News

CLARE could become the nerve centre for major emergencies and fire incidents in the region when a mobile Incident Command Unit, costing almost €275,000, is wheeled into the county this week.

SHANNON got a timely boost this week as it was announced that Wings Abroad will run a weekly service to the Turkish city of Bodrum over the summer.

COMMENT

Clare’s unemployment rate could be halved over a five-year period by fully exploiting the huge export potential of renewable energy electricity for the United Kingdom market, it emerged this week.

FEWER than a quarter of a million US troops transited through Shannon last year, Minister Leo Varadkar told the Dáil last week.

EDITORIAL  

THE board of Shannon Airport has been trimmed down to just two people and it no longer includes former chairman, Brian O’Connell nor does it have an input from Shannon Development. The board previously had nine members, Mr O’Connell, Patrick Blaney, Olivia Loughnane, Ray Gray, Dr Vincent Cunnane (CEO of Shannon Development), Mary Fitzgerald, Mark Nolan, Joe Buckley and Audrey Costelloe.The new, streamlined board will hardly need to retire to the comforts of the airport’s boardroom for meetings; a small office will do just fine. The board now just consists of Niall MacCarthy, the airport’s acting director, and Ray Gray, DAA chief financial officer. The move comes in advance of an announcement on Shannon’s future management by Transport Minister Leo Varadkar, following on from the Booz and Company report. It’s widely expected that Shannon will be separated from the DAA but kept in public ownership.This week, it was announced that Shannon’s passenger numbers had fallen again in 2011, for the …