News

About 130 jobs are set to go in Shannon, with Tecnotree and GE Money both announcing redundancies. Tecnotree is to let around 80 people go, with GE Money set to reduce its workforce by 50.

Ennis Chamber, local hoteliers and publicans have combined to ensure that the Ennis Trad Festival, which had been not expected to go ahead, will now take place. A decision had been taken by the festival committee to postpone this year’s festival due to a lack of sufficient funding to run it.

A community group in Ennistymon has come out against the possible removal of two of the town’s most famous buildings.

ONE of the country’s best-known regional journalists, Tony Mulvey, begins his 51st year of service with The Clare Champion this week. Tony’s 50-year association with the newspaper was marked at a function hosted by the newspaper in the Bunratty Manor Hotel last Friday night. Colleagues and retired staff joined Tony, his wife Margaret and their family in celebration of his remarkable achievement.

AER Lingus staff at Shannon should know more about how the company’s cutbacks will impact on them by Thursday evening, as management are to come to Clare to discuss the situation with them. The company’s corporate affairs director, Enda Corneille, told The Clare Champion that no specific details on where redundancies will occur will be made public until all workers had been spoken to and that discussions with Cork and Shannon employees would take place this Thursday.

WHILE Element Six management had set a deadline for the end of September for acceptance of its Shannon Sustainability Plan, one week into October, the situation is still unresolved. It’s understood that management are due to meet with senior company figures in London this week for further discussions.

A top tourist attraction in Ennis is being ruined by the presence of a large pile of domestic rubbish, which according to a local landowner, is attracting visitors of a different kind – rats. John Costelloe, owner of the lands adjacent to Clare Abbey, noticed some time ago that a large quantity of household waste was dumped in a car park serving the abbey.

The controversial development of a visitor centre at the Pol an Ionainn Cave in Doolin was given the green light this week. Clare County Council granted planning permission for the development at Craggecorradan in April but the company behind rival attraction, the Aillwee Caves along with An Taisce and another party, appealed this to An Bord Pleanála.