News

Forty key members of the Illinois Senate and House of Representatives are in Clare this week to explore new business and nurture tourism links between the US and Irish Mid-West regions.

CITYJET have announced that its Shannon-Charles De Gaulle route, which was introduced after the loss of the Aer Lingus Heathrow service two years ago, will be terminated from October 24. The Charles De Gaulle service offered the global connectivity that had been provided by the Heathrow route prior to its termination.

ECONOMIST and NAMA critic Dr Anthony Leddin, has told an Ennis business meeting that bank lending fuelled the housing bubble and that it was more extreme here than in any other EU country. The head of the Department of Economics at the University of Limerick said the dependence of the banks on foreign borrowing was greater than in other countries, with the exception of Iceland. He criticised the Central Bank for failing to exert its authority, stating it was “asleep at the switch”.

Numbers visiting Clare’s flagship tourism attractions at the Cliffs of Moher as well as Bunratty Castle and Folk Park tumbled last year, figures just released by Fáilte Ireland reveal.

A total of 11,687 motorists in Clare currently have penalty points endorsed on their driving licenses, with seven drivers having been disqualified from driving as they reached the maximum of 12 penalty points.

Legendary fantasy writer Terry Pratchett will visit Clare later this year it has been confirmed. Mr Pratchett, multi-million selling author of the Discworld series of books, will be the guest of honour at the first Irish Discworld Convention, which is being held in the county in November.

IF agreement on the future of Element Six and the severance package for departing workers isn’t reached by the end of September, the survival plan will be taken off the table and 370 jobs will be lost, as was originally planned, the company’s CEO Cyrus Jilla has said. This week, after sending a letter to employees regarding the situation, Mr Jilla granted interviews to two Irish publications, one of which was The Clare Champion, and he said he is frustrated with the lack of progress being made on the plan to save 163 jobs. He also claimed to be “astonished” that more urgency isn’t being shown by certain union figures.

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