Category: News

A MAN burgled a hotel room in Ennis while “in the throes of a very bad addiction” to drugs, a court has been told.

Cathal Mulcaire (29), with addresses at Lifford Lodge, Lifford Road, Ennis; and Apartment 4, 59 Henry Street, Limerick; pleaded guilty to burglary at the Old Ground Hotel, Ennis, on June 16, 2009.

Inspector John Galvin told Ennis District Court on Friday that a hotel bedroom was entered by the accused and another individual at 7pm and a number of items, including a laptop and phone, were taken. The property was not recovered.

“Gardaí were called. The accused was identified through CCTV footage. He was co-operative with gardaí. The property had been moved on by the time gardaí spoke to him,” he said.

The court heard the accused had a number of previous convictions for theft-related offences.

Defending solicitor Daragh Hassett said at the time of this offence his client “was in the throes of a very bad addiction”.

“The goods taken were moved on very quickly. They were swapped to allow him to continue with his ad- diction. He was in a very bad place with a very bad addiction,” he said.

He said that his client has since “managed to wean himself off the drug”, having taken up a methadone programme.

“He is drug-free. He’s no trouble to anybody,” said Mr Hassett.

Judge Joseph Mangan noted: “He has a bad record. The items which he took aggravated the offence. I have to take into account they were not recovered.”

He imposed a six-month jail term and fixed a bond in the event of an appeal.

THE MAN who oversaw the establishment of the HSE admitted that reform of the administrative area of the organisation was needed.

The former Minister for Health Michéal Martin made his comments while beginning the first leg of the Fianna Fáil election campaign in Clare on Wednesday.

“I felt on the administrative side it could have been stronger at the beginning in terms of how it was structured, and I think reform can be undertaken there; but what I would caution against is any dismantling of the structure. The last thing the health service needs is another big overhaul of structures. In terms of the Fine Gael proposal I think they are very dangerous in terms of health and outcomes,” he said.

The Fianna Fáil leader was adamant that progress had been made in health in the last number of years, but more work needed to be done.

Deputy Martin was also asked to defend the failure of the € 39 million expansion to Ennis General Hospital, which was promised by his predecessor Bertie Ahern (FF) prior to the 2007 General Election, to materialise.

He also faced strong opposition to proposed plans to remove cardiac service from the Clare County Hospital. Deputy Martin attempted to defended previous promises by saying that all political parties made predictions in 2007 in terms of predicted growth of the economy.

He said that the change in that growth lead to change in policy – policy which he attributed to the HSE.

He said that since 2005 a number of people working in the HSE in Clare had increased and that the biggest killers in Ireland – heart disease and cancer – were being tackled.

The Fianna Fáil leader was well aware that the “hospital issue” was not going to go away anytime soon.

“For 45 years for 50 years if you go to Roscommon if you go to Nenagh if you go to Ennis there will always be an issue around the hospital,” he said.

“Where ever you have hospitals that are doing good work like Ennis you are going to have debate about it. You are going to have genuine positions adopted by different people on different sides of that debate and I think that is natural and that is something to be welcomed. This is an issue in this election and I guarantee you it will be an issue again in the next election.”

He claimed the Government put a lot of investment into hospitals and other infrastructure making the required health services more accessible to patients.

“We can now get from A to B anywhere in the country including this part of the country much faster than we could three years ago. That is significant in how you configure your health service and it should be borne in mind,” he said.

“Health is complex. We have to pull together in my view the critical mass of professional people and sufficient volume of patients to make sure we get best hospitals.

“I believe in that. I am not going to pretend to people that I don’t. I am not going to be dishonest with people and say we can do everything on every hospital site. There has been a bit of dishonesty on that debate along the way.”

AT A TIME when Fianna Fáil is changing its election strategy to run just one candidate in some constituencies, party leader Michéal Martin is confident not only about the two candidate strategy in Clare but that this strategy can return two Fianna Fáil TDs.

The Cork man was in Clare on Wednesday to begin the party’s election campaign and to rally the soldiers of destiny in the Banner county.

He told the gathered media that every constituency was different and he was confident the party has two very strong candidates in Clare.

“I am confident that they can win two seats here – yes,” he said.

“We have two seats, we have two deputies here. We will do very well in this election. We will bring the issues to the people and I think we will be elected. That is my position. Others have their position, I have mine.”

The party leader was well aware that is views did not necessarily tally with the national polls and he was keen on staying well away from any talks of surveys or predictions.

“I think the public out there are generally tired of talking about polls and seats. Obviously it is something the pundits love talking about.

“People are genuinely more interested in the issues, the future and what party has a real credible path to the future and that is what I am thinking of, and I think what John (Hillery) and Timmy (Dooley) have to do is talk about the issues. That is the value of an election campaign that is the value of debate.

“That is why I think it is great the a person like John Hillery takes a very courageous step from a relatively safe environment in a medical career and enters politics and say there is something I want to do something for my country.

“Timmy Dooley is a young man. He could have done other things as well, but he decided to commit himself to public life again.

“The value of a campaign is that you get an opportunity to talk through the issues and flesh them out because the issues are bigger now than they ever have been in terms of the future of the country.

“We cannot hide the real issues from the people. We have got to be honest with them and say there are no easy choices now but if we follow the correct path we will get there,” he added.

FINE Gael leader Enda Kenny came to town on Saturday last looking for what he described as “a history-making event here in Clare”.

He said he had every confidence in the party’s election strategy in the county and was even optimistic that the Banner County would return a record three Fine Gael TDs to Dáil Eireann.

The leader’s confidence comes amid internal issues in the party in Clare that maintain a fourth candidate should be added that is geographically better placed. Suggestions include poll topper Cllr Joe Cooney from the east, Cllr Martin Conway from the north or former TD Madeleine Taylor Quinn from the west of the constituency.

Deputy Kenny said that the decision not to run candidates in these areas was “all choices the party has to make”.

“Last time we ran four and got two against the opinions of everybody. On this occasion we decided to run three and we have two deputies Pat Breen and Joe Carey and the mayor of Shannon Tony Mulcahy. This is an exceptional team and experienced candidates,” he said while supporting the candidates in Ennis.

“I have made the deliberate policy of putting in place the best teams that we can. This is beyond the scope of any one individual and you need teams of professional competent people who are prepared to make decisions in a courageous and in a fair fashion. So I look to Clare and its electorate to judge fairly not only the merits of one candidate but the quality and the power of our plan.

“I am happy that the trio of Pat Breen, Joe Carey and Tony Mulcahy are on the verge of making history here. Their challenge and our supporters challenge is to translate our five point plan and what it means in every town and every town land in County Clare,” he added. “I have great faith and belief in these candidates,” the Fine Gael leader said, but he would not say if that faith extended to making one of them a minister should he become Taoiseach in the next month.

There is currently no Clare TD on the Fine Gael front bench.

THE day before the Fine Gael party launched its health policy, party leader Enda Kenny was telling the people of Clare that while the party would cease the reconfiguration of hospital services, it was too late to undo what had already been done.

“It is very difficult to undo work in the medical area once it has happened. As I move around the country I am being asked by so many hospitals, ‘can you restore facilities that have been taken away here?’ and my honest answer is I can’t because people don’t believe a situation like that, but before a service is taken away, before medical facilities are removed that is that time to make a case and Fine Gael has been very clear about that,” he said in response to questions about the future of Ennis General Hospital. “We don’t want anything closed down unless it is demonstrated that there is something better in its place. This is clearly not the case here.

“Fine Gael is committed to retention of medical services here in Ennis and the suspension of the removal of the cardiac facilities. Obviously Fine Gael’s overall view in the longer term is to change the health system to one of universal health where hospitals should be run by local trusts.

“There is little point in proceeding with a process that is blatantly not working as the regional hospital is chock-a-block. Our view is that you should not close down something until you have something better in its place” he said.

Deputy Kenny said that once a patient gets into the system it works well, the problem is getting into the health system quickly.

He also denied allegations that universal health insurance would close a hospital like Ennis describing the suggestion as “absolute rubbish”.

Fine Gael candidate Cllr Tony Mulcahy said the leader gave a commitment to the candidates that the party would retain acute services at the hospital “in their current format”. That would mean the retention of cardiac services and the anaesthetists at that hospital that has already lost its 24-hour A&E service.

TWO West Clare water treatment plants provided approximately 2,000 cubic metres per day of water to Ennis and Clarecastle during the freezing weather, despite suffering severe leaks.

According to figures from the Water and Sanitary Services in Clare County Council, before the thawfreeze problems at the end of December and beginning of January, the combined production of the two Doolough treatment plants were approximately 13,500 cubic metres per day.

During the period December 20, 2010, to January 6, 2011, the average production was approximately 20,700 cubic metres per day – an increase of 53 per cent on normal supply.

As about 2,000 cubic metres per day of this water was sent to the Ennis area to ensure domestic and industrial supply in Clarecastle, the amount of water being lost in the area to leaks was estimated at 18,700 cubic metres squared.

During the later half of this month the two plants were continuing to lose 25 per cent of their combined normal supply to leaks indicating that there was still a lot of work to be done in locating and repairing leaks at west Clare’s largest treatment plants.

The Gortglass Lake treatment plant lost 500 cubic metres, or 50 per cent of its usually supply, every day during the bad weather due to leaks.

Council officials attributed the relatively few cases of water loss in west Clare this winter to “good spare capacity” in west Clare treatment plants and the large sizing and relatively new condition if much of the network.

There was therefore little or no need for overnight shut-offs to allow reservoirs to replenish as had to be done in the rest of the county.

“However, even though consumers may not have been as directly affected, the leaks and losses of treated water caused by the weather were, and still remain, just as important an issues in west Clare as in the rest of the county,” explained Sean Ward, Senior Engineer with Clare County Council.

“Unsustainable additional expense has been and is being incurred in locating and repairing leaks, and in treating and pumping the additional quantities of water being demanded by the network.”

CLARE’S only retiring member of Dáil Éireann, Deputy Tony Killeen, is set to receive over a quarter of a million euro lump sum for his years of service in Leinster House, which also takes into account his time as being both a Minister of State and full member of Cabinet.

The lump sum pay-off to Fianna Fáil’s biggest vote-getter in Clare over the past two decades with 19 years Dáil service to his name is part of overall payments to retiring TDs, which is set to cost the Irish exchequer over € 10m during the next cou- ple of years.

Deputy Killeen will receive a € 276,163 once off payment for the 19 years he represented Clare in the Dáil, while his pension will be worth € 68,984 when it kicks in.

Deputy Killeen first entered political life when he was elected to Clare County Council in 1985. He retained his seat in the 1991 election and he served as both chairman of Clare County Council and the Shannon Status Committee before winning his Dáil seat in 1992 and retaining it in subsequent elections in 1997, 2002 and 2007.

Deputy Killeen’s distinction of holding down junior ministerial and full-ministerial portfolios over the past seven years will ensure that he will benefit from better pension terms than retiring deputies who were backbench TDs.

Under the pension structures for retiring TDs, former ministers are deemed to be office holders and are therefore paid an office holders’ allowance on top of their TDs salary.

Deputy Killeen was elevated to ministerial rank by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern in 2004 when he was made Minister of State for Labour Affairs. After the 2007 election he became the first ever Minister of State for Environment and Energy, while in 2008 he became Minister of State for Fisheries and Forestry. His elevation to full Cabinet status came in 2010 when Brian Cowen became Taoiseach and made him Minister for Defence.

Deputy Killeen is one over 40 current Dáil deputies, who have announced their retirement ahead of the General Election, the most high profile of these being the man who appointed him to Cabinet, Taoiseach Brian Cowen.

LABOUR’S hopes of winning a Dáil seat in Clare for the first time since 1992 received another major boost this week with the confirmation that a second member of what party leader Eamon Gilmore has called “our extended family” has come out in support of Michael McNamara’s bid to be elected to the 31st Dáil.

Labour’s most successful candidate at local government level elections in Clare over the past half a century, former county councillor Martin Lafferty has backed McNamara’s campaign to become only the third Labour candidate after Paddy Hogan and Dr Mosajeé Bhamjeé to be elected to Dáil Éireann.

“I’ve met him and I’m impressed with him,” Lafferty told The Clare People this week, “and I’m backing him to get elected to the Dáil. I will do my canvassing in my own way and I have been out looking for support for his bid to get elected to the Dáil and I will be asking all the people who voted for me down the years to vote for McNamara,” added Laffterty, who was a member of Clare County Council for 33 years between 1974 to 2007.

Lisdoonvarna man Lafferty was elected as a Labour Party candidate in the Clare County Council elections of 1974, 1979, 1985 and ‘91, before leaving the party in 1992 in opposition to the party decision to go into coalition with Fianna Fáil.

“I left Labour because before the General Election in 1992 party leader Dick Spring said that ‘the culture of Fianna Fáil was a cancer of Irish society’. Labour said they wouldn’t go into coalition with Fianna Fáil but they did, so I owed it to my supporters to leave. But now I’m supporting the Labour candidate, because I am impressed by his credentials,” added Lafferty.

Lafferty’s is the latest former Labour stalwart to embrace the party’s cause in Clare once more, following on from the decision of former mayor of Clare and current member of both Clare County Council and Shannon Town Council, Cllr Patricia McCarthy to back Mr McNamara’s Dáil bid.

“The support of the extended Labour family is crucial to the party’s chances of winning a seat in Clare,” party leader Eamon Gilmore told The Clare People on a visit to the constituency two weeks ago.

Meanwhile, current mayor of Clare Cllr Christy Curtin, who is another former Labour Party member, has declared that “the jury is still out on who I will support in the election”. However, The Clare People can reveal that party activists are hopeful that behind the scenes the county’s First Citizen will back Mr McNamar’s Dáil bid, without compromising his independent status.

IN LAUNCHING his campaign to be elected to the 31st Dáil, Independent candidate Cllr James Breen has told The Clare People that expenses for TDs should be “abolished altogether”, forcing them to live off their salary € 90,000 a year.

Cllr Breen, who became the only Independent to top the poll in a Clare election in 2002 and the first nonparty member to be elected in the county in 54 years, has called for the abolition of expenses as part of “a complete reform of government”, both at national and local level.

“It’s not an election gimmick,” Cllr Breen told The Clare People this week. “There has to be a complete reform of politics, a meaningful reform of government and that includes Dáil and county council level.

“There are 166 TDs in Dáil Éireann. That’s too much. Dáil representation should be reduced.

“The Senate should be meaningfully reformed or abolished. The numbers of county councillors should be reduced.

“We should reduce the numbers of foreign conferences that’s costing the country millions of euros every year. We should reduce Dáil expenses and abolish them altogether and oblige TDs to live on their salary with no expenses,” added Cllr Breen.

The Clare County Council website, which publishes county councillors’ expenses on-line, shows that Cllr Breen claimed € 28,739.89 from June 2009, when he was re-elected to the local authority, to June 2010.

This figure includes his basic salary of € 8,361.96 for the last six months of 2009 and € 9,717.75 for 2010. During the 12 months he also claimed € 4,368.61 for attending conferences, while he availed of the annual allowances in those two six month periods of € 2442.13 in 2009 and € 2,947.44 in 2010.

“We need openness and transparency in government, which we haven’t had over the last number of years,” continued Cllr Breen in championing a overhaul of the expenses regime. “The TD earns nearly three times the average wage of people and they should be able to live on that. The person driving to and from Shannon working on the average industrial wage is getting no travelling time.

“I have no qualms if expenses are abolished in the morning. It’s not a gimmick to get elected. It’s something I believe in,” added Cllr Breen.

During his five years in Dáil Éireann from 2002 to 2007, Cllr Breen was entitled to the Independent TDs allowance. Currently the allowance given to Independent members of the Dáil is over € 40,000 per annum.

GARDAÍ are urging homeowners to be vigilant following an increase in the theft of home heating oil around Clare.

A Garda spokesman explained that thieves are targeting oil tanks that are not fitted with locks.

“The theft of home heating oil and other fuels is on the increase across the western region in County Clare. A feature that has been noticed by the investigating gardaí is how easily accessible the openings in storage tanks are. We are appealing for people to be extra vigilant and to take extra security measures to protect their fuel from being easily stolen.

He added, “Locks should be on the openings and where large storage tanks are located, access to them should be strictly controlled. Where large vehicles are parked overnight we appeal for the drivers to park them in well lit areas or in secure compounds and parked in such a way that the opening of the fuel tanks is easy to access.”

Gardaí have also issued a warning in relation to a computer scam. “A number of people have been rang by someone claiming to represent Microsoft or other well known computer firms and informing the person that a problem has risen with their com- puter. They claim that they can fix this problem over the phone by getting the owner to enter certain data on their computer. No problems have been noticed by the owner before the phone call. However they look for credit card details first as they claim a small charge is necessary before proceeding,” said the spokesman.

“Sometimes the caller asks you to download a file to ensure that the “so-called problem” is identified and tackled. You could be downloading a virus or spyware, which will allow the caller to access your computer at will. This is a scam and is purely designed to obtain the details of the owner’s credit card and other personal details.”

Gardaí say that anyone who suspects they may have been the victim of the scam should report the matter to the Gardaí or the data commissioner.