Tag Archives: Shannon Estuary

A Ballynacally farmer has expressed his frustration at the lack of progress in repairing the Shannon Estuary banks along 30 acres of his land in Lisheen. Vincent O’Shea, who farms up to 120 acres, has been unable to cut silage on the affected land and has had to sell 30 cows. The land was badly flooded more than 12 months ago and he says that no progress has been made in the interim with regard to alleviating the problem. Two neighbouring farmers, John Slattery and Seán Carrig, are similarly affected. “The two sluices went in January of 2014. There is no one coming near us. They are saying they are doing this and doing that. Pat Breen (TD) reckons the council have the money but you ring the council and they say they have no more there for this. They have money for the tourists going to Lahinch and Kilkee but that’s no good to me. I can’t do any …

An ambitious new EU energy package could see the Shannon Estuary serve as an energy hub for Europe and save Irish householders money, according to Sean Kelly MEP. The Ireland South MEP welcomed the announcement of the Energy Union and called on member states to work to harmonise their national energy strategies for the benefit of the entire EU. “Increased EU energy cooperation will see us improve the security of our energy supply, increase our competitiveness, and move towards a low carbon system. An integrated energy market brings more competition and ultimately more affordable energy prices for European consumers”, said the MEP. “It is clear that we are far too dependent on unreliable external sources for our energy supply, particularly Russia. There is an urgent need to diversify our energy resources to ensure the European consumer is not adversely affected by geopolitical crises such as the one we have seen in Ukraine,” he said. Mr Kelly said increased efforts to …

The Irish Road Haulage Association (IRHA) is lending full support to the Weastflow project , which aims to improve and enhance freight logistics in North West Europe, including the Shannon Estuary ports. The €9 million project is part-funded by the Interreg IVB NWE programme and involves 22 partners and 19 observers from countries including Ireland, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, the UK and China. The project will explore current freight logistics practices in North West Europe, identifying challenges and opportunities to improve freight flows and encourage more sustainable freight transport methods. President of the IRHA, Clare man, Eoin Gavin spoke at a recent Weastflow conference in Brussels to outline the Associations on-going efforts to support and promote sustainable transport in respect to the Limerick/Shannon gateway. During the course of his presentation, Mr Gavin highlighted the excellent opportunity for the area to position itself as the closest deep-sea port and international airport to North America. Mr Gavin stated after the event …

Newly appointed lifeboat operations manager at Kilrush RNLI, Pauline Dunleavy, had her first callout in charge, when an alert was received on Sunday morning. The lifeboat was launched to reports that a plane flying overhead had observed an indication that a fire may have broken out in the cargo hold. In these circumstances it is standard procedure to launch the lifeboat and it gave Pauline a chance to see how fast the lifeboat can be launched and the response of the volunteers in times of emergency. The lifeboat was launched at 9.20am and kept a presence on the river before they learned that the flight, which was en route to France, had landed safely at Shannon Airport and they were stood down. Commenting on the callout, Pauline Dunleavy said, “During my first callout in this new role, it was great to see the lifeboat crew respond to an emergency from the other side. I had the opportunity to see the …

Clare County Council says the zoning of more than 345 hectares of land along the Shannon Estuary will give ‘greater investor confidence’ for anyone considering large-scale marine related development proposals. Earlier this week the council’s elected members unanimously backed the move to incorporate the zoned lands into the Clare County Development Plan 2011-17 along with the Strategic Integrated Framework Plan (SIFP) for the Shannon Estuary, a major strategic plan for the future development and management of marine-related industry and tourism along Ireland’s largest estuary. The newly zoned lands relate to Strategic Development Locations (SDL) at Cahercon and Moneypoint where existing pier facilities and deep estuarial water provide potential for maritime industry investment. Clare County Council says it would welcome any opportunity to discuss suitable development proposals for the locations. A new working group has also been established to promote and market the sites and wider Estuary as a key investment location. Led by Clare County Council, the group also comprises …

POWER cuts lasting several hours affected many parts of the county on Saturday and Sunday, following damage to overhead cables, due to gale force winds. There is a high risk that this kind of weather will persist over the next couple of days. This continuing adverse weather has  heightened fears that coastal areas of Clare and the Shannon Estuary shoreline  badly affected by flooding a couple of weeks ago, could once again be in serious danger of further storm damage. The latest Met Éireann forecast is: Squally showers continuing in most parts of the country tonight, a few of them thundery and some falling as sleet or snow over high ground. Strong to gale force, westerly winds will persist countrywide, with stormy conditions much of the time in northwestern and western counties. Lowest temperatures 0 to 4 degrees Celsius but too windy for frost or ice to develop.