Category: News

CONCRETE steps must be taken towards the separation of Shannon Airport and the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA), before Christmas, or the airport could face another 12 months in the doldrums.

That is the opinion of Helen Downes, the chief executive officer of the Shannon Chamber of Commerce, who believes that Shannon can be re-born in 2013 – if progress is made quickly.

“This is the critical first step in the reestablishment of Shannon Airport as the economic driver in the region and there is no reason why this shouldn’t happen,” she said.

“We don’t feel that anything should impede or slow down the separation of Shannon from the Dublin Airport Authority. The separation can only be of benefit to this region.

“The whole issue around Shannon Airport and the Shannon Free Zone is complex. We appreciate that the level of complexity involved does slow down the process but we feel that once the airport it split [from the DAA], it will revive the whole region.

“We realise that things take time but we are anxious that something takes place before the end of the year. If one interim board could be put in place before the end of the year to oversee the split.”

According to the Shannon Chamber of Commerce, new legislation which will allow the IDA to operate in the Shannon Free Zone could provide a massive boost for the whole region.

“We have been promised legislation to permit IDA and Enterprise Ireland to operate in the Shannon Free Zone. This legislation is sup- posed to be published before the end of the year,” continued Helen.

“We feel that 2013 could be a very big year for Shannon Airport. The chamber really feels that there are opportunities for Shannon as a standalone entity – and that includes passenger growth and route development as well as things like the international freight hub. These are the opportunities that must be grasped now.

“The ongoing uncertainty with the decline in traffic will have a very negative effect not just on the airport and the employees here, but on the whole region. This is about industry as well as tourism and a newlyformed Shannon Airport has the capacity to turn that around.

“I think we will see a new appetite to get Shannon back on its feet and to promote the whole region once this split has been formalised.”

THE fortunes of Shannon Airport are set to dip even further this year with new figures predicting that 2012 will be the worst year for commercial traffic at the airport since before 1997.

According to figures obtained from the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA), Shannon Airport is already 646 commercial flights behind where it was for this time last year. This represents a 4.35 per cent year-on-year drop when compared to the nine months from January to the end of September 2011.

Should this trend continue through October, November and the end of this year, Shannon Airport’s total number of commercial movement in 2012 will come to just 18,435.

This means that the number of commercial flights using Shannon Airport has halved in just five years. In 2007, the total number of commercial movements at the airport reached an all time high of 35,630. These numbers fell consistently until 2010, when the appeared to bottom out at 18,771 movements and rallied back to 19,275 last year.

These losses at Shannon Airport are in contrast to Dublin Airport, which has shown steady growth in 2012, and Cork where commercial movement have been largely flat or showing a slight year-on-year drop.

The long-awaited separation of Shannon Airport from the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) could move a step closer when Taoiseach Enda Kenny (FG) will be briefed jointly by the chairpeople of the two taskforces set up in June to plot a new direction for Shannon.

John Fitzgerald and Rose Hynes will present to the sub-committee on economic infrastructure on Thursday. This committee, which is chaired by the Taoiseach, also includes the Minister for Finance, Michael Noonan (FG); the Minister for Transport, Leo Varadkar (FG); and Richard Bruton (FG), Minister for Jobs and Innovation. 40,000 35,000 30,000 25,000 20,000

A MAN who drove the wrong way down a busy street in Gort after stealing from a shop in the town has been sentenced to nine months in prison.

Timmy Casey (36), with an address at Bay 10 Clonlong, Southhill, pleaded guilty at Ennis District Court on Wednesday to dangerous driving, having no insurance, no driver’s license and theft at Gort on September 9.

The court heard that Mr Casey entered a clothes shop and removed money from the cash register while the owner was at the rear of the premises.

Inspector Michael Gallagher said that after leaving the shop, the accused drove on the wrong side of Crowe Street to evade gardaí. He said that at one stage, cars had to move onto the footpath to avoid Mr Casey’s car.

The court heard that Mr Casey also crashed into a garda patrol car. Insp Gallagher said the accused was at- tempting to evade gardaí.

Mr Casey, who has 89 previous convictions, also pleaded guilty to stealing a collection box from Teach Bia, Ennistymon on September 15.

The court heard that Mr Casey forced open the front door and stole the charity box containing € 40.

Defence solicitor Ted McCarthy told the court that his client had suffered from a serious addiction to alcohol. He said Mr Casey had committed the offences in “desperation” to get money for alcohol and drugs. “He was never going to get away with it”, Mr McCarthy added. He said Mr Casey is committed to dealing with his addiction issues.

Judge Patrick Durcan noted Mr Casey’s early guilty plea and severe addictions problems. He imposed sentences totalling nine months and fines totalling € 400.

Judge Durcan said the sentences are to run consecutive to the sentence Mr Casey is currently serving. Mr Casey was disqualified from holding a driver’s license for five years.

PROSPECTIVE home owners in East Clare can shelve the idea of buy- ing a small family home and instead pick up an entire housing estate, for just € 400,000. The partially finished estate, which is located less than a five-minute walk from the centre of Killaloe, contains two completely finished show houses, 14 houses which require some work, two in shell condition and nine at the foundation stage. Taken all together, the guide price values the estate at just under € 15,000 per house. But that’s not all, the sale also includes a second 6.3 acre site where planning permission had previously been granted for 50 houses. The entire 10-acre property is being offered to the market jointly by Harry Brann and Savills of Cork. Speaking to The Clare People yesterday, Denis O’Donoghue of Savills said there has been a lot of interest in the site since it came on the market last Wednesday. “The interest levels have been really really high, both locally and from all over Ireland. We haven’t got a serious offer yet but we have a large number of people coming to take a look at the estate over the next two weeks,” he said. “The estate is located right in the village of Killaloe. It is about a twominute walk to the river and you’d would certainly be in the middle of the village after a five-minute walk. This really is a unique opportunity for someone. “The notion of owning an entire housing estate of houses in a location like Killaloe for this price really is something that has captured people’s imaginations.” All development contributions have been paid on the estate and phase one works also have access to mains services, which would facilitate a quick completion for that section of the project.

MORE Travellers live in Ennis than any other town in Munster, while the county capital ranks as third nationally among towns when it comes to being home to members of the Travelling community.

These are just two statistics in the seventh bulletin report from the 2011 National Census of Population entitled ‘Religion, Ethnicity and Irish Travellers – Ethnic and Cultural Background in Ireland’ that presents a profile of the various religions in Ireland along with more detailed results on ethnicity and Irish Travellers.

The report, which was published on Thursday last, shows that there are now 533 Travellers living in Ennis – the highest number of any town in the province and third in Ireland behind Tuam which is home to 669 Travellers and Navan which has a Traveller population of 625.

Irish Traveller households have a significantly lower home ownership rate than the general population with one in five (20.2 per cent) households owning their home compared with 69.7 per cent for the gen- eral population.

The average number of rooms in Irish Traveller households was 4.3, compared with an average of 5.5 rooms for all private households in 2011.

Almost one in three Traveller households (30.3 per cent) with a total of 886 persons who were living in mobile or temporary accommodation had no sewerage facilities in 2011.

As a whole, the county has a Traveller population of 855. A breakdown of these census returns show that there are 203 private households among the county’s Traveller population, while there are 789 permanent housing units and 23 temporary housing units in the county.

The census returns show that there are many ethnic groups living in the county, which is evidence of the way a multicultural society has developed in Clare over the past number of decades.

There are 1, 332 people in the county that the Central Statistics Office have classified as being of an African/Black background, 1, 267 of a Chinese/Asian background, 1,025 of a mixed background and 9, 574 of a non-Irish white background.

THE number of flights coming into Shannon Airport continues to drop, despite a general turnaround in the fortunes of Irish airports. According to new figures released by the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA), an average of just 55 commercial daily flight movements took place at Shannon Airport during the month of Septem- ber. This figure represents a reduction of 7.3 per cent on the same month in 2011. This comes in the context of a mini-revival in the airport sector in Ireland generally in recent months, with both Dublin and Cork airports showing positive figures in the late summer and early autumn. Trends nationally over the last three months have shown a dramatic turnaround, with Dublin Airport largely responsible for this. Indeed, figures for Dublin Airport in September show a 5.5 per cent increase compared to the same month in 2011. Cork Airport has also recorded some gains in recent months, while Shannon Airport has recorded ongoing reductions every month this year. While the IAA figures represent the number of flights coming through Shannon Airport and not the number of passengers, it is not good news for the Clare airport, especially with Knock Airport moving closer to passing it out as Ireland’s third biggest airport. The Mayo airport has opened a number of new routes in recent months, including regular flights to Barcelona, Frankfurt, Milan and Paris. The numbers travelling through Knock Airport grew by more than 10 per cent last year to around 700,000 people. While the exact timetable for the decoupling of Shannon Airport from the Dublin Airport Authority has not been finalised, it is now a possibility that Shannon Airport may begin its time as a standalone airport as Ireland’s fourth most used airport, and not its third.

THE Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton (Lab) was in Ennis on Friday to see the formation of a new organisation that will give a voice to those in receipt of social protection payments.

The Labour Minister even addressed the inaugural meeting of the Alliance of Social Protection Recipients at the Temple Gate Hotel.

The Alliance was formed to give “a voice and a platform to people in Clare who avail of social protection payments and services.”

However, the organisation formed in Clare has ambitions far beyond the county boundaries.

The new Alliance asked the minister to set up consultative groups in each region that will have more than 60 per cent of its membership made up of welfare recipients. Supported by Citizens Information Centres, these groups should meet quarterly and report directly in October to the Minister on their findings, the group maintans.

There are over 10,000 people on the live register in Clare and thousands more on 50 different types of welfare payments across a wide spectrum from children’s allowance to the old age pension.

Dermot Hayes, Chair of the Alliance of Social Protection Recipients, said that many of the rates have been cut in the last four years for vari- ous reasons or the rules have been changed for qualification.

“Welfare recipients have come under a harsh spot light in the last few years. One of the solutions to the big crisis proposed by various wellheeled pundits in the media is that the state pays far too much in welfare,” he said.

As an example, he referred to the former head of the University of Limerick Dr Edward Walsh whose various radio interviews suggest that welfare in Ireland is too generous. “Dr Walsh should remember that his retirement salary is generous and supported by the tax payer,” added Dermot Hayes.

“Fuel and food increases of 7 per cent are causing great hardship and should be a stark warming to Government. We will have to re-examine the tax shelters that have developed over the last 15 years that allow the very wealthy to pay only nominal tax while enjoying the fruits of government spending on roads, water and other services,” he said.

AS MANY as 500 jobs could be created off the North Clare coast over the next 12 months through the construction of Ireland largest ever organic fish farm.

The farm, which will located around five miles north/west of Doolin, is being put forward by the Irish Fisheries Board, Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM), who are currently aiming to begin spawning at the farm in the Autumn of next year.

According to BIM, the project will create 350 jobs directly through the operation and maintenance of the farm and a further 150 jobs through support industries locally. BIM are about to open a period of public consultation in relation to the development and will send a final application for a licence to government after that.

“This is a very real project and something that we are hoping to be able to put in place quite soon,” said Donal Maguire, Head of the Aquaculture Development Division at BIM.

“We would expect that the benefits of this project would be felt from Doolin north, all the way up the Clare coast.

“This is a very exciting project for fisheries in Clare and indeed for the whole West of Ireland.”

Ahead of the opening of public consultation, some opposition to the project has already been voiced – both in North Clare and the Aran Islands.

One North Clare fisherman, who asked not to be identified, said that there were fears that the fish farm could cause pollution and impact on the existing fishing in the area.

CARERS in Clare continue to face obstacles when applying for carers allowance, and that is before any budget has announced.

In the last number of weeks, one carer reported that when she applied for the € 204 carers allowance to look after her mother at home, she was refused. Instead, she was offered a € 730 nursing home subvention.

Asked if this flies in the face of Government policy, Minister for Social Protection, Joan Burton said that the process is in a transitional phase.

“We are spending a lot more money on carers and we are giving carers allowance to a lot more people, including the half-way carers allowance, so we have managed to ringfence the budget to increase the number of people receiving it. That is in recognition…of the job the carers do and how vital that is, not just for the person they are caring for but indeed for the whole community,” she said.

“We have been changing the IT systems in the department in relation to all the applications for things like car ers, disability and domiciliary care allowance. And, basically, what we are doing is developing better and faster IT systems. While we are doing that, we have to have the old system and the new system running parallel so there have been some delays but certainly we are now getting into the backlog. The time it is taking has come down significantly. The fresher applications have not been facing anything like that,” she told The Clare People .

The National Carers Strategy, published earlier this year, promised to recognise, empower and support family carers. However, the Carers Association said Ireland’s 187,000 family carers are now facing cuts to home help hours, home care packages and vital support services.

In the 2006 census, 4,507 carers were recorded in Clare. Six years on, the number is likely to be significantly higher. According to the Carers Association, many people don’t recognise themselves as carers when it comes to the census as they believe they are “just looking after a family member”.

“We are calling on Government to stop praising carers with words, while punishing them with cuts. It’s time to turn rhetoric into reality,” said Catherine Cox, spokesperson for The Carers Association.

“Carers across the country are very fearful of what this budget will bring, with further threats of cuts to household benefits packages, free travel for carers and services for young adults with disabilities on reaching 18. All of these, against a backdrop of suspension of housing adaptation grants and increases in the costs of care in the home, are pushing many carers over the edge,” she said.

TWO FEUDING Ennis families are giving the county town a bad reputation it does not deserve according to Clare’s senior member of An Garda siochana.

At Monday night’s meeting of the joint policing committeee in Kildysart Chief Supt John Kerins described as ‘appalling’ disturbances by feuding families in the town within the last forthnight but said the gardai were determined to get on top of the issue.

To date eight people have been arrested in connection to incidents at the Maid of Erin roundabout last Sunday night week during which a garda was injured.

The Chief Supt said that more arrests would be made in the coming weeks in connection to anti-social behaviour outside the Cathedral in Ennis following a recent wedding.

Crime statistics for the county so far this year show that most crimes figures are remaining steady or decreasing with the exception of weapons and explosive offences which had increased by 32 per cent.

This figure is in the main due to the Traveller fueds according to the Chief Superintendent.

Mayor of Clare Pat Daly told the same meeting these poeple have to be stopped:

“They are gurriers. I don’t the law is strong enough, I think it is time to get them out of the town of Ennis and locked up forever,” he said.

The garda chief agreed that the incidents reflect poorly on Ennis’s reputation despite the statistics proving otherwise:

“This gives the town a bad reputation it does not deserve.

“The statistics show that it is one of the most peaceful towns of its size in Ireland,” he told the public meeting.

Cllr Joe Cooney relayed how a person moved to Ennis from East Clare and bought a house.

Due to anti-social behaviour on the housing estate that person was forced to move back to East Clare, rent a house and continue to pay a mortage for a house he could no longer live in.

“ It is not good enough,” he said.

Chief Super Kerins assured Cllr Cooney that gardai would be issuing asbos (anti-social behavioural orders) to the culprits in the coming weeks and the issue would be brought before the courts.

He explained however that it was difficult for the gardai to deal with the issue as they cannot lawfully enter a private house unless a crime is being committed.