Category: News

AN EAST Clare businessman has flown to the rescue of a teenager whose beloved birds were stolen.

Sean Kavanagh (15) from Clonlara was heartbroken when he went to feed his exotic birds last week, only to find that thieves had ripped out the wire on his backyard aviary and stolen them.

The Clonlara teen had worked tirelessly, cutting grass and washing neighbours’ cars and windows to earn the money to get set up in his hobby, only to have the birds stolen within days of him buying them.

When Paul Hogan, owner of the ‘Crocodile Dundee’ animal business in Ardnacrusha heard about the theft, he wanted to help.

“I got in contact with him and I was very impressed with him. He’s a lovely, genuine lad and he worked like mad to buy those birds. Some youngsters get eveything handed to them on a plate, but he worked for it. I thought it was terrible, what happened to him,” Mr Hogan told The Clare People. Paul Hogan runs Crocodile Dundee, a dog grooming service, school and kennels but he also has a mobile pet shop and has been selling and dealing with exotic birds for years.

“I wanted to do something to help Sean. I know what it’s like to have such an interest and attachment to birds,” he said.

Paul has made Sean a present of a pair of colourful cockatiels as well as some finches and canaries to fill his aviary with song once again.

“I just want to say a big thanks to Paul. It means so much, what he did,” Kavanagh told The Clare People

THE proposed upgrade of the Clondroadmore Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) will not give rise to sustained periods of elevated noise levels, a report has found.

Dermot Moloney, principal acoustic consultant at Moloney and Associates, was speaking at An Bord Pleanála’s oral hearing into Clare County Council’s application to upgrade the Clonroadmore WWTP.

In his report, Mr Moloney states that there may be “short intervals during the upgrading works at the WWTP when construction activities results in elevated noise levels. However, these occasions are likely to be infrequent and short-lived.”

Under the heading ‘Likely Environmental Noise Impacts’ Mr Moloney states, “The Fergus Manor housing estate is located on the western side of the railway line approximately 48 metres from the WWTP intake works.”

He added, “The design of the new treatment works has taken into account the proximity of this housing. To this extent the design ensures that any new treatment elements or unit processes are not located any closer to the existing housing development. Thus the proposed upgrade will be contained entirely within the boundary of the existing WWTP site.”

In conclusion, Mr Moloney states, “It is recommended that the final design and the operation of the pro- posed WWTP should proceed with due regard to the need to mitigate noise emissions. This is particularly required to ensure that the surface aerators do not give rise to excessive noise during night time.”

Ecologist Brian Madden, of Biosphere Environmental Services, also spoke at the hearing. Mr Madden said that he carried out a walkover survey of the Clondroadmore plant in 2009.

He said that within the site there are no habitats that could be considered to have a conservation value. He said that the site could be improved by sensible planning. Mr Madden said scrub habitat within the site could be removed, providing this was done outside of the bird-nesting season.

BOTH Aer Lingus and Ryanair have been challenged to ‘put-up’ or ‘shutup’ when it comes to blaming the controversial government travel tax for any lack of growth in Shannon Airport.

Fianna Fáil transport spokesperson Timmy Dooley fired a volley across the two airlines this week when backing the Fine Gael/Labour coalition move to leave the € 3 travel tax in place until next year, at the earliest.

Speaking to The Clare People this week, Deputy Dooley said that the airlines have failed to live up to the promise of delivering extra passenger growth, after the Fianna Fáil/Labour government slashed the travel tax from € 10 to € 3 in last December’s budget.

“If the airlines are serious, they made a lot of noise about the imposition of the tax day one and the impact it had on passenger numbers,” said Deputy Dooley.

“There is now an opportunity for them to live up to their responsibilities and to prove that the tax was an inhibitor to passengers travelling and passenger growth.

“If the airlines are to have confidence in their own statements, then they should have no problem in identifying where the increase in passenger numbers are going to come from.

“Ryanair maintained that the € 10 tax prevented them from expanding – they used it as a reason why they re- duced their activity out of Shannon.

“One would have to believe that if you were to remove the tax then business would come back, but that is clearly not happening. Even when it was reduced from € 10 to € 3 there was little or no increase in activity,” the Fianna Fáil frontbench spokesperson added.

The controversial levy had been due to be abolished as part of the government’s bid to boost tourism numbers. However, Minister for Transport Leo Varadkar has claimed airlines had not made enough commitments in terms of increasing flight capacity.

“What I’m looking for from airlines is some solid propositions as to what they’ll do in return for the reduction and it can’t happen without that.”

Earlier this year, Ryanair chief ex- ecutive Michael O’Leary claimed that removing the € 10 tax would bring six million extra visitors to Ireland annually and create 6,000 new jobs.

The European Commission had brought a legal case against the tax, but withdrew it last month when the single € 3 levy replaced an earlier two-tier system.

Ryanair currently operates to 11 destinations in Britain and mainland Europe out of Shannon. This represents over a 300 per cent cut in operations out of Shannon from a high of 35 flights in 2008.

The airline began reducing its Shannon-based aircraft in February 2009, with the biggest axe falling in March of 2010 when it slashed 16 flights for its schedule.

HOUSE hunters in Clare can now buy a house for less than it costs to build.

The staggering fall in property values in the county has left houses changing hands at 1990 prices, property insiders say.

According to the Residential Property Price Index results, released by the Central Statistics Office last week, property prices outside of Dublin have fallen by 13 per cent in the last year.

According to Ennis auctioneer, Diarmuid McMahon, this is the most accurate picture yet of what is happening in Clare. “House prices in Clare have fallen to sub-construction levels. From a buyers perpective, that’s fantastic news.”

The Sherry Fitzgerald auctioneer said that it is now also cheaper to take out a mortgage on a property in Clare than to rent one. “Rents in Ennis have stabalised but with quailty rental stock availability low.” he said.

“Buying hasn’t been this afford- able in a decade. We’re back to 1990 prices.”

McMahon said that a three bed semi-detaached home in a desireable area in Ennis can now be had for as little as € 150,000. Ghost estates aside, a squeeze on stock of houses may be on the cards he predicted.

“With prices such that it costs more to build than the builder will get when a house is sold, then no-one is going to build new estates.”

The CSO index is a welcome addition to the store of information available to those involved in prop- erty deals, but there is also a pressing need for a property sale price index, McMahon said.

“This is a much more accurate picture of what’s happening in the market than any of the property web-sites. But we need to know what properties are selling for so that people know what their property is worth.

“In the UK, if your neighbour sells his house you can go to a website and see what was paid for it, Here, unless there is a public auction, we are not allowed to say what price was paid for a particular property.”

A 31-YEAR-OLD man has been charged with the false imprisonment and sexual assault of his partner over the weekend, in the Killaloe Garda District.

The accused, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is accused of falsely imprisoning and sexually assaulting a female, on July 30 last.

Garda Edel Crowley of Killaloe Garda Station told Ennis District Court yesterday that the accused was arrested on Sunday evening.

He did not reply when one of the charges was put to him.

In reply to the other charge, he said, “False imprisonment. Where did you get that from?”, Gda Crowley told the court.

Inspector Tom Kennedy said that gardaí were objecting to bail, on a number of grounds, including that the accused does not have a permanent address; the seriousness of the charges and that the accused may be at flight risk.

Defending solicitor Tony O’Malley said that his client was residing with the injured party.

“Matters have arisen which caused him to be charged with offences. He has been given accommodation with a friend,” said the solicitor.

“I don’t think there are any real grounds for him being at flight risk,” he added.

He said that while his client is not working at the moment, he had a good work record in the past.

Inspector Kennedy said, “He doesn’t have a place to live.

“The address put forward is a convenient address. . . That address isn’t a permanent address.”

“Based on the seriousness of the charges, one would have to be very fearful that he might leave the jurisdiction,” said Inspector Kennedy.

Judge Aeneas McCarthy said, “There is a Constitutional right to bail.

“The seriousness of the charge on its own is not grounds for refusing bail.

“It has been put to the court that he’s at flight risk. . .

“The difficulty the court has here is a permanent address. . . Unless the accused can provide a permanent address at which he can live, then I am afraid he has a difficulty.”

He adjourned the case until later this week and remanded the accused in custody.

He said he would revisit the bail application on the adjourned date, subject to a permanent address being provided.

“If he does provide a permanent address, the court is mindful of granting bail with an independent surety.”

The judge went on to say that this surety would be in the region of € 5,000. “I have in mind a surety of € 10,000, a half to be lodged.

“All that is subject to providing a permanent address to gardaí,” said the judge. Free legal aid was granted to the defendant.

THE familiar site of the old Clare Library delivery van will soon be a thing of the past as the organisation was this week granted funding for a replacement vehicle.

Over the last number of years, the van has transported tens of thousands of books and other materials between Clare’s 15 libraries, making it possible for people in even the smallest rural libraries to have a full selection of reading materials.

Clare Libraries was last week granted € 40,000 in funding for the purchase of a new delivery vehicle, which library officials hope will prove as useful as its predecessor.

“Most people will be familiar with the library van which is always on the go, moving books from one library to another. The old van was a great service to the libraries over the years and made the service which we were able to provide much better,” said Frances O’Gorman, Senior Executive Librarian with Clare Libraries.

“If someone wanted a book in Ennistymon, let’s say, and it wasn’t available, then the van would transport what they needed from Ennis or whatever library had the book. So it allowed us to offer people a large amount of services, even in smaller places.

“We have 15 libraries around the county so this new van will certainly be kept busy.”

The € 40,000 was part of a national allocation of € 5.8 million announced by the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government last week.

TALKS between management and staff at the Cliffs of Moher Visitors Centre broke down yesterday at the Labour Relation Commission (LRC) with both parties now being sent to the Labour Courts to resolve the ongoing dispute.

The dispute, which led to nine days of strike action by SIPTU members at the world-famous visitors centre, is centred around worker payment and status.

The SIPTU members claimed that they should have the same terms and conditions as employees of Clare County Council, while management at the facility argue that the centre is a private company owned by Clare County Council, and that the workers are not entitled to equal status with council workers.

Industrial action was suspended at the Cliffs of Moher on Friday last when both parties agree to attend a meeting of the LRC. The standing down of industrial action came as SIPTU had threatened to escalate the strike action, serving notice of plans to begin a second picket at the offices of Clare County Council.

This dispute follows a ruling of the Labour Court in 2010 which instructed Cliffs of Moher Centre Ltd to give the centre’s employees the same terms and conditions as council employees.

Clare County Council have argued that the centre will not be in a position to continue operating with the same level of staff should they be forced to improve staff pay and condition. The Clare People contacted both the management of the Cliffs of Moher Centre Ltd and local SIPTU representatives in relation to this but neither party was in a position to comment on the situation at this stage.

UNEMPLOYED people in east Clare are missing out on job opportunities because of the lack of a frequent bus service to Limerick city, it has been claimed.

A Clare barworker living in Westbury – who asked not to be named – told The Clare People that he has missed chances to get back to work because there is no later or early public bus service.

“I was recently diagnosed with a medical condition which means that I can’t drive at the moment. It’s not something that would stop me working, but I can’t risk being behind the wheel. In my line of work, there’s no good expecting to work nine to five,” he said.

A bus runs to Ardnacrusha, stop- ping at various areas along the way, six times a day but the service finishes at 6pm.

The Westbury man has six years’ experience and good references. He has applied for a list of bar jobs, but says he is hampered each time by the fact that he can’t get to and from work at times outside the bus schedule.

“There’s a bit of extra work going at this time of year and I was hoping to take advantage of that. In fact, I was almost certain of being taken on for a few hours at weekends in a place the far side of the city but then I discovered it would mean taking a taxi home every time. It wouldn’t make any sense financially.”

Local Labour councillor, Pascal Fitzgerald said that he wants to see an hourly bus service connecting areas like Westbury, Parteen, Meelick and Ardnacrusha with Limerick city.

“I’m going to be asking Bus Éireann what they can do. This part of Clare has a big population and is growing. There is plenty of demand for a more frequent bus service,” he said.

Cllr Fitzgerald added that the service would boost employment prospects for east Clare people as well as allowing people to travel into the city to do business, socialise and shop and would improve matters for people who are stuck for lifts.

“I live in the area and I regularly stop to give lifts to people who are thumbing. It’s not a safe situation, escpecially when you see young people, teenagers trying to get a lift” he said.

CLARE County Council has turned down a planning application for a € 50 million windfarm at Shanovogh near Miltown Malbay. This represents the second time in a year that the promoters of the windfarm project have had an application turned down by local authority planners.

In handing down its judgment, the planning authority said the “noise generated” by the wind turbines and development itself would “seriously injure the amenities of residential property” and “depreciate the value of property”.

Planners also ruled that the development would “pose an unacceptable risk to water quality standards”, while also noting that it was “not satisfied that the proposed development will not negatively impact on species and habitats in the area” and finally concluding that the project was “contrary to the proper planning and sustainable development of the area”.

In May, McMahon Finn Wind Acquisitions Ltd lodged an application to build a windfarm on a site that’s two miles away from the West Clare Renewable Energy project on Mount Callan, the green light for which was given by Clare County Council last August.

The application was for a windfarm comprising of six turbines with a height of 85 metres and was submitted to local authority planners by Cian Ó Laoithe Architects.

Last year, Clare County Council invalidated plans submitted by McMahon Wind Ltd for a 12-turbine windfarm on the same site, while a decision date on the new planning application is due in mid-July.

The second application for a windfarm development in the county falls within the guidelines of the Clare County Council wind energy strategy that has set a working target of 550 MW of wind energy to harnessed in the county by 2020.

Between 2000 and 2010, 22 applications for windfarms were lodged with Clare County Council, with one of the first projects to be given the green light being in 2002 when the ESB were granted permission for a nine-turbine € 20 million renewable energy farm at Moneypoint.

Last December, An Bord Pleanála rejected an appeal by An Taisce against a Clare County Council decision to allow Hibernian Windpower to construct a windfarm incorporating 11 turbines of approximately 2500kW capacity each, at Boolynageragh, Lissycasey.

The development site, which is three kilometres north of Lissycasey, will have total rated electrical output of 27.5MW.

The Mount Callan project is set to be the largest community-owned windfarm development in Ireland and is a € 200 million project that aims to create 300 jobs during the construction phase.

CLARE County Council has invited members of the public to submit any observations or representations concerning a number of road closures planned to accommodate the staging of Michael Flatley’s ‘Lord of the Dance at the Cliffs of Moher’ this September.

The world-famous music and dance extravaganza is expected to attract as many as 20,000 tourists to north Clare this September.

The local authority have served notice that they intend to temporally close sections of the R478 – from its junction with the L5148 at Ballysteen to its junction with the R479 Doolin Road at Garrihy’s Cross – on September 1 and 2.

The road will still be open to local traffic and all other traffic is asked to use the N67 between Ennistymon to Lisdoonvarna throughout the restrictions.

The current plan is to close the road on both days between 3pm and 1am the following morning. It is expected that the event will have a number of spin-offs for the tourism industry in the county and if successful, could become the first in a series of concerts hosted at the Cliffs of Moher.

The concert will come just five weeks ahead of the D-Day in the Cliffs of Moher’s bid to become one of the new Seven Wonders of the World and could provide a welcome springboard for that bid.

Tickets for the event, which is being organised by MPO Promotions Limited, are currently available from Ticketmaster outlets and can also be purchased in person from the Cliffs of Moher Centre.

The show itself will feature 40 precision dancers acting out the mythical Irish folk story of a battle between Don Dorcha, the Lord of Darkness, and the Lord of Light, also known as the ‘Lord of the Dance’.

Local musicians Michael O’Connell and Hugh Healy, as well as special guests, folk legend Finbar Furey and the world-famous Kilfenora Céilí Band, will share the finale with the ‘Lord of the Dance’ troupe at the top of the Cliffs of Moher.

Anyone who wishes to make a submission on the proposed road closure is asked to contact the Roads Department at Clare County Council before Friday, August 5.