Category: News

THERE have been calls for land at Drumcliff and Ballyalla to be setaside for the purposes of developing a sporting and recreational hub in Ennis.

Clare County Council has also been urged to ringfence any proceeds from the sale of 98 acres of land at Drumcliff for reinvestment in the same area. The council announced that it is to put land in the area up for auction.

The proposal has been put forward by three Ennis councillors, Tony Mulqueen (FG), Johnny Flynn (FG) and Pat Daly (FF).

Their proposal is due to be discussed at the June meeting of Clare County Council.

The motion states, “In light of the innovative use of this council’s resources such as land, development levies etc by Clare County Council to enable recent proposed sport facility development initiatives in association private and voluntary groups in Killaloe and at Doora; that a similar approach be adopted with regard council owned lands at Drumcliff and Ballyalla Lake. These lands and lake are in a central location with over 50 per cent of the Clare’s population living within a 30 minutes drive time and which enjoys nearby high quality access to the national motorway system.”

The statement continues, “That Clare County Council ringfence the proceeds from the upcoming sale of 98 acres of council land at Drumcliff for reinvestment in that same area and into the local economy by its utilisation to create a new public private community/voluntary ‘Drumcliff and Ballyalla Sports, Recreational and Environment Hub’ (including pitches, watersports, motorhome park, walks, cycling, biodiversity awareness, etc) which would be complimentary to existing facilities at Lees Road. Strategic use of the land sale proceeds in addition to other resources such as; other adjoining council lands, other sports/community organisation lands/funds, sports capital grants, Leader funding, etc could lead to such a development becoming a major tourist attraction resulting in increased utilisation of other existing facilities within short distance of hub.”

There have also been calls for Ennis Town Council to seek funding to improve facilities at Lees Road and Tim Smyth Park.

In a motion due to be discussed at today’s meeting of Ennis Town Council, Cllr Johnny Flynn states, “The phenomenal growth in use by the public of the sports and recreation facilities at Tim Smythe Park and Lees Road indicates the social and medical benefits of such investments made by Ennis Town Council. The council should continue to add to such facilities by providing such as a MUGA (multi use games area) and improved lighting and surfaces in Tim Smythe Park; adult exercise equipment, general athletic equipment and mountain bike trails in Lees Road.”

Ennis Town Council had previously sought funding through the Sports Capital Grant programme to install new dressing rooms and MUGA. However the application was turned down by the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport.

THERE have been calls for a system to be put in place to allow for weekly battery checks of difibrillators to be installed in Ennis.

Four defibrillators have already been purchased for Ennis following a well-supported fundraising drive.

The Ennis Defibrillator Committee are now seeking to make Ennis the town with the most people trained in the use of defibrillators.

It was launched last February after the issue of defibrillator cover in the town raised at a meeting of Ennis Town Council.

In response to a motion tabled by Labour councillor Paul O’Shea, the Health Services Executive informed the council that defibrillators were available in three locations – Clare County Council, Ennis Leisure Centre and Lees Road.

That sparked calls for the life saving equipment to be made available on the 24/7 basis in the town cen- tre.

Each defibrillator costs € 2,300 and the committee have raised enough money to purchase four units. These units will be positioned at key locations throughout Ennis in the coming weeks.

The campaign has also been backed by the Clare Area Red Cross, who are now providing training in defibrillator use.

The Red Cross has already provided training to 20 community groups and over 400 people in the use of defibrillators.

The Chairman of the Ennis Defibrillator Committee, Cllr Paul O’Shea (Lab) has now called on Ennis Town Council to provide staff to carry out battery checks on a weekly basis.

In a motion submitted to today’s meeting of Ennis Town Council, Cllr O’Shea states, “That Ennis Town Council provide personnel to undertake a weekly battery check on public defibrillators that are to be installed throughout the town.”

EMERGENCY services “pulled out all the stops” to rescue a family who became trapped on Rine Island, just off Ballyvaughan, on Sunday afternoon.

A 10-year-old, three teenagers and their father all became trapped on the island when the tide came in behind them on Sunday afternoon. The island, which is located between Ballyvaughan and Gleninagh, is accessible when the tide is out but becomes completely sea-locked at high tide.

The alarm was raised when the father, understood not to be local, swam ashore and alerted the emergency services. The Shannon-based Irish Coastguard helicopter was scrambled to the scene just after 4pm with the Galway RNLI Lifeboat – which was in the area conducting a training exercise – also in attendance.

The rescue helicopter lowered a crew-member onto the island who stayed with the four youngsters un til they were rescued. Two members of the lifeboat crew waded onto the island and transferred the four chil- dren to the lifeboat.

They were brought ashore to the Quay in Ballyvaughan where two of the four children were treated for hypothermia by paramedics.

“Both rescue services pulled out all the stops and were on the scene within minutes to divert what could have been a tragedy,” said Mike Swan, Galway Lifeboat operations manager.

According to Matty Shannon of the Doolin Unit of the Irish Coastguard, there are many islands in the area where people can become trapped if the tides change.

He urged everyone using the sea to be vigiliant, especially in relation to the rising tides.

“There are a lot of islands like this in the area and people do need to be aware. Thankfully, this wasn’t a very serious incident and everyone was saved without any major injury but people should always be aware of the dangers that the sea and the tides can pose,” he said.

“The sea was quite calm yesterday when this happened and they were lucky as the Galway RNLI lifeboat happened to be in the area and was able to reach them very quickly.”

A TOTAL of 2,863 teenagers from across the county will begin the main part of their state exams tomorrow (Wednesday).

Despite having language orals and some projects already out of the way, the majority of students will sit their first written exam at 9.30am in the morning when they face into English paper one.

As many as 1,278 Clare students are registered to sit the Leaving Certificate this month, with slightly more girls than boys heading to the exam halls.

648 girls will undertake this state exam compared to 630 boys.

The number of students undertaking the Leaving Cert exam in Clare this year is down on last year. In 2011, 1,444 Clare students completed the exam.

As many as 88 Clare students have already completed the majority of the Leaving Cert Applied course, with the gender spilt evenly between 44 girls and 44 boys.

And while these older students will undertake one of the most important exams in their lives, 1,497 students are likely to be just as nervous as they sit their first ever-state exam.

Unlike the Leaving Cert there are more males than females sitting this exam, with 769 boys registered to do the Junior Cert compared to 728 girls.For the 2012 examination, 53,789 candidates are entered for the Leaving Certificate examination nationally, 3,301 candidates for the final year examinations in the Leaving Certificate Applied and 59,684 candidates for the Junior Certificate examination.

While the Leaving and Junior Certificates traditionally brought a spurt of good weather, this week students will be looking out at rain as they sit exams, with the first three days of the exams in particular promised exceptionally wet.

THE Mid Western Hospital group had exceeded its budget by as much as 13 per cent at the end of March, while € 30 million goes uncollected from health insurers.

Ennis and Nenagh general hospitals were breaking even during the first quarter of this year, however the Mid West Maternity Hospital and the Mid Western Regional Hospital Limerick was surpassing all budget alloca- tions, having overspent by € 6,869. This is the largest deficit among hospital groups in the HSE West.

Meanwhile as much as € 20 million has not been collected from health insurance companies due to consultants lack of paper work in the HSE West, with a further delay in the payment of another € 10 million.

Liam Minihan, Assistant National Director of Finance HSE West, said it takes the HSE 145 days to collect its income from these companies. He added that a private company would not survive this practice.

“Insurance companies have slowed down paying us. € 20 million is also waiting for consultant signatures so that it can be processed,” he said.

Mr Minihan explained that the biggest drain on the HSE’s budget was the nursing home Fair Deal programme. The HSE’s nursing homes must have more than 95 per cent occupancy to receive payment from the Government. In total the HSE West was € 26.3 million over budget by the end of March, with the hospital budget over by € 20.4 million and the community sector bursting its budget by € 5.5 million.

The 361 retirees from the HSE West will save the health service € 34 million this year, and travel costs are down by € 300,000 according to the financial expert, with a further € 3 million saved by cutting the agency nurses bill from € 9 million to € 6 million.

Hospitals are already implementing seasonal closing in a bid to cut their spending but a cut to the overall budget at the beginning of the year has put them under serious financial pressure.

Bill Maher, CEO Galway Roscommon Hospital Group, said, “Year on year spending has been reduced, and there was a significant reduction in our allocation this year.

“The money follow patient system has been mentioned for the last five years and that it is always around the corner,” he said adding that such a scheme would make it easier for hospitals to break even.

LIVES could be lost on Lahinch beach as a result of new parking bylaws which will force all the town’s surf school to trade in one area of the promenade. That is the opinion of surf school operator Ben Bennett, who believes that the schools provide the first line of defense for people who get into difficulty while in the water at Lahinch.

Mr Bennett, who operates Ben’s Surf Clinic in Lahinch, was responding to the introduction of the new bylaws which he says will not fix any of the difficulties experienced by beach users at Lahinch.

The bylaws force the surf school to operate and to enter the beach at the northern end of the Lahinch Promenade. They were put in place after a number of complaints were made by members of the public about overcrowding at the beach.

“There seems to be a confusion between surfers and surf schools,” said Ben.

“None of the surf schools allow the surfers into the swimming zone but it is the inexperienced surfers that do drift in there. The surf schools are getting blamed for what the surfers are doing.

“Surfing is keeping Lahinch alive all winter long. It is not just a summer thing – the car park will be filled with surfers in the middle of the winter and all of them will be paying parking fees to Clare County Council – we are getting a really bad rap here.”

According to Ben, the surf school also provide a year round safety net for people using the beach at Lahinch.

“I personally rescue about seven to eight people a year at Lahinch because I am on the beach all the time. I would imagine that every other surf instructor would do something similar,” continued Ben.

“The council are putting us at the furthest point possible from the beach. We can’t see the beach. I am located at the first ramp down and from there I can see the beach and advise the people who are there about the tides and the currents.

“There will definitely be more accidents and more incidents due to the fact that surf schools are being placed at the back of the prom. I think the safety issues are very serious and I believe that some day, someone is going to be stretchered off very badly injured just as a result of moving the surf schools back. Someone is unfortunately going to drown.”

FIANNA Fáil Director of Elections took the treaty campaign to his home county this week supported by party leader Michéal Martin.

Deputy Timmy Dooley walked the street of Ennis on one of the sunniest days of the year campaigning for a yes vote at Thursday’s Stability Referendum.

Deputy Martin was still confident that the treaty would be passed as he met the public.

“People are very concerned at the moment about the future of the country about their own futures as families, individuals, mothers are very concerned about prospects for their children, so they are looking at everything through that prism. Many people’s lives have been changed as a result of this recession which is the worst since the 20s,” he said.

“Up to last week or so there were more definite yeses than nos because people see it as a step that is safer than no, because they are not sure where no leads you to, and because of the crisis there is a fear about go ing down that road.

“On balance they feel that yes is a better than option than no,” he told The Clare People .

Asked if the shadow of Éamonn Ó Cuiv still hung over the party’s campaign he said, “I think Éamonn’s position is well known it has been well articulated on a number of occasions and I suppose that brought a degree of authenticity to the debate.”

He was also in the unusual position of campaigning with the Government as an opposition party leader.

“I think people do appreciate the fact that as an opposition party we are not playing games with the treaty. We are not trying to undermine the Government through the treaty. We have taken up the fact that we are taking an honest broker approach on the issue,” he said.

“I suppose there is less pressure in some respects in the terms of the nature of the campaign. What we have found is that there has been plenty of engagement.”

Through that engagement on the streets of Ennis he said, “The big lie from the beginning of the campaign has been labelling this treaty as the austerity treaty because the actual reality is that the rules contained in the treaty are there anyway under the stability and growth pact and the regulations the Government agreed to last year.

“Our reasoning is that actually if you vote for the treaty then you are giving yourself as a country a better chance to access money at a cheaper rate over the year.

If you vote no you could end up with more cut faster because you are not sure where you are going to get your money from and at what cost,” he said.

WITH just two years until the local elections, Fianna Fáil leader Michéal Martin believes his party in still strong in Clare.

Traditionally a Fianna Fáil stronghold the party’s vote in Clare fell by 32 per cent during the last local election in 2009, while it was reduced to just one Dáil seat after the General Election in 2011.

As Fianna Fáil had no candidate in the Presidential election last November, the leader of the party made his first canvass of Clare on Friday last as he campaigned for a yes vote in the Stability Treaty.

During his visit he said, “I am under no illusion as to where people are. People are very, very upset with the turn of events.”

“I don’t expect transformation in attitude overnight so what we have to do as a party is renew and regain trust for people by honest politics, by changing the way we behave and the way we act as politicians. That is a big challenge for us and that is what we have to do. And actions speak louder than words and in many ways our stance on the treaty reflects that.

“Over time we will regain trust but also we want to bring new people into the party and younger people into the party in addition to what we have already. And what I have detected around the country is that people are offering themselves. We are witnessing people who are coming forward who want to stand and who want to contest the local election. That is encouraging and that is very reassuring and we need more women and we need more younger people and that is the key.”

“We have already appointed area representatives in areas we don’t have councillors and these people are already beavering away meeting with local organisations and community groups and working on the ground,” he said.

A SLOVAKIAN mother of two described in court as a “menace to the town” has received a two month prison sentence after being convicted of possessing stolen property in Ennis.

Eva Makulova (31), with an address at 3 Hazelwood, Clon Road, Ennis, pleaded guilty to three charges of theft and one charge of possessing stolen property at locations in Ennis over a 16-day period earlier this year.

Details of the charges against Ms Makulova were heard at Ennis District Court on Tuesday.

The court heard that Ms Makulova stole € 108 worth of children’s clothes from Dunnes Stores on Feb- ruary 17; perfume worth € 52 from Boots Chemist, on February 24 and perfume worth € 56 from Boots Chemist on February 25.

Ms Makulova, who has no previous convictions, also pleaded guilty to possessing stolen property valued at 412 euros at Lower Market Street, Ennis on March 3, knowing the property was stolen or being reckless as to whether it was stolen.

Inspector Tom Kennedy told the court that the perfume found in the accused’s possession had been taken from Rochford’s Pharmacy, Ennis on February 29. The items were recovered and are re-saleable, he said.

Solicitor Tara Godfrey said Ms Makulova had stolen from Dunnes because she did not have money to buy clothes for her children. She said the clothes were recovered.

Ms Godfrey said her client, who is unemployed, had not been in receipt of social welfare at the time and had struggled to provide for her children. Ms Godfrey said the offences had occurred at a time when Ms Makulova’s husband was in prison.

She said her client had been compelled to steal out of a “victorian necessity” arising from “these hard times we live in.”

Insp Kennedy said he rejected Ms Godfrey’s depiction of Ms Makulova’s personal circumstances.

He said he disagreed that she was in “dire needs” and that no evidence of the unavailability of social welfare had been brought to court.

He said Ms Makulova had stolen “high value” goods.

He added, “I’m saying Ms Makulova is a thief and menace to this town.” Judge Patrick Durcan said he had to balance these “serious offences of a larcenous nature” with Ms Makulova’s guilty plea, good record and personal circumstances.

He applied the probation act in respect of the theft from Dunnes Store. Judge Durcan imposed separate fines of € 100 and € 200 in respect of the thefts from Boots. Recognances were fixed in the event of an appeal in both fines.

A two-month prison sentence was imposed for possessing of stolen property. Recogances were fixed in the event of an appeal.

THREE members of the same family accused of smashing windows in a house as five children slept on New Year’s morning have had the charges against them dismissed.

It had been alleged that Rosie Molloy Snr (39) and her two children Michael Molloy (19) and Laura Molloy (21) caused € 475 worth of damage to the home of Thomas Sherlock and Mary Maughan at 36 Westbourne Court, Watery Road, Ennis in the early hours of New Year’s Day this year.

Rosie Molloy and Michael Molloy, both with addresses at Bay 2 Ballaghboy Halting Site, Quin Road, Ennis and Laura Molloy, with an address at 21 An Pairc Bruach na hAbhainn, denied the charges of criminal damage.

The case was heard at Ennis District Court on Tuesday.

Mary Maughan told the court that she woke up to the sound of the Molloys “roaring abuse.”

She claimed that she saw the three accused standing outside the house. Ms Maughan said a silver Polo car owned by Laura Molloy was also outside the house.

Ms Maughan said by the time she and her partner, Tom Sherlock, got dressed, all the downstairs windows were broken.

She said, “The five kids in the house were screaming and crying. The kids were in an awful state.”

Solicitor for the Molloys, Daragh Hassett said it was an unusual reaction for someone to put their clothes on as the windows of their home were allegedly being smashed.

Ms Maughan told the court that she and Thomas Sherlock had been out for a few drinks in Ennis on the night.

Ms Maughan claimed that bottles were also thrown at the house.

Thomas Sherlock said he woke at around 4.30am to a lot of “shouting and roaring” outside the house.

He said he couldn’t remember how many bottles were allegedly thrown at the house but that he cleaned them up in the morning.

The court also heard details of an alleged altercation between Mary Maughan, Thomas Sherlock and Laura Molloy outside a pub in Ennis on New Year’s Eve.

Garda Bríd Troy, who attended the scene on the night, told the court that no independent witnesses came forward to make a statement.

Garda Kelly Doolan said that all the downstairs windows had been broken but that no bottles were found at the scene.

Rosie Molloy Snr said she had been at home all night babysitting. Laura Molloy said she had been out in Ennis on the night before returning home.

Michael Molloy said he was out for a drink in Kilmihil before going to the Queens nightclub.

All three said they were “nowhere near” Westbourne Court on the night.

Mr Hassett said there were “clear inconsistencies” in the evidence provided by the two complainants.

He said no independent evidence had been provided to support the claims of the complainants.

Judge Patrick Durcan said this was “curious case” in which the accused “absolutely denied” the charges against them.

He said there was an “absolute conflict in the evidence” provided by both sides.

He said, “There is a very slight doubt and as such, I dismiss the charges against Michael Molloy, Laura Molloy and Rosie Molloy.”

Judge Durcan also made an order binding all five parties – Thomas Sherlock, Mary Maughan, Rosie Molloy Snr, Laura Molloy and Michael Molloy – to keep the peace for a period of 12 months.