Category: News

THE use of unmanned flying drones could help halt the growing problem of illegal dumping of household waste at areas around Ennis, a meeting has heard.

In addition to the use of CCTV, Clare County Council is assessing a number of measures aimed at reducing illegal dumping.

The issue was raised at yesterday’s meeting of councillors in the Ennis West electoral Area where Fianna Fail’s Brian Meaney suggested the council explore the use of drone aircraft.

He requested the local authority to consider using CCTV to “counteract the upsurge in dumping of sorted domestic waste on roads in the Ennis west area”.

He told the meeting new technologies such as cameras and drones would make it easier for the council to enforce its litter laws while at the same time act as a disincentive to dump rubbish.

Cllr Tom McNamara (FF) agreed the council had to find a solution, describing the litter problem in the Ennis area as “absolutely awful”.

In his reply, acting senior engineer Paul Moroney said the council are currently dealing with dumping of domestic waste at various locations around Ennis. He said CCTV has been used at certain “problem locations in the county”.

He continued, “The Environment section are also dealing with a number of CCTV companies currently with a view to installing high grade cameras in the county. Decisions on the scale of the operation will be determined by a number of factors including site suitability, information technology compatibility and budgetary constraints.”

Mr Moroney said the adoption of new draft byelaws on waste collection would see the council begin a process of determining how individual householders and commercial operators are disposing of their household waste.

“The onus will be on the householder to either have a waste collection service or alternatively produce receipts from Clare County Council’s amenity centres when requested,” he added.

Mr Moroney said the illegal dumping of domestic waste at locations around Ennis is difficult to monitor “due to the sporadic nature of the activity”.

“The pattern of this type of dumping is that the waste is very rarely dumped at the same precise location but more likely to be dumped at varying locations on the same stretches of road. The difficulty is, recording this activity of CCTV cameras is not always possible due to the random nature of the dumping. Clare County Council environment section will continue to address the issue of illegal dumping.”

Ennis Town Manager Gerard Dollard said the council has significantly invested in measures to prevent dumping.

Responding to questions from Cllr James Breen (Ind) on farmers being held responsible for rubbish illegally thrown on the land, Mr Dollard said, “I agree it seems unjust and unfair but that is the law.”

FLOODING along a stretch of footpath at Ennis General Hospital is creating a dangerous situation for pedestrians and motorists alike, a meeting has heard.

Walkers are being forced out onto the road in front of the hospital after the footpath became submerged under a large pool of water in recent weeks.

Meetings yesterday of councillors in the Ennis electoral area heard the flooding is a high priority for the council.

Senior executive engineer Eamon O’Dea said a road sweeping truck has been “suctioning” water from the area, a course of action he described as “unsustainable”.

Mr O’Dea told the councillors the council has discussed the issue with the Health Services Executive (HSE). A CCTV survey to ascertain the exact reasons for the heavy flooding was carried out in recent days.

Mr O’Dea said it might be necessary to carry out work in the grounds of the hospital to solve the issue.

Cllr Tony Mulqueen (FG) said that if work is required, the council should seek to retrieve some of the cost from the HSE.

Cllr Johnny Flynn (FG) said pedestrians are being forced onto the road because the footpath is impassable due to water. He said this is particularly dangerous for elderly people living in the area.

Mr O’Dea said solving the problem is a “high priority” for the council.

The council is also to investigate the potential risk of flooding to houses in Victoria Court on Cusack Road.

Cllr Pat Daly (FF) said a number of residents are fearful their homes could flood. He has asked the council to seek funding from the Office of Public Works to deal with flooding in the area.

Mr O’Dea said the council is surveying the area so a “detailed flood risk assessment can be completed”.

“Subject to that assessment an application will be made to the OPW under the minor works scheme,” he added.

CLARE is in line for a double tourism boost with the news that the world famous Lisdoonvarna Spa Well is set to reopen to the public later this month and that country singer Garth Brooks is considering playing an intimate charity gig at the nearby Pavillion Theatre.

The wells, which have been shut for nearly four years, are set to reopen before the end of March – once the results of a chemical analysis of the famed spa waters are released. Once the water is certified, tourists will once again be allowed to visit the Spa Well and take the water.

More than 10,000 German tourists already travel to Lisdoonvarna each year, even though the wells have been effectively closed for a number of years, and this number is likely to swell once the wells reopen.

The proposed reopening of the famed sulfur baths themselves will require a large investment before it can be realised with Lisdoonvarna Fáilte estimating that € 1.3 million would be needed to brings the baths back on line. This figure includes between € 20,000 and € 30,000 worth of damage sustained during the recent storms.

The Minister for Tourism, Michael Ring, was in Lisdoonvarna last week to see the facilities.

“The wells are open at the moment and hopefully in a week or two, once the water is tested, we will be able to give it to people again. We will be giving people free samples, we won’t be charging for it,” said Lisdoonvarna Fáilte chairperson, Paddy Dunne.

“We will be able to get the pumphouse open but it will take some serious investment to get the bath houses open again. This will be a huge boost for the whole county. If we get the pump house going well hopefully an investment will be made available for the baths.”

Meanwhile, Mr Dunne also confirmed yesterday that Lisdoonvarna Fáilte has been in contact with representatives of Garth Brooks, with a view to bringing the US singer down to Lisdoonvarna for a one-off concert.

“There is the possibility of Garth Brooks coming for a private show. We contacted them, and they got back to us looking for more information, so you’d never know. They got back to us last Friday so we will see what happens,” said Paddy.

Lisdoonvarna Fáilte have recently elected a new Board of Management and are hopeful to add three new members to the board, especially people with a background in tourism.

The current board includes Tina O’Dwyer, Donie Garrihy, Pat Haugh, Kate Burke, Marie Urquhart, Gemma Dowling, Cllr Joe Arkins, Peter O’Dwyer and Tom Connolly. Anyone interesting in becoming involved is asked to contact 065 7075644.

THE confusion surrounding the ownership of a 200-year-old listed structure in Corofin has deepened with a host of state agencies lining up to deny ownership of the property.

A section of wall surround the Corofin Workhouse collapsed on February 28 last and locals claim that the building is now a public health risk – especially to the children of nearby Corofin National School.

Local man Val Dane, has been trying to locate the owners of the prop- erty for a number of weeks and said yesterday that the derelict property is “suicidal for the local kids” as well as for local residents.

Clare County Council denied ownership of the property last week, claiming that it was owned by the Office of Public Works (OPW). Following enquiries by The Clare People , the OPW claimed that the workhouse was owned by the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht (DAHG). Last Friday the DAHG claimed that they did not own the property and pointed the finger, once again, to the OPW. On Friday evening the OPW denied the workhouse for a second time, instead claiming that that the building was owned by the Health Service Executive (HSE) but that the wall was the responsibility of Clare County Council. The Clare People

BALLYVAUGHAN grandmother Ellen Moore is preparing to share the story of her mistreatment at the hands of the state with the United Nations Committee Against Torture.

Mrs Moore was given a symphysiotomy without her knowledge or consent while giving birth to her first son in September of 1965. She has been living with near constant pain for the past 50 year since the procedure, which she describes as like “being butchered”.

She will be in Dublin today to officially launch a complaints on behalf of Survivors of Symphysiotomy (SoS) to United Nations Committee Against Torture (UNCAT) and United Nations Human Rights Committee. The SoS group, who represent more than 95 per cent of the women who were given symphysiotomy in Irish hospitals, say that they are going to the United Nations as the Government continue to ignore their de- mands.

“We are getting absolutely nowhere with the Government so I we don’t really have any choice but to take this step,” said Ellen yesterday.

“We are meeting tomorrow morning to vote on whether to go to the UN, but I believe that that vote is a foregone conclusion at this stage. The details are not 100 per cent clear but someone from the group will go to Geneva later this week. I signed a legal letter last week to say that I am happy that the details of my case go forward to the United Nations and I would be more than happy to Geneva and tell them my story.”

Elizabeth “Ellen” Moore says that she has wanted to die on a number of occasions over the years following her symphysiotomy, which has left her in near constant pain and completely incontinent. This procedure, which involved breaking a woman’s pelvic bone during labour, was carried out on an estimated 1,500 Irish women in the 1960 and ‘70s but fewer than 200 of these women are still alive.

CLARE County Council has begun an independent investigation into why asbestos material was illegally deposited at nine locations in West Clare and not disposed of properly.

A council spokesperson said there is “no evidence to suggest there are anymore sites”.

The Environmental Protection Agency and the Health and Safety Authority has been informed that the council now plans to remove the hazardous waste from the locations in Kil rush and Kilkee.

“All of the asbestos material investigated to date consists of broken pieces of Asbestos Cement Water main. It is considered that all of this material originated on Clare County Council water services mains replacement and mains repai r works. The material appears to have been deposited over an undetermined number of years up to June 2013,” the spokesperson confirmed.

Asbestos waste material disposal is governed by legal requirements and the requi rements of the HSA and the EPA.

“A specialist asbestos consultant has been engaged by the council to advise the authority on the removal of the materials,” he added.

The removal of the material is to be undertaken in three phases.

Phase one, which is done in accordance with the advice of a specialist asbestos removal consultant involves the removal of pieces of broken asbestos pipe on the surface at all sites.

“This work will commence shortly and will take approximately three to four weeks,” said the spokesperson.

Phase two involves the appointment of a specialist asbestos consultant to develop and car ry out soil testing on the sites to establish the extent of asbestos material which is buried at the sites.

“Phase three will involve the removal of any asbestos material at any of the sites which is buried. The timeline for phase two and three is not known in detail as yet because it is subject to estimating the amount of material in each site,” he explained. The costs associated with car rying out these works are not yet known.

THE people of Gort are in a state of shock following the tragic death of two local people in a house fire n the town last Thursday morning. The victims, who have been named locally as 38-year-old Ben Whiteman and 65-year-old Nuala Sweeney, died after a blaze broke out at 2.50am at Tom O’Donnell’s Flats on the Rail- way Road.

Numerous tributes have been paid locally to mother-of-four Nuala Sweeney and to Ben Whiteman, who worked as a mechanic. The pair have lived locally in Gort for more than a decade but had previously lived in the Caher area of East Clare. Four units of the fire brigade from Gort and Loughrea attended the scene and spent more than three hours bringing the blaze under control.

While the incident is not being treated as suspicious, questions have been raised after the first unit of the fire brigade to arrive on the scene had to delay entering the building for 25 minutes until a back-up unit arrived.

The normal complement of firefighters in Gort is nine, but for several months the station been reduced to just four. The four-man crew had to observe the protocol of having a back-up crew to support them before they could enter the building.

Galway County Council, which administers the service, has been attempting to recruit additional personnel, but has had difficulty in securing appropriate candidates for the positions.

“Would lives have been saved, or would the building have been as badly damaged – and there is a shopping centre nearby – if Gort was fully resourced?” said local Cllr Gerry Finnerty (FF).

“I know the council have been trying to recruit firefighters; I’ve seen the flyers, but we just don’t have too many people who are willing to work in our town. We have lost one-sixth of our working population since 2006.

“I’m very concerned at the impact of the under-resourcing of the fire service is having in the town and in south Galway, which is a large rural area.”

THERE will be plenty of Clare interest in Cheltenham this week with Connolly native Stephen Murphy represented in the first race of the festival as owner of Western Boy, while Tubber native Derek O’Connor has two rides at the prestigious meeting.

Champion Point to Point rider O’Connor rides Shotgun Paddy in Tuesday’s National Hunt Chase (4.40) and will be on the fancied Indian Castle in Thursday’s Kim Muir (4.40). O’Connor is looking forward to the mounts and in particular Thursday’s booking.

“Shotgun Paddy mightn’t be suit- ed by the ground as it is drying out quickly, but I’m really looking forward to the ride on Indian Castle. He’ll probably be favourite and I’d be hopeful of going close there,” he told The Clare People on Monday.

This is the biggest week of the year for the Tubber man in more ways than one, both he and his wife Karen are expecting their first child during the festival, so Derek won’t be hanging around after Thursday’s race.

“No, there won’t be any time for celebrating win, lose or draw on Thursday, it will be straight home. We’re lucky, Karen and I, we have great family around us, so hopefully all goes well,” he said in the hope of a double celebration.

There will be Banner interest in the first race today (Tuesday 1.30) when Western Boy, in the colours of Newcastlewest based, but Connolly born Stephen Murphy, takes his chance in the Supreme Novices Hurdle. A winner at Leopardstown at Christmas, the Pat Fahy trained five year-old ticks all the right boxes and Stephen is hopeful of a good run.

“Well, we’d love to see him in the first six but above all you want him to come back safe and sound. It’s a very hot race but we’re hopeful he’ll give a good account of himself,” Stephen told us on Monday from the track. Western Boy will go off around 16/1 in the race and will be ridden by Davy Russell.

CONCERNS have been expressed that children unknowingly played on and close to asbestos material, while their patents fished at Lislanaghan Lake in Kilkee.

Local people said there was no signs to indicate any danger from asbestos at the site of the former reservoir prior to the issue being raised by former councillor PJ Linnane last June.

Clare County Council admitted this week that it did not know how long the asbestos was illegally dumped at nine sites in West Clare, stating “the material appears to have been deposited over an undetermined number of years up to June 2013”.

Described by medical profession as “the hidden killer”, asbestos can cause four serious lung and respiratory diseases that can take years to affect those exposed.

According to the Health and Safety Executive in the UK, these illnesses “will not affect you immediately; they often take a long time to develop, but once diagnosed, it is often too late to do anything. There is a need for you to protect yourself now.”

It is understood the asbestos material dumped in West Clare is from broken pieces of the council’s own Asbestos Cement Water Mains.

It is also not known how much of this waste was deposited at the council depot in Kilkee, four other sites at Lislanaghan, Kilkee; the Dunlicky Road, Kilkee; the council depot in Kilrush; Ballykett, Kilrush and Breaffa, Kilrush.

Clare County Council said that it has commissioned an external independent investigation into the circumstances surrounding the depositing of Asbestos-Cement materials and work is to begin this week on stage one of removing the dangerous substance.

It is ten months since Mr Linnane first reported the asbestos piping discovered near his home, and just over three months since the dumping in Kilkee was revealed in The Clare People .

In answer to a number of questions, a spokesperson for the council said yesterday that it had tested the pipe material at one of the sites.

“Some of the pieces of pipe consisted of white asbestos. Some of the pipes consisted of a mixture of white and brown asbestos. Asbestos cement pipes historically were made from white asbestos or a mixture of white and brown asbestos. All of the waste asbestos cement pipe material will be removed.”

Brown asbestos is considered by experts to be more dangerous to human health than white asbestos.

Meanwhile a Health and Safety expert told The Clare People that the asbestos pipes should have been identified before the process of removing them began. The asbestos material should then be double-bagged by those with special training and equipment before being removed by RILTA, the only organisation in the state qualified to do so.

“There is the potential of asbestos going into the air every time that the broken pipes were disturbed. This could be a danger to workers or anyone in the area that moved them in any way. The equipment used to remove the pipes would also be considered contaminated officially, but this would not pose a huge risk,” he said.

CONCERNS have b e e n e xp re sse d t hat child re n unknowingly p laye d on a nd close t o asb e st os mat e rial, while t he ir p are nt s �she d at Lisla naghan Lake in Kilke e . Locals say t he re we re no signs t o ind icat e any d ange r from asb e st os at t he sit e of t he forme r re se rvoir p rior t o t h e issue b e ing raise d by forme r councillor PJ Linna ne last June . Cla re Count y Council ad mit t e d t his we e k t hat it d id not know how long t he asb e st os was ille ga lly d ump e d at nine sit e s in we st Cla re , st at ing “t he mat e rial ap p e ars t o have b e e n d e p osit e d ove r an und e t e rmine d numb e r of ye ars up t o June 2013.”