Category: News

DINGLE business interests’ success in making the West Kerry town a haven for tourists on the back of the bay being home to one dolphin over the past 28 years contrasts sharply with West Clare’s failure to cash on the tourism potential of Shannon Estuary dolphins.

The May monthly meeting of Kilrush Town Council heard councillors bemoan the fact that West Clare is the poor relation to Dingle when it comes to dolphin-watching tourism.

“Dingle have one dolphin and they’ve managed to make a multimillion euro industry out of it over the years,” said Cllr Ian Lynch.

“The Shannon Estuary has a family of dolphins, but we don’t seem to be able to market this properly and we haven’t exploited the resource that we have.”

This has led to calls for the Gateway to Shannon Dolphins Committee to make renewed efforts to kickstart the dolphin-watching industry on the estuary.

This committee was established a number of years ago but last Thursday’s meeting heard that it has been inactive over the last number years.

“The committee is led by Paul Edson, with the help of Dr Simon Berrow [Irish Whale and Dolphin Group], but it hasn’t met for the last couple of years,” revealed town clerk, John Corry.

“There is huge potential for the Shannon dolphin project and it should be developed, because it’s something that’s unique to the estuary and we should do everything to market this,” said Cllr Tom Prendeville.

WEST Clare tourism is set to get a huge boost in the coming season as Kilrush Town Council spearheads an initiative that will see Knockerra Lake opened up to anglers once more after an interval of many years.

Details of a local authority plan of action for the 50-acre lake north east of Kilrush that comes under the council’s jurisdiction were unveiled at Thursday’s monthly meeting, which has opened up the prospect of the facility being open for use in time for the peak tourist period of July and August.

“It was used as a recreational facility for a long number of years, but hasn’t been in the last ten years,” revealed Kilrush Town Clerk John Corry, “and to open up the facility again has involved a process of engagement with anglers and landowners. It has been a long process, but there is now light at the end of the tunnel,” he added.

Knockerra Lake hasn’t been open to public use for ten years, but in recent years Kilrush Town Council has made moves to re-open the facility, setting aside money is its annual budget for fencing and signage, while also making the lake more accessible. The lake is also set to be restocked with fish.

“There has been negotiations with the landowners and we hope to see the restoration of facilities provided at Knockerra,” Mr Corry told town councillors. “We are now at an advanced stage of finalising a lease agreement between the Town Council, the West Clare Angling Association and landowners.

Mr Corry also revealed that as part of the process “a local committee involving Kilrush Town Council, representatives of the angling association and landowners will be put in place” to oversee the operation of the facility.

“We will be meeting all the parties over the coming weeks and for the June meeting of the council we will have a update on the situation.”

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.”

CONSTRUCTION work on a new multi-million euro pier in Doolin will not begin before this summer as had been previously hoped. Works will now not now begin on the pier, which is expected to brings hundreds of tourism and construction related jobs to North Clare, until the end of September at the earliest following a request for planning clarification from An mBord Pleanála.

The national planning authority has been asked to decide whether the Part Eight planning permission, which was granted by Clare County Council in March, will require a Foreshore License to be granted and an Environmental Impact Statement to be carried out.

According to documents lodged with An mBord Pleanála last week a decision on this case will not be made until September 16 of this year – meaning that it now unlikely that any construction work will take place in 2011. The documents also named The West Coast Surf Club as the active applicant in the planning case. The surf club, which is one of Ireland’s oldest surfing organisation, is opposed to the development of the pier in its current location as they believe it will have a negative effect an a number of world class local waves. More than 5,000 people have signed up to an online campaign to “Save the Crab Island and Doolin Point” waves.

The development was granted planning permission after a protracted planning process earlier this year.

Speaking after planing permission was granted, County Engineer Tom Tiernan said that tender process for the development will be started in a matter of weeks with the construc- tion work not likely to be finished until 2012. It is not yet clear how the latest planning delay will effect the overall project or the 2012 date set for having the pier up and running.

The original planning permission for the pier came before last December’s meeting of Clare County Council but a decision on this was deferred by the County Manager, Tom Coughlan, to allow for more public consultation to take place.

THE Office of Public Works (OPW) has been urged to abandon plans to develop river walkways near a housing estate in Ennis.

The OPW has informed Ennis Town Council of its intention to build a new footpath and handrail as part of the River Fergus (lower) certified drainage scheme.

According to the OPW, reinforced concrete floodwalls with natural limestone cladding will be constructed along the visible faces, along the left riverbank in the Fergus Park to Knox’s bridge. Works will also include the reinstatement of surrounding ground, while all existing surface water outfalls are to be fitted with a tidefex valve.

However concerns have been raised over a walkway running so close to houses. Speaking yesterday, Cllr Brian Meaney (GP) said locals were concerned that the walkway could introduce an element of “anti-social behaviour” to the area. He warned that it might make easily for people to “casually stroll into the back of people’s homes”.

“I suggest that we re-think that element of the works,” he added.

Cllr Meaney made the comments at yesterday’s meeting of councillors in the Ennis West Electoral Area, where Cllr Tony Mulqueen (FG) requested a statutory update on the flood relief scheme. He said residents and land owners in Fergus Park and Cappahard were anxious to know when the works will begin.

Eamon O’Dea, Senior Executive Engineer, told the meeting that it was anticipated that work would begin in September.

He said he would organise a system whereby local people could get relevant information from the OPW.

Cllr Mulqueen criticised the fact that there it had been an almost two year delay in starting the works.

“It will almost be the anniversary of the floods in 2009,” he added.

Town manager Ger Dollard said that both the Council and the OPW were anxious to see the project progress as soon as possible.

A QUIN man is spearheading a novel venture aimed at finding the best ideas to create employment.

The Ideas Factory is the brainchild of Niall Chandler (28), a former Ennis-based personal trainer who has turned his hand to trying to find so lutions to Ireland’s jobs crisis.

Niall, who holds a masters in international business, started work on the project last November.

“It started out as a website but that developed into bringing people into one room to focus on ideas,” he said.

The Ideas Factory 100 held their first meeting in Shannon on April 29, bringing together recent graduates from different backgrounds to kick-start the initiative that has been backed by the business network group, Atlantic Way and Westpark, Shannon.

Niall explained that the aim is to gather 100 of Ireland’s graduates and out-of-work professionals from all disciplines to brainstorm, share and generate ideas, with the intention of creating businesses and employment.

The meeting centered on creating a unified vision for the Ideas Factory 100 and proved that there is a definite appetite for this kind of initiative. The graduates from different disciplines came from Mayo, Galway, Clare, Kerry and Tipperary. The next meeting takes place on Friday, May 13 in Westpark Shannon. Niall said there has been an enthusiastic response so far to the project.

He explained. “The first meeting was mainly about trying to create a unified vision for the group. The next meeting will be to figure out how we go about brainstorming. You can’t just look at a blank page. We can take it step by step.”

Niall said the meetings are not just being held for the “craic” and that the aim is generate ideas that will help lead to the creation of jobs within a specific timeframe.

Participants so far have ranged in age from 24 to 42 and according to Niall, come from a variety of academic and professional backgrounds.

“We have engineers, people from agriculture, a couple of business graduates, a woman who was let go from Boston Scientific, so there are a lot of different ideas,” he added.

For further information or to express your interest in coming to the next meeting, contact Niall Chandler – niall.chandler@gmail.com

MORE than 100 people turned out in Scariff last night for a public meeting to debate plans to close the local Teagasc office in East Clare.

The office, which is ear marked for closure later this year or early 2012, is cur rently being used by more than 450 far mers in the East Clare area to process thei r document ation for a large amount of far m schemes and as a venue for t raining courses and other communit y activities.

This latest threat of closure comes after the closure of the local Teagasc office in Ennistymon last year and the relocation of all local Depar tment of Agr icult ure services from Ennis to Limer ick – leaving Clare as the only county in Munster wit hout an office of the Depar tment of Agr iculture. The Clare People underst ands that the majority of the staff currently employed at t he Teagasc office in Scariff will be relocated to Ennis with a new extension planned for the Ennis office to cope with the influx of numbers. “There is a ver y big catchment area for the Scar iff office. Besides all of the schemes that are administered from this office t here is also a number of courses administered from the office as well – some by Teagasc but others from FÁS, Clare Development Agency and the VEC so there is huge amount of activity goi ng on in these offices at the moment,” said East Clare farmer and member of Clare Count y Council, Joe Cooney (FG). “If this office is closed hundred of East Clare farmers will be forced to t ravel to Ennis, Limer ick or to Loughrea to access the services they need.

“This is going to be a big set back to far mers i n t he area – not alone the farmers but the other local people who use the office on a regular basis,” he added.

The Clare and Galway area manager for Teagasc, Brendan Heneghan, at tended t he meeting and it is hoped that he will be influenced into reconsidering t he plan to close the office.

“This is somet hing t hat has been proposed – we have a member from Teagasc coming to the meeting tonight as well as our four Oi reacht as members so we are hoping t hat t his is not set in stone,” conti nued Cl l r Cooney.

“There is suppor t to retain this service. I don’t think it adds up to close this ver y good new office and come into Ennis and have to build extensions in building in t here.”

CLOSE to 550 people turned up in the early hours of Saturday morning to see dawn break over the Lees Road sports and amenity park in Ennis at a walk aimed at raising greater awareness of suicide.

The ‘Darkness into Light’ walk and run, organised by suicide crisis centre Pieta House, got underway at 4.30am with participants following a 5km route through a forest path lit by electronic candles. The walk finished at around 6am as the sun began to rise.

Coordinator Tom McEvoy hailed the walk as a great success and said Pieta House plan to hold the nationwide event on annual basis in Ennis.

He said, “We’re weren’t sure what kind of turnout we would have but it went beyond anything we could have anticipated. No wind, no rain and a fantastic dawn.”

There was an early start for many of those who took part with participants traveling to Ennis from Kilrush, Miltown Malbay and Scariff to make the 4.30am start time. And according to Tom, some of those who walked and ran, did not get any night’s sleep beforehand. “We had people who came straight from night clubs, people who were at the Rose of Clare. We had one man who ran in his suit and black tie. We had a massive cross section of the community taking part.” The opening address was delivered by Tom, while there was also contributions from Pieta House member, Noleen Devlin and Ennis Parish administrator Fr Tom Hogan. One participant described the walk a “very emotional occasion”. Tom, whose brother died as a result of suicide in 2007, said there was a positive response to the event. He said, “The first runner to complete the course, Frank Landy, said he’d done a lot of 5km and 10km runs but that this was the most memorable event he said he’d taken part in. He said normally he’s used to dodging runners but this time he was dodging trees.” Tom also thanked all participants and volounteers.