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Councillor Gabriel Keating has expressed concern regarding the future of Kilrush and Kilkee tourist offices following the publication of the Change Management Task Force. The taskforce was charged with drawing up the implementation process for the transfer of responsibilities from Shannon Development to Fáilte Ireland following the development of the NewCo for Shannon Airport.

EDITORIAL A GLIMMER of light appeared at the end of a long, dark tunnel of recession this Christmas when there was a small but significant increase in retail spending compared with the same time last year. It’s all about consumer confidence, a vital ingredient in a potent elixir to encourage people to reach for their cash or plastic.

THE year in politics ended on a sad note with the tragic death of junior Agriculture Minister Shane McEntee. I did not know Mr McEntee but those who did, assure me he was a committed and principled person. He was said to be “firm and fearless”. He was “an honest politician who cared too much”, one of his colleagues said about him.

In or around November all over the western world and in the majority of public places, constructed to allow us to practice consumer culture in celebration of the birth of Christ, we started to have Christmas songs pumped over the sound systems. The combination of snatched lines and bars, combined with the near endless repeating of the same songs on television and radio, has led me to sometimes find the same numbers rolling around my head at unwanted moments.

ACCOUNTS filed by Aer Rianta International (ARI) show profits of €449m since its foundation in 1988, according to former Shannon head of finance, Michael Hanrahan. This week he has rejected Transport Minister Leo Varadkar’s claim that the duty free company needs to stay with the Dublin Airport Authority to raise funding.ARI was founded in Shannon in 1988 and has been based there since. It will remain a wholly owned subsidiary of the DAA after Shannon separates from it in the coming weeks, with the Clare airport receiving no share of its future profits.Mr Hanrahan examined all the accounts that were filed by ARI with the Companies Office since its foundation. No accounts were available for 1992 or ’93 and for those years he said he took what he called “conservative estimates” of a IR£2.5m profit in 1992 and one of IR£3m in 1993. The overall figure of €449m includes an exceptional item of  €267m due to the disposal of shares …

The Government’s decision to introduce legislation on abortion to deal with the X case will ultimately lead to a more liberal regime, Bishop of Killaloe Kieran O’Reilly has warned.Bishop O’Reilly has also requested that the Government conduct a new referendum, which he believes would bring the required clarity for the Supreme Court decision in the X case.Accusing the Government of misjudging the wishes of the majority of Irish people by introducing legislation on abortion, he also expressed his disappointment the State has decided to go ahead so quickly.“It now seems the Government are going to be rushed on this issue. It is like as if they want to get it out of the way as quickly as possible. I don’t think people are in the mood for this issue to be dealt with in this way.“I feel they have misjudged the mood among the vast majority of people who want this matter looked at far more closely,” he said. The …

Clare’s court poor box has netted over €30,000 for charity organisations across the county, more than double the figure gathered last year.The county’s district court judge, Patrick Durcan dispensed the proceeds of the district court poor box this week, which totalled €30,500, a dramatic increase on the €14,400 collected in 2011. In 2010 the poor box took in just €10,000, while €13,050 was made in donations in 2009. In 2008 it netted €26,000 for local charities. A total of 27 charities have benefited from the court poor box this year, including a number that had not benefited previously. St Vincent de Paul in Clare has received most from the allocation, with €8,000 going to two county branches. Ennis SVP received €5,000, while the Kilrush branch received €3,000. The poor box is an option open to the court in dealing with minor crimes. In particular circumstances, the district court judge can offer a defendant who is a first time offender of …