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DOONBEG Golf Club general manager, Joe Russell, has been told by receivers that they hope to have a sale completed within a six week timeframe. On Monday, Luke Charleton and David Hughes of Ernest and Young were appointed joint receivers to The Lodge at Doonbeg and Doonbeg Golf Club. “Ernest and Young have said to us that they hope this process will take four to six weeks which, quite frankly, given other receiverships, is quite quick. There does appear to be an appetite from people involved to get this process done quickly,” Joe Russell confirmed. “Approximately six enquiries have come through me for information on the purchase. I referred it on to Ernest and Young who, in turn, have a company that they’re working with in the USA to find the right buyer for here,” he added. The general manager said he could not take a guess as to how much potential new owners might have to pay for the …

THE  sand has never been so scarce on Kilkee’s famous strand, according to Mayor Paddy Collins, who has also warned that the town’s luck will run out unless the seawall is maintained. “Sand levels at the moment in Kilkee have never been as low. Whether that sand is all pooled out in the middle of the bay and is going to come in on the next big tide, we don’t know,” Councillor Collins said at Monday’s meeting of Kilkee Town Council. “At a meeting we had here with Paul Moroney [environment section Clare County Council], we were talking about the sand shifting,” he added. Kilkee beach is hemmed in at either side by spectacular cliffs. The town mayor said Kilkee escaped the worst of the recent flooding in West Clare but said consistent high tides are a persistent threat. “We were very lucky in the storm. We were only an hour either side when the wind turned. Every tide this …

VULNERABLE  elderly Clare people are still likely to be waiting up to two years for housing adaptation grants, despite a small increase in Clare County Council’s annual allocation from central government. The Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government adaptation grant allocation of €3.375m in 2011 was slashed by 56% to €1.454m in 2012 before a marginal increase to €1.545m last year. According to the department, an increase in the region of €54,00 is earmarked for 2014 but this is far from satisfactory for many interested parties, who say this will leave elderly people in difficulty navigating their own homes. The average waiting time, which was as high as three years in 2012, has been condemned as “inordinate” by ALONE chief executive officer, Sean Moynihan and “unacceptable “by local county councillors. Mr Moynihan, on behalf of the group that provides support for elderly people, called for the introduction of national assessment criteria to identify those most in need of …

  By Owen Ryan SHANNON Airport ended a five year long decline in 2013, as its passenger numbers increased for the first time since 2007, official figures released this week have shown. In all 1,400,032 passengers flew through Shannon last year, slightly more than the 1,394,781 in 2012. While 1.4 million is still well below half the number that used Shannon during the late Celtic Tiger days of 2006 and 2007, an improvement is hugely welcome after such a long running and steep decline. It also shows that Shannon enjoyed a largely positive first year after its separation from the Dublin Airport Authority. The increase in passengers came despite a very rocky start to last year, as the airport’s decline continued in each month up to and including May. However, things turned around after that and the increase in passengers was most pronounced on transatlantic routes where 22% growth was achieved, largely due to new services to Chicago and Philadelphia. …

A SEIZURE of 240 cannabis plants in East Clare on Wednesday brought the approximate street value of plants found in separate garda searches around the county to €1.29 million in the past week. Gardaí seized 240 cannabis plants with an approximate street value of €190,000 at a house in Faha, Cahir at 2.30pm on Wednesday. The seizure was made as a part of an ongoing operation into the sale and supply of illegal drugs in the Clare area by the Clare Divisional Drugs Unit. There were no arrests as part of the search. The scene was being preserved for technical examination on Wednesday evening. Last Wednesday as part of an operation targeting the cultivation of cannabis, gardaí from Kilrish Garda Station searched a house at Breaffa, Carraigaholt, and discovered 600 plants growing and evidence of in excess of 500 harvested plants. The drugs seized were estimated to have a street value of almost €500,000. On Monday morning, gardaí searched a …

CLARE TD Timmy Dooley yesterday met EU Commissioner for Regional Development, Johannes Hahn, to outline the case for emergency funding due to the damage caused to Clare and other counties as a result of the recent adverse weather conditions. In addition to the €23m needed to repair public infrastructure in Clare,  individuals in the county also need several million euro for damage to private property, both houses and land. Deputy Dooley was part of a Fianna Fáil delegation that also included Ireland North West MEP Pat The Cope Gallagher and  MEP for Ireland South Brian Crowley.  

EU funding for storm damage will cover both private and public infrastructure in Ireland, that is otherwise uninsured, which is a new departure from previous applications under the EU Solidarity Fund. That was confirmed by Sean Kelly MEP after his meeting with Regional EU Commissioner Johannes Hahn in Strasbourg today. Mr Kelly, who is Ireland’s only full member of the Parliament’s Regional Development Committee which oversees the Solidarity Fund, said Commissioner Hahn was very positive and supportive of Ireland making an application under the solidarity fund. “In a new departure, the fund will cover private and public infrastructural damage. So I am calling on all city and county councils to immediately prepare a comprehensive overview of the damage caused and the cost of repair so that the government can prepare an overall application under the fund. The deadline for the application is 10 weeks – but that is from the end of the storm, not the start, which gives us …

FIANNA FÁIL  spokesperson on Transport, Tourism and Sport, Timmy Dooley  is to meet the EU Commissioner for Regional Development, Johannes Hahn, today to seek EU assistance for the flood damage around the country. He will be joining MEP Pat the Cope Gallagher at the meeting in Strasbourg. “There is a mechanism in place for relief funding to be provided for countries that encounter severe weather conditions. In 2009, the Irish Government received €13 million in relief funding for the devastating floods of that year. “The Government needs to immediately apply for relief from the EU Solidarity Fund, we have already heard from Clare County Council that there was over €24m worth of damage caused in the county. Councils throughout the country are already struggling with substantially reduced Government grants and they urgently need some relief funding from central government and from Europe,” Deputy Dooley said.