West Clare

AT next Monday’s meeting of Clare County Council, West Clare Fine Gael Councillor Gabriel Keating will table a motion requesting the council to compile a database of unemployed skilled and unskilled workers in Clare, in conjunction with the

A public meeting at Kilrush Golf Club on Monday at 8pm will focus on what Fine Gael Deputy Pat Breen terms the “confusion” surrounding the introduction of the Government’s new Nursing Home Support Scheme, known as Fair Deal, which came into effect last October.

The imminent closure of Connolly Post Office will mean that there will be no full post office services in Kilmaley, Connolly, Inagh or Kilnamona in a few weeks’ time.

  IN requesting that Kilrush town manager, Nora Kaye investigate the possibility of applying for an Urban Renewal Scheme for Moore Street in the town, Councillor Tom Prendeville invoked the words of Oliver Goldsmith in The Deserted Village.

Following a visit to Hook Head Lighthouse in Wexford by Kilrush Electoral Area councillors last Wednesday, Clare County Council, along with the Commissioners for Irish Lights, are to assess the feasibility of developing a visitor centre at Loop Head Lighthouse.

EX-TD George Lee, who dramatically resigned from Fine Gael and Dáil Éireann on Monday, gave his last public appearance as a party member at the Kilrush Chamber dinner dance last Friday.Lee, who gave no clue of his impending decision, did, however, signal his unease at his dual role of being a politician and economist. In pointing to the need for solutions to the current recession, he said that people were always “giving out” in the Dáil.“I think, fair enough, that is Irish politics. But we really need to change. We need to work on solutions. These are going to be very difficult solutions. Finding the solutions to where we are now is new. It is difficult because we have never been in this situation before,” he stated.   The economist and former RTÉ correspondent, who had been asked to be guest speaker at the function by Clare TD Pat Breen, remarked on how happy and relaxed everybody, seemed before speaking for …

THE region served by Shannon Airport does not have a hope of surviving without a viable airport, the Kilrush-based director of a foreign-direct-investment company told last Friday’s Kilrush Chamber dinner dance.Saint-Gobain operations director John Costelloe said he and some of his management are driving to Dublin every second week to get flights, which is an unsustainable way to do business when there is a viable international airport in the region.Addressing the local business people and two then Fine Gael TDs, Clare’s Pat Breen and guest speaker and former RTÉ correspondent George Lee, Costelloe stressed that “an M50-centric economy would not work for Ireland’s future”. However, he said, Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics is operating well in Kilrush and has secured €600,000 investment for 2010, securing the plant’s future. Sales are down by 25% to €15 million but the plant is profitable, he said, unlike other plants around the world. Irish workers are not able to compete on a dollar-for-dollar basis with low-wage …

IT’S not easy to rattle Timmy Ryan. Last Friday, the day after his 100th birthday, Timmy’s great grandchildren did their best. Quiet as a mini horde of mice initially, it emerged that the trio were conspiring to blow a few party poppers, which made a fair din but they didn’t shake the man of the house. One of the Knockalough man’s favourite pastimes, along with cross-country running, was shooting wild game. So he’s not unused to the odd outbreak of noise.His actual birthday, last Thursday, brought a fair bit of excitement with it. The first thing Timmy had to do was collect 110 birthday cards from Seán Killeen when the postman called. Then his phone started to ring. President McAleese was at the other end of the line giving a buzz to congratulate Timmy. He also heard from Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny. “He’s sending me a bottle of whiskey he said,” Timmy laughed, sitting in front of the fire …