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THE president of the IFA John Dillon has pledged to continue the campaign to pre- vent factory owners from importing low cost beef from South America.

Mr Dillon’s pledge came after what he described as a ‘useful’ meeting with the directors of the Queally Meat Group last week. The meeting took place following an IFA protest by some 300 farmers at the plant in Naas, Co Kildare. More than 50 farmers occupied the offices of the Queally Group during the 10 hour long protest.

The IFA head claimed that there had been a full and frank exchange of views at the meeting on the issue of beef imports from South America.

“I conveyed to Peter Queally and Dan Browne the depth of anger among beef producers in this country who have seen prices collapse in the last six weeks,” said Mr Dillon. “Meat factories have cut cattle prices by €150 per head since June, leav- ing over 50,000 beef farmers in a loss- making situation.”

“The IFA is demanding that Agriculture Minister Mary Coughlan introduce proper labelling at all hotels, restaurants and ca- tering outlets,” he continued.

Earlier in the week Mr Dillon accused meat factories of “stabbing Irish farmers in the back” over the slaughter of beef, be- lieved to originate in Brazil, in the Kildare factory.

Indeed, questions have also been raised

from many sectors of the farming com- munity about the proper labelling of beef imported from South America and the pos- sibility of placing a quota on the amount of beef that can be imported.

Meanwhile, the president of the Irish Cattle and Sheep Association, Malcolm Thompson, has also joined the fight against beef imports from South America. Mr Thompson travelled to Derry last night to join a protest against the sale of Brazilian beef in supermarkets in Northern Ireland.

“We need to send a clear message to our World ‘Trade Organisations negotiators that Irish farmers will not tolerate the deci- mation of our industry any longer and beef needs to be treated as a nationally sensitive product,” said Mr Thompson.

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speaks to Liam O’Rourke, who is just settling in to his new role as de- velopment officer for farm services in the county.

According to Mr O’Rourke farm serv- ices in Clare, and indeed in Galway, have not been developed over the last number of years. Instead there has been a greater con- centration on providing a contract fencing service in these counties. This is one of the areas where he feels that work can be done.

“My first priority is to develop a pool of FRS operators in County Clare with the possibility of de- veloping a labour pool in Galway at a later stage,” said Mr O’Rourke. “FRS has a very comprehensive operator training package available and I intend to train as many operators and potential operators in Clare.”

Mr O’Rourke has already begun to train a number of inter- ested people in manual handling, relief milking, grassland management, fertiliser spreading, grass management and a two day advanced tractor operations course.

‘“T hope to create an awareness and interest in farm services in Clare again and obviously this will help us to be in a strong

position to provide a broad range of services to farming community,’ he said.

Indeed, a new feature of farming in Ireland today is the demand for qualified farm staff to be contracted from abroad, and the FRS has put a scheme in place to accommodate this trend. Farmers can pay an annual membership fee to join the scheme and for an additional sum can avail of the farmer accident and sickness scheme which pays 75 per cent of the cost of relief while a farmer is incapacitated due to an accident or sickness.

“We have established contacts in countries like Poland, Latvia and Hungary where highly qualified farm staff can be sourced,’ said Mr O’Rourke. “The FRS can give additional in- duction and skills training to these Eastern Eu-

ropean workers while they are placed full time on a farm with no additional cost to the farmer.”

The FRS also hosted a one-day safe tractor driving skills course for 14 – 16 year olds and a one-day pre-silage season machinery safety course earlier this year and a wide range of other courses are now available. The reorganised FRS has four distinct divisions namely: farm services, fencing systems, re- cruitment and training.

There are also a number of full and part-time positions avail- able in FRS at the moment. For more information check out www.irsnetwork.com or call 063 90666.

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THE county’s roads have claimed their seventh victim this year, with the death of Maura Daffy (54), from Lis- munga, Ruan.

She lost her life after her car collided with a minibus close to Clarecastle on Saturday afternoon.

Ms Datfy’s black Hyundai Accent crashed into a Mercedes Benz minibus, which was driven by a 60-year-old man from Macroom in Cork, on the main N18, at Skehanagh, just after 4pm. She is the third person to die on that particu- lar stretch of road in as many years.

The woman was taken to the Mid Western Regional Hospital, Ennis, Where she died at 2.30am on Sunday morning. The driver of the bus was treated for minor injuries and was dis- charged from hospital some hours after

the accident.

Ms Daffy lived in Dublin for a number of years and worked, until recently, in the Sunday World newspaper. She visit- ed her family in Ruan regularly over the years and was travelling from a show- jumping event in Millstreet – where her niece was performing – to her home in Ruan, when the accident occurred.

Ruan parish priest Fr Pat O’ Neill said the deceased, who is survived by two brothers and two sisters, was a popular woman. “She was full of life and got on very well with all of her family. She had travelled the world,’ said Fr O’ Neill.

“She would always have one of her nieces in the car with her. Thankfully she didn’t have anybody with her on Saturday,” he added.

Two witnesses have been interviewed by gardai. Supt John Kerin is appealing for other witnesses to come forward

“We are happy the bus driver was travelling on his own side of the road, heading towards Limerick. There was a line of traffic behind Ms Daffy and we are appealing for those people to come forward with information,” said Supt aun

In September 2002, three-year-old Maggie Moore from Corbally near Limerick, died when the car in which she was travelling with her family, was struck by another vehicle.

Last November, John Cahill (68) from Coole Park in Gort, a former official driver to Fianna Fail TD Frank Fahy, died when his car was struck by a van driven by John Hogan from Ennis. Last month Hogan was convicted of danger- ous driving causing Mr Cahill’s death.

Both accidents occurred within 500 yards of Saturday’s collision.

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MAURA Daffy is the third woman and the seventh per- son to be killed on the roads in Clare in 2005.

On January 30, motorcy- clist Pauline Speake from Kilkishen, died when her motorcycle was in collision with a car, near Dysart.

Mrs Speake, in her 50s, was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident, close to Ryan’s quarry on the main Ennis to Corofin road.

The second road accident in the county also involved a motorcycle. John Ryan from

O’Briensbridge lost his life in a single vehicle accident at O’Briensbridge on Sunday, May 15. Mr Ryan, in his 30s, was driving a motorcycle when the tragic accident oc- curred just after Spm.

Less than a week later tragedy struck again, when an accident in west Clare took two lives, on May 20. Father-of-three Thomas Pen- der and 18-year-old David McCarthy, both from Quilty, died in an accident a short distance from Seafield Pier in Quilty. Mr McCarthy died at the scene of the crash and Mr Pender died the follow-

ing Tuesday at University College Hospital, Cork, from serious head injuries.

The fourth life was lost on Saturday, May 28. Brendan Moloney (21) died after his car struck a wall at Kilmore, Broadford. No other vehicle was involved in the accident which occurred between the Wuthering Heights pub and Broadford village, shortly before 7pm.

Charelle Howard (17) was killed in a road accident on the outskirts of Ennis, in the early hours of Saturday, July 16. She was one of sev- en teenagers travelling in a

Volkswagen Polo car, which crashed on the Shanaway Road in Ennis. Charelle, who had just completed her Leaving Certificate, was the only child of David and Ter- esa Howard from Oakwood Drive, Watery Road, Ennis. Three people have been killed in road accidents in parts of Tipperary, which are also part of the Clare Garda division. This brings to ten the total number of people killed on roads in the divi- sion. Eleven people died in road accidents in the Clare Garda Division last year.

CLARE 1s not ready for the onslaught on business and recycling facilities which is coming with this weeks activation of an electrical re-cycling directive, an En- nis businessman has warned.

With just two facilities in the whole of Clare – as opposed to one every 20 miles in Sweden to deal with a similar directive – the official recycling points will be swamped. And small electrical retailers will not be able to afford to build the facilities demanded by the regulation to store old washing machines, fridges and other items, said Paul Flynn, proprietor of Ennis Electrical.

The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) law also means that consumers have to pay up top €40 on top of the price of new electrical goods to fund the disposal of old ones – even if the buyer is not returning any old machine or appliance.

“These new regulations mean twice the work for re- tailers and increased costs and there are a lot of small business people out there who don’t have any idea what is involved in WEEE,” said Paul.

“If we are taking back an appliance for every one we deliver, we’re going to have to make twice as many slelenantoy Ane

The Ennis Electrical boss says that the Inagh and Scariff amenities which have been earmarked to ac- cept the redundant electrical goods “are in no way prepared for what is coming. I spoke to the people in Inagh and they are expecting just a few items each week to be brought in from all over – Pll be bringing a minimum of 60 appliances a week to them and that’s just me,” said Paul.

The Ennis Electrical retailer 1s concerned that many outlets will fail to impose the charge, putting them- selves in danger of facing fines and even risking their

staff being fined.

‘This is written in stone – it’s the law and I know for a fact there are many people who don’t’ know the first thing about it. For instance, before I can even register for the directive – and every electrical retailer has to register – I have to have a holding facility for appli- ances with a concrete floor and weatherproof cover- ing. There are many people who don’t know that. Most people don’t even know that retailers now don’t have to pay when they bring appliances for disposal.”

There are 355,000 fridges sold in Ireland every year and Paul predicts that not all retailers will impose the charges which range from €1 when buying a new electric toothbrush to €40 extra when buying a large fridge.

Paul says that the retailers are “pleased that this 1s at least an exposed charge. The washing machine which a customer bought before the charges were introduced still costs the same amount and the charge is imposed on top of that.”

He believes that the WEEE Register “was negoti- ated with the big national and multinational retailers in mind – not the small retailers.”

The Ennis businessman says that he is in full agree- ment with the need to have electrical goods responsi- bly disposed of.

‘T don’t want to see fridges dumped at the side of the road. But we are not prepared for the full impact of this and the Government decides to make it law dur- ing the summer recess when there is no Minister to answer for it.”

Meanwhile, the Consumers’ Association of Ireland has called on shoppers to boycott the charge, which became law on August 13.

Dermot Jewell of the Consumers Association de- scribed the charges as another tax being levied on the Loy eTieneates

CLARE County Council has been ac- cused of engaging in an abuse of proc- ess in its bid to compulsory purchase land for a new €25 million waste wa- ter treatment plant for Ennis.

The charge comes from land-owner, Peter Anthony Liddy who has joined the Diocese of Killaloe in lodging a formal objection to the Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) for the scheme.

Mr Liddy’s hard-hitting objection stems from the Council not seeking to acquire lands it will sterilize for any future development as it 1s designating the lands as a buffer zone around the waste water treatment plant proposed for Clareabbey.

In his objection, Mr Liddy describes the Council’s CPO as “ill-conceived, uninformed and premature”.

His objection states: “It now tran- spires that the Council now only in- tends to CPO part only of the lands it initially agreed to purchase and now also wished to place a buffer zone over most of what remains, thereby steriliz- ing the same.

“The piece of land not being com-

pulsory acquired by the Council is of virtually no value to our client as it is of no economic, commercial or agri- cultural value.

“We would suggest the Council is now attempting to acquire not only the lands which it initially agreed to pur- chase, but is in essence, acquiring the whole lot as a result of the imposition of this buffer zone over most of the re- mains of Mr Liddy’s property.”

“By doing this, the Council finds that the acquiring costs will be halved, but the net benefit to the Council will be the same as if they purchased all of our client’s lands. We would suggest that this is a complete abuse of process and will not be tolerated by Mr Liddy.

Meanwhile the Diocese of Killaloe this week sought to distance itself from the contents of the objection lodged in its name to the CPO.

The diocese — prior to selling the lands to a developer in June — did lodge an objection, but only against the 1m- position of a buffer zone around the waste water treatment plant. However, the new owner has lodged a revised ob- jection, listing a number of grounds in the letter to An Bord Pleanala.