News

CLARE County Council is considering three different survival proposals to maintain and develop Kilkee Waterworld as a tourist attraction amid concern about accumulated liabilities of €405,000.Kilkee town councillors are concerned about the future viability of Kilkee Waterworld following a trading loss of €45,000 at the end of December 2008, according to the most recent set of modified accounts submitted to the Companies Office.Kilkee Waterworld currently receives an annual subvention of €82,000, of which about €30,000 is returned in the form of commercial rates leaving a net contribution of €50,000 from Clare County Council.Town councillors, anxious that this tourism facility remains open, believe additional finance or grant aid will be needed from the council or the Government to copper-fasten its future.Acknowledging the survival of Waterworld is in the hands of the county council, manager Bill Murphy told The Clare Champion this week he is confident the facility would remain open during the summer months from April to August 31.While securing an …

Holidaymakers and members of the public are being warned to only swim where lifeguards are on duty after a woman was swept out to sea while swimming at an unsupervised beach along the North Clare coast. Julie Bourke (32) from Delmege Park in Moyross travelled to Liscannor on Bank Holiday Monday, with a group of family and friends. Ms Bourke along with three others went into the water at Kilmacreehy Church and graveyard, an unguarded beach where the Inagh River enters the sea. “There would be strong currents there and while you would see people walking along the shore, you wouldn’t see that many swimming there as there is no lifeguard on duty in the area,” said Mattie Shannon, officer in charge at Doolin Coast Guard unit.Ms Bourke’s family lost sight of her and raised the alarm. At 2.50pm the Doolin Coast Guard Unit was called to the incident between Liscannor and Lahinch. The team launched the new Delta RIB …

NAMA has published a list of properties subject to enforcement action by the agency, including 30 properties in Clare.In the publication, Nama stresses that even if a specific property address is listed it does not mean the entirety of the property is subject to enforcement.Of the Clare properties, Eleven of them are in Ennis, while there are others in Doolin, Kilkee, Killaloe, Kilrush, Lisdoonvarna, Newmarket-on-Fergus, Shannon, Westbury, Whitegate, Belharbour, Sixmilebridge and Liscannor.Among the items included on the list are Whelan’s Quarry at Kilrush and Daragh; Garran na Coille, Shanaway Road, Ennis; Cluain Ros Leamhain, Roslevan, Tulla Road, Ennis; certain units at Kilkee service station, certain units at Brú na Sionna in Shannon and an unnamed hotel in Liscannor. Development has not commenced on 11 of the properties subject to enforcement and three are described as agricultural land. Its 2010 annual report last week stated that there are 850 debtors in Nama, three of whom have loans of over €2 billion. …

ENNIS businesses and residents were left in the dark by inadequate communication from the ESB during last week’s major power outages, it has been claimed.However, according to the electricity board, the response to the outages, which occurred without warning, was as rapid as possible and they strived to inform the public with up-to-date information.The electricity supply was hit at around 11am on Thursday, affecting nearby homes, banks, shops, businesses, pubs and restaurants. ATM machines across the town were also affected by the disruption. Businessman and vice-president of Ennis Chamber Brian O’Neill said restaurant and hostel The Rowan Tree was “one of the worst affected” by the outages. He has called on the ESB to review their communications strategy for dealing with major disruptions to the power supply.He said the electricity went out at 11am and didn’t return to The Rowan Tree until 1.30am the next morning. “We were 14 hours without power and eventually we had to make the decision …

A German woman, paid €2.50 per hour, while working for a Clare business, has been awarded more than €4,300 by the Labour Court.Owners of a North Clare B&B were ordered to pay the woman who worked for them in 2009 €4,346.67 after the Labour Court dismissed their appeal against a previous decision of the Rights Commissioner. Armin Grefkes and Bernadette Moloney-Grefkes advertised on a German website a full-time work experience job vacancy in Drumcreehy House in Ballyvaughan for the summer season of 2009. Marika Lubig, a German national, who was unemployed in Germany at the time, came across the advertisement and applied for the job. Following an exchange of correspondence and some telephone conversations, Mr Grefkes and Ms Moloney-Grefkes offered Ms Lubig the job on the basis that they would pay her €100 per week and in addition would provide her and her husband with free accommodation, access to a car and the use of the their computer and internet …

A skydiver participating in an event in Scariff over the August Bank Holiday weekend was rushed to hospital after he broke his leg during his landing on Saturday.The man, who was part of a group of skydivers organised to showcase at the Scariff Harbour Festival, is understood to have been carrying a banner as part of the event and this became entangled in some way with an ESB wire. Having parachuted from an aircraft above Craven’s field in Scariff the skydiver performed what was described a fantastic air display with his colleagues but got into difficulty close to the ground and lost his balance. The result was he broke his leg and had to be taken by ambulance to hospital. Although he was unable to participate in the following day’s air display he is understood to be recovering well.  

A Clare Champion story highlighting the expenditure of an estimated €1,800 a week to transport two West Clare teenagers with special needs by taxi to a special needs school in Ennis has been presented to Education Minister, Ruairí Quinn.Deputy Pat Breen confirmed he presented Minister Quinn with a copy of the story highlighting the inconvenience and cost of transporting teenagers with special needs to Ennis because of the lack of a suitable facility in their locality.Isabelle Sequin, 14, who has Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and epilepsy, is completing a round trip of 130 kilometres three days a week, while her twin sister, Clara, goes to school in St Joseph’s Community College, Kilkee.Isabelle stays in an Enable Ireland house on Wednesday nights to reduce the impact of travelling from Carrigaholt to Ennis on her condition.Another pupil with ASD is being collected by the same taxi from Moyasta while it is understood another pupil is picked up along the way to Ennis.Deputy …

THE next couple of weeks are set to be difficult from a financial point of view for many families as they face costs of going back to school and college.Cathal Oakes of the Clare branch of St Vincent De Paul said it is too early to say if recent changes to third-level grants will cause people to abandon education but that it is likely to make it harder for some. “It’s too early to say that it will cause people to drop out but it will put extra pressure on the system. If people apply to us for help, we have a team that look at applications and they would be people who have a background in education.”He said that St Vincent De Paul have started an online petition to cut the cost of school books for families. The St Vincent De Paul want to see a book rental scheme introduced, something that is in place in most European countries …