News

THE Mid-West Health Service Executive (HSE) has urged Clare parents to ensure their children have been vaccinated with the Measles, Mumps and Rubella (MMR) jab after two confirmed cases in Clare required hospital admission.In a statement issued to The Clare Champion, the regional health authority revealed seven cases of measles have been diagnosed in Clare, four confirmed and three possible cases.Of the Clare cases, one was an adult, two were children under one year and four were aged between one and two years. Two of these cases were treated in the Mid-Western Regional Hospital, Limerick.The national outbreak of this infectious disease occurring in Ireland since September 2009 is being mirrored in the Mid-West, where there have been 12 confirmed cases and eight suspected cases, compared to just two in the whole of last year.While some of the Mid-West cases have required hospital admission, most have been managed at home. Nationally, one in 10 cases have required hospital care.The most recent …

ENNIS Town Council doesn’t have the resources to fund an expensive piece of sculpture in honour of victims of abuse but efforts will be made to source funding elsewhere.A report from Town Clerk Eddie Power said that after advertisements were placed seeking submissions, two were received. One was from Barry Wrafter, but Mr Power felt that the council wouldn’t be able to fund what he proposed. “At the December meeting the Executive was requested to obtain full costings on the piece proposed by Barry Wrafter. Having regard to present limitations on finances the council is not in a position to fund these proposals at present. It is recommended that the council consider the placing of a commemorative plaque at an appropriate location as a demonstration of solidarity with all those who suffered in the religious industrial schools and Magdalene laundries.”Councillor Paul O’Shea said that attempts should be made to get money from alternative sources. He proposed seeking funds from other …

THE provision of a proposed 140-bed five-storey private hospital on the outskirts of Ennis costing an estimated €60 million, would threaten the long-term viability of Cahercalla Community Hospital and Hospice, it has been claimed.In a letter to Clare county councillors, the chairman of the board of directors at Cahercalla, Fr Harry Bohan, has requested the elected members to carefully consider any decision they might make to facilitate the construction of the first private healthcare facility of its kind in the county at Shanaway Road, Ennis.John Stack, Lisdoonvarna and Pat Bonner, Donegal, lodged a planning application with Clare County Council before Christmas seeking permission for a new private hospital complex including 120 in-patient and a further 20 out-patient beds.Because the existing site at Shanaway Road is zoned for housing, it is understood that a material contravention of the Clare Development Plan requiring the support of 24 councillors will be necessary to rezone the land.In his letter, Fr Bohan warned the new …

The Department of Transport allocation of more than €4.8 million for the improvement and maintenance of roads in Clare for the coming year has been branded “inadequate” by a Fianna Fáil county councillor.Ennistymon councillor, Richard Nagle said he believes the €3,568,000 for road improvement and €1,269,000 for road maintenance in Clare announced on Monday was insufficient to meet the needs of the county after recent extreme weather conditions caused extensive potholes and rupturing of roads.  “I think it is totally inadequate. The roads are in extremely poor repair. The combination of the floods and the frost has made many roads virtually impassable and there is no way under the present allocation that we will be able to repair those roads and bring them to an acceptable standard,” councillor Nagle continued. Prior to the announcement of the allocation, the Fianna Fáil councillor at a North Clare Area Meeting labelled Minister Noel Dempsey’s expectation that the council restore damaged roads within existing …

A LONG-awaited playground for North Clare seems a step closer this week after an appropriate site was identified by Clare County Council in Lahinch.The council looks set to sign a long-term lease with Lahinch Seaworld for a plot of land adjacent to the building on which a playground and additional parking will be located.The Lahinch Community Playground Committee has been campaigning for the provision of a playground in the village for the past three years and has raised, according to local councillors, upward of €70,000. Three sites were discounted because they did not meet certain criteria. The site will cost Clare County Council €15,000 per year but it is expected that the additional car parking spaces will come close to covering the cost of this. Clare County Council granted the committee planning permission for the playground late last year.Ennistymon councillor Richard Nagle has welcomed the project’s progress. “It was envisaged that Lahinch would have a playground back in 2008 but …

When the US Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) pre-inspection station at Shannon became operational in last August, the facilities involved were only made available to passengers on scheduled airlines.Now that legal and other formalities have been ironed out, the agreement between Irish and US authorities to extend the service to corporate jets and air cargo business opens up a timely new stream of revenue for the airport.While welcoming the news, Clare Fine Gael TD Pat Breen has called for follow-up action on two fronts. He wants the Government to provide funding of €200,000 a year for a three-year promotion campaign aimed at the corporate jets sector.“While there was a substantial fall of more than 6.5% in corporate jet movements across the Atlantic in 2009, a recovery in that traffic segment is already on the way. Europe Control is forecasting a rise of 1.7% in private jet traffic in the coming year and for that growth to rise by a further …

THE Clare Sunset Foundation has come up with a card to be put on cars that have unfairly occupied disabled parking spaces.The Sunset Foundation are an organisation for visually impaired people and they are also behind the Clare Talking and Social Club, which provides company for over a 100 people who live alone. The card bears the slogan, “You have taken my parking space, would you like to take my disability?” and it’s hoped it will make the offending drivers think twice about taking disabled spaces. Pat Murphy of the Clare Sunset Foundation said people taking disabled spots unjustly is very frustrating for people affected. “It would have been something that people have noticed happening a lot and we decided that we’d try to do something about it,” he said.The cards are available from 065 6824875 or claresunset@gmail.com. Every year the Clare Sunset Foundation sends 30 people to Lourdes and all money raised will go towards this fund.

Stunned hoteliers and other tourism interests will be demanding explanations rather than excuses for the unprecedented 2009 slump in overseas tourism to the West of Ireland when they come face-to-face with the responsible State agencies.Even though they were forewarned that the last two years for tourism were going to be a struggle – “nothing prepared us for the 2009 outcome in the West of Ireland” a leading tourism industry operator said.“In each of the past two years they told us that we were facing into the perfect storm, which meant that we were facing into a year when every possible negative factor and adverse influence would be running against us. We can only guess at what they are going to say this year,” he said of the upcoming return of the Tourism Roadshow. The big national tourism bodies, Tourism Ireland and Fáilte Ireland are due to line up beside Shannon Development and are certain to face close questioning when the …