Category: News

OFFICIALS from Ennis Town Council are to hold a meeting with the Chamber of Commerce with the aim of resolving parking issues in Ennis “once and for all”, Town Manager Ger Dollard has said.

Speaking at yesterday’s monthly meeting of Ennis Town Council, Mr Dollard said the meeting was being organised to address “actual or perceived problems” with parking in Ennis.

He said it was necessary to resolve the matter as ongoing criticism of parking policy in Ennis is doing a “great disservice” to the town.

Mr Dollard was speaking during a lengthy debate on new parking byelaws for Ennis, which heard calls for parking concessions to be given to Health Services Executive (HSE) workers in Ennis.

HSE staff have requested parking permits from the council, claiming the reduction in maximum stay car parks from three hours to two hours “would greatly inconvenience staff and patients accessing services at Francis Street and Bindon Street clinics.

Mr Dollard said that any decision to grant preferential treatment to one particular group in Ennis would, in his view, “be inappropriate and pos- sibly illegal”.

Mr Dollard said members of the executive would “strongly advise” against councillors amending the council’s draft parking byelaws to allow for the granting of parking permits to HSE workers.

Mr Dollard said that councillors had been informed of proposed changes to the council’s parking permits policy last November.

This was disputed by councillors who claimed that they had not been made aware that the changes would affect frontline HSE workers.

Cllr Johnny Flynn (FG) said that a concession for HSE workers had been in place since 1996.

Cllr Paul O’Shea (Lab) said the council should be working to support people who are working with the most vulnerable people in society.

The Mayor of Ennis, Cllr Tommy Brennan (Ind), told the meeting that it would be easy for councillors to act in what he called a “populist” fashion to try and secure parking concession for different groups in Ennis.

Cllr Brennan said the issue of parking concessions had been discussed last year during the council’s discussions on the preparation of the 2011 budget.

He asked that if concessions are introduced, “where do we get the money to balance the budget”.

However Cllr Brennan said that solution could be found if council officials entered discussions with the HSE.

Cllr Brian Meaney (GP) said the workers are not “looking for a free pass” and are willing to pay for parking.

He urged the council to deal with cars owned by HSE workers in the same way they deal with ambulances and cars owned by doctors.

Mr Dollard said he would meet with the HSE prior to next month’s council meeting. The byelaws were subsequently passed.

THE Mayor of Ennis, Cllr Tommy Brennan, has called on the incoming Government to make good on promises to upgrade the sewage treatment network in Ennis.

Plans to upgrade wastewater treatment plants in Ennis were first announced in 1995 but the project suffered a major setback in 2001 when the Department of the Environment refused funding.

Gerry O’Donnell of Clare County Council’s water services section, told the meeting that the council is currently working on an overall strategy for the waste water treatment infrastructure in Ennis.

He said that while previous plans had been drawn up, the new strategy had to take into account the “raft of environmental legislation” that has been published in recent years.

Cllr Johnny Flynn (FG) said that the Clondroadmore project opens up the potential for commercial and residential development in Ennis.

Cllr Brennan (Ind) said that Clondroadmore formed part of the overall strategy and that the incoming Government had given funding commitments to the council.

In supporting the upgrade to Clonroadmore, Cllr Brennan called on the council to seek funding for the overall wastewater network scheme.

Cllr Neylon was skeptical about the project, describing it as a sticking plaster and claiming councillors will still be talking about in “30 years time”.

“We might never get the chance again. The plug was pulled in 2001. We’ve said it before, but if an industrialist were to come to town we would have to refuse planning because we don’t have capacity,” he added.

The council intends to upgrade the existing waste water treatment facility at Clonroadmore. The current design capacity of the treatment plant is 17,000 pe. According to Town Manager Ger Dollard, the proposal will allow for a design capacity of 30,150 pe. The project will improve stormwater capacity and treatment at the plant as well as increasing the plant’s hydraulic capacity.

AROUND 50 groups are expected to participate in this year’s St Patrick’s Day parade in Ennis.

The announcement was made yesterday by town clerk Eddie Power who said that currently 30 groups had registered to take part in the parade on Thursday, March 17.

Mr Power told yesterday’s Ennis Municipal Policy Committee (MPC) meeting that more community groups and associations are expected to sign up in the coming days.

Mr Power said the parade offered the perfect opportunity to promote the vibrant and active community that existed in Ennis.

The parade will commence at 11am on March 17 from the Courthouse in Ennis and follow a route along Newbridge Road, to Abbey Street, O’Connell Square, O’Connell Street and to terminate in the Market.

The organising of the parade is well underway at this stage. Community groups and associations are preparing for what has become a significant community event in the local calen- dar.

Mr Power added that the parade would last for roughly an hour.

MPC chairman Cllr Johnny Flynn (FG) said that St Patrick’s had assumed greater significance for many famillies due to the high number of young people being forced to emigrate to look for employment.

He described the multicultural aspect of the Ennis parade as “extraordinary”.

Cllr Paul O’Shea (Lab) praised the work of the Ennis St Patrick’s Day committee but added that there was “room for improvement”.

He urged the council to consider inviting groups from England, Australia and American to perform at next year’s parade.

Mr Power said that a delegation from the German town of Langenfeld had attended last year’s parade in Ennis.

Cllr Michael Guilfoyle (Ind) said there was a cost factor associated with inviting groups from abroad to perform at the event.

“They don’t come on a volountary basis,” he added.

CLARE can become the nationwide leader in fighting the recession, thanks to a new initiative being launched this week to make the county capital Ennis the friendliest town in Ireland.

The Ennis Development Forum and Ennis Chamber of Commerce is launching its ‘Create the Magic’ campaign this week, by bringing in international consultant Kathleen Sullivan, whose company KT Sullivan & Associates is based in Charleston, South Carolina that was voted America’s favourite city in 2010.

“Ms Sullivan lives between Charleston and Ennis,” says Aoife Madden of the Ennis Development Forum “and she has gladly come on board to give a seminar to Clare businesses this Thursday,” he adds.

“Her company focuses on inspired leadership and customer service excellence and we want to draft up a customer charter for Ennis business that can help them going forward and make Ennis the friendlies town in Ireland,” says Cllr Johnny Flynn, who is also one of the driving forces behind the forum.

“This is Ennis refusing to sit back,” says Aoife Madden. “We are watching other towns fall down around them and we’re not the worst in Ireland, because with the recession we’re six to 12 months behind other towns and a determined to fight the recession and the goal of the forum is that Clare will become the first county to come out of recession. We are determined to do that.”

Thursday’s seminar, which takes place in The Old Ground Hotel at 6.15pm follows on from the Business Forum held with the General Election candidates last month with the aim of retaining and creating jobs.

And, this interaction with public represenatives will be taken to the next stage when members of the Ennis Deveopment Forum meet with Clare’s newly elected TDs.

“The business community want to meet with them every three months that they are in office during the lifetime of the new government,” says Cllr Flynn, “to see what they’re doing for the town and the county.

The first meeting with Deputies Pat Breen, Joe Carey, Michael McNamara and Timmy Dooley is scheduled to take place on March 28.

AN ENNIS man has been brought before a special sitting of the district court on Sunday, charged with threatening to kill his ex-partner.

Michael McDonagh (20), of Ashline, Kilrush Road, Ennis, is facing three charges of threatening to kill or cause serious harm to his former girlfriend Amanda Malone.

It is alleged that he telephoned her last Friday, March 4, and that he sent her two text messages, containing threats, the following day.

Garda Marie Burke told the court that she charged the accused on Saturday evening. Free legal aid was granted by Judge Joseph Mangan, on foot of a request from defence solici- tor Daragh Hassett.

Mr Hassett told the court that his client “denies fully the allegations in this matter”.

Inspector Tom Kennedy said that gardaí were opposing bail and said gardaí were concerned for the safety of Ms Malone. “She was in a relationship with the defendant which has now broken down,” said Inspector Kennedy.

Gda Burke told the court: “According to her [Ms Malone], she received a phone call from Michael McDonagh in which he threatened to kill her, at 18.54 hours on March 4. Ms Malone alleged he asked her where she was and that he was going to kill her.”

Gda Burke said that Ms Malone made a complaint about this to gardaí. While the complainant was at Ennis Garda Station on Saturday, she received a text message which she said was from the accused.

The garda said that she spoke to the accused on Saturday afternoon in relation to the allegations. “When I alerted him to the allegations; once I told him I was arresting him, he took a mobile phone out of his pocket, snapped it in two and smashed it into a number of pieces,” said Gda Burke. She said that gardaí were unable to retrieve information from the broken phone.

Amanda Malone told the court that she had a child with the accused, but that the relationship has ended. She said the defendant phoned her last Friday evening and was “roaring” at her. She said he told her he was “going to get me”.

Mr Hassett put it to her: “You are not happy this relationship is over.” She replied: “I’m very happy.” The solicitor said: “You pleaded with Mr McDonagh to take you back into his life.” She denied this, adding: “I’m afraid of him.” Mr Hassett said: “You have been jilted and you have made all of this up.” She denied this.

Michael McDonagh told Judge Mangan that he did not phone or text Ms Malone, as had been claimed. He said that he met her on Friday and she asked him to get back with her, but he declined. The judge remanded the accused in custody to appear in court again later this week.

FOR only the second time in the history of the State, Clare will be without a full cabinet ministry, while having three government TDs elected in the county.

This state of affairs will be confirmed on Wednesday when Enda Kenny becomes the country’s 13th Taoiseach and selects a Cabinet that won’t have any Clare representation.

The only other time when a government with three TDs in Clare failed to win a seat at Cabinet was during the ill-fated 1992-94 coalition between Fianna Fáil and Labour.

Now, almost two decades on, Clare’s failure to win high office is being blamed locally on “internal Fine Gael politics” that came between the party and a history-making haul of three seats in the constituency.

“The fact is,” one Fine Gael councillor told The Clare People this week, “that had Fine Gael shown the ambition to win three seats and blow Fianna Fáil out of the water altogether and then gone out and done it, Clare could not have been denied the right to sit at Cabinet.

“This is what Fianna Fáil did in 1997. They had a vote strategy and managed their vote brilliantly rather than having a situation where every candidate was out for themselves and as a result they won three seats. The reward was a full ministry. Fine Gael could have that now,” the councillor claimed.

Now Fine Gael are clinging to the hope that a junior ministry will come the county’s way, but both Pat Breen and Joe Carey could be left disappointed as the massive majority that see the combined Fine Gael/Labour numbers at 113 means huge competition for Minister of State positions.

“We have returned three Government TDs here tonight and three Government TDs can make a difference. I would hope also that the Taoiseach would take the opportunity to give one of us in Government a ministry,” General Election poll-topper Pat Breen told The Clare People last week.

However, Clare’s failure to gain any type of post would leave former TD Dónal Carey as the only politician from the Fine Gael or Labour benches to have held down a government ministry, having served as Minister of State during the lifetime of the Rainbow coalition from 1994 to ‘97.

COUNTY Clare is lagging behind the rest of the country in terms of job creation, with the recession now likely to linger in the Banner County when job growth returns in other areas.

New figures releases from the Central Statistic Office (CSO) revealed that 10,814 people signed on the Live Register in Clare last month, the second highest amount recorded in Clare since records began.

The number of people signing on the Live Register nationally has fallen by 22,624 or 4.51 per cent since the peak of the unemployment crisis in August of 2010. However, the number of people signing on in Clare has actually increased by almost one per cent (0.81 per cent) over the same period.

This means that the rate of change in the numbers signing on in Clare is more than 5 per cent worse than the number signing on in the rest of the country.

According to CSO figures, 10,814 people signed onto the Live Register in Clare last month, a drop of 69 peo- ple from the January figures.

More than half of all those people signing on were located in Ennis, where 5,998 people signed on last month. This represents a small drop of 0.34 per cent or 21 people since January.

Similar small drops were recorded around the county with offices in Ennistymon, Tulla and Kilrush reporting 1,747, 1,568 and 1,501 people signing on respectively.

While the news is bad in Clare, Seán Murphy of Chamber Ireland believe that the figures indicate a stabilisation of the unemployment levels nationally.

“The seasonally adjusted Live Register figures provide another indication of an ongoing stabilisation in the economy. While this suggests that we are slowly turning our economy and jobs market around, clearly much needs to be done to reduce unemployment levels further,” he said.

Chambers Ireland has called on the new Government to abolish Employment Regulation Orders (ERO) and Registered Employment Agreements (REA) as a means of prompting jobs growth.

THE Doolin Unit of the Irish Coastguard has thrown its support behind Clare County Council’s plans for a € 6 million development of Doolin Pier.

The planning department of Clare County Council has received more than 30 submissions from members of the public in relation to the project, which is due to be decided in the coming days.

Plans for the pier had been opposed by local surfing groups on the grounds that the development would damage two world renowned waves located at Crab Island and Doolin Pier.

A decision on Clare County Council Part 8 planning permission was due in December last but the elected members of the council asked for more time to be allowed for submissions to be made. A final decision is due to be made at next Monday’s March meeting of the local authority.

In his submission to Clare County Council, Mattie Shannon of the Doolin Unit of the Irish Coastguard said that the new proposal would make the pier safer for use.

“It will make it much safer for commercial craft to use the new pier while Doolin Coastguard will have the space it needs at the existing facility with reduced congestion,” he said.

The project also received supportive submissions from a number of local organisations including The Russell Centre and Doolin Tourism, while a large number of submissions were also received from local and national surf organisations.

In a submission lodged by Cliodhna Fawl of the West Coast Surf Club in Lahinch it is claimed that the pier will be a “serious danger” to surfers in the area.

“Apart from the damage that the proposed work will undoubtedly do to the world famous wave environment, the design poses a serious and significant health and safety threat to the surfers accessing the waves at Doolin Point and Crab Island,” she says.

“Surf tourism is a highly important and valuable income stream for west Clare, throughout the year, and to proceed with the proposed works without any assessment of the impact on these waves or without any input from surfers sends the wrong message not only outside of Clare but also outside of Ireland.”

LESS than two weeks after the county was recognised with three awards for encouraging people to speak Irish, an event that will see even more Clare people attempt a “cúpla focail gaeilge” is to be launched.

The programme of events for 2011 Seachtain na Gaeilge will be launched in Ennis this Thursday by well known Irish language writer and musician Maidhc Dainín Ó Sé and Bainisteoir Náisiúnta de Sheachtain na Gaeilge Órla Nic Suibhne.

Hundreds of people are expected to participate in a wide range of events during the week at locations in Ennis, Kilkee, Kilrush, Shannon, Miltown Malbay, Tulla, Lisdoonvarna and Kilmaley.

Emer Ní Fhlaitheartaigh, Oifigeach Forbartha Gaeilge, Clare County Council, said “Seachtain na Gaeilge takes place less than a fortnight after Coiste Glóir na hInse won three national language awards for the promotion of Irish in the spheres of education, the media and public service. This success underlines the progress that is being made at a local level to encourage greater use of the Irish language in everyday life and greater participation in initiatives that take place throughout the year.

“We anticipate that this year’s programme of events will again involve hundreds of people of all ranges of fluency. The vast range of events due to take place around the county demonstrates that the Irish language is vibrant, alive and exciting in the hearts of the people of Clare,” she said.

Clare County Council, An Clár as Gaeilge, Clare County Library and a wide range of voluntary bodies have jointly assumed the role of co-ordinating a countywide programme for this annual festival.

Once again a large number of events will take place at primary and secondary schools throughout Clare with some schools hosting their own events, including Réalt na Mara in Kilkee and Scoil Sheanáin Naofa in Kilrush. Workshops in singing and dancing have been organised to take place in schools throughout the county.

This year’s Seachtain na Gaeilge also coincides with the Ennis Book Club Festival featuring Eddie Lenihan in Scéal Eile Bookshop, Féile Scoldrámaíochta today (Tuesday), as well as Féile na hInse which is expected to attract in excess of 2,000 people to the town later this month and the Roibeárd Ó Cathasaigh devised Rabhlaí Rabhlaí in Glór, Ennis on March 31.

HISTORY was made in the Galway East yesterday – but it was a long time in coming. After a marathon 28 hours of counting, Labour’s Colm Keaveney did just enough to take the final of four seats – the party’s first ever inroad in the long history of the constituency.

Keaveney will now join Micheal Kitt of Fianna Fáil and Paul Connaughton and Ciaran Cannon of Fine Gael in the Dáil. Though widely predicted to be in contention for a seat, Keaveney’s election was one of the big surprises of the count after he polled a disappointing 4,200 first preferences.

The drama of Keaveney’s eventual election began, in truth, with the performance of his running mate Lorraine Higgins. Higgins, who covered the southern half of the constituency, came in with in a disappointing tenth place after the first count with 3,577.

But the transfers were all going red and Higgins survived count after count, staying just ahead of the chop, until the fifth count when the flood of preferences could no longer save her.

By this time she had increased her share of the vote to just under 5,000 and, with Keaveney next in line to be eliminated, a massive transfer was needed to keep the Tuam man alive and kicking.

Against all the odds the flow the votes materialised with Higgins transferring just under 4,000 votes to her party colleague – lifting him above Fine Gael’s Tom McHugh and Jimmy McClearn and the highly fancied Independent Tim Broderick and Sean Canny.

So dramatic was the manner of the Keaveney comeback that few could have begrudged the recount called by the Fine Gael’s Tom McHugh. But there was no changing the result with Keaveney making history to take Labour’s first ever seat in Galway East.

No doubt there will be many disappointed Fine Gaelers in the constituency today, with the party’s hopes of winning a third seat faltering at the final hurdle. There was much success for the party on the day however as Paul Connaughton held onto the seat vacated by his father and former PD leader Ciaran Cannon taking a second seat for the party.

There had been some contention surrounding Cannon’s selection ahead of the election, with some local party members upset that he was added to the ticket by the Fine Gael hierarchy in Dublin.

Fianna Fail’s Michael Kitt was the only sitting TD returned by the electorate, taking the seat on the eight count.