News

THE Mayor of Clare wants retired civil servants to remain retired. He has called on the Government to crack down on the number of retired civil servants that are returning to work within State services, despite being in receipt of State pensions and retirement packages. Councillor Tony Mulcahy said the practice is denying young graduates employment and is placing additional and unnecessary pressure on the public finances.

LEADING psychiatrist Dr Moosajee Bhamjee has warned that waiting times in the Clare Mental Health Services would continue to increase unless more funding is allocated by Government to address mental health issues. Expressing concern about the lack of funding, Dr Bhamjee claimed some patients could be forced to wait up to six months to attend a public psychiatrist or a counsellor, while others might have to wait between four to six weeks for an outpatients’ appointment.

CLARE GAA will, next week, unveil a new committee tasked with helping players find work. Conscious of the growing number of inter-county players that are out of work, board chairman Michael O’Neill signalled that he would be putting plans in place to help inter-county players in their search to find work.

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.