Category: News

IT NOW seems unlikely that the voters of Clare will not be asked to turn out for a General Election before January or February, as The Green Party had promised before Christmas.

That was the message from Clare TD and Minister for Defense Tony Killeen who said over the weekend that the General Election is now unlikely to take place before March.

This is to give time for the Financial Bill to pass through the Dáil, a process which could take more than two months to complete. Once the Financial Bill is successfully through the Dáil and the Dáil is dissolved by President Mary McAleese, it will take at least one month for an election to take place.

“It would seem unlikely to me that the election would come before March,” said Minister Killeen, who also raised the possibility of hosting a referendum on the future of the Seanad at the same time as the General election.

“In the kind of time scale that is envisioned for the Finance Bill it would seem to be to be possible [to host the Seanad referendum] but I am not aware that it has been considered yet.”

Meanwhile, Labour yesterday has confirmed that they will be calling for the abolition of the Seanad as part of their programme for government.

It is also understood that behind the scenes talks have taken place between Fianna Fáil and the Green Party and both side of the coalition are said to be receptive to the idea of getting rid of the Seanad.

The Green Party said two months ago there should be a general election held before the end of January. However, they have since cooled towards the idea and hope to push legislation through in the coming months

AMONG the holiday heroes who keep the county on track are the boys and girls in blue.

In Clare, gardaí worked round the clock for the entire period, with more than 30 gardaí manning the station in Ennis at any one time and three times that many covering the entire 24 hours of Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, St Stephen’s Day, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.

In Killaloe, there were between 15 and 20 dedicated members on duty for the entire festive period and other stations had similar rotas. And the need for Gardaí to give up their holiday days in pursuit of keeping the peace was proved when the activity for the period between Christmas Eve and Sunday was reviewed.

The members manned 26 checkpoints across the county, made a total of 63 arrests, dealt with four missing persons – who were all thankfully found – and were called to deal with a number of sudden deaths, none of which are now being treated as suspicious.

They also attended road traffic accidents and mounted checks for speeding and dangerous driving as well as drink driving. They made a total of ten arrests on suspicion of drink driving and of the 34 arrests made in Ennis, 17 were under the Public Order Act.

According the Gardaí nationally, drink driving arrests are down so far and drivers are becoming more compliant with staying within the limits when they intend to get behind the wheel.

SHANNON region tourism providers are hoping for a much-needed injection of dollars after it was revealed that enquiries from US tour operators looking at holidays here are up ten per cent.

But there’s work to be done, Clare representative with the Hotel’s Federation, Michael Vaughan says, in the wake of figures which show visitors to Ireland are down one million on the numbers that came here in 2009.

Mr Vaughan said that bringing the visitors back to Clare “relies on us getting our product and our price right but for overseas visitors it’s also reliant on us getting links to markets through Shannon airport”.

Mr Vaughan said that flights between Ireland and a main German airport are a priority for the region. “We have so many attractions which that markets wants: cycling, boating, walking and we really need a link so they can come here.”

Mr Vaughan said that while domestic tourism in the region “held its own” last year, the lucrative UK market took a serious dive.

“The UK market has really dropped. Its possibly because people there have stopped taking a second holiday and are just taking one sun holiday. Ireland is seen as being too like the UK if people are cutting back.”

But there are some heartening signs, with US tour operator enquiries up 10 per cent on last year.

“A big question for next year is whether Shannon Development will find funding to promote the region. It seems as though the € 2.5 million Shannon Catchment fund is gone – it has just been absorbed into Tourism Ireland.”

He added that if “every tourism interest in the region plays its part, we will survive and grow”.

The market has come a long way in working on the perception of value for money which had dogged Irish tourism in the Celtic Tiger years.

“We need to do what we do very well. Giving people a great welcome and value for money packages and experiences,” said Michael.

The total number of overseas visits to Ireland in 2010 was down by 16 per cent on the previous year, according to the new report.

The Irish Tourist Industry Confederation says it is hopeful that visitor numbers will increase in the coming year. The end of year review from the ITIC estimates that 5.5 million people travelled to Ireland in the last 12 months, down one million on the 2009 total.

In the last three years, annual revenue from overseas visitors has declined by € 1.7 billion. Tourist numbers from Britain have fallen sharply in the same period.

A PRIMARY school in Ennis is participating in a major research project aimed at compiling a new database of information for historians.

The Junior Genealogist Initiative has been underway at the Ennis National School for the past month. Under the initiative, students are asked to collect memorial cards of people who were born or died in Clare, and bring them in to school. Cards are then copied and returned safely to their owners.

Over 1,000 cards have been copied so far at Ennis National where students have really embraced the spirit of the initiative.

The purpose of this project is to compile a repository of historical detail and family information for future genealogists and historians.

It is also an objective of this project to use genealogy as a practical learning tool for children to deepen their awareness and appreciation of the origins of their own families, their communities and their broader society.

It is also hoped that the project could be used in the classroom as an interesting, enjoyable and practical addition to the existing curriculum, in which the children themselves would play a leading role.

Clare Education Centre will collect the copies from all Clare schools for presentation to Clare County Library, genealogy section. This will ensure that the memory of all these deceased people will be preserved, and accessible to descendents of Clare families into the future. The Junior Genealogist Initiative will close on January 17.

The project is sponsored by the Department of Tourism, Culture and Sport, and is designed to give children an appreciation of the importance of preserving knowledge of their own community.

The project is also supported by the Clare Roots Society. The Clare Roots Society, brainchild of Ennis man Larry Brennan, was formed in April 2006 as an amateur family history group in Clare.

The society meets once a month in Ennis, and now has over 100 members. The society aims to provide a forum for family history and genealogical research with emphasis on County Clare.

UNPRECEDENTED weather brings once-in-a-lifetime challenges for the small army of workers whose job it is to keeps the counties roads open in all conditionals.

While some roads around the county were blocked by snow and ice in the run up to Christmas, most other were kept open to allow the majority of Clare people to prepare for the holiday.

According to county engineer, Tom Tiernan, the run up to Christmas 2010, was the busiest that Clare County Council has ever had to deal with.

“The road workers were as busy as they have ever been in the run up to Christmas but in a very short time after Christmas Day the roads began to sort themselves out when the thaw happened and the integrity of roads returned again. Of course it went from the roads to another difficulty with the water which other people are dealing with at the moment,” said Tom.

“There was a variety of issues to be dealt with on the roads. As was the case all over the country we had to prioritise keeping the main roads around the county open and opera- tional so we had about 600 kilometres of national routes in Clare which we worked on. We also succeeded in keeping most of the regional routes open and operational other than for a few small sections for short periods of time.

“We had one severe snow storm in a region around Kilrush and that had a severe impact on an area down there around the N68. For the first time ever in the county we had to deploy a snow-plough but that worked well and within a number of hours after that snow fall the Kilrush Road was operational once again, once it got a substantial application of salt following the ploughing.”

Despite the best efforts of Clare County Council, Mr Tiernan is still conscious that some people were not able to reach towns and shops in the way they normally would in the run up to Christmas.

“There is no doubt about it, some areas of the network which were off the main road network were not in good condition through some of the cold snap and that made it difficult not just for our staff who had to spend long hours outside of their normal work time dealing with these roads but we were also conscious of the fact that this upset a significant proportion of the population of the county,” continued Tom.

“We are conscious that this effected some people who were not able to go out to do their shopping and it effected business as well as they had the disappointment of not having the benefit of the level of business that they might normally enjoy at that time of year. So there was a heavy responsibility involved in having the road network in as good a condition as possible.

“We had to prioritise keeping the main road network in a good condition as possible we also had to give a lot of attention to keeping the rest of the network in as good a condition as possible.

“We have almost 4,500 kilometres of roads in the county and it was never going to be easy to insure that the work we did was the greatest benefit to the greatest number of people but I think that we succeeded reasonably well in that.

“It is not possible to get everything right for everyone but we had a number of strategies in place and did as well as we could do.”

THE BALLYVAUGHAN Community Development Group says that it will oppose the “wanton destruction of the rural environment” by the National Roads Authority (NRA).

The group is calling for local organisations from all over the county to join them in opposing the NRA’s new signage policy for national roads.

In a statement to The Clare People , the NRA said that they had already consulted with Fáilte Ireland and Clare County Council in relation to the signs and would not be meeting with the north Clare group.

“What this amounts to is the wanton destruction of the rural environment by the NRA without planning permission or any consultation with the local people,” said Patrick O’Donoghue, Chairperson of the Ballyvaughan Community Development Group.

“They are putting these signs in the local flowers beds, they are placing them on private property, and all without any consultation with the local people.

“I think we all agree that the county has been destroyed with signs – I don’t see how the NRA adding to this problem is going to make anything better.

“If the NRA could invest as much money on fixing the roads as they are investing on these signs then the place would be a lot safer and easier to navigate than it is at the moment.”

A spokesperson from the NRA told The Clare People that the organisation had already had a period of public consultation before it began its new programme of signs and would not be meeting with any local groups.

The spokesperson claimed that the NRA had also consulted with Fáilte Ireland before rolling out the new signage scheme and was in ongoing contact with Clare County Council concerning its roll-out in Clare.

“The NRA has worked closely with Clare County Council on these issues and we can’t go back and have different consulting with different people at different times,” said a spokesman.

“We are conscious that existing signage in Clare is not up to scratch, it is a serious problem and has the potential to cause a safety hazard in the county.”

A SUBMARINE cable which will connect Moneypoint to a new combined-cycle gas turbine power plant on the former ESB station at Tarbert in County Kerry has been granted planning permission by An Bord Pleanála.

The new plant is now likely to be supplied with natural gas from An Bord Gáis through the national gas network, whose nearest connection is just 22 kilometres. This could open the possibility for Moneypoint to converted to a gas burning power station in the future.

The new Tarbert station will be owned and operated Endesa Ireland, part of the Spanish energy company Endesa. The power plant, which will generate up to 450 megawatts by 2016, is to be built within the confines of the existing power-generating plant at Tarbert, which is to be demolished, on the Shannon estuary just opposite Moneypoint.

The more energy efficient plant at Tarbert will occupy 10 hectares of the existing 42-hectare site and be constructed in two phases over four years.

The Endesa application came under the Strategic Infrastructure Act, which provides for planning applications for some major projects to be made directly to An Bord Pleanála, and an oral hearing was held earlier this year.

FROM ensuring medical assistance was provided to vulnerable patients to supplying homes around the county with water, it’s been a busy month for the volunteer members of Clare Civil Defence.

During December when extreme cold weather caused massive disruption to Clare’s road and water network, as many as 25 Civil Defence volounteers were on duty a day in Clare, in what has been described as a “massive volontary effort”.

“We’ve been out since December 17 and we’ve been out every day since”, explained Liam Griffin, Director of Clare Civil Defence.

He continued, “We’re kind of on standby, waiting for isolated calls. Basically what we have been doing, we’ve been transporting public health nurses around to their patients when the roads were in poor conditions with the ice. We have four wheel drive vehicles so we were doing that. As well as that we were also providing water to houses in our tankers and we were also manning standpipes on the Kilrush and Gort Road during the Christmas period, including Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, St Stephen’s Day. Our people were working throughout the Christmas period and throughout the New Year”.

As freezing weather conditions gripped the county in December, Civil Defence tankers transported thousands of gallons of water to affected areas.

Mr Griffin said demand for the service was as great as it had been during the floods crisis in November 2009.

He said, “When the weather turned bad and the pipes started to freeze were supplying water by tanker or by manning standpipes. It was mostly in the mid-Clare area, from Ennis to Cratloe, up to Crusheen out to Clooney, that sort of area. We were every bit as busy as last year”.

Mr Griffin also hailed the dedication and commitment of volounteers who had given up their time during the Christmas period.

“Most of our volunteers would be young people that are in their 20s and it’s a great sign for the future insofar as these people were so willing to give up their time, particularly over the Christmas holiday period. They were out Christmas Day, St Stephen’s Day, New Year’s Day”. he said.

Mr Griffin added, “That’s a massive volountary effort from these people and it should be very much appreciated. Many of the householders that were affected during the period expressed their gratitude to the people involved”.

THE CONSTRUCTION of a new secondary school in Tulla should be given the green light and a firm commitment on the project is essential.

That’s according to Fianna Fáil TD Timmy Dooley, who has highlighted the ongoing difficulties with accommodation at St Joseph’s Secondary School.

The situation has been reviewed by the Department of Education over a number of years, amid concerns that the site is small and does not have a recreational area.

More than half of the schoolrooms are prefabricated, many of which are old and in poor condition.

The issue was raised in the Dáil in December, when Mr Dooley said that an extension had been proposed by the Department of Education some time ago. However, given the increasing population in the area, this is no longer a suitable option, he said.

“Given the population growth in the area and the very small site on which the school is currently housed, it is now clearly recognised that the needs of local children will not be addressed by an extension to the school.

“The Department should finally make a decision that the appropriate solution to this accommodation problem is a new school,” he said.

He said that an appropriate site has been earmarked for a new school and an investment is essential. “Now is the time to invest in a school building in conjunction with the community group (Tulla 2016), thus ensuring a campus-style approach catering for all the needs of the community at the same site,” he said.

“The school accommodation needs have to be addressed because during the exams earlier this year there was not enough room to accommodate the various exam centres that were required, including separate centres for children with special needs,” he added.

“Were it not for the principal (Margaret O’Brien), the board of management and the parents, the place would be falling down. They have put a tremendous amount of effort into maintaining this very poor facility. I have reasonable knowledge of schools throughout the country, and this one is in an exceptionally bad state,” he added.

Environment Minister John Gormley, on behalf of the Minister for Education Mary Coughlan, told Deputy Dooley that while the project is under consideration, “in light of current competing demands on the capital budget of the Department, it is not possible to give an indicative timeframe for the progression of the project at this time”.