding to the motion, Senior Council Engineer Tom Tiernan, said that discouraging illegal camping on one area will increase it in others.

“There are many areas throughout North Clare which, theoretically, could accommodate authorised parking and encampments and therefore, to ensure that adequate provision is made to prevent authorised overnight encampment would involve considerable expenses and allocation of resources that haven’t been provided for,” he said.

“To cater for some of these areas would result in an increase of vulnerability in respect of areas that may now be regarded as least vulnerable.”

CENTRAL government is being asked to stump up the cash to complete works in over 23 unfinished estates around the county after it was revealed that using money from its own resources could close libraries and lead to a further downgrading of the county’s road network.

The move was made at last Friday’s March meeting of Clare County Council when council officials backed the Revenue Commissioners ruling that only four housing estates in the county be exempt from the new property tax.

Amid calls for Clare County Council to take charge of every unfinished estate in the county and take responsibility for putting upgrading works in place, County Manager Tom Coughlan warned that such a policy would seriously impact on other lo- cal authority services.

“The money has to come for somewhere,” said Mr Coughlan. “The property tax is going to replace the Rates Support Grant. The property tax is going to go towards paying for services that the council is providing at the moment – that’s providing road services, that’s providing libraries, providing open spaces, all the services that the council provides.

“If you decide that the council puts a significant amount of money into unfinished estates, something else is going to have to suffer. The services we provide at the moment cannot be provided. Let me be very clear on that.

“You’ll find yourself in a situation where you’ll be deciding if you put money into roads, or whether you put money into unfinished estates. That’s the bottom line. The money has to come from somewhere, unless the money (for unfinished estates) comes from central government.

“You have a budget of about € 100m – of that the vast bulk is mandatory contractual work where you have no discretion. You have something between € 7 to € 10m where you can decide to spend money. If you decide you are going to spend money on unfinished estates, it comes from other services,” he added.

The County Manager made his comments after independent Shannon electoral area councillor, PJ Ryan called on revenues from the controversial new property tax to be “ring-fenced” for unfinished estates.

“It has to go directly back into those estates to bring them up to an acceptable standard,” said Cllr Ryan. “Our Oireachtas members have to support this, that this property tax isn’t taken off the council budget and is used to develop roads and other facilities around the county like unfinished estates,” he added.

RURAL roads in Clare are in danger of being littered with potholes in what will be the biggest crisis to affect the network around the county in over 30 years, Clare County Council has been warned this week.

A cash-crisis with rural roads has been sounded out following the revelation that the 2013 roadworks programme for the county has been slashed by 42.4 per cent over the past five years.

County Engineer Tom Tiernan outlined the scale of the roads budget reduction across a host of areas in the Roadworks Programme 2013 secured by The Clare People. In the report he has issued a stark warning that “the resources being made available to facilitate maintenance and restoration are falling significantly short of what is required to sustain the county’s network”.

For 2013, € 17.9m has been allocated for road infrastructure in the county – a drop of over € 13m from the figure of € 31.1m in 2008. The biggest decreases are set to be felt in rural roads: down 36.8 percent for restoration improvement; down 40 per cent in the Surface Dressing Programme; down 72 per cent for Specific Improvement Schemes and Overlay Projects down 69.1 per cent.

These figures, which were laid before the monthly meeting of Clare County Council on Friday, has led a number of councillors to voice their concerns about the county’s road network.

“Rural roads are in a horrendous state and roads in the county are crumbling away,” claimed Cllr Cathal Crowe (FF) as he blasted the decision to spend € 1.3m of the council’s resources on the Limerick North Distributor Road, a project he said “that is very fictional and is pie in the sky and one that isn’t happening”.

“The alarm bells are out there – there has to be a readjustment of thinking within this council in relation to investment in county road structures going forward. People in rural Clare deserve a service and their road network has to be protected for many reasons,” said former Mayor of Clare, Cllr Christy Curtin (Ind)

“As far as I’m concerned, for us in rural areas, roads are back on the agenda. In my tenure (since 1979) on the council I’ve never had as many complaints about potholes. As far as I’m concerned we have to address it, we haven’t the manpower at present to do that,” he added.

A decision on whether to adopt the roadworks programme has been deferred until the April meeting of the council.