Category: News

A GROUP of Clare parents have vowed to continue to fight to improve services for children with diabetes.

It is estimated that 3,500 children have type one diabetes; almost 100 of who are from Clare. Those children are referred to Galway or Limerick for treatment, while several are sent to Dublin.

Last Wednesday, a national campaign was launched in an effort to improve support for children with diabetes and the Clare branch is playing an integral role in this.

Secretary of the Diabetes ac- tion Advocacy Campaign in Clare, Gráinne Flynn is involved in a campaign to improve services for people with disabilities.

“Type one is the type of diabetes that just comes out of nowhere. It is the less common type. It is a grass roots campaign in that it encourages people in the community to encourage others to get involved,” said Ms Flynn.

She said the campaign is aimed at ensuring more resources are made available to assist children with type one diabetes.

“In Clare, children with type one diabetes are either referred to the diabetes pediatric centre in Limerick or Galway and because the services for children with diabetes in Ireland are generally very poor, the services in Galway and Limerick are under resourced,” she said.

“Parents need a more complete service,” she added.

“When parents start to demand better care they are referred to the three centres in Dublin and they can’t cope with the added pressures. It’s a vicious circle,” she said.

“We are looking for the establishment of eight diabetes paediatric networks to deliver care in Ireland. That would mean that the centres in Limerick and Galway are properly staffed and resourced. They are not at the moment,” she added.

“Children and adolescents with diabetes should attend a hospital four to five times a year to monitor their diabetes. Because some children are referred to Dublin, they have to take a full day off school to attend their appointments,” she said.

“The fact that these centres are not fully resourced means that 50 per cent of the children with type one diabetes will develop long-term complications of diabetes like kidney disease, eye damage or nerve damage,” she added.

THE Killone Group Water Scheme will be forced to cease production in the coming weeks due to a lack of funding, the scheme’s chairman has warned.

Murt Redington said the scheme is in a “severe financial predicament” and he has described the situation as “becoming critical”.

The Killone plant, which was built at a cost of around € 900,000 in 2007, serves an estimated 3,000 homes, farms and commercial businesses in the wider Clarecastle area.

Mr Redington’s concerns are outlined in a letter to councillors, TDs and officials at Clare County Council.

He writes, “It appears from our projections that water production will have to cease in or about mid-May unless the subsidies held and capital works grants due to us are paid to us. As we intend to hold an EGM / AGM in the near future, we will be informing members of the group scheme of these difficulties.”

In the letter, Mr Redington requests the support of local representatives as a “matter of urgency”.

He adds, “As mentioned above, our current projections are to midMay but, in the event of unforeseen circumstances, we may be forced to cease pumping due to funding insufficiency.”

The matter of funding for the scheme was raised by Cllr Johnny Flynn (FG) at yesterday’s meeting of councillors in the Ennis East Electoral Area.

Ennis Town Manager and Director of Service at Clare County Council Ger Dollard, told the meeting that discussions are ongoing between representatives from the Killone Group Water Scheme and the Council’s water services section.

THERE have been calls for Clare County Council to provide more water taps at Drumcliffe and other public graveyards in Ennis. According to Cllr Tony Mulqueen (FG), taps are needed to assist elderly people visiting the graves of loved ones.

There are currently two taps provided inside the main gates at Drumcliffe. Cllr Mulqueen told yesterday’s meeting of councillors in the Ennis west electoral area, that taps should be located further up the graveyard as elderly visitors often had to fill and carry five litre containers of water from the entrance. He said that at a time of the year when temperatures were on the rise, the current situation was unacceptable.

In his response, Eamon O’Dea, Senior Executive Engineer, said that the likelihood of vandalism and a lack of funding meant the council was not currently proposing to provide taps.

“I would not envisage the provision of additional watering points due to the issue of water conservation and vandalism of taps away from the gates. The current taps have spring closure mechanisms on them and have been vandalised in the past,” he said.

“If there is a particular need at a burial ground then the provision of a watering point can be looked at on an individual basis and assessed accordingly.”

Town manager Ger Dollard said taps in the graveyard had previously been the subject of vandalism.

THE National Roads Authority (NRA) has not returned any correspondence made to it by the Mayor of Clare over the past year.

According to the Mayor of Clare, Christy Curtin (Ind), the NRA has snubbed a series of letters and questions from the county’s first citizen in relation to damage to signs in Clare for more then 12 months.

This information came to light following a motion at last nights meeting of Clare County Council, requesting that the local authority begins an immediate programme of restoration and maintenance on the existing roads direction signs.

“There has been defacing and vandalism of signs right across this county. Signs are continuing to be defaced – I saw a lot of it during the last general election,” said Cllr Curtin.

“I have been continually on to the NRA about the vandalism of signs and they have not been back to me once over the last 12 months.”

Speaking on the motion, North Clare councillor Joe Arkins (FG) also raised the issue of a number of misspellings on new signs recently erected by the NRA.

“I have a big issue with some of the information on these signs, there seems to be a number of towns and villages showing up all over Clare which I have never heard of before,” he said.

“Can we finally agree on what we call our towns and villages. Just because some sergeant made a mistake when he was translating from the Irish in the 1840s doesn’t mean that we have to keep living with that mistake forever.

“Some of the names on signs for our villages and towns is just unbelievable at the moment. It is a real issue and an inconvenience for tourists and people in the tourist sector.”

Place name and directional signs for a number of Clare’s flagship tourist town have been erected in recent months with spellings, which are not used by the locally. Among the towns who names have been spelt incorrectly are Lahinch, Bal- lyvaughan, Kinvara and Corofin.

“We are finding Burren Connect here in the council to improve tourism but if these signs are left in place we will have Burren disconnect. If people are coming home from America or wherever they are totally confused by the spellings on these signs,” said Cllr Michael Kelly (FG).

Clare County Council has been allocated € 10,000 as part of Civil Responsibility Week which the local authority plans to use for the maintenance of signs.

SCHOOLS days are about to become dramatically different for the pupils of Barefield National School as they prepare to open a new 16classroom school later this month.

Construction work at the school has now finished and the final touches are being put on a large eight-classroom extension, six special education teaching rooms, a general purpose and sports hall and the refurbishment of six classrooms built in 1995.

According to the school principal, John Burns, the new extension will be of great benefit not just to the pupils and staff of the school, but also to the wider community in Barefield.

“Ultimately, this is a gift to the children in our care and so we are absolutely delighted with this news, both for the current and future generations of pupils,” he said.

“The parents, teachers and children deserve this opportunity as they have always shown the enthusiasm and goodwill to respond positively regardless of circumstances.

“Crucially they and the whole local community had already shown their commitment and foresight in having the local contribution for this project at the ready when the time arrived.”

The Chairperson of the Board of Management, Ronan Connolly, said the new extension was the culmination of a committed campaign to provide the best possible facilities at the school and he expressed his appreciation of everyone who had been involved in bringing the project to fruition over the years, including the Parents Association, the Board Of Management, parents and teachers.

The school-going population has grown rapidly in the area in recent years and the new classrooms will help meet the needs of the growing area into the future.

The school has grown from a fourteacher school in 1984 to today where it employs a total staff of 40.

The extension and refurbishment work was completed by local contractor Martin Fitzgibbon and Company along with architects Simon J Kelly and Partners.

The new school will be officially opened at 2pm on Sunday, May 29. A full programme of events are planned for the opening starting with a mass, celebrated by Bishop Kieran O’Reilly.

COUNTY Clare has missing out on millions of euro in annual funding allocated by the European Union (EU) because Clare County Council has not had a presence on the Southern and Eastern Regional Authority.

According to Cllr PJ Kelly (FF), more than € 440 million has been allocated to Irish projects over the last three years – but none of that money has come to County Clare.

“Last year Kerry, Cork and Waterford got a huge investment and we got none of it. We don’t seem to at the races for this funding. We need to have people who can see what is coming down the track and see what other people are getting and what we are not getting. We have got to look at this in the future,” said Cllr Kelly.

Speaking on this subject last night, the Mayor of Clare, Christy Curtin (Ind), said that Clare has not got its fair share of money down the years. Cllr Curtin also said that while successive county managers have made sure that the county has done well in terms of funding generally over the years, the employment of a person to directly interact with the Southern and Eastern Regional Authority would help the local authority to get a larger share of funding.

“The manager and his team of directors are very vigilant in terms of the money which is coming down the stream but we need someone who can tap into these organisations directly and see that we get our fair share of funding, which we haven’t got down the years,” he said.

This information came to light following a motion by North Clare Cllr Richard Nagle (FF) in which he asked what was being done to protect the Clare coastline from coastal erosion and in particular a section of road between Lahinch and Liscannor.

“I have a particular concern over a road entering the village of Liscannor. We have a situation now where there are more then 700,000 people visiting the Cliffs of Moher every year on this road and there is a large section of this road which is in danger of disappearing,” he said.

In response to this motion Director of Service for Clare County Council, Nora Kaye, said that a national directive on coastal erosion is expected to be issue in the coming weeks.

GOING back to education has the ability to become a life changing experience and become the agency for new job opportunity in the county, the co-ordinator of the ground-breaking programme training programme that operated throughout the county over the last nine months has claimed.

Speaking to The Clare People ahead of this Thursday’s finale to the 2010/11 Labour Market Activation Programme operated by Clare VEC, Rita McCarthy has said that the continuation of the programme would be a huge boost to providing job opportunities for hundreds of people across the county.

“In the current climate, when you listen to doom and gloom every day, back to education courses are key,” said Ms McCarthy. “The Labour Market Activation Programme covered a wide range of area and at different locations around the county and represented an opportunity for people,” she added.

The courses included outdoor recreation studies, renewable energy, heritage studies, health and community care and the catering and hospitality sector.

“Doing these courses have helped people make changes in their lives. They see a way ahead – this programme has made a difference to a lot of people,” said Ms McCarthy. “If you’re without work, you still have to do something, you still have to get up and get through the day.

“To have programmes like this in place for people is of huge benefit and gives people new hope. It gives structure to their day for a start, while also providing opportunity and ideas for new businesses, for work,” she said.

“We have a government jobs initiative coming out this week and we would hope that there will be funding for the Labour Market Activation Programmes under that. This was a special fund that was put aside for the government to generate training and education opportunities for people. It was strictly for unemployed people.”

CLARE County Council is not yet in a position to provide a date for completion of a contentious housing development in Shannon. That was the message delivered by the town manager at a meeting last week, where councillors expressed concern that the 22-unit development at Cluain Airne is at a standstill, much to the anger of local residents.

Cllr Gerry Flynn (Ind) placed a motion on the issue, in which he sought an update on the project. In a written response from the council, he was told that, following liquidation of the initial contracting com- pany, the process to secure a completion contractor has taken longer than expected.

Cllr Flynn told the meeting: “I’m only looking for two simple questions to be answered. When is the start date and when is the finish date?

“We are talking about a small site – 22 houses. That’s the least the residents of Cluain Airne deserve,” he said. He added that anti-social behaviour was taking place on the unfinished site.

Sinn Féin councillor Cathy McCafferty also raised concerns and said that “kids as young as five and six are swinging off scaffolding. It’s ridiculous the way it’s left at the moment.”

In response to a query she tabled, she was informed that security costs have reached € 15,000, while additional costs of € 75,000 had also been incurred by the council in surveying, site security and consultants fees. These costs are recoupable from the guarantor.

Fine Gael councillor Seán McLoughlin said the houses were started in June 2009 and it was envisaged they would be completed within 12 months. “Nobody seems to know what’s happening since. I’m beginning to wonder is there going to be enough money to finish the site,” he said.

Independent councillor Patricia McCarthy said the situation “has been allowed to drag on far too long. We seem not to be able to give a time limit. We need to get answers. We need to get action; get people on site and get people into the houses.”

Fine Gael councillor Mary Brennan said that the people of Cluain Airne were “living their worst nightmare”.

The Shannon town manager, Bernadette Kinsella, told councillors: “I share your total frustration. Without a doubt, it is a nuisance for the residents in the area. We have a significant level of expressions from people who are looking for a home.”

She said that the completion period from the time the work recommences until completion is 16 weeks, adding, “but what I don’t have is a start date”.

“There were delays in the retendering process. It had been our intention that we were expecting a nomination in January. The whole process is taking longer than anticipated,” she said.

“The funding for the scheme was always through means of department contributions and a council loan which would be funded then by way of sales,” said Ms Kinsella.

She said she hopes the project will be completed as soon as possible.

ONE OF the legends of traditional music in Clare was laid to rest in Doolin on Thursday when “Uncle Jerry” – John Joe Lynch – heard his final tune at the Holy Rosary Cemetery in Doolin.

Jerry, who has been synonymous with the great Kilfenora Céilí Band for more than seven decades, passed away last Tuesday, May 3, on the day before his 77th birthday. Jerry’s father, who was also christened John Joe, was a fiddle player and a founder member of the Kilfenora Céilí Band in 1907. After beginning his musical life on the mouth organ Jerry, influenced by the late great Joe Cooney, took up they accordion in his teenage years, before joining the Kilfenora’s officially in the late 1940s.

He was a member of the band during their famous three-in-a-row AllIreland successes in the 1950s and was the inspiration behind the current band repeating the same feat in the 1990s.

After collecting the third All-Ireland title in Ennis in 1956 Jerry, like so many others of his generation, moved to New York in the early 1960s where he worked on construc tion. He returned home in the 1990s and became the link between the old Kilfenora Céilí band and the modern band.

Jerry’s siblings Noreen and PJ were also in the band over the years as were his nephews Pat and John.

He gained the name “Uncle Jerry” because of his relationship with his nephew and current band leader John Lynch, and also to distinguish him from his nephew, the popular singer also called Jerry Lynch.

“Jerry was a wonderful character but he was also the last link between the great band of the 1950s and the modern band. He was always there to share his knowledge with us and was happy to share tunes with us or with anyone that he played with,” said current band leader John Lynch.

“He played music right through his entire life – he kept playing while he was in New York and was still playing. He started on the mouth organ but switched to the accordion because of the influence of Joe Cooney. This would have been unusual as everyone in the house would have played the fiddle but the band needed an accordion player at that time.”

Jerry’s influence on traditional music in Clare was immense – he helped to preserve the great heritage of tunes from earlier times and also the repertoire he learnt on his travels and from other great musicians such as Jimmy Shand.

He is survived by his wife Betty and daughter Tara as well as his wider family and many friend in Clare and all over the country.

AIR quality in Shannon is clean, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which is monitoring levels on a continuous basis.

The EPA has placed a mobile laboratory in the town and is actively analysing the quality of the air in the town and surrounding areas.

The initiative is set to continue for up to a year.

This is part of a comprehensive assessment of air quality in all major cities and towns in Ireland.

Initial results from the assessment show that levels of all parameters being measured are well below limit values set for the protection of human health, according to the EPA.

An assessment was started in March, on foot of requests from local town councillors. This assessment is done via a trailer, which is located at the rear of the civic offices in Shan- non. Analysers are contained in the trailer and these are read on a regular basis. Concentrations of oxides of nitrogen, sulphur dioxide, carbon monoxide and benzene and toluene are being measured.

According to Kevin Delaney of the EPA, the readings last month were good. “I have looked at the data for the past month and Shannon is pretty clean. That’s provisional data,” he said.

“We are called in to do assessments on a routine basis around the country. We were required to come down and do an air quality assessment within Shannon.

“We have a number of trailer units that we bring around the country and do assessments. We will be there (in Shannon) for six months; maybe up to a year,” he said. “We are assessing for parameters in accordance with the 2008 Cafe Directive.

“It came up at a councillors’ meeting in Clare and that is why we de- cided to do this,” Mr Delaney said.

At a meeting of Shannon Town Council last week, Independent councillor Gerry Flynn welcomed the news that the EPA was monitoring air quality in Shannon and said that businesses must play a key role in this.

“I’m looking forward to the findings. I’m glad that they are staying for 12 months. If it’s a decision I have to take on health or jobs, it’s health unfortunately. Every business has to make sure the Ts are crossed and the Is dotted. What we need in this town is clean industry,” he said.

Fine Gael councillor Seán McLoughlin said, “I would like to see 24-hour monitoring all the time.”

In addition to the trailers that are moving from one location to another, there is also a fixed network whereby a number of sites nationwide are monitored on a continuous basis. One of those sites is Ennis.