News

THE number of Clare patients requiring up to four hours of hospital dialysis three times a week has increased by 17% over a two-year period, new figures have revealed. There are 258 people in the Mid-West receiving lifesaving dialysis treatment in various forms. The Clare Champion has learned 62 Clare patients attend for in centre haemodialysis treatment at units in University Hospital Limerick and the Fresenius dialysis unit at Riverside Park on the Dock Road. In addition another seven patients from Clare attend Unit 7, Merlin Park and the Braun Wellstone unit in Galway for their in centre treatment. Both Galway units are closer to home for Clare patients living in the north of the county. This compares to 50 patients who attended UHL for haemodialysis treatment and nine in Galway in 2019. There are currently four patients on peritoneal dialysis (PD), while seven people are now on home haemodialysis programmes. These patients have been trained by their renal teams …

GARDAÍ have seized cannabis with a value of over €20,000 follow a search of an apartment in the Main Street area of Newmarket-on-Fergus, on Friday. During the course of the search Gardaí discovered suspected cannabis plants (pending analysis). Cannabis with a value of over €20,000 has been seized. No arrests have been made at this time but Gardaí are following a definite line of enquiry. Investigations are ongoing.

THERE is tension in the Hermitage area of Ennis at the moment, with anger among residents at some of the behaviour that has been associated with the Ashford Court. Homeless people have been housed there for some time under the Winter Initiative project, designed to help rough sleepers. One woman said that there has been a lot of problematic behaviour in recent weeks. “It used to be a boutique hotel, you’d have had a lot of stags and hens there, and as residents we didn’t mind, they weren’t causing any issues. But the carry on that you’ve had lately is just disgraceful.” She said that there has been drug dealing in the vicinity. “You see people hanging around waiting to sell drugs or buy the drugs from someone there. The language, the vulgarity, I’d say they are so off their face they don’t realise it.” In general, there has been a very serious level of anti social behaviour in the …

ONE of the country’s best known golf clubs, Lahinch Golf Club recorded a “manageable” operating loss of €303,199 last year, reports Gordon Deegan. In a report presented to members at the club’s virtual Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Friday via Zoom, chairperson of Lahinch GC Council, Martin O’Sullivan stated that “the overwhelming dominant feature of 2020 was the advent of Covid-19 and the consequent challenges it presented”. Lahinch staged the 2019 Dubai Duty Free Irish Open and counts former Ireland rugby captain, Paul O’Connell as one of its members. Commenting on the 2020 operating loss in the report, Mr O’Sullivan said, “While any loss is unwelcome, the outturn is acceptable, when compared with our peer group, and is manageable once some normality returns, hopefully later this year.” Mr O’Sullivan said Lahinch GC’s financial performance has been substantially impacted as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic “which resulted in the closure of the club and its facilities to members and guests …

BUSINESSES in Doolin have sought to distance themselves from a tourism website that caused anger with an ill-judged April Fools Facebook post on the topic of suicide. A co-operative of local businesses called Doolin Tourism has stated it has nothing to do with the Visit Doolin website which caused an outcry on social media that has grown over two days. The group also outlined how several attempts to have Facebook take the Visit Doolin site down have fallen on deaf ears. In a statement Doolin Tourism said it was the only official organisation that promotes Doolin as a destination and has no connection with the Visit Doolin page whatsoever. “Doolin Tourism is the only page that represents Doolin and its businesses and strongly condemns the words and actions of the imposter,” the statement read. “It has been a long, continuous battle for Doolin Tourism and our community to get the offending page and its other associated pages removed permanently, as …

THE Health Protection Surveillance Centre has today been notified of fewer than five additional cases of Covid-19 in Clare and eight additional deaths related to Covid-19 nationally. Four deaths occurred in March, four in February.The median age of those who died was 74 years and the age range was 51 to 94 years. There has been a total of 4,713 Covid-19 related deaths in Ireland. As of midnight, Thursday, April 1, the HPSC has been notified of 591 confirmed cases of Covid-19. There is now a total of 237,187* confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Ireland. Of the cases notified today: 292 are men / 295 are women 72% are under 45 years of age The median age is 31 years old 288 in Dublin, 40 in Kildare, 30 in Meath, 28 in Westmeath, 27 in Laois and the remaining 178 cases are spread across 19 other counties**. As of 8am today, 264 Covid-19 patients are hospitalised, of which 62 are in ICU. …

A MULTI-MILLION euro social housing development for Scariff has hit a hitch, after questions were raised over its proposed density by the Department of Housing. Councillor Pat Burke sought an update on the status of the project at the recent meeting of the Killaloe Municipal District. Director of Services Ann Haugh, who also heads up the Social Development Directorate, outlined the current situation with the planned development at Ballyminogue. “We have encountered a slight delay,” she told the meeting. “We made a Stage 2 application to the department, but it was return to us not approved. We have had to go back and look at densities and other issues. There are certain aspects of the plans which will have to be reviewed.” Councillor Burke asked if any questions had been raised of the number of units in the estate, which was to 18 under the original plans. “Reducing the density and the overall footprint of the development might be conditions …

QUIN based health advocate, John Wall has called the use of surplus Covid-19 vaccines for Clare and Limerick Gardaí as, “another shocking abuse of trust,” and said he is “fuming” over the  revelation on Thursday that approximately 100 members of the force on ‘standby lists’ received surplus vaccines at the Limerick vaccination centre in the Radisson Blu Hotel in Meelick.  Mr Wall went on to say this decision was, “yet another shocking abuse of trust we have placed in others to administer the vaccine rollout and a blatant disregard for the medically vulnerable many of whom remain unvaccinated. This is really hard to take.” He was critical of what the UL Hospitals Group said they considered to be an “appropriate” decision. “The same hospital that made me fight to get a vaccine, were at the very same time doing this. There are tens of thousands of medically vulnerable people begging to be vaccinated. The mismanagement of our rollout programme is …