Regional

A united approach to promoting Ennis as a tourist destination was launched at Glór this week as the Visit Ennis brochure for 2012 was unveiled.The multi-agency initiative is one of many projects being undertaken aimed at drawing visitors and tourists to Ennis.Mayor of Ennis, Councillor Michael Guilfoyle, joined interests from the tourism, hospitality, leisure, local government, retail and services sectors for the launch.Spearheaded by Ennis Town Council, Shannon Development and Ennis Chamber of Commerce and supported by businesses throughout the town, the brochure forms part of the Promote Ennis strategy to profile the town and county to visitors and tourists locally, nationally and internationally.  The launch also featured an announcement by Promote Ennis of a series of other projects being undertaken, namely the Visit Ennis website www.visitennis.ie, the Street Ambassador Programme and the Purple Flag Initiative.Mayor Guilfoyle noted that the new brochure is a much more detailed and comprehensive publication that anything produced for Ennis in the past. “While the …

SHANNON Town Council will bid to host the Association of Municipal Authorities of Ireland annual conference in 2013.A decision to do so was made at their May meeting, despite some concerns about funding.The members also discussed the matter at an earlier meeting and at that stage, it was decided some more information on sources of funding was required. Addressing the May meeting, town clerk Liam O’Connor said he had spoken to the county council’s head of finance who said that any request for funding would be part of the 2013 budgetary process and that no provision had been made for it in the 2012 tourism budget.Councillor Gerry Flynn proposed that no bid for the conference be made. “In view of the limited funding available, there is a duty on us to protect the finances,” he claimed. He was supported by Councillor Cathy McCafferty, who said she didn’t think it was acceptable in the circumstances.However, Councillor Patricia McCarthy proposed the town …

  The first of six festivals expected to generate €2.5 million for the North Clare economy is to take place this weekend. Attorney General Máire Whelan will be in Ballyvaughan on Friday to open the Burren Law School, this year themed Ireland – Commemoration and Constitution. The guest director will be Alex White SC, TD and the subject will draw on two areas, the beginning of a sequence of significant centenary commemorations, which will continue up to 2016 and the 75th anniversary of Bunreacht na hÉireann and the Constitutional Convention to be established this spring to explore and report on constitutional change.Contributors include author Gerry Stembridge; high court judge Mr Justice Gerard Hogan; Dr Oran Doyle, school of law, TCD; Dr Carol Coulter, legal affairs editor, The Irish Times; Minister for European Affairs, Lucinda Creighton; Professor emeritus of history at UCC, Donnchadh O’Corrain; Dr Ronan Foley of the department of Geography NUI Maynooth; Dr Laura Cahillane of the department of …

A PAIR of white-tailed sea eagles who found love in East Clare are believed to be expecting chicks this month, making this the first confirmed breeding of the species in Ireland for 110 years. The four-year-old male and three-year-old female have settled near Mountshannon. It forms the first documented nesting attempt for the species in Ireland in over 100 years. The breeding pair was collected on the island of Frøya off the west coast of Norway and settled in the Mounshannon area in early 2011.The lovebirds were released separately from Killarney National Park, County Kerry, in 2008 and in 2009 as part of the white-tailed sea eagle reintroduction programme, developed and funded by the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht in partnership with Golden Eagle Trust.Although some pairs have established themselves in County Kerry in 2012, the nesting attempt in County Clare is the first known nesting since the reintroduction programme began. Historically, the white-tailed sea eagle was once …

The non-attendance of approximately 35,000 out-patients scheduled for appointments in two Galway public hospitals last year represents one of the biggest challenges facing the local acute hospital service.That’s according to the new chief executive officer of the Galway and Roscommon University Hospitals’ Group, who insists the Health Service Executive (HSE) has a difficult task to ensure all patients fulfil their out-patients appointments.The huge number of so-called “no-shows” is 5,500 less than the total number of “invalidated” patients on the Outpatient Waiting List for University College Hospital, Galway and Merlin Park, Galway, which now stands at 40,517.However, Mr Maher expects this figure could reduce by between 10% and 15% when the number of patients on multiple lists for the same out-patients’ procedures are removed from the system.It is estimated that Galway University Hospitals see 5,000 patients every week. Speaking at a recent HSE Forum meeting in Galway, Mr Maher explained if all patients turned up for their appointments, their overall out-patient …

THE Commission for Energy Regulation (CER) is putting a project worth hundreds of millions of euro in jeopardy and preventing the creation of hundreds of jobs, a special meeting of West Clare councillors heard last Friday.Executives from Shannon LNG, the company that has received planning permission for a €600 million LNG terminal and which is also looking at developing a €400m power plant (both at a site in Ballylongford), addressed the members. They voiced their concern at CER proposals that all gas suppliers be required to pay tariffs for the interconnectors, which bring gas from Britain to Ireland. They claim they shouldn’t have to pay towards those interconnectors, as they will not use them.At the meeting, former Kerry footballer and Shannon Development executive Óige Moran said there are plans for an LNG gas terminal on the Kerry side of the estuary and that during construction up to 650 jobs would be created, with 50 permanent direct jobs and 50 indirect …

With the retail trade being one of the sectors that has been hit hardest by the downturn in the economy, ACIST Skillnet and Ennis Chamber are providing a workshop series entitled Boost the Bottom Line – A Profit Margin Workshop Series. The series will take place on four consecutive Wednesdays in May from 6.30pm-9.30pm in the Temple Gate Hotel. The aim of the workshop series is to assist business owner/managers to protect and increase profit margins and to create awareness of areas that profit margins may be lost.  The workshop series will cover profit margins within a business that has employees, products and a premises such as any form of retail business. However, many of the principles of profit margin will apply to all businesses.  The series is targeted at owner/managers, supervisors and decision makers within a business.The first workshop will take place on Wednesday, May 9 on the subject of increasing sales.  On Wednesday, May 16, the workshop will …

THE long term benefits of the proposed €120million distributor road linking South-East Clare with Limerick City will be seen by future generations, according to senior engineer Tom Tiernan.Speaking to The Clare Champion, Mr Tiernan said Phase Two of the Northern Distributor Road is needed  to facilitate the future needs of the region.Clare County Council’s senior engineer explained this new road will facilitate development, good quality connectivity and access to all opportunities that exist in South East Clare and North Limerick at present and into  the future.He noted the traffic situation on the north side of Limerick City is different from rest of the city. “The road infrastructure from that area is more radial from Limerick City Centre. A lot of it isn’t good quality road infrastructure. It is quite restricted in some cases at particular times, you do have a deficit from a traffic capacity point of view, particularly at peak times, morning and evening.“There are a series of local …