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A CALL has gone out for funding and other support for Kilkishen Development Association after it was forced to curtail all community activities due to a lack of money. For the last five yeas, the association has been at the heart of efforts to provide essential maintenance in public areas and to keep Kilkishen Cultural Centre going, as a focal point for community events. In a statement, the association said that, “Closure of our cultural centre because of the Covid Pandemic has taken its toll on our financial position”. The association said last week that it had been unable to buy petrol for FÁS and Tús workers to continue grass-cutting in areas like Clonlea Cemetery, the amenity park, the grounds of the cultural centre and church, or to support Kilkishen Tidy Town by maintaining the grass margins on the approach roads to the village. “We hope you understand our current position until we organise a fundraising event later when the …

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A primary school in the county has been closed after a number of staff members were identified as close contacts of a case of Covid-19. The school, which has been unofficially named as Meelick National School has around 100 pupils. Parents were notified of the closure this afternoon. It is understood that the school said it was not possible to remain open without any permanent member of staff. It said that while it regrets the closure it is obliged to follow HSE guidelines.

Gardaí in Ennis have launched an investigation after the body of man was discovered in the early hours of Monday morning in the courtyard of an apartment block. Gardaí were alerted that a body was lying on the ground outside at the Mill House Apartments at around 1.25am. The remains have been transferred to University Hospital Limerick for post-mortem. Anybody with any information or who was in the vicinity sometime between 1.15am and 1.30am and who witnessed anything is being asked to contact Ennis Garda Station on 065 6848100.

  A 50-day supply of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for healthcare workers throughout the country is being stored in a former East Clare chipboard factory, the Clare Champion has revealed. Deputy Michael McNamara has visited the site of the old Finsa Forest Products factory in Scariff where he has witnessed the storage of a huge amount of PPP in an upgraded warehouse facility. Acknowledging the HSE has a number of storage facilities for PPE, Deputy McNamara said the amount of PPE in Finsa is enough to supply the needs of the whole country for 50 days. In addition to security, the East Clare Deputy believes some employment was generated as a result of upgrading the warehouse, and there are also plans to substantially improve other existing buildings. “PPE is by its nature flammable. Manufacturing ceased on the Finsa site in December 2010. For a short period afterwards, a number of sales staff were retained on site before they were moved. …

  THE lack of access for Clare people with diabetes to their specialist care teams is creating additional anxiety, according to a local diabetes advocate. Gráinne Flynn, who has Type One Diabetes, has expressed grave misgivings about the contents of a national HSE press release in relation to diabetes. In fact, the Ennis-based diabetes blogger admitted she was very upset by it as members of the Clare and Limerick Adults with Type One diabetes group have been expressing concerns about the adult diabetes service provided by UL Hospitals’ Group well before Covid-19 and have now been elevated to serious and extremely worrying. “This press release is completely tone deaf to the fact that it is the service that is continuously cancelling diabetes appointments since the service resumed in July. “The service seems to be operating only as face to face consultations. We can only assume that the staffing levels don’t allow for telephone consultations as many of the other clinics …

FEARS have been expressed about the serious implications any strike at University Hospital Limerick will have on patient care following the decision of the INMO to ballot for industrial action. Deputy Michael McNamara recalled there have been calls in recent months to reduce overcrowding in UHL and the need to increase medical facilities in smaller hospitals such as and Ennis and Nenagh Hospitals. The chairman of the Covid-19 Special Dáil Committee stressed the time for talking about these improvements was now over and it was time that action is taken to address serious shortcomings in UHL. If necessary, Deputy McNamara said Health Minister Stephen Donnelly should be asked to intervene to prevent the threatened strike. Deputy Violet Anne-Wynne called on Health Minister Donnelly to intervene in a bid to avert the threatened strike. She called for a recruitment campaign in UHL as staff like porters and cleaners are experiencing staff shortages. “I am shocked Minister Donnelly hasn’t stepped in already …

NEW figures reveal that Clare had the highest rate in Munster of Covid-19 cases in nursing homes, during the first wave of the pandemic. Data presented in the final report of the Nursing Homes Expert Panel show that this county had more than twice as many cases linked to care home clusters as Limerick. This is despite the fact that County Limerick had a far higher number of cases in the population as a whole (581) than Clare (371), in the period from March to June. Reacting to the figures, the Clare-based Chair of the Dáil Committee on Covid-19 Response confirmed that it will consider calling for a public inquiry into the fate of nursing home residents between March and May. Deputy Michael McNamara confirmed that the committee has invited members of the Expert Panel to appear before it on September 16, alongside representatives of the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA). “I don’t want to prejudge these hearings,” Deputy …