Category: News

A SCHEME that has been credited with helping to reduce speed on roads around Ennis should be extended to other parts of the town.

That’s according to Councillor Tony Mulqueen (FG) who says solar powered signs are already have a positive impact on driver behaviour.

In a motion submitted to a meeting of councillors in the Ennis East Electoral Area, Cllr Mulqueen stated, “I call on the area engineer to put in place more of those new solar powered electronic signs in the Ennis west area as they are proving very helpful to road users and making them aware of speed zones.”

In his response, Eamon O’Dea, Senior Executive Engineer, stated, “Ennis Town Council provided four digital speed signs on the Tulla Road as part of their 2011 roadworks programme.

“Provision has been made in the Ennis Town Council Roadworks programme for the provision of two further digital speed signs on Cusack Road.”

Electronic displays that show the speed of passing cars have already been installed on the Tulla Road by Ennis Town Council for road design purposes and the recording of traffic flow data.

The council is providing four 50/ kph activated electronic speed display signs on the Tulla Road at locations outbound after Tulla Road and Railway Bridge and Roslevan roundabout and inbound near Hill- crest and Cappahard Lane as a pilot scheme.

Through the scheme, the council will be able to download traffic flow data from the signs and this information can be used for road design purposes and data will be forwarded to the Garda traffic corps.

It is not the first time solar power has been put forward to help road safety on roads in Clare.

Last year independent councillor James Breen made the request for a public solar powered streetlight at Kilnamona Cross.

Cllr Breen said at the time that solar street lighting could be piloted in Kilnamona and, if successful, introduced around Clare.

He said the local community would be willing to cover 50 per cent of the cost of the project.

THE Sinn Féin drive to energize the party in rural counties came to Clare last week as party leader Gerry Adams visited Ennis.

The party leader visited a number of locations in the county town last Thursday as part of the party’s rural Ireland consultation process.

“The first phase is to listen, and we will be doing that all over the summer. We believe that rural Ireland in particular has been devastated in recent years – by unemployment, by emigration,” said Deputy Adams.

“A lot of these charges, like the septic tank charge, are a full frontal attack on rural dwellers. If you live in the city, if you are part of a system you are okay, but if you live in a rural area you are not.

“But we thought that the first phase of this should be a listening phase. Whether it is small school, people who have had a Garda station closed down or people who have seen the cost of public transport go up. But particularly people who have the imagination to create jobs – they should be supported.

“An example of this is two brothers who we met just now over at Ennis Mart, who could not get the money they needed to start their business and employ people.”

Sinn Féin will continue its rural Ireland consultation process until the end of the summer and they will produce a document on their finding later this year.

MORE than 70 soccer players and officials from Newry and Mourne will travel to Ennis this weekend to participate in a series of matches being held as part of County Clare’s district’s twinning arrangement with the Northern Ireland district.

Mayor of Clare Councillor Pat Hayes will welcome the travelling party at a function in the Clare Inn Hotel on Friday evening ahead of a number of soccer games in Ennis at the weekend. The initiative is being held under the auspices of the Clare County Council Sports Exchange Programme.

Lees Road Sports and Amenity Park will be the venue for U11 and U12 nine-a-side round robin tournaments on Saturday from 10am to 12:30pm. Children from the Clare Schoolboys/girls Soccer League Emerging Talent Programme will take on children from the equivalent player development programme in Newry and Mourne.

Another tournament will take place at the astroturf facility in Lees Road on Sunday from 10 to 11.20am when teams will comprise of a combination of players from Newry and Mourne and Clare.

Lees Road also will host a senior challenge match between Clare Premier Division side Hermitage FC and Bessbrook United FC from the Carnbane (Newry and Mourne) Football League on Saturday at 10.30am, while a Special Olympics five-a-side tournament will be held from 10 to 11.30am.

According to Denis Hynes, FAI Development Officer in County Clare, “We very much welcome this opportunity to meet up with players and officials from Newry and Mourne and indeed, the Irish Football Association (IFA). This weekend’s games not only celebrate the long standing relationship between Newry and Mourne and Clare but also represent a good opportunity to compare the standard of our underage players with that of their Northern Ireland opponents.”

The FAI’s Emerging Talent Programme was launched in November 2006 and on a phased basis since that time has now developed into a national programme.

GRAFFITI artists in Ennis could have a wall to call their own if plans put forward by a local councillor get the go-ahead.

At yesterday’s meeting of Clare County Council, Councillor James Breen (Ind) renewed his calls for a graffiti wall to be developed in Ennis.

Cllr Breen, who first proposed the wall last January, told the meeting that graffiti can be a healthy form of therapy for young people.

He said that while he is no expert in the matter, some graffiti could be a “beautiful thing”.

He said that by developing a dedi cated facility for graffiti in Ennis, young people wouldn’t have to be worried about being “hunted away” from other locations.

Cllr Gerry Flynn (Ind) proposed that primary and secondary school make walls available for graffiti.

He said, “We’ve actually left some of the graffiti in place (in Shannon) because it is of such a high standard.”

Cllr Cathal Crowe said it had been shown that there are therapeutic benefits to be derived from graffiti. He said a graffiti wall would help alleviate distasteful graffiti in other parts of Ennis. Cllr Breen told the meeting that he wasn’t trying to foist a graffiti wall on communities in Ennis.

He added, “I think Lees Road would be a good facility for a graffiti wall.”

The Director of Services, Gerard Dollard, stated that Lees Road had previously been forward as a location for the wall.

He explained, “The Management Committee of the Lees Road facil ity was subsequently requested to consider the provision of a graffiti wall. The matter was discussed at a meeting of Ennis Town Council’s Leisure Facilities Committee. It was agreed by the committee that the matter would be reconsidered in 12 months.”

The proposal was due to be discussed at yesterday’s committee meeting.

“It should be noted that no funding source has been identified for such a project and, in the event that the provision of such a facility was considered more appropriate for the Lees Road facility, such a funding source would have to be identified. The proposer of the motion may wish to suggest other possible locations that could be considered if a funding source was available,” he said.

SURF school operators in Lahinch will be confined to a single area on the northernmost end of the Lahinch promenade, when new beach byelaws come into effect on July 1. The new bye-laws, which were passed into law by the Clare County Council last week, will provide ten car-park spaces, two for each surf school, where trading can now take place. The surfers will now also be encouraged to enter the water using the northern steps, in an effort to segregate surfers from walkers and other beach users. Over the last ten year surfing has become a key part of the summertime trade in Lahinch – with hundreds of people surfing or learning to surf on the beach each day. The Lahinch prom now supports five official surf schools who help attract a large number of tourists to the county each year. “We have received a massive number of complaints from people who walk and swim at the beach. People can’t park, they can’t walk the prom because there are wet-suits everywhere and the surfers are there waxing their boards,” said Lahinch Cllr Bill Slattery (FG). “I think the surfers are getting a good deal out of this. They have been breaking the bye-laws by trading there up until now and this will give them a legal right to trade on the prom.” Just one submission was made when the draft bye-laws went on display last month. Local man, Liam Grant, suggested that the close proximity of the surf school would create tension between the businesses, that one of the surf schools would be given a “prime” location on the prom, that the need of surfers were not being listened to and that tighter regulations for the surf schools, in the same regulations, would be preferable to moving the school. The council took one of these suggestions on board and the slot allocated the surf schools will be rotated year-on-year, to ensure that no school is given the prime location.

CLARE County Council is to write to the Department of the Environment seeking legislation to be introduced to ban posters from certain areas of towns and village – with separate poster zones being created instead.

This follows a motion put forward by Cllr Paul Murphy (FG) at last night’s meeting of Clare County Council which called for a permit system to be introduced which would require each election candidate or political party to notify Clare County Council of the number of locations of all posters erected in Clare.

“One important angle is safety – there is a serious health an safety question for people putting up and taking down posters. They are also distractions for people looking at them [the posters] when driving on our road,” said Cllr Murphy.

“I am not looking for a total ban, I think posters are a useful things – especially for young voters. I believe that they do serve a purpose for younger candidates whose faces might not be that well known.”

The motion received support from all the candidates present, including a number of councillors who reported having their posters stolen during an election, only for them to reemerge in another part of the county once the vote is complete.

“I have always been an advocate of the central locations for posters,” said Cllr Patricia McCarthy (Ind).

“We all know that posters do disappear in some areas – a poster might disappear and may not reappear for a year or more and they have been used for some other purpose in the mean time.”

Cllr Joe Arkins (FG) also reported some of his posters appearing in private residences around the county.

“In my area they take them down the day after you put them up. People take them down and then put them up again after the election,” he said.

“It is very hard to keep track of all your posters between the wind and these individuals who seem to think that these posters would make a nice additions to their own house.”

Cllr PJ Kelly called for a total ban on all election posters – saying they he had never had to use them to get elected.

THE Burke’s group of hotels are now the largest employers in the North Clare area following the announcement that they will create 15 new full-time positions with the reopening of the Tír Gan Éan House Hotel in Doolin.

This brings to 125 the number of full-time people employed by the group – between the Armada Hotel, Hotel Doolin and Tír Gan Éan – surpassing the 120 currently employed by Data Display in Ennistymon. A further 65 seasonal jobs will be also be generated at the three hotels between now and the end of October. Tír Gan Éan, which is located beside Hotel Doolin, was closed last year, by another hotel operator.

Managing director of the Armada Hotel and Hotel Doolin, John Burke, said that the new jobs were made possible, in part, because of the nine per cent VAT rate on tourism operators.

“The fact that the lower VAT rate of nine per cent for the tourism in- dustry will continue into 2013 is good news not only for the Irish tourism and hospitality sector, but also for consumers as the cost of accommodation can be maintained at extremely competitive rates,” he said.

“The decision to acquire Tír Gan Éan is key to our strategy of providing quality accommodation at an affordable rate. It will be marketed at overseas visitors, as well as the rapidly growing domestic market,” added Mr Burke.

General manager of Tír Gan Éan House Hotel and the award-winning Hotel Doolin, Donal Minihane said the hotel will offer ‘a boutique guesthouse experience’ complete with its own in-house bakery.

“Doolin very much remains the jewel in the crown of north Clare tourism. Its scenic location close to the Burren and on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean, as well as its affiliation with the Irish Traditional Music scene has meant that the village has continued to attract visitors, despite the downturn in the global economy,” he said.

JUST under € 1.8 million has been collected so far in Clare via the household charge, new figures from Clare County Council show.

The information was given in response to a notice of motiwon from Labour councillor Pascal Fitzgerald requesting a breakdown on the total amount collected in the county to date.

In his reply Niall Barrett, Head of Finance, stated that the latest information from the Household Charge Bureau that there were 17,819 household registrations processed for payment as at 9am on Tuesday, April 24. This corresponds to the sum collected for the county to date.

He continued, “Nationally there are an estimated 220,500 household charge declarations which have been made through the post and over the counter in local authority offices that are being processed by the Household Charge Bureau.

“The County Clare portion of the unprocessed declarations is not included in the above figure as the county/city breakdown is not yet available in the figure.

“In addition, 15,159 declarations nationally have been received by the household charge bureau where a waiver from payment of the house- hold charge is claimed and these declarations are not included in the figure.”

He added, “This gives a total number of 921,101 household charge declarations made nationally.

“The amount collected for Clare will increase as applications on hand are processed by the Bureau.”

Cllr Fitzgerald asked if householders living in unfinished housing estates who have paid the household charge could be provided with services by Clare County Council?

He also asked the council to clarify their position for the residents in these estates.

Mr Barrett stated that there are no proposals at the present time to change established arrangements for the provision of services to estates in the county.

Cllr Cathal Crowe (FF) called for Minister for State Jan O’Sullivan, who he said represented 5,000 people in Clare, to attend a council meeting.

Director of Services Ger Dollard said the introduction of the household charge has not changed the way the council deal with unfinished estates.

He said the council is currently dealing with a number of unfinished estates in Clare.

“We are working very hard to get through that,” he added.

THE Irish Taxi Driver’s Federation has insisted that Ennis taxis remain one of the safest modes of transport available.

The national body issued the reassurance after an Ennis driver was given a two year suspended sentence at Limerick Circuit Court for assaulting a passenger.

Martin White, who is the Clare representative for the federation and has 30 years experience driving in Clare, said he had never heard of a taxi driver attacking a passenger before this incident.

“The number one priority for a taxi driver is the safety and well being of the passengers,” he told The Clare People .

“This was a one off incident and I had never heard of it before. He shouldn’t have taken the law into his own hands. He should have called the Gardaí if he thought there was an issue with the passenger and the fare.”

Mr White said that all taxi drivers undergo Garda checks.

“As drivers we are there to bring passengers home safe and I believe taxis are still the safest form of trans- port.”

Meanwhile taxi driver Okechukwu Utuke (44), of Dun na hInse, Ennis, received a two-year suspended sentence after he was found guilty of assaulting passenger Michael L’Estrange and fracturing his collarbone in a row over a € 15 fare on April 25, 2010. The case was heard over three days in Ennis.

During the case Mr L’Estrange told the jury that he had gone for a few drinks in town and left for home at around 1.30am. He said that he had started to walk but when he got to Country Pine, he “flagged” down a taxi.

He asked the driver to bring him to his home at Gort na mBlath. Mr L’Estrange said he stopped a short distance from his house as he never got a taxi directly to his home “because you don’t know who’s who”.

Mr L’Estrange said that after the car came to a halt in Gort Na mBlath, he disputed the fare of € 15, adding that it usually cost between € 7 and € 8.

The court heard that Mr L’Estrange dropped € 10 onto the front passenger seat and left the car.

He said that the driver followed him from the car, knocked him to the ground and started digging him with his fists.

AN EAST Clare family has been forced to move out of their own house because of anti-social behaviour by neighbours who were claiming a Rent Allowance Payment.

That is according to East Clare Cllr Joe Cooney (FG), who called for tighter regulations to be placed on people who receive rent allowance – including a provision for money to be taken directly from a persons social welfare payment to repay a private landlord or the local authority for damage done to a property.

Cllr Cooney said that the way that a small minority of people on rent allowance treat property is a “disgrace”.

“Some of these tenants, the state that they leave some of the houses are a disgrace. I have people on to me, and they can’t rent out their house because of the damage done,” said Cllr Cooney.

“I am aware of a family in East Clare who had to move out of their own house because of the anti-social actions from one family beside them. If these people can’t treat the property properly, and not be acting the fool, then there has to be consequences for them.

“Not all tenants are the same, but some are very bad. This is a vital motion. What is going on is a dis- grace in some place, but it is not everywhere. The damage has seen some local council houses left closed for up to 12 months, which in my opinion is a disgrace.”

The motion was seconded by Cllr Joe Arkins (FG) who said that legislations need to be put in place to allow landlords to recoup payments from people who destroy their property.

“There are some people in this society for who there are no consequences,” he said. “I think we need legislation where a local authority or a private individual should pursue people in the courts and they should then have an attachments put to their [social welfare] payments.”