Category: News

AN association with one of the stars of world rugby has helped transform a small Shannon company into a major player in the sports and nutrition market, a meeting has heard.

Founded in 2007, ABC Nutrition manufactures sports and health nutrition products for domestic and international markets.

The company sells a wide range of products, including muscle gain supplements, which are developed from dairy proteins.

Last year, the company was a winner at the national enterprise awards and in 2009 claimed the Bord Bia small business award. Ten people are employed at ABC, which recorded a 50 per cent increase in sales in 2010.

The company’s rise at a time of economic uncertainty was described by co-founder Willie Wixtead at a public meeting in Ennis on Thursday.

Organised by the Clare branch of Network Ireland, the event placed the spotlight on Clare companies who had set up and prospered in what branch president Alice Carroll called “the teeth of the recession”.

A native of Broadford, Mr Wixtead said the company is currently exporting to 12 countries. Spain, Ireland and the United Kingdom are among ABC’s biggest markets while further business opportunities are emerging in Eastern Europe, he said.

Mr Wixtead, who earned his qualifications in food technology at the University of Limerick, said that exports account for around 85 per cent of the company’s total sales. He described sports and health nutrition as a “buoyant market” and said the company’s success was linked to Ireland’s reputation as one of the world’s premium producers of dairy products.

Rocky Elsom, captain of the Australian rugby team, is one of ABC’s most well-known customers while the company also manufactures products for GAA players and professional boxers. Mr Wixtead said, “We’ve been able to deal with people at a high level which has been good for the company”.

Recalling his own company’s difficulties during it’s first year of operation, Mr Wixtead, who played hurling for Broadford, urged budding entrepreneurs not to be disheartened by early setbacks. He said a strong online presence; the netting of a high profile customer and the assistance of state agencies are key factors in creating a successful business.

He added that ABC’s success in winning industry awards was “important not for the glory but for presenting the company to the world.”

MORE than 100,000 ex-pats and people with Irish roots living in the US will be getting an invitation to come to Clare and be part of the reunion of the Dalcassian clans.

Clare Tourist Council will be travelling to the biggest Irish festival in the States in August to promote the county and travelling with them to Milwaukee will be members of the Brian Boru 2014 committee.

They will take a stand at the event which attracts the largest number of people with Irish connections of any Irish festival.

As part of the promotion of the Banner, the 2014 committee will be extending an invite to the celebrations planned for Killaloe and Lough Derg to all descendants of the Dalcassians.

Sir Conor O’Brien, chief of the Dalcassians, has agreed to be president of the commemorative event and it was he who suggested extending an invitation not just to the High King’s descendants but to all the Dalcassians, said 2014 committee chairman, John O’Shea.

“We’re absolutely delighted to have been invited by the Clare Tourist Council to travel with them. We had planned to go next year but this means we can start promoting the event and give potential visitors from the US two years to plan their trip. This is the Irish festival that all other festivals look to and we will be making the most of the opportunity to let people know about the Brian Boru celebrations,” John told The Clare People .

Confirmed as patrons of the 2014 festival are Rugby hero, Keith Wood and comedy giant, Brendan Grace, both residents of Killaloe

The prestigious Milwaukee festival is a hugely important event for tourism interests hoping to attract lucrative US business to Ireland.

“We are planning to make a second trip next year and we’re hoping to bring some geneologists over with us, just to give people a taste of what they might find,” said John.

Plans are well advanced for what looks set to be one of the most spectacular festivals the Banner county has seen.

It will open with a ‘march of the warriors’ from Killaloe to Clontarf and talks are in train for Killaloe to become the honorary capital of the country for the duration.

The committee are also negotiating with Skyfest to have the spectacular show on Lough Derg for that year and there is huge fun a pageantry planned to mark the 1,000th anniversary of Brian Boru’s passing.

LOCAL authority housing tenants in Kilrush are not being forgotten about, the town council has claimed this week as it unveiled plans to have every council house in the West Clare capital fitted out with central heating.

And, as part of this new Kilrush Town Council blueprint, it’s envisaged that many houses that are boarded up and vacant will be refurbished and made available for families who are on the council housing list.

“This is a positive and good news story,” Kilrush Town Clerk John Corry said in outlining the authority housing plan of action. “Significant works are taking place and it is important to give an element of hope and assurance to people living in John Paul Estate that they’re not being forgotten about.

“Tenants have been paying rent and living in houses without central heating, but we are addressing that now and there is a lot of work taking place. The contract for refurbishing 11 houses in John Paul Estate has been signed.

“Those houses will be fitting out with central heating. We are doing a survey on the remaining houses without central heating and hope to be in a position to commence work on those houses in the third quarter or fourth quarter of this year. We are in the process of preparing tender documents on those remaining 21 houses, 20 of which are occupied,” he added. This refurbishment programme is also set to include an upgrading of council housing on Wilson’s Road, which have been vacant and boarded up for a number of years. “It has been suggested that they be brought back into housing stock,” re vealed Mr Corry. “We are planning to restore these houses to the housing list and contracts for the restoration of two of the houses have been awarded and three others are going to tender. “The remaining two will be surveyed by the end of the third or fourth quarter of the year, so the plan is to have all the houses refurbished and let to tenants on the housing list,” he added.

FOCUSING ON the safety of walkers will form a key point in the road safety campaign in Clare over the coming months.

Clare County Council has put together a campaign as part of its role in the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety. The aim is that there will be no road deaths in the county by 2020.

There were four road deaths in Clare last year, compared with seven in 2009.

So far this year, there has been one road death in the county – 36year-old Limerick woman Aileen O’Brien died in a single-vehicle crash at Hurler’s Cross near Shannon earlier this month.

Clare County Council’s Road Safety Officer Barry Keating said that every effort is being made to ensure road safety is a priority.

“We are concentrating on pedestrians. We are giving out high visibility vests. Since last Wednesday, we have given out 200. We are trying to keep pedestrians safe. So far this year (nationally), there have been 71 fatalities; 19 of whom were pedestrians,” Mr Keating told The Clare People .

“High visibility makes drivers aware. We are all out walking so it is important especially in rural parts where you don’t have the infrastructure; you don’t have footpaths. It gives traffic the chance to slow down,” he added.

The council is focusing on educating children from their early years right through to adulthood, in their efforts to promote road safety.

“We are going into the schools on an ongoing basis. We are trying to encourage the children. Hopefully they will give the vests to their parents and they will wear them,” he said.

“We have been going to the preschools giving them talks and handing out the vests and also to primary and secondary schools,” he added.

“It is an apt time for Clare, given that we had our first fatality on the county’s roads last week. It is time to focus on this,” he said.

“We have ambitions to reduce our fatalities on Clare’s roads to zero by the end of the decade. We have reduced our numbers considerably.

“There were 93 road deaths on Clare’s roads in the last decade. In the last five years, that was reduced – to 41,” said Mr Keating.

As part of the council’s efforts to encourage children to get involved in promoting road safety, the school warden scheme is ongoing. As part of this scheme, young pupils play a role in assuming the role of wardens in the vicinity of their schools.

KILRUSH Town Council is to take the lead and spearhead a new marketing strategy for the entire West Clare catchment area – a plan of action that is set to be rolled out in the coming weeks and involving all media in the county.

The new blueprint to try and bring extra tourists into the Corca Baiscinn area was agreed upon by all councillors and member of the town council executive at the May monthly meeting of the local authority on Thursday night.

“This would be the first step,” said Cllr Ian Lynch in calling on town authority to launch a media marketing campaign ahead of the 2011 tourist season, by way of a notice of motion calling on the council to look beyond its town boundaries and into other West Clare areas.

Cllr Lynch motion said that “the council in conjunction with the Chamber of Commerce would consider commencing a marketing campaign for the entire West Clare region by initiating a print and radio media campaign highlighting the wide variety of activities”.

He said the Kilrush Town Councilled plan would help tourism interests in West Clare “maximise from their events and build and straighten working relationships with all towns and villages”.

“It would build trust between communities,” added Cllr Lynch, “and it would be a great show of strength from the council that would be showing itself to be leading the way in promoting tourism in the area.”

THE Government decision to follow through on a pre-election promise of abolishing the airport travel tax can kickstart passenger growth at Shannon Airport, if airlines that use Clare’s international airport are up to the challenge.

Shannon Airport Director, Mary Considine, has put it up to Ryanair, Aer Lingus and other carriers to boost passenger throughput to deliver muchneeded growth to the airport.

In a statement to The Clare People , Ms Considine said that the scrapping of the travel tax and the airport authority’s new growth incentive scheme for airlines are the carrot for increased numbers in Shannon.

“These initiatives are an extremely important and timely boost for our efforts to develop new services at Shannon Airport and support our existing routes,” said Ms Considine.

“The Growth Incentive Scheme will be of particular benefit to Shannon as airlines will be rebated all passenger charges for every new passenger they deliver once the airport surpasses the 1.755 million passenger mark we achieved last year.

“The air travel tax change in the Government Jobs Initiative is a further significant development. Its suspension, subject to the airlines delivering additional passengers, is another real incentive for them to grow passengers,” she added.

The controversial travel tax of € 10 was introduced by the Fianna Fáil/ Green Party coalition in 2009, only to be reduced to € 3 in the dying days of the government in Finance Minister Brian Lenihan’s 2010 budget.

After its introduction, Ryanair immediately scaled back its operations in Shannon with the loss of 100 jobs, while passenger numbers reduced from a peak of 53 routes delivering 1.9m passengers down to only 300,000 passengers per annum. Now, under the new growth incentive scheme, airlines using Shannon will be rebated € 12.65 per departing passenger for every passenger delivered over and above the threshold of 1.755.

“We are confident that 2011 will see an increase in passenger numbers at Shannon Airport,” said Ms Considine. “I have no doubt airlines will be keen to take advantage of this given the financial benefits set out in the incentives package. Ultimately, this will be good for the airport and for our region.”

Reacting to the news, Ryanair spokesperson Stephen McNamara told The Clare People that the suspension of the travel tax was “a welcome move by the new Government towards change and reform of Irish tourism. “Hopefully the DAA cost obstacles can also be removed to enable Ryanair to deliver rapid tourism and jobs growth in response to today’s welcome announcement,” he added.

AN 18-YEAR-OLD man has appeared in court, charged with wilful neglect of a baby in Shannon.

The charge has been brought arising out of a lengthy garda investigation, after the authorities’ attention was drawn to injuries sustained by a 10-month-old baby boy last December.

The baby was taken to hospital with serious injuries, including a burn mark, two broken arms – one of which was broken in three places – and a broken leg. He had also sustained bruising to several parts of the body.

Earlier this year, gardaí prepared a file on the matter for the DPP, who directed that the case be brought to court.

Larry Connors, of Cronan Lawn, Shannon, is accused of wilfully illtreating, neglecting or abandoning a child or allowing the child to be neglected, at Town Court, Shannon, between December 15, 2010 and Janu- ary 3, 2011.

At Shannon District Court on Thursday, Garda David Laing told the court he charged the defendant that morning.

He said that he did not reply to charge after caution.

Inspector John Galvin told the court that the case will be tried in the circuit court, on foot of directions from the DPP.

He said that there was no objection to bail and sought an adjournment until next month, for service of the book of evidence.

Inspector Galvin sought bail conditions; that the accused stay away from the baby’s mother and her immediate family; reside at Cronan lawn, Shannon; sign on twice a week at Shannon Garda Station and abide by a curfew.

Defence solicitor Jenny Fitzgibbon said there was no issue with any of the bail conditions set out by the State. Bail was granted and the accused will appear again in court next month.

A MAN in his 50s has appeared in court, charged with more than 200 alleged offences of a sexual nature.

The 57-year-old accused, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is accused of the alleged offences between February 1, 1982 and November 30, 1992, at a number of locations around the State, including County Clare. The alleged victim is a female. A number of the charges are alleged rape, while several others relate to allegations of indecent assault.

At Shannon District Court on Thursday, Detective Sergeant Kevin O’Hagan gave evidence of arrest, charge and caution.

He told Judge Joseph Mangan that the accused was arrested last Wednesday evening and brought to Shannon Garda Station, where he was later charged.

The accused did not apply for bail and was remanded in custody, to appear again in court later this month. The case was adjourned for preparation of the Book of Evidence by gardaí.

A NEW attempt to spark a jobs revival in West Clare is to be kick-started and spearheaded by a Clare County Council task force that has charged itself with responsibility for breathing new life into the region’s economy.

The West Clare Economic Task Force move to take a lead role in stimulating growth comes just as one member of the county council has called for a Dragon’s Den-style approach to promoting new business ventures in the county.

“There’s still people in Clare with money,” said Cllr Gabriel Keating in a rallying call for the county’s rich-list, “and there are still people in Clare with good business ideas that would be worth investing in. The scope is there for West Clare to have its own Dragon’s Den,” he added.

It was at meeting of the West Clare Economic Task Force that Cllr Keating’s call for “a think-tank of the major agencies in job creation be brought to west Clare” received the unanimous backing of the council, which has paved the way for a major seminar that takes place in Kilrush next week.

Kilrush Town Manager Nora Kaye has told The Clare People that “all the key players” will be at the meeting that takes place in Kilrush Golf Club on May 25.

“We want people who are thinking of expanding their business, people establishing a business, or people with business ideas to come, because all the main players will be there, such as the banks, credit unions, Enterprise Irelande, Leader, Shannon Development, Chambers of Commerce, FÁS and the VEC,” said Ms Kaye.

“It will be a one-stop-shop. If people have an idea or have questions, they will be able to get all the information they need. It’s a plan to kick-start development and jobs for west Clare,” she added.

The finer deatails of the task force think-tank were sounded out at last Thursday’s meeting of Kilrush Town Council, just as former town mayor, Cllr Tom Prendeville called on the council to spearhead its own campaign for local economy.

“This council, in conjunction with its Community Development Fund, should invite ideas, suggestions and recommendations for Bright Ideas for Kilrush to help the tourism products of the area, boost trade in the commericial sector and encourage entrepreneurs to create sustainable employment,” said Cllr Prendeville.

THE old Our Lady’s Hospital site in Ennis has emerged as a potential location for an ambitious multi-million euro project to have Clare serviced by a new state-of-the-art private hospital. The Clare People has learned that hospital services could return to the Gort Road site nine years after the closure of Our Lady’s Hospital that served as the county’s psychiatric hospital for 134 years.

Shannon Development have confirmed to The Clare People that they are willing to do business with the hospital promoters. “We would have to go to the planning authority to see if it would be suitable as a site for the hospital,” Shannon Development’s Regional Manager for Clare, Finbarr Broughan reavealed. “If a proposal to build the hospital comes, yes, it’s something that we would be interested in,” he added.

In 1998, Shannon Development purchased the 65-acre landbank at the Our Lady’s site from the Mid Western Health Board for £2.44 million, while Clare County Council subsequently purchased 31 acres for £900,000. The Clare People understands that behind-the-scenes negotiations having taken place about the feasability of using the Our Lady’s site for developing Clare’s answer to the Galway Clinic.

These fresh moves come in the wake of the Bord Pleanála decision to reject plans submitted by developers John Stack and Pat Bonner to build the 100-bedroom hospital at Woodstock on the Shanaway Road on the outskirts of Ennis. The Clare People spoke to John Stack on Monday, but the Lisdoonvarna-based builder declined to comment specifically on negotiations.

The € 50m hospital project was given the go-ahead by Clare County Council last October, when councillors voted by 28-3 for a re-zoning of land at Woodstock, after local authority planners proposed that the application should get the go-ahead after the developers reduced the scale of the proposal.