Category: News

NEXT year’s INTO conference is to be held in Ennis, providing an economic boost to the county town.

Held during the Easter holidays every year the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO) attracts up to 2,000 people for the three-day conference.

This year West Clare man Sean McMahon will take over at the helm and inaugurated as president of the union, and next Easter the annual conference will be held at Treacys West County Hotel, Ennis.

Approximately 850 delegates representing 32,000 primary teachers in the Republic of Ireland and 6,000 teachers in the north will attend.

Spouses, partners and families often travel with the delegates, while more attend for the exhibitions that take place during theses events.

Welcoming the announcement that Ennis will be the location for the 2015 INTO conference, incoming president Mr McMahon said it will not only bring more visitors to Clare for the Easter holidays, but will also be a chance for teachers across the country to see what the county has to offer n terms of tourism.

“We would hope that when they see what is here they would come back with school tours too,” Mr McMahon said.

This year it will be Kilkenny under the microscope as the delegates attend the Lyrath Estate for the event.

A total of 20 delegates from Clare are attending the conference this week.

The conference opened yesterday afternoon Monday and was addressed by the current INTO president, Brendan O’Sullivan.

This morning’s session (Tuesday) will feature an address by the Minister for Education and Skills Ruairi Quinn TD and an address by the Minister for Education in Northern Ireland John O Dowd MLA.

This year’s INTO Congress will be dominated by educational and indus trial relations issues of concern to teachers.

These include pay and conditions of employment, fair taxation, the funding of schools, school leadership, small schools, promotion for teachers, special needs teaching, tackling disadvantage and school patronage.

TWENTY two Clare families will be taken off the housing waiting list and placed in a new home following the announcement of funding to renovate long-term vacant local authority properties in the the county last week.

Just in excess of € 400,000 has been allocated to the renovation of the Clare properties with in excess of € 18,277 needed on average to bring the Clare properties back to the standard required standard.

The news comes as the local authority housing waiting list in Clare is understood to be in excess of 2,000 people with a long waits time being experienced by applicants. As result of consistent budget cuts over the last five years, Clare County Council has had very little finances made available to to for the construction or purchase of social housing.

This comes at a time when the economic recession is forcing more people than ever before into the so- cial housing system has brought the system to a virtual standstill.

“There is significant pressure on social housing supply and I am determined that no suitable homes will be left empty when there are families in need of housing,” said Minister for Housing and Planning, Jan O’Sullivan (Lab).

“Vacant local authority houses, many of which are boarded up, are intolerable. They should be providing a home for a family and rental income for the local authority.”

Meanwhile, 19 Clare schools which do not currently operate a book rental scheme, will receive € 235,900 in funding during 2014 and 2015.

The largest allocation will be for the CBS in Ennis who will receive € 64,600. Clonlara National School will receive € 34,000, Knockanean National School will receive € 27,800 while St Mary’s National School in Lahinch will get € 15,100.

Other schools to receive funding include Meelick National School € 14,800, Ruan National School € 11,100 and Kilkishen National School € 10,400.

GARDAÍ in Ennis are investigating the attempted mugging of a 58-yearold woman of her handbag in broad daylight.

The incident occurred across from Steele’s Terrace at around 11.55am on Monday last, when a brazen attempt was made to rob the handbag from the woman as she walked on the footpath almost beside Ennis Courthouse.

The woman was approached from behind by a man who knocked her to the ground and then attempted to steal her handbag.

The victim bravely fought off her attacker and managed to hold onto her bag.

The woman, who lives in the Ennis area, reported the incident to the gardaí and gave a full description of her attacker.

She did not suffer any serious injuries but it is said to have been left badly shaken by the ordeal.

THE legal community has paid tribute to the late Albert O’Dea who served as District Court Judge in Clare for 17 years.

Judge O’Dea passed away in Galway last week.

He was appointed District Court Judge for Clare in October 1983 and served until his retirement in July 2001.

Ennis District Court paused shortly after 3pm last Wednesday to remember Judge Al O’Dea.

Leading tributes, Judge Patrick Durcan said that while he had not known Judge O’Dea, the retired judge was spoken about affectionately.

The judge said words like kindness, flexibility and courtesy were mentioned frequently about Judge O’Dea in conversations he had last week with legal professionals and members of the judiciary.

He said Judge O’Dea was a man who served the people of the Clare “with a myriad of great qualities”. Judge Durcan expressed his deepest sympathy to Judge O’Dea’s family.

President of the Clare Law Society, William Cahir said Judge O’Dea was a “gracious” man and all members of the legal profession in Clare were sad to learn of his death.

State Solicitor for County Clare, Martin Linnane said Judge O’Dea’s family originally hailed from Carron in North Clare.

He said Judge O’Dea loved Clare and was a “gentleman” to appear before.

“I was very saddened to learn of his death. In my mind he was still a very young man,” added Mr Linnane.

Inspector Tom Kennedy appeared before Judge O’Dea as a guard, sargeant and inspector.

Insp Kennedy said he wanted to extend the sympathies of gardaí and particularly retired members of the force to Judge O’Dea’s family.

“He was very compassionate. There was no doubt about that.

“He had a great temperament,” added Insp Kennedy.

Ennis courthouse manager Josephine Tone said staff always spoke with great warmth and affection about Judge O’Dea.

In a statement, President of the Law Society, Clare solicitor John Shaw, said Judge O’Dea was “the epitome of courtesy and a true gentle person”.

SHANNON businesses are ideally placed to avail of a new € 500,000 fund that has been established by the Government for businesses involved in the aviation and manufacturing sectors.

That’s the message this week from the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Richard Bruton, after he launched the Enterprise Ireland Competitive Start Fund that is open for applications from now until the end of the month.

This fund provides for up to € 500,000 in equity support for each successful applicant, with Minister Bruton revealing that fund for aviation-related business being inspired by a task force report on Shannon.

“The aviation focus follows on from the Government’s publication of the ‘Shannon Aviation Business Development Task Force Final Report’ and the need to encourage and support entrepreneurship in the aviation sector,” said Minister Bruton.

“The focus on the manufacturing sector is a direct response to one of the recommendations of our manufacturing plan. The announcement will make a real contribution to supporting more businesses and ultimately more jobs in these important areas,” he added. The priority of the funding is to provide young companies in these sectors with the critical early stage funding for the key commercial and technical milestones that will ensure delivery of their product or service, and help them get their project to a key funding milestone.

The fund is open to applications from the aviation sector including financial services associated with the sector, aircraft and engine leasing, aviation software and IT, training, travel related software and related services, small aircraft assembly, aircraft dismantle, maintenance repair operations airframe and components, composite repair, rarts manufacture, aviation services, and other engineering and technical activities,” the minister added.

MEMBERS of a children’s choir sang a new verse in Clare music history last week when they became the first group from the Banner County to perform at a U2-funded Music Generation event.

The newly-formed Burren Children’s Choir joined 400 young people from around Ireland to perform at the inaugural Big Sing event in Dublin’s Mansion House.

The event was led by acclaimed US choral conductor Dr Doreen Rao.

This was the first time that Music Generation participants from across Ireland performed together on a national stage and marks the culmination of the Choral Music Education Programme, run in association with Association of Irish Choirs and the Choral Music Experience Institute.

Clare was represented by 10 members of the Burren Children’s Choir. The choir first performed together at Christmas. Parent Diane Hayes says the children thoroughly enjoyed the experience of singing in Dublin.

“It was absolutely lovely. It was a brilliant experience for them. You had about 400 other children performing. It was amazing,” she said.

Music Generation National Director Rosaleen Molloy said, “The Big Sing is the very first time that we have been able to bring so many young people involved in Music Generation together to perform and we are very lucky to have had Dr Doreen Rao here lead us on this momentous occasion.”

The Big Sing was organised by Music Generation, a national music education programme supported by Irish rockers U2 and the Ireland Fund. It was set up in 2009 to increase access to music education.

In January Clare secured € 400,000 in funding from Music Generation.

It is anticipated the programme will see music teachers employed to work in school and out of school settings, teaching music to children and young adults around the county. The overall aim is to provide the first countywide music education service in Clare.

Clare Music Education Partnership will receive close to € 435,000 in seed funding which will enable high quality, accessible music education programmes to be provided for children and young people in their local communities. Clare / Limerick Education and Training Board (formerly Clare VEC) is the lead statutory agency for the programme.

Among the aims for the programme are the establishment of a Clare County Orchestra and Clare Children’s Choir.

It is hoped the funding will create employment opportunities for Clare singers and musicians. It is expected that the programme will start to roll out towards the latter half of 2014.

GREEN shoots of economic recovery are being seen in Kilrush, despite the town being ranked as the place worst hit by the recession in Clare.

According to the Kilrush Chamber of Commerce, the introduction of large international supermarkets has had a negative effect on businesses in the town in recent years but a upturn in the tourism sector over the past 12 months is breathing new life into West Clare.

Kilrush was ranked as the Clare town worst hit by the recession in a new study of both employment levels and emigration carried out by Teagasc. The study, which compares figures from the Central Statistic Office from 2006 and 2011, found that Kilrush was the worst effected Clare town overall even though it did not rank worst in either changes to unemployment or emigration.

According to the Teagasc figures, Ennistymon and Killaloe were the worst hit by unemployment, with Kilrush coming in third. Shannon and Ennis saw the biggest change in emigration, with Kilrush the third worst effected town.

Kilrush, Shannon town and Ennis were given “red” status by Teagasc, indicating that they were among the towns worst hit when both unemployment and emigration.

According to the Kilrush Chamber of Commerce, the arrival of a number of large supermarkets in recent years have had a effect on a number of businesses in the town.

“Retail has suffered everywhere and people have less money in their pockets to spend but the arrival of two international supermarkets has had an effect on a lot of businesses in the town,” said Jack Kelly of the Kilrush Chamber.

“It is very difficult to compete with the scale of the international retailers. This has hit every small business in the town. Initially we though ti would just be the food businesses but these large shops now sell electrical goods, clothes, children goods, book – nearly every business in the town is effected in some way. “The Gathering was a great benefit to us last year. There was a great boost in tourism number because of that and the success of tourism in Loop Head and that has spin offs for all of West Clare. “There are some green shoots emerging, especially in the tourism sectors, and we can grow on that it would be a great step forward. We are hopeful that things like the Wild Atlantic Way and the Ryanair flight in Shannon will help. If number can grow like they did when Ryanair expanded in Shannon in 2003 and 2004 then if will be very positive.”

THE area around Doora, just outside of Ennis, has weathered the recession better than any other part of Clare, according to a new study of Central Statistics Office (CSO) data compiled by the farm research agency Teagasc.

Doora was granted ‘blue’ status in the report, meaning that is one of the towns or places in Ireland least effected by the recession. Doora performed particularly well in main- taining employment levels between 2006 and 2011 but was slightly less successful in minimising emigration, where it was the third best performing in Clare.

Sixmilebridge has given ‘turquoise’ status in the report, meaning that it was only moderately effected by the recession. The rate of unemployment in the town was comparatively low, coming in as the third best in Clare, but the town saw very little emigration between 2006 and 2011, when it the least effected town in Clare and indeed one of the least effected areas in the country.

There were also good showing for Killaloe and Clonlara in East Clare with both places being granted ‘light blue’ status – to signify that they were only somewhat effected by the recession.

Despite having one of the worst comparative records for unemployment, Killaloe managed to gain largely on the back of its low level of emigration, the second lowest in Clare.

In contrast, Clonlara was the second best performing in Clare for lev- els of employment, but suffered more than most when it came to the level of emigration.

Both Newmarket on Fergus and Miltown Malbay were given ‘yellow’ status in the report – to signify that they were town badly effected by the recession. Miltown was comparatively badly hit be unemployment – but has managed to retain its level of population well compared to other towns in Clare. Newmarket was consistent in term of both unemployment and emigration – and was the mid-ranked town in Ireland in both areas.

Ennistymon has suffered worst than any other town in Clare in terms of unemployment levels between 2006 and 2011. The town was given an ‘orange’ ranking to signify that it has been badly effected by the recession.

Shannon, Ennis and Kilrush all received ‘red’ status in the report to signify that the were very badly hit by the recession. Shannon recording the worst comparative level of emigration while Kilrush was the worst effected overall.

SHANNON Chamber of Commerce is “quietly confident” that a number of recent high profile jobs announcement in the Shannon Industrial Zone will lead to an improvement in the retail business in the town.

Shannon town was one of three Clare towns given a ‘red’ designation in a study undertaken by Teagasc into the effects that the recession has had on towns in Ireland between 2006 and 2011.

Shannon was ranked as the town in Clare worst hit by immigration during the recession, and the fifth worst town in terms of increases to the Live Register.

According to Helen Downes, CEO of the Shannon Chamber of Commerce, the Shannon Industrial Zone has seen some positive news in recent times and it is only a matter of time before it filters down and improves the employment situation in Shannon town and helps prevent immigration.

“We have a lot of really positive new in Shannon over the past couple of week and we are very hopeful about what is to come. We have seen a very positive announcement from Pepper in recent weeks. While I wouldn’t like to predict what will happen, there have been positives reports about Element Six in Shannon and Zimmer continues to be a key employer,” she said.

“I think the spin off for the retail section in Shannon will become apparent down the line. We have to be patient and see that the increased in employment in the industrial centres will lead to an increased football for businesses in Shannon. We are quietly confident that we will see an improvement in the months ahead,” she added.

THE three years stalemate on one of the county’s most dangerous road junctions is set to end with the development of Blakes Corner in Ennistymon set to be “kick-started” in the coming weeks, it was confirmed at yesterday’s meeting of Clare County Council.

The local authority confirmed yesterday that consultants have been appointed to undertake the long awaited Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for Blakes Corner in Ennistymon and work is set to get underway soon. A total of € 120,000 has also been made available by the National Roads Authority (NRA) to fund the survey, which is expected to begin in a matter of weeks.

The building at Linnane’s and Blake’s are at the centre of a longrunning dispute involving Clare County Council, the NRA and local conservation group Saver Ennistymon’s Heritage.

Plans to demolish the buildings and rebuild their facade a few metres back from their current location, in the process making way for a new road layout, are being opposed by Save Ennistymon’s Heritage.

Progress on the proposed new road junction has been stalled since 2011, with Clare County Council deciding not to progress to the planning stage until funding for an EIS has been made available.

“The fact that an allocation [from the NRA] has been made available to kick start the planning and design process to deal with the ongoing traffic problems in the vicinity of Blake’s Corner is welcome and is a very important step towards achieving the desired objective,” said a council spokesperson.

Clare County Council and the NRA propose building a roundabout at Blake’s Corner to prevent ongoing traffic difficulties in the area and to make the roadway safe. Save Ennistymon’s Heritage would like the local authority to examine other possibilities – such as bypassing Ennistymon.

In recent weeks Clare County Council have commenced repair works on the two listed building – the first works to be carried out on the buildings since they were acquired by the local authority.

This works includes include roof repairs and external painting, with an amount of damaged being done to the building during the recent storms.

A number of windows in both buildings were broken during recent storms and it is understood that a number of skylights in Linnane’s have also been broken, allowing rainwater to flow into the interior of the building.