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FIANNA Fáil have selected four candidates to stand in the Shannon Electoral Area in next year’s local elections. Sitting councillors Pat McMahon (Newmarket-on-Fergus) and Cathal Crowe (Meelick) will be joined by former mayor of Clare Pat O’Gorman (Cratloe) and Louise Roche McNamara (Shannon). The newly defined electoral area is set to be the most competitive in Clare with eight outgoing councillors fighting for just six seats. The youngest county councillor in the country when he was elected in 2004, Cathal Crowe is hoping to retain his seat for the second time. While four candidates are standing, he feels Fianna Fáil can at best hope to win three seats. “At a minimum I’d hope we’d hold our two seats, but I believe we can gain a third seat. Four would be incredible, but I don’t think that’s realistic.” The re-drawn boundaries, which have brought him into the Shannon area, won’t do him any harm, he believes. “I’m happy with it, but …

ON  World AIDS Day 2013, this Sunday, members of  Dóchas, the umbrella group of Irish development NGOs, are urging the Government to maintain its historic commitment to ensuring that HIV services reach everyone in need. The call comes on the back of a UN AIDS report, which states that in spite of progress on the whole, key populations, especially in African countries, are not being reached by the global HIV and AIDS response. “Ireland has always championed the cause of the HIV response internationally, and spent a significant portion of its development aid budget on HIV and AIDS responses. But a new government policy for international development, One World One Future, was launched in May of this year, in which it appears HIV is afforded less of a priority,” said Noreen Gumbo of Trócaire and chair of the Dóchas working group on HIV and AIDS. Ms Gumbo cautioned that vulnerable populations are often impeded from accessing life-saving services. “Just three …

ECONOMIC data has been less grim than usual lately, and when the CSO revealed on Tuesday that 58,000 more people were at work in the third quarter of 2013 compared to the third quarter of last year, there was more cause for optimism. The CSO figures also showed a decline of over 41,000 in the number unemployed, a decrease of 12.8% in the overall figure. In Clare the third quarter of the year matched the national picture, with 9,849 people signing on in July but the figure was 8,943 in September, a decrease of 906. Rita McInerney of Ennis Chamber said she was pleased things are going in the right direction, and said that the increase in the numbers at work is the most significant number, giving that factors other than an economic improvement can make a hole in the numbers on the live register. “I think that looking at employment growth is a much more realistic example or indication …

MEP Sean Kelly has called for the establishment of an online local skills database to promote Irish rural locations like Ennis, with a view to increasing the geographical spread of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). “In order to encourage a more regional spread of FDI in Ireland, we need to promote the advantages of our regions and the educated workforce people based there,” said Mr Kelly, who is MEP of the Year for Research and Innovation. He noted how an excellent initiative running in the US State of Indiana provides a working example of how Ireland could launch a skills database. “The Indiana Economic Development Corporation launched a website which provides prospective investors/business owners with a quick search facility listing population, percentage of people with degrees and other useful statistics for each town/region.So if we were to launch that service in Ireland, an investor could easily examine the possibility of locating a business in Ennis, for example. “We already have a …

THE Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Clare County Council were both under fire at this week’s meeting of Shannon Electoral Area councillors, as members discussed the smell that has plagued Shannon. One of the councillors, Fine Gael’s Sean McLoughlin, even said that locals might have to erect barricades to keep out trucks carrying hazardous materials. Both Councillor McLoughlin and Councillor Gerry Flynn brought motions to the meeting regarding the smell. Councillor McLoughlin was asking that the council request the Department of the Environment to organise an independent review of all industrial and waste licences in Shannon. He said that such a review should be carried out by an independent body, from outside the country, rather than the EPA, who he made it quite clear he didn’t have any faith in. A reply from the council’s Environment and Water Directorate stated; “Clare County Council are currently considering requesting the review of existing licences of a number of facilities in Shannon as …

EIGHTY-seven jobs, which were going from Shannon, were secured on Wednesday, after IMPACT members of Aer Lingus’ cabin crew accepted proposals that emerged from talks at the Labour Relations Commission. Aer Lingus had written to employees telling them the Shannon base would be closed and work outsourced, following a dispute over how new aircraft to be used on transatlantic flights would be crewed. The company had been insistent that only four cabin crew would be on each flight, while Impact had wanted either five or six. Under proposals, which were hammered out at talks at the LRC, the transatlantic operation will start with five crew where possible, but this will change to four at the end of March. A joint review will take place in July of next year to consider patterns of traffic and whether crewing arrangements should respond to seasonal factors. IMPACT spokesman, Michael Landers said there will be some rewards for staff working on flights with four-cabin …

THE general manager of an Ennis-based company at the centre of a major data protection breach, has said he regrets “any distress caused by the criminal attack by an unknown third-party.” He has not, however, commented on the length of time the company stored customer data. Loyaltybuild, an international firm based on Station Road in Ennis, was the subject of what it described as “a sophisticated criminal attack”, which resulted in the full payment card details of more than 370,000 customers being accessed illegally, the details of an additional 150,000 clients being potentially compromised and the contact details of 1.12 million clients throughout Europe also being taken. The breach has affected people who availed of SuperValu Getaway Breaks and AXA Leisure Breaks between January 2011 and February 2012. Customers of ESB Customer Supply (now Electric Ireland), who availed of a similar discounted hotel break scheme between 2007 and 2008, were also affected. A number of other companies have also notified …

AN Ennis couple were left devastated after the grave of their stillborn son was damaged by vandals last week. Christina Quinn and her husband Eamon buried baby Patrick almost three years ago. They regularly visit the grave and were stunned when they arrived there last Thursday evening to find it had been interfered with. Speaking to The Clare Champion, Christina said, “We were devastated, still are devastated. It’s a baby’s grave, why would they do that to a baby’s grave? That’s all I want to say, to get that put in the paper to let people know what’s happening out in Drumcliffe and I think there should be CCTV cameras installed there.” Christina said that they go to the cemetery two or three times a week and the damage was done at some point between 7pm on Wednesday evening of last week and 5pm the next day. The two were stunned at the scene that greeted them last Thursday. “I …