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President Michael D Higgins has led the tributes to former Fianna Fáil TD and Senator Brian Dr Hillery who has died aged 83 after a short illness. In a glowing tribute, President Higgins said the news of the death of Brian Hillery will have been received with great sadness by all those with an interest in politics and economics, by those who encountered him in a long life of public service, and particularly by his colleagues in the Fianna Fáil Party. Minister Higgins said after taking an early interest in commerce and the economy, Mr Hillery went on to make a distinguished contribution as a Senator and TD for Dún Laoghaire, to his mark in the world of administration and finance, serving as Ireland’s representative on the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, as Director at the Central Bank, as a Financial Regulator, and as a member of a number of bodies providing advice to Government. “He also held with …

VITAL services to encourage the use of public transport in Clare are to receive a boost, members of the local authority have been told. The need to provide safe and accessible bus shelters was raised by Councillor Joe Cooney who called on the council to work with Bus Éireann on the matter. A formal response to Councillor Cooney’s motion outlined how works are being carried out in conjunction with Bus Éireann, the National Transport Authority (NTA) and Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) on 11 bus shelters at locations across the county. Six of these are new and will be installed in Nemarket-on-Fergus, Lisdoonvarna, Ennis, Westbury, Kilkee and Crusheen. Senior Engineer John Leahy outlined how the other five projects involve upgrades to existing shelters in Shannon. In a remote contribution, Councillor Cooney told the meeting how, in some cases, people had to wait for busses “in atrocious conditions”. He also noted that school children had to wait for public transport at the …

FULL time carers and people with disabilities should be vaccinated as soon as possible, according to Councillor Ann Norton. Councillor Norton has called on the government to follow the example of the United Kingdom by prioritising carers and family members they are looking after for the vaccine against Covid-19. As a parent and full time carer, the Independent Councillor wrote to Health Minister Stephen Donnelly, Tanáiste Leo Varadkar and An Taoiseach, Micheál Martin about the need to prioritise carers as part of the national vaccination programme and was very disappointed with the lack of any serious engagement. She received a standard acknowledgement from Minister Donnelly’s secretary, an automatic response from Deputy Varadkar and no response from the Taoiseach. Councillor Norton, who cares for her daughter, Nicole, (23) said it was time for the government to recognise carers were saving the state huge sums of money by keeping children and adults out of long stay residential facilities. “Full time carers are …

Members of the Irish Defence Forces are providing non-medical logistical support at Cahercalla Community Hospital following an outbreak of Covid-19 infection. It has emerged that there are currently 19 cases of Coronavirus in the medical facility. The Board of Cahercalla has moved to assure relatives they are doing everything possible to protect and care for patients following grave concerns expressed about the impact of the outbreak on social media on Saturday. It has confirmed members of the Irish Defence Forces are on site to give non medical logistical support in order to allow staff concentrate on their clinical duties and to assist in the setting up of the vaccination areas at Cahercalla. In a statement issued to the Clare Champion on behalf of the Cahercalla Board, Dr Michael Harty outlined the hospital are working closely with HIQA, the HSE dedicated Covid-19 Response Team and other agencies to manage and control this outbreak to ensure continued quality care, safety and welfare …

CLARE County Council has confirmed that emergency health and safety repairs have been carried out on a section of one of the most popular walking routes in the county for tourists and locals. Repair works on the Cliffs of Moher Coastal Walk in a two kilometre zone, one kilometre north and one kilometre south of the Visitor Centre, are almost complete. Works completed by Guerin and Considine include resurfacing the entire length, reinstatement of a dry stone wall 500 metres in length, repairs to stiles, and raising of flagstones in areas of uncontrolled access. Access to the cliff edge area was achieved in collaboration with the landowners, design was  completed in-house by the Design Office and a Section Five declaration was obtained from the Planning Department for part of the works. These repair works were recently inspected by Clare County Council chief executive officer, Pat Dowling, and Geraldine Enright, Director, Cliffs of Moher Visitor Experience. The works were jointly led …

THE number of people receiving the Pandemic Unemployment Payment in Clare increased from 7,112 on January 5, to 8,261 on January 12. The number was under 6,000 as recently as December 22. Just 38 people closed the PUP payment to return to work between January 5 and January 12, while another 1963 people were medically certified for receipt of Enhanced Illness Benefit to January 12. In addition there were 4,922 people in Clare signing on the live register in December. Of these more than half, 2,732 were in Ennis. Another 782 were attached to the Kilrush Social Welfare Office, with another 763 at Ennistymon and 645 at Tulla. In a statement this week, the Department of Social Protection said that the number of people receiving the PUP increased over the last week and it is very likely that it will be higher again next week. “This week, the Department of Social Protection has issued weekly payments valued at €118.04 million …

A HUGE amount of problems have emerged in trading between Ireland and England since Brexit has become a reality, according to Clare haulier Eoin Gavin. He said that it is probably easier to trade goods with China than it is with the UK right now, with a range of administrative problems having emerged. “There are a huge amount of delays. There’s a lot of factors, but huge amounts of cargo aren’t moving between Ireland and England, probably more imports than exports I’d say. “It’s down to a number of factors, you have companies that weren’t prepared, they expected that things would be as normal but the UK is now a third country, so everything goes in and out of it has to be declared. There’s an awful lot of administration and paperwork on behalf of importers, exporters and hauliers. That’s one factor and then Revenue introduced an IT system on January 4 that wasn’t really tested and that’s causing problems …

Plans have been unveiled for the re-opening of schools for children with special needs in Clare next Thursday much to the relief of local parents who have struggled to cope with the blanket school closure.   CLARE parents of children with special needs are hoping that Education Minister Normal Foley delivers on her promise of a phased re-opening of special schools next Thursday. In a letter sent to school principals on Friday, the Department of Education stated pupils in special schools will attend on alternate days, while pupils in specials classes in mainstream primary schools will attend every day. The department also outlined pupils with significant additional needs in mainstream classes in primary schools will have access to in-school teaching and learning. “All staff, including all teachers and special needs assistants, who work in special schools should return to work , other than in circumstances provided for by the occupational health scheme, or whose staff are on approved leave. Concern …