Tag Archives: shannon

THERE is local anger about the poor standard of the grass cutting in public areas again this summer, last week’s meeting of Shannon Municipal District heard. “People are very angry about the way that Shannon looks and they want the contractor to be local,” said Sinn Féin’s Donna McGettigan. Councillor McGettigan said that while it may not be legally possible to ensure the contract goes to a local company, there still needs to be steps taken to make sure things are done to an acceptable standard. She put forward a motion that an enforcement structure be implemented, which would include agreed standards and time frames for the contracted works. The motion also proposed that the company and the Council “streamline their communication structures. It also said that the company would preferably have a local contact who could ensure that necessary works get carried out. In a written reply Senior Executive Engineer Aidan O’Rourke stated, “Grass cutting is subject to an …

A SHANNON GP has hit out the handling of circumstances around the health minister’s Covid-19 test last Tuesday the day it unveiled the new roadmap for living with the virus. Dr Yvonne Williams said that misunderstanding over who should isolate while a contact of theirs is awaiting a test result, smacked of “chaos and confusion”. “The advice is that while someone is awaiting results of a test, their household should restrict their movements,” she explained. “If someone has a positive test, then their contacts are advised to isolate.” On Tuesday, shortly after addressing a press conference on the Living with Covid-19 plan, Minister Stephen Donnelly felt unwell and contacted his GP to arrange a coronavirus test. Following that news, the cabinet, as well as Acting Chief Medical Officer Dr Ronan Glynn, were told to restrict their movements as a precaution. The Dáil was then adjourned, at first for a period of one week, before being reconvened later on Tuesday evening. …

GETTING the public to report even minor incidents is very important to local policing, Tuesday’s meeting of Shannon Municipal District heard, but it also heard that on occasion local people are afraid to make a complaint. Sergeant Seamus Mulligan said that there are a relatively large number of Gardaí based in Shannon due to the airport, and with the facility not being too demanding on their time at the moment, that there is quite a good number of police working in the area. He said that in the last couple of years quite a bit of effort has gone into getting Neighbourhood Watch schemes going, and while these have been successful in some cases, that has not always been the case. “In a lot of areas, unfortunately, they don’t have the interest in engaging.” The efforts to get these schemes in place will continue over the next year, he added. Levels of crime in the Shannon area have remained relatively …

THE Government’s newly published plan for dealing with Covid-19, Resilience and Recovery, had relatively little to say about aviation, and no measure that will bring immediate comfort to Shannon, which is facing the potential loss of Ryanair services for the winter, along with its Aer Lingus transatlantic services. Essentially it proposes that Ireland apply the principles of a European Commission regime to have a common approach to travel within the EU. “It is proposed that Ireland broadly support the European Commission proposals and should continue to engage with Member States and the Commission to develop a regime that is consistent with public health requirements, cognisant of public of resources and capacity, while supportive of our need to support air transport,” it states. Clare TD Michael McNamara was far from pleased with what was set out. “It’s entirely vague and unsatisfactory. It’s almost as if things are going fine and we don’t really need to address this, when, in fact, our …

SHANNON-based Aer Lingus employees who are currently out of work are very disillusioned with their treatment during the pandemic. Speaking on Tuesday, one worker said that Shannon employees were first laid off, despite having given greater service in many cases than colleagues based at Dublin and Cork. “We are the most senior crew, yet we were laid off on June 21. We ended up on the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme and now since the start of September we’re supposed to be on the Pandemic Unemployment Payment, but it’s been a disaster because most of us have been rejected for it. We’ve been sending in applications and getting rejected, whatever way the glitch is they haven’t us off the TWSS.” It has not been possible to get answers from the company, they claimed. “There’s a group of us who asked to meet the Commercial Department of Aer Lingus three weeks ago to ask why Shannon is being used as a pawn. …

THE summer was exceptionally wet in Shannon, but it was also the warmest place to be in Ireland, according to Met Éireann figures. Rainfall in Shannon was 79% above average for the months of June, July and August, making it the wettest summer in the town since 1997. Overall there was just under 3.9 metres of rainfall, a huge amount for the time of year. Shannon’s mean temperature for the summer was 15.2 degrees celsius, and while this was 0.3 degrees below average, it was still the highest mean temperature recorded across Met Éireann’s network of weather stations. It did get 381 hours of sunshine over the summer, but this was also below the expected amount. The Met Éireann report on the summer said, “After a spring where a weakened Jetstream remained away from Ireland to the north or south, the summer of 2020 saw an unseasonally strong North Atlantic Jetstream dominating our weather, keeping it mostly unsettled and cool …

SHANNON Airport is facing massive problems this week, with Aer Lingus considering moving its US services away from the Clare airport and Ryanair warning staff it may close its Shannon base for the winter. At the moment Shannon’s only real passenger business is with Ryanair, while the loss of the Aer Lingus transatlantic business going forward would be a crippling blow for Clare tourism, as well as being very detrimental to the prospects of retaining and developing US investment in the west of Ireland. Speaking to The Clare Champion on Wednesday, Shannon Group CEO Mary Considine said it is very important that the Government finally adjusts the restrictions on travel. “We are looking at the worst year in history for aviation, not just here in Shannon and nationally, but globally. Ryanair and Aer Lingus are really important customers to Shannon and I think they have stated very clearly the difficulty in restoring services or really kick starting aviation with the …

A CONFIRMED case of Covid-19 has been identified at St Conaire’s National School in Shannon. In a communication to staff, school principal Peter Walsh wrote “St Conaire’s NS has been notified of a confirmed case of Covid-19 in the school.” He added, “Please be assured that the school is doing everything possible to keep all pupils and staff safe and the school will be following all HSE advice in relation to this confirmed case.”