The Clare People Archive

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that he was calling for the extra gardai, drafted in from Ennis over the past fort- night, to be maintained permanently in

the west Clare town.

“We still have the extra resources and I will be looking for those resources in the long-term in the Kilrush area,” he said.

However West Clare-based Senator Brendan Daly believes there are suf- ficient resources available in Kilrush and said those responsible for attacking the young women must be charged as a matter of urgency.

“The general belief is that there is sufficient evidence that would enable

charges to be brought against the peo- ple involved in the incident . The time for talking is over and action must be taken. Gardai must allay the fears of the public and press charges. They must take action very soon before it turns into a situation where lives will be lost. There is no place for anarchy in Kil- ruth

Another prominent member of the local community, who did not wish to be named, compared Kilrush to ‘Little Belfast’ and said a group of youths were continuing to intimidate people to pre- vent them making statements against Weloseee

The Garda Representative Associa- tion (GRA) in Clare has called for an additional ten gardai to be deployed to Kilrush permanently and will raise the issue at the GRA Executive meeting next month.

“Obviously there are not enough re- sources in Kilrush. Gardai have been temporarily transferred there, but the trouble starts when they are not left there. Gardai are badly needed in Kil- rush, but we need what we have in En- nis,’ said GRA spokesman Tom Keane.

AN Bord Pleanala this week ended any prospect of a new McDonalds outlet opening in Ennis in 2005, when it post- poned a decision on a new 85-seater driv-thru restaurant until October next.

The appeals board was due to make a decision on sepa- rate appeals by Green party councillors, Brian Meaney and Donal O’Bearra on Mon- Ch Ws

However, the appeals board has now adjourned any deci- sion until October 12.

The board postponing the decision coincided with Cllr Meaney denying that his op- position to the McDonalds proposal was fuelled by pub- licity-seeking.

Cllr Meaney denied the charge, as it emerged that plans were recently lodged with Ennis Town Council in the Lifford area of Ennis for

a fast-food outlet, but on this occasion, Cllr Meaney did not object to the proposal.

Cllr Meaney said, “I was acting in the public interest in appealing the McDonald’s decision to An Bord Pleanala and it would be marvellous if other public representatives were as pro-active as myself.

“My opposition to the pro- posal stems from McDonalds targeting children in_ their marketing campaigns and the applicant of this other Ennis outlet I’m sure would not have engaged in that type of strat- a Ae

In the application by Don- nacha Keane to convert the former Quality Meats into a fast-food outlet, the Council refused planning.

It stated that due to the close proximity of the premises to nearby houses, the proposed development would result in a material increase in problems of noise and nuisance and

general disturbance for neigh- bouring residents, particularly Lm ESA OL

Last year, the McDonalds’ proposal sparked a national

debate on the impact of fast food on diets, after the Mid- Western Health Board’s Health Promotion Department objected because of concerns

about children’s health.

The Department demanded that McDonalds carry out an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) into possible health impacts on the local population before the applica- tion could be further consid- eee

However, the Health Board soon distanced itself from this objection with the then chief executive, Stiofan de Burca declaring that the objection was a personal statement by the community dieticians fesse ileee

A planning report released by the Town Council earlier this year confirmed that an EIS was not requested.

Cllr Meaney’s appeal con- centrates on the health as- pects of the proposal, while Cllr O’Bearra is concerned with the proposal allegedly breaching the provisions of the Ennis and Environs De- velopment Plan.

JOE Duffy’s public phone lines were hopping last week with disgruntled citizens calling to register their disgust.

The parent conglomerate of NCT Service (NCTS) Ltd, the company which runs the Na- tional Car Test (NCT) service in the Republic, had just publicised it’s profits for the fiscal year, and the sums mentioned upset the right-think- ing members of Irish society.

They were complaining of course, because the company was returning exorbitant profits, because they regarded the test as fussy, and be- cause they were suspicious about the degree of fortune, which seemed to be required to pass the test.

Many even made the direct assumption that the entire service amounted to a scam whereby the company could extract hard cash from an unsuspecting Irish public by failing vehicles for trivialities.

No one mentioned that the cost of the Irish NCT is the second lowest in Europe, when compared to similar national testing schemes across the continent.

But aren’t these gestures a little late?

Only last May, members of the public on a national basis, were given the opportunity to suggest changes to the National Car Test (NCT) at a series of road shows held in Dublin, Sligo, Galway, Cork, Kilkenny and Longford.

Six public consultation meetings took place, and the general public were asked to give their views on the NCT and suggest how the service could be improved.

It’s strange that complaints now seem so prevalent, because the consultation process,

well publicised by PricewaterhouseCoopers on behalf of the Department of Transport, only at- tracted 250 public attendees in total. Bizarre.

If the general public were harbouring such fervent views on the matter, why didn’t they then make their feelings known? Instead they choose to air their lop-sided views on the mat- ter to anyone who will listen three months Eire

As with everything people fear that which they don’t understand. These people aren’t concerned about pesky EU directives, or about jalopy’s held together with bailing twine cruis- ing around.

A famous anecdote among NCT testers is the one about the woman who arrived at her test centre with her certificate of registration, con- firmation letter and car keys, but no car. Then there was the man from the border area who demanded that the vehicle inspector reimburse him for the petrol used by the testers driving his car from one end of the centre to the oth- er. There was another innocent who believed that a little divine intervention might help. A man in Cavan suggested that a church could be erected beside the test centre so that customers could go in and say a prayer for their car while Weloava eI Kole

Typical.

If mandatory car testing had not been made compulsory by EU directive, it would argu- ably never have been introduced here at all. As it was, we were the last EU member state to introduce it, even though it was desperately required since between 1990 and 2000 the vol- ume of cars on our roads increased by 60%.

The NCT was introduced five years ago when new EU legislation made such car testing com-

pulsory in member states.

Testing is carried out at 43 centres across the country under a ten-year contract awarded by the government to afore mentioned company.

AA Ireland independently monitor these test centres and while they suggest that some as- pects of the test could be improved, they re- gard the system as considerably better than the British MOT. According to AA Ireland, if you maintain your car reasonably well, it should sail through the test.

And so once again for anyone who wasn’t lis- tening five years ago.

The testing of privately owned vehicles be- gan in the Republic on January 4, 2000.

It was introduced to improve road safety, en- vironmental protection and to comply with the EU Directive 96/96/EC, which makes car test- ing compulsory in all EU member states.

The test fee is €49.00 and a re-test costs €27.50 (both fees are inclusive of VAT).

There are 57 elements to each test, which endeavour to assess the roadworthiness of ve- hicles and identify any defects, such as faulty brakes, unbalanced wheels and thread worn tyres. Detected defects must be repaired and the vehicle must pass a re-test before the car owner will be issued with an NCT Certificate.

Advantages?

The NCT is conducted on any given vehicle every 2 years and this regular evaluation will result in more frequent car servicing, which will provide better fuel economy, reduce over- all repair costs, increase reliability, and lower the risk of breakdowns.

The NCT will ensure that second hand cars are roadworthy. As with all eligible cars for testing, second hand cars will have to display

an NCT disc as proof that they have passed their NCT. This should improve overall indus- try standards and enhance air quality by reduc- ing emissions.

National car testing is likely to reduce the number of road accidents, which may as a con- sequence result in potentially lower insurance premiums.

LAST week proved to be a very successful one for Clare owners with winners at no fewer than four tracks, namely Galway, Limerick, Thurles and Kilcogan in Waterford.

Noel Coote and Fiachra Hennessy of En- nis set the ball rolling in Thurles on Tues- day night when Drimeen Rumble was on the mark, winning the fourth race of the card.

Clare supporters came away from Limerick in a very happy state of mind on Thursday night after no fewer than three greyhounds obliged.

First up was Rabbit’s Droopy, owned by Tony Cusack of Cooraclare. He had a narrow

win in race two in a winning time of 29.56. This was followed by another West Clare winner with Joan Taylor of Kilmihil visiting the winner’s enclosure with Priddy Boy in race three with a winning time of 29.63.

Baby Rumble made it a hat-trick of wins when owner Pat McInerney of Clarecastle collected after winning race five in a time of pA Fere

On Friday night’s card Clare’s only win- ner was Inislosky Buddy in race seven. This dog is owned by William Casey from O’Briensbridge.

At the Galway track on Thursday night there were wins for Clare owners in the Castle-

gar Hurling Club AA Stake. John Reidy and Robert Dillon of Cooraclare saw their charge Keywest advance to the next round after win- ning race five.

This was immediately followed in race six when Moloskey Classic got the verdict for owner John Donnellan of Mullagh.

Five Clare dogs went to traps in race eight at the College Road venue on Friday. This was a first round heat in the Kudos Catering A3 550 Stake that is worth €3,000 to the winner.

White Tip Dream took the honours here for Robert Longe of Ballyea. Housed in trap two, the winning time here was 30.76.

Kilrush owner TJ McMahon also collected

on Friday night when Bodyshop Supra was the winner of race five in a time of 29.85.

The second race on Friday night’s card went to Quilty Nocando, owned by Doreen Burke of Ennis. This was the dog’s first outing and recorded a winning time of 29.57.

Inagh Hero owned by Michael McGuane of Inagh also did the business at the first time of asking. He was Clare’s only winner in Galway on Saturday night. A recent winner at Limerick, Dance Mindy, owned by Janette Downes of Killaloe made the long journey to Kilcogan on Friday night worthwhile when winning race I1 in a good time of 28.99.