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THERE are just two weeks left to apply for the Deloitte Fast 50 Tech- nology Awards. Deloitte is calling all indigenous technology companies to apply to ensure they are in with a chance of achieving a place on the industry recognised ranking. The closing date for entries is Monday, September 7. Details of how to en- ter the awards can be found at www.

fast50.1e.

The awards, now in their tenth year, recognise and rank Ireland’s indig- enous technology companies with exceptional growth in turnover over the last five years.

David O’Flanagan, Partner at Deloitte said, ““The Fast 50 awards are an opportunity for technology businesses to gain recognition for their successes and achievements. In what has been a turbulent business

environment, there has never been a more important time for businesses to highlight their achievements. Our aim is to really showcase how the technology industry in Ireland is coping and successfully overcoming the challenges that exist. Therefore, with just two weeks left to apply for the awards, we want to ensure that all eligible companies throw their hat in the ring.”

To enter the Fast 50 Awards com- panies must meet the criteria set out by the organisers. These include; the company has been operating for a minimum of five years; it has to be considered a technology com- pany, which is defined as producing technology, manufacturing technol- ogy-related products, be technology intensive, or use unique technology to solve problems, devoting a high percentage of effort to technology research and development.

The parent company must be Irish- owned and have its headquarters in Ireland (subsidiaries of multina- tional organisations do not qualify).

Operating revenues must be at least €50,000 for 2004.

Companies who wish to enter the programme, which have not been in business for the minimum five years may qualify for the Rising Star cat- egory on Satisfaction of the follow- ing criteria; That they have been in business for a minimum of three years and less than five years; they are considered a technology com- pany, which is defined as producing technology, manufacturing technol- ogy-related products, be technology intensive, or use unique technology to solve problems, devoting a high percentage of effort to technology research and development.

The parent company must be I[rish- owned and have its headquarters in Ireland (subsidiaries of multinational organisations do not qualify) and Operating revenues must be at least €30,000 for the year 2006.

Entries must be sent in electroni- cally, with the necessary supporting documents (audited financial state- ments).

AFTER their shock defeat to O’Callaghan’s Mills last time out, for Clonlara, this game was all about just getting over the line and finally se- curing a quarter-final spot. The Mills had exposed a flaw in the defending champions’ armoury that had not been evident in 17 previous encoun- ters over the last 12 months and they were fully aware that a determined Scariff side were planning a similar coup in order to get themselves back into the running for qualfication to the next round.

Scariff, to their credit, were much more spirited and focused than they were against Inagh/Kilnamona in Round 3 but while they made life dif- ficult for Clonlara, they still hadn’t the firepower to push Clonlara to their limit. The holders are not back to their free-flowing selves just yet but had enough in the tank to prevail on this occasion, with a haul of 1-1 just after half-time decisive in push- ing them towards the last eight.

Siero eOM Ker teh baron affair, with Scariff having the aid of the breeze in the first period, set- tling early with a Brendan McNa- mara 20-metre free to the roof of Ger O’Connell’s net in the seventh minute to give them a 1-1 to O-2 ad- vantage. Clonlara soon got back on

level terms with points from Tommy Lynch and a second Nicky O’Connell free but inevitably it was Darach Ho- nan who set the defending champions ODN ASToIDMAWE-NAMY GLH OMe-DeLOlN atom be-Le(oveer-Du. goal. The Under 21 star had received close attention and hard hits from the

Scariff defence up to that point but in the 18th minute, a crossfield ball from Tomas O’Donovan was per- fectly placed into the path of Honan who turned and soloed towards goal before unleashing an unstoppable drive past McNamara to give his side

a 1-4 to 1-2 advantage. Two Ross Ho- ran points had Scariff on parity by the 23rd minute and by half-time, the sides were split at 1-6 to 1-6.

Within three minutes of the restart though, Clonlara were four points clear, an advantage they would pre- dominantly hold for the remainder. The game sprung to life with a goal in the 33rd minute when this time Honan turned provider, sending in a teasing ball for William Slattery and goalkeeper Brendan McNamara to challenge for and when the Clonlara man’s pull proved strongest, Donal Madden was on hand to finish to the net. From the puck-out, Honan point- ed and with Scariff now dependent on Ross Horan and Michael Scanlan for scores, it was going to take an al- mighty fightback from the east Clare side.

Three successive Horan frees in five minutes by the 54th minute cut the deficit to three but repeatedly misfiring, they never really looked like grabbing that crucial goal.

Instead, a battlehardened Clonlara finished the stronger, with Nicky O’Connell thriving in a sweeping role in defence along with his im- mense contribution from long range frees and Cormac O’Donovan doing the hard miles to earn two significant frees towards the finish. The only downside was a hamstring injury

sustained by Darach Honan that saw him substituted with less than ten minutes remaining. Neither Clonlara nor indeed the county can afford his absense in their quest for silverware over the coming weeks.

DARKNESS was again an issue on Sunday evening, but even in the bright sunshine of an August morn- ing, it is unlikely that it would have made any difference to this result. Already qualified, Newmarket, de- spite being understrength, could af- ford to be somewhat lacklustre and still end up comfortable winners as a disappointing Clarecastle side could not muster up even a championship SP NADOTSAR@AT-H OLesbTSXon

The fierceness of the rivalry be- tween this neighbouring pair down through the years made this an entic- ing game for neutrals, with the larg- est attendence of the weekend saved for last. Only pride was at stake for Newmarket, having eased into the quarter-finals with a game to spare whearas this should have meant eve- rything to the Magpies who were hanging onto to their championship lives by their fingernails.

Nothing but a win would suffice but far from making it difficult for their neighbours, they found them- selves four points down within three minutes and from that point on, the Magpies were always chasing the game more in hope than with any real conviction.

After such a blistering start, New- market looked to be heading for a comfortable victory but despite be- ing urged to push on, began to mis- fire and failed to score for the next

ten minutes. Clarecastle couldn’t capitalise though; Tyrone Kearse didn’t catch a 20-metre free correctly but managed to convert the resultant 65 and Aaron Considine weaved through for a point. Newmarket soon brushed off that recovery when on the puck-out Kieran Devitt picked out the unmarked Eoin Hayes at

halfway and his high delivery broke through for Colin Ryan to hammer home from close range.

By half-time, the Blues held a I- 5 to 0-3 advantage but had also hit eight wides and even though substi- tute Michael McInerney made an 1m- mediate impact on the restart with a point, the Magpies finally found their

range, led by Kearse, to hit four unan- swered points by the 39th minute and topple the lead to just two points. Any thoughts of a rebellion were soon quenched by another Newmar- ket goal, this time from a Colin Ryan penalty after Seanie Arthur was tripped by Alan O’Loughlin going through on goal in the 41st minute.

That sucker-punch drained the life out of Clarecastle’s challenge and while they did empty the bench in search of inspiration, the Blues man- aged to match them point for point for the remainder. Without a sniff of goal, Clarecastle’s championship lives, much like the daylight, faded into the nightsky while neighbours Newmarket march on with their per- fect championship record still intact.

AT the beginning of the year, the Kilrush management sat down and put their faith in the up and com- ing talent at the club. A few months later and the first hurdle has been navigated. In reaching the quarter- final stage of the championship, they haven’t even clipped the hurdle and go into the next round without hav- ing the bitter taste of defeat in their mouths. a

It means that Eire Og are out of the championship. The county capital will thus have no representative in the quarter-final of the senior hurling or the senior football championship.

That’s something that needs to be ad- dressed for a number of reasons, but this isn’t the place.

A couple of swings in this game more or less broke down Eire Og’s resolve and resigned them to defeat. The first came with the introduction of Paddy Clancy to midfield for Kil- rush. He put in a storming second half around the centre of the field, covering ground, winning possession and breaking down Eire Og attacks.

If Clancy’s performance helped Kilrush to the points, then so too did the hour logged by Con O’Brien. The wing-back was a constant thorn in the side of the Ennis club. He defended well, raided up the field at every op-

portunity and ended the game with three points to his name.

But that wasn’t all. With a quarter of an hour to go, Kilrush had a one point lead, Peadar McMahon having just scored to keep Kilrush ahead, their first point in 18 minutes.

Right after McMahon’s score, it looked for all the world as though Eire Og were about to put their stamp on the game and take the lead for the first time all afternoon.

David Russell was through on goal, the Kilrush defence having breached for one of the only times in the game. Russell struck and the crowd waited for the net to bulge. That it didn’t was down to a fantastic save from Tony

Burke. It kept Kilrush in the lead and heaped added frustration on Eire Og. From there, it took Eire Og a further 11 minutes to score, by which time Con O’Brien had rattled over his third score of the game.

They were now ahead by three and as clock began to wind down, ste Og pushed on and heaped an amount of pressure on the Kilrush defence. After mounting a number of attacks in search of a goal that could draw the game, they eventually had to set- tle for a point.

It came from the boot of Shane Daniels — their most effective play- er on the day — but it was far from enough.

A poor season ended for Eire Og ended in the grey of Kilmihil but for GUT MU e Med eomcl ube ebeeto) mm orca LUrcimoleraUbOe

CLARE took a leaf out of the book being read by Kerry’s men folk on Saturday when producing their best performance of the year to advance to the All-Ireland final in four weeks abeelon

That book is the one about the Munster championship having very little in common with the real busi- ness of the All-Ireland series — Clare proved that when crushing Waterford by eight points and thereby reversing their four-point defeat to the Deise in the Munster final in Bruff back in July.

It was a brilliant display by Clare’s forwards that did the trick — they needed to be on top of their game because their sometimes leaky de-

fence conceded three goals over the hour and were thankful to the bril- liance of Denise Walsh between the sticks who deprived the Deise of a few more goals.

Walsh put her body on the line for the cause of reaching the All-Ire- land final, while further afield some brilliant combination play involv- ing Eimear Considine, Aine Kelly, Majella Griffin and Niamh Keane simply overwhelmed a shell-shocked Waterford side.

Add in the considerable influence of captain Louise Henchy, Fiona Laf- ferty and Eithne Morrissey around the middle and you had a Clare team what were not to be denied their shot at All-Ireland final redemption on September 27.

The final scoreline reflected the

gulf in standard between the two sides, but an Achilles heel of conced- ing goals threatened to wreck Clare’s day in the first-half. Seven minutes in a poor kickout was returned with interest by Waterford, with Elaine Power putting Louise Ryan in on goal and she made no mistake when drilling home from 10 yards.

It put Waterford 1-1 to 0-1 ahead and while Clare hit back with points from Majella Griffin (2), Eimear Considine and Aine Kelly to lead again by the 12th minute, a second Waterford goal from Aoife McGov- ern in the 17th minute rocked them back on their heels again.

Waterford looked capable of work- ing goals anytime they broke into the attack, but a much improved defen- sive display in the closing ten min-

utes of the half and the continued brilliance of Eimear Considine et al in attack turned this game decisively in Clare’s favour.

Niamh Keane scored a _ brilliant solo point in the 21st minute and fol- lowed up with another a minute later when picking up a break from Ma- jella Griffin. Then in the 25th minute Griffin turned provider for Aine Kel- ly in a neat one-two that saw the Fer- gus Rovers girl rifle a low left-footed drive into the bottom right hand cor- ner of the net.

Clare were back in control and fur- ther points from Niamh Keane and Eithne Morrissey helped them into a 1-11 to 2-5 interval lead. This three- point lead became eight four minutes into the second-half thanks to a blitz- krieg restart from Clare.

Majella Griffin pointed inside eight seconds; Louise Henchy pointed in the 33rd minute while a minute later Aine Kelly thumped a rebound to the net after Eimear Considine goal ef- fort was stopped by Aimee Jordan in the Waterford goal.

The game was as good as over — it was just a matter for Clare to keep their heads for the remainder of the game. That they did, albeit that a third Waterford goal in the 40th minute courtesy of Michelle Ryan brought it back to a six point game.

Clare led by 2-14 to 3-5 but held their nerve admirably in the closing stages, with Majella Griffin, Louise Henchy and Eimear Considine chip- ping in with points before Eithne Mortrrissey’s 53 minute goal put them 3-17 to 3-7 ahead.

Waterford gave up after Denise Walsh saved Michelle Ryan’s poorly hit penalty in the 55th minute.

FOUR-TIME AIl Star, two-time FANUC ERE Neem Buebe oom NeleMssbuconmDEETS Munster championship winner Jamesie O’Connor has made a surprise return to the St Joseph’s senior hurling team five years af- ter he played his last champion- ship game with the club.

O’Connor, a championship win- ner with St Joseph’s in 1998, °99 and 2001 returned to training last week. His last competitive out- ing for the club at championship level was the 2004 county final against Kilmaley, a year after he took his final bow at inter-county level in the All-Ireland quarter- final replay against Kilkenny in SW sitbe los

O’Connor marked his club re- turn by making a cameo appear- ance in a challenge game against Ballybrown at the weekend.

CLARE’S local authorities are to get a much-needed cash injection, as second homeowners are asked to pay up.

The Government has estimated that the newly introduced Non Principal Private Residences (NPPR) fee will bring in as much as €40 million na- tionally.

It is not clear, however, how much of this second home tax will be col- lected in Clare, as there is no com- prehensive list available as yet.

NPPR fees collected in town coun- cil areas will revert to those towns, however, confirmed Ms Carmel Greene, Senior Executive Officer, Finance Department of Clare Coun- WA Grolennete

The NPPR charge is set at an an- nual rate of €200 for 2009 per resi- dence, and must be paid by October Ue

Late payment will incur a fee of €20 in respect of each month or part of a month during which the charge remains unpaid.

The charge applies mainly to own- ers of private rental property and holiday homes. It also applies to vacant residential property, unless newly built.

Ms Greene said the payment is es- sentially for a non-principal private residence, which is not the owner’s normal home.

She added that any unpaid charges and penalties might adversely af- fect any future sale or transfer of the property.

The council has the authority to view Revenue and ESB records, as well as records of rental accom- modations in a bid to identify such Te bisen

Any person in any doubt about the lability of their property should contact Clare County Council at 065 6821616 or nppr@clarecoco.ie.

SHANNON residents will present Clare County Council with a peti- tion against the closure of a number of walkways around Shannon town as aresult of a new housing develop- ment being undertaken by the local authority.

More than 300 local residents have already signed the petition, which will also be accompanied by dozens of individual protest letters against WeToMOCoaVod Coy oyee torn

The local group claims that the fencing could obstruct the emergen- cy services from reaching the area and was erected without any prior notice from the contractors or Clare County Council.

“We were under the impression that this development was not going to go ahead because of the recession but we woke up one day and work had already started. All the fencing went up overnight and the whole area is penned in. It is very restrictive steel fencing and is around the whole development,’ said local resident Nicole Murphy.

“The fact that this fencing was up for a week and a half before we got any official notification about it is very worrying. Are we going to come home some day and find that our water or electricity has also been cut off without any notice?”

The petition is the result of a mass meeting which was held in the area last Tuesday. Another meeting will take place this weekend to decide the next step in the local groups opposi- tion to the development.

According to the group, the devel- opment will remove one of Shan- non’s few remaining green areas. In addition, they claim that a fully serv- iced site located nearby by would be cheaper and less disruptive for the lo- oF NMe- Luin eLoywinanKomeloa(od le) 0p

The group has also expressed its disappointment with some of their local politicians, who they feel went back on their word by failing to op- pose the development at the planning SR eLon

“This 1s one of the last green areas in all of Shannon and they want to

build all of these houses on it – right on our doorstep,’ continued Ms Mur- phy.

“We were told by some of our local election candidates that they would stand by us on this issue and they haven’t done that. I won’t say who I am talking about but the people know themselves.”

CRIPPLING local authority rates emerged as a key issue causing se- vere hardship for hoteliers at a recent crisis meeting held by the Irish Ho- tels Federation (IHF).

Clare members expressed outrage at the exorbitant rates imposed and de- manded that, due to their inability to pay in the current climate, an emer- gency provision should be brought in to immediately reduce rates by 30 per cent for hotels and guesthouses. This would be in line with the recent result of the revaluation of hotels and guesthouses in the South Dublin

County Council area completed by the Valuation Office.

Hoteliers condemned as outrageous and extortionate the levels of local authority rates paid by hotels. The IHF bases the call for a rates reduc- tion on the fact that the revaluation carried out by the Valuation Office of all commercial premises in the South Dublin County area resulted in a re- duction of approximately 30 per cent in the local authority rates liability of hotels and guesthouse.

Therefore, it maintains that this level of reduction should be applied across all local authority areas until the revaluation process is completed

in each local authority area through- out the country.

According to Michael Vaughan, Chairman, Shannon Branch of the IHF, hotels and guesthouses are dis- proportionately subsidising the rates liability of other business premises. He states that hotels and guesthouses are being penalised by an antiquated taxation system of commercial rates that sees local authorities extract taxes relative to the size of premises without any recourse to the level of turnover or overheads of the business.

“Our members have been paying rate increases year on year without recourse to independent assessments. We have been asking too long for this issue to be addressed, and it hasn’t been addressed. Excessive local au- thority rates are having a devastating effect on hotels which are already struggling to deal with decimated revenues and cost bases that have not yet adjusted to the changed economic reality on the ground.

“Our members are willing to pay a fair and equitable level but simply can no longer bear the current rates that are imposed in this unprecedent- ed environment when a revaluation process should be completed,” says Mr Vaughan.

“We are calling for the introduction emergency provisions to allow for a 30 per cent reduction in local au- thority rates applicable to hotels and guesthouses until such time as these properties have been revalued as pro- vided for in the Valuation Act 2001 Act. Only one local authority area in the entire country has completed this process in seven years — we can no longer wait for the Valuation Office to complete this countrywide proc- ess given the dire circumstances our members are facing.”

Among the other issues discussed at yesterday’s meeting were a need to manage the substantial excess capac- ity that exist in the sector; distortion of the market with unfair competition as aresult of hotels under the control of the banks operating at below cost prices; severe difficulties faced by hotels and guesthouses in obtain ad- equate bank credit to survive through the recession.

They also discussed a need for the cost base of hotels to adjust to the worsened market conditions; exces- sive public sector charges to which hotels are subjected; potential for NAMA operations to introduce mar- ket distortions and unfair competi- none

Clare hotel sector reaches crisis point