News

MANAGEMENT and unions at Element Six are locked in talks on the future survival of the troubled Shannon plant in the hope of reaching agreement on contentious aspects of the sustainability plan ahead of the parties reappearing before the Labour Court next Tuesday.

SCHOOL children at Doora National School are being repeatedly left without water, leading to fears that swine flu could spread without adequate hand-washing facilities.

GARDAÍ in Gort are reminding people to be extra vigilant after a number of burglaries in the district spiked in recent weeks. There have been 21 burglaries in the area in the past six weeks and Superintendent Seán Healy is asking people to be more security conscious.

The composition of the new Shannon Airport Authority has yet to be finalised by the Minister for Transport, but will not include the first term chairman, Pat Shanahan.

RESUBMITTED plans for the development of a controversial explosives factory on the banks of the Shannon Estuary have been approved by An Bord Pleanála, six years after the first application was refused on appeal.  

THE wheel has come full circle on the double for the McMahon family and their involvement with Shannon aviation that stretches back to the pioneering days of the 1940s.When the takeover of a Shannon Free Zone-based venture went through last week, John McMahon had career involvement at both ends of the deal, which was valued at $1.75billion. A former high-level officer with Aer Lingus and Guinness Peat Aviation, Mr McMahon was the founding chief executive of Genesis Lease, which was taken over by Amsterdam-based AerCap. But AerCap was formerly known as debis AirFinance, based at Schiphol Airport in the Netherlands capital, and Mr McMahon was a member of the team that set up that very company. There he was senior vice-president in charge of commercial and business development before setting up Genesis Lease in an arrangement with GECAS, the General Electric subsidiary that took over Guinness Peat Aviation and its operations at Shannon in the early 1990s.Before the Amsterdam venture, …

East Clare tourism must not lose out to Limerick, Clare Fine Gael Deputy Pat Breen has warned in calling for “balanced and careful management” if the tax-break scheme for tourism developments on the lower Shannon is to be extended downriver to the city. “While not begrudging Limerick any openings for tourism development, the city does have substantial advantages over the East Clare area when it comes to attracting the type of investment and developments which qualify under the tax incentive scheme,” Deputy Breen said.

AN increase in the population of children, whose parents were part of the baby boom in the 1970s, has led to a shortage of quality family homes in Ennis, according to a local auctioneer.