Category: News

THE success of the Vocational Training Opportunities Scheme (VTOS) was again evident when another Ennis batch of mature students and graduates from the county capital’s Adult and Community Education Centre received certificates.

While adult education plays a key role in learners’ self-development, it also has another strong tradition, pointed out speakers from County Clare Vocational Education Committee at the celebratory event in Cois na hAbhna. The presentations were made by Cllr Gabriel Keating (FG), standing in for the committee chair- man, Cllr Tommy Brennan (Ind).

Through the VTOS learning process students are enabled to create their own knowledge which in turn brings about change not just in the lives of the learners but also the communities in which they live and the wider society, it was pointed out.

The chief executive officer of the committee, George O’Callaghan, said that once students became critically aware of certain aspects of the education system they could take action to bring about change. It was no coincidence, therefore, that many former and current students of VTOS throughout the county were engaged in such activities as after-school homework clubs, voluntary tutoring in literacy and numeracy and in community groups. The Further Education and Training Awards Council of Ireland (FETAC), which certifies VTOS courses, is now an integrated part of the qualifications framework recognised in most other countries. One of the things it facilitates is starting at any point of the programme to obtain other certificates.

The most recent course participants in Ennis, in all 71 of them, were complimented by the programme co-ordinator, Helen O’Sullivan, on managing time away from their other responsibilities to devote to further study and learning. She praised them for their dedication and hard work under a brilliant set of teachers who in turn were greatly assisted by the administrative staff of the vocational education committee and the support staff in the centre.

“Those who are receiving certificates today can face the future with greater confidence,” she added. “Many of you returned to formal education after a long break, often spanning decades, and through hard work and perseverance you have achieved success. Many of you have continued with your studies, more have gone on to employment while others are still searching.

“Participation in the VTOS pro- gramme means embracing much more than vocational training. Students of this programme have commented that it is not just about certification; it is about the lifelong friendships that are made and fostered; it is also about the confidencebuilding and bringing out of skills and talent that have lain dormant for years or never tapped into before. In truth, for many it is a programme of discovery.

“We are pleased to acknowledge the achievements of all who are involved in today’s ceremony and wish all our students and graduates continued success on their path of lifelong learning,” she concluded.

PLANS have been lodged with Clare County Council for what has been described as the mid-west’s first driver training school in Ennis.

Martin Fitzgibbon Builders Ltd have applied for planning permission for the development of a driving school including entrance, roadway signs, underground services, perimeter fencing and pre-fabricated office.

According to the application, the two-hectare site at Bunnow, Doora, Quin Road, Ennis, will include a closed network of roadway with roundabout, controlled and uncontrolled junctions.

A report prepared by Complete Site Services explains that the academy will provide “total driver training for people with little or no experience behind the wheel to encounter some of the typical traffic control features in a safe and controlled environment away from other traffic”.

The report, by architect Joe Cahill, continues, “The proposed development would provide much needed employment and I am aware that no other facility of this nature exists in the mid west area.”

According to a flood risk assessment, the site is on the periphery of a flood plain and remains at risk from: flooding from groundwater; flooding via overland flow from adjacent land; flooding from surface water drainage.

The report finds that according to the initial flood risk assessment, “flood risk of the site is considered low”.

Objectors have raised concerns over the potential impact of the proposed driving school on the area. Vincent J Coffey and Sons of Clon Road, Ennis, “respectfully submit that the proposed development contravenes the zoning and aims and objectives of the Ennis and Environs Development Plan 2008 and must be refused in the circumstances”.

The submission states that land owned by Vincent J Coffey and Sons is currently used as a knackery yard and for agricultural purposes.

The submission continues, “If the development on the other hand is permitted then it will seriously impact on the validity of the whole operation and its continued existence on the site will be seriously at risk.”

Sean J Heeney of Castlewood Park, Ennis operates greyhound kennels opposite the site of the proposed development.

In his submission, Mr Heeney states, “I would point out that to my certain knowledge this site has flooded annually since planning permission was granted for kennels in 1992.”

Mr Heeney says that he was forced to evacuate his dogs in 1999, 2007 and 2009. He states that flooding at the site normally occurs between the end of September until April.

The Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government have also raised concerns about the proposed development.

In a report, Paul McMahon of the Development Applications Unit, states, “the department is concerned that the infilling and development of site will reduce the area of floodplain for the river and has the potential to result in the release of pollutants both during and after construction”.

The department has requested further information on the proposed development. This includes a copy of an emergency plan containing a protocol in the event of any pollution incident. The department is also seeking details of full mitigation measures to be put in place to protect all watercourses from contamination during construction.

The department also states that the council should “satisfy itself that the development will not result in the loss of a valuable flood plain”.

THE extent of the collapse in property prices around the county has been hammered home this week, after industry sources have claimed that a three-storey house in Kilrush has been for sold for as low as € 20,000. The Clare People has been told that a house on Moore Street in the west Clare capital was sold for this knockdown price as the drop in property prices reaches new lows in the county on the back of the economic recession.

When contacted by The Clare People on Monday, the selling agents for one house on Moore Street said that it hasn’t been sold for € 20,000, but that there was an asking price of € 60,000 on the property.

However, other industry sources have confirmed that a sale price of just € 20,000 has been agreed for one house on the street, which boasted five bedrooms, a garden and rear access.

Such a price would represent a 20year low for a house price in Kilrush and puts the town well ahead of the national average when it comes to the depreciation of property values.

Only last February, it was revealed that house prices in the county had dropped by up to 40 per cent in the past five years, figures that now put the decline of the county’s housing market ahead of the national average as calculated by the Economic and Social Research Institute.

The ERSI house prices index revealed that prices had fallen nationally by 38 per cent since 2006, while outside Dublin the drop was 8.1 per cent for 2010.

Figures secured by The Clare People showed that the rates of depreciation were higher again in Clare, with many houses across the county having dropped back as far as 2001 prices.

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.

ALCOHOL and alcohol addiction is playing an increasing role in the suicide rate in County Clare, with a growing number of suicides in the county having some connection to alcohol abuse.

That is according to the Clare spokesperson for the Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) who told The Cla re People yesterday that alcohol is a major contributing factor to many suicides in Clare.

“Alcoholism is a killer disease; even the World Health Organisation (WHO) now recognise it as the third biggest killer on the planet and a lot of those deaths are through suicide,” said the Clare spokesperson for the AA, who asked not to be identified.

“Alcohol is a depressant and, if you drink a lot of it, can become very depressing. That is why a lot of people who become an addict also have suicidal tendencies. The biggest problem with alcoholism is the denial, both from the alcoholic themselves and their friends and families.

“This allows the situation to get worse and worse and worse until eventually it gets too much and suicide or attempted suicide is the way out for some people.”

There are currently 24 AA meetings taking place at different locations throughout Clare every week, evidence that no part of the county is unaffected by alcoholism abuse.

According to Ruth*, a recovering Clare alcoholic who contemplated taking her own life last year, the connection between alcoholic abuse and suicide in Clare is increasing.

“The amount of deaths that I have heard about through [alcohol] overdose and alcohol-related suicides is more than I’ve heard about through illnesses and natural causes. And that is despairing,” says Ruth.

“I have gone to funerals and I have seen how the children of someone who has done that [committed suicide] have reacted. But I can relate to what that person would have felt. I felt like my children would have been better off without me.

“I remember when I was at the Bushypark Treatment Centre, there was a lad in there in his early 20s. When I heard of this young man’s suicide, the thing that I remember most is the look on the counsellors’ faces at Bushypark. It was like they had lost one of their own.”

Anyone who feels that they might have a problem with alcohol can contact the local branch of the AA in confidence on 061 311222. To read about Ruth’s struggle to overcome her alcoholism and the help she found at the Bushypark Treatment Centre, turn to page 29.

KIERAN O’REILLY was ordained Bishop of Killaloe on August 29 last, but now, less than a year into his tenure as leader of the diocese that takes in parts of Clare, Tipperary, Offaly, Limerick and Laois, he should tender his resignation to Pope Benedict XVI. That’s the controversial call made this week by Clare Fine Gael senator, Martin Conway, who has told The Clare People that “a complete wipe-out” of the Church hierarchy “is the only way forward” and that Bishop O’Reilly should be one of the casualties.

“It may be seen as being a dramatic call,” said Senator Conway, “particularly in Killaloe, given that Bishop O’Reilly is in situ for less than a year. However, I firmly believe that there has to be a complete clean-out.While there are some in the hierarchy I would have a regard for, like Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, I think what’s needed in the church in Ireland is a change. A complete change.

“People have absolutely no confidence in the hierarchy. There are good guys there and there are people there who are not culpable for what’s happened, but at the same time there has been an institutional failing.

“That has been proved in the Cloyne Report. The Church systematically failed – not just the Irish hierarchy, but the Vatican as well.

“The only way as a practicing Catholic that I can have any confidence going forward is if there is a complete wipeout of the present hierar- chy and new people are appointed to lead the Church going forward. All bishops in all dioceses must go and must be replaced by younger people who are more in tune with how modern Ireland views these things,” continued Senator Conway.

Turning his attention to the Galway diocese, which takes in vast tracks of his political base in north Clare, Senator Conway said the handling of sex abuses cases again highlighted the urgency for Bishop Martin Dreannan to resign.

“I have absolutely no confidence whatsoever in Bishop Drennan,” he said. “My confidence in Bishop Drennan has been eroded a long, long time ago. He is there against the wishes of the vast majority of people in the Galway diocese. He does not in anyway reflect the mood of genuine Catholics within the Galway diocese.

“I, as a public representative in the second instance, but in the first instance as a practicing Catholic, have absolutely zero faith in him whatsover. The best thing he could do in the interests of the people, in the interests of the Church and in the interests of the genuine people who are in the Church for the proper reasons, is resign.

“The Church has to look people in the eye and say that everyone who has been involved in the Church at hierarchical level is gone and we are starting again. It’s the only way forward,” he added.