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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 …

The proposed construction of a controversial €100 million windfarm in West Clare has attracted over twice as many supporters as objectors, it emerged this week.The Clare Champion has learned the development of 45 wind turbines near Doonbeg by Clare Coastal Wind Power has prompted 1,970 signatures of support from based on a submission to An Bord Pleanála. This includes letters of support from over 129 businesses and virtually all of the traders in Doonbeg village. The Doonbeg Tourism and Marketing Group and members of Kilrush Rugby Club are also backing the proposed development.However, the appeals board has also received a signed petition from 874 objectors, all of whom are over 18 years of age, against the development. This includes about 90 residents, who are employed at Doonbeg Golf and Lodge, and the petition primarily represents people living locally.The proposed windfarm at Carrowmore South, Einagh, Monmore North, Doonbeg, Shragh, Mountrivers and Drumillihy would have 45 turbines, with a hub height of …

Clare County Councillor Pat McMahon has spoken about his horror this week at learning that the house where he was born was the subject of a suspicious fire over the weekend, causing up to €50,000 worth of damage.Councillor McMahon was shocked to the point of “denial” when he was contacted at around 7am last Sunday morning to say his family home in Newmarket-on-Fergus where he was born and raised was engulfed in flames.Roseville House has been in the McMahon family for a number of generations but has been unoccupied for some time since the death of a family member.The house was home to the five McMahon boys growing up and the Newmarket-on-Fergus councillor said he found it very difficult to see the place where he grew up with all its memories on fire.“I was in shock when I saw it, I was in denial first and then shock with all the memories we had from there. It is a two-storey …