Water, Water Everywhere

ENVIRONMENT Minister John Gormley may have to face down disgruntled members of the public when he arrives in Ennis on Friday to officially open the town’s new water treatment plant at Drumcliff.

The public riposte might surface in light of this week’s declaration that he intends to press ahead with the introduction of domestic water charges but not before people go to the polls in the June 2012 General Election.
The imposition of the charge, a key demand of the Green Party for their support of Fianna Fáil in the revised Programme for Government, has infuriated the anti-brigade who have warned that Minister Gormley’s plans, which they view as a double taxation, will be met with a mass campaign of civil disobedience.
But such opposition may be a distracting sideshow to the real purpose of the minister’s visit.
After years of water quality concerns and prolonged boil notices, Ennis town and environs new water treatment plant, the first plant of its size undertaken by a local authority in Ireland, utilises a technology that is impenetrable to organisms like cryptosporidium. 
The €9m plant has been designed to produce up to 18 million litres of treated water per day.
The good news continues to gush around Clare.Over €3.26m has been allocated to Clare County Council to improve the quality of drinking water in communities across the county.
The funds will enable the council to upgrade small public water and sewerage schemes and take control of group water schemes to help ensure good quality drinking water and to prevent environmental pollution.
In Lissycasey, Clare Springs, less than a year in business, is toasting the success of their innovation and enterprise.
This week, they exported the first shipment of 14 million bottles of natural spring water to Amsterdam after securing a contract with a major European airline. The consignment of environmentally friendly biodegradable bottles, produced by Clare Springs at its €4.2million plant at High Street, are the first of their kind produced and marketed in Ireland.
For this fledgling company, it seems the sky is the limit.

Easier said than done

COURTING popularity in the constituencies was a given when the Government spent nearly a decade riding on the back of the Celtic Tiger. Opulence was commonplace but, unfortunately, the good times also manifested greed. It created an economy that was ultimately unsustainable.
The crash was inevitable and it duly arrived and the Government, it seems, showed little foresight in pre-empting and counteracting the consequences.
Every village across the county has suffered devastatingly from the recession. The self-employed find their incomes have collapsed, many families find themselves on the breadline while others are struggling to keep a roof over their heads. Less money in circulation precipitates a chain reaction. It is one of hardship and a desperate struggle for the majority to make ends meet.
Figures from the Central Statistics Office indicate that 10,633 people are signing on in Clare, down from 10,865 in February. The 200 people coming off the Live Register may be accounted for by the brain drain rather than job placement.
The State is spending €2.7 billion on unemployment benefit and a further €1.5 billion on jobseeker’s allowance and for that, people literally are sitting at home twiddling their thumbs. Being thrust into a depressing routine can lead to a plethora of psychological problems.
Therefore, it was interesting to learn that the new Minister for Social Protection, Éamon Ó Cuív, has an idea to get people back to work, if only for a few hours a week.
He revealed his train of thought to the party faithful at a meeting in Ennis last week. 
Getting people on the dole to work within their communities for their money was his brainwave. Ignore the fact that people contributed to the exchequer while gainfully employed, he now wants them to earn their unemployment assistance…again.
The minister’s plan is to get people working in their local communities which, he believes, would create a win-win situation. “It’s a win for the community, it’s a win for the genuine guy as he has something to do and it’s a win because it’s calling the bluff of people involved in scams,” he suggests.
He also said that normal working practices would have to apply to people involved in the type of programmes that may emerge.
“It would have to be on the basis that it is work and people will face the same sanctions as in paid employment,” he explained.
The minister also said he is looking at the introduction of photo ID cards as a means of preventing fraud and he stressed his desire to crack down on scams.
“Those who are defrauding the system have to be caught. That’s absolutely vital. They are taking money that could be used to help those who genuinely need the help of the social welfare system.
“I don’t know anyone, who genuinely became unemployed in the last year, who wouldn’t give a lot to have the opportunity of working. It’s not a question of forcing a horse to drink, what I’m really looking at is how can I give all of those thousands and thousands of people an opportunity to work? The simple answer to that is by challenging those who don’t want to work and want to draw the money as to why they want to do that.
“If they’re not acting within the law, that pushes them out of the system and the saving will be used to give much better opportunities to those that genuinely want to make a contribution and to whom being unemployed is serious, not only because of the loss of finance, but also because of the loss of work and the benefit people get from work.
“What I want to do is help those who have a genuine case and help them in a way that hasn’t been done before in the social welfare system and to do that by clamping down on those who shouldn’t be getting what they’re getting,” he adds.
It is all very well in theory but putting it into practice might be a different story altogether.