What it Says in the Castlebar and Mayo Papers

May 9th, 2001

Connaught Telegraph

The Mayo News

The Western People

Bev to officially announce her decision to appeal The Connaught Telegraph this week.

Beverley Cooper Flynn is to make an official announcement in the coming days about her intention to appeal to the Supreme Court the ruling of a High Court jury not to find in her favour following her marathon libel action against RTE, and chief news reporter Charlie Bird. The Fianna Fail Deputy will issue a statement tomorrow (Thursday) or Friday outlining the reasons and basis of her appeal. It is understood her legal representative are 'confident' that the foundation of the appeal is sufficiently strong to force a full retrial of the longest and most expensive libel case in the history of the state. Deputy Cooper Flynn has maintained her innocence since RTE first made the allegations in 1998 that she induced Dundalk farmer, James Howard, from paying tax. Her position did not change when a High Court Jury issued their findings at the end of March stating that the Castlebar T.D. had been involved, in her time as a financial advisor with National Irish Bank, in encouraging people to evade tax by ignoring the 1993 tax amnesty. The 34-year-old Deputy received two major setbacks since the High Court decision. Firstly, Mr Justice Frederick Morris ruled that she must incur all the costs involved in the 28-day trial --- a figure believed to be in the region of £2m. Secondly, the members of the Fianna Fail parliamentary party expelled her for what she described as 'political pragmatism'.

Enterprise Oil plan to share windfall! The Connaught Telegraph this week.

Enterprise Oil, the company involved in moves to develop a multi-billion-pound gas industry in Mayo, is set to become involved in a major educational breakthrough in the county. It has been learned that initial approaches have been made to the authorities at the Galway/Mayo Institute of Technology in Castlebar in regard to the firm funding a business innovative centre at the campus. The company submitted a confidential document to the Institute outlining proposals about how they could link up with the college in running specific courses designed to encourage the growth of a natural gas industry in the region. Enterprise Oil is also examining other locations throughout the county in which to set up business innovative centres. The purpose behind the innovative centres is to train and educate Mayo students on how best to capitalise on the gas find off the Achill coastline. The company has run into planning difficulties in relation to their proposed gas terminal at Glenamoy.

Council United in fight against drug culture The Connaught Telegraph this week.

A major clampdown on the drug culture in Castlebar is getting underway. Members of the local Urban Council have unanimous agreed to write to the Minister for Justice to close down licensed premises where drugs are found to be peddled in the town. They displayed a united front in backing the local Gardai authorities in cleaning up the county town from the scourge of drug taking. Members felt that if the shutting down of public houses where dealers operated was mandatory that significant strides would be made in stopping the sale of drugs. Mr Blackie Gavin said the Castlebar Drug Squad needed additional resources in their fight against drugs. "It is time the godfathers were hauled before the courts. These thugs are ruining the lives of our young people."

Major transport study for three Mayo towns The Mayo News this week.

Mayo County Council has commissioned independent consultants to carry out a wide-ranging traffic and transportation study of towns in the county with the aim of producing a comprehensive Transport Management Plan for the area. The study will be carried out by Transportation Planning (International) Ltd., and will examine related issues and problems in the towns of Castlebar, Ballina and Westport. The consultants will be carrying out extensive surveys over the coming months to help them to identify potential improvements to traffic flow, parking and general highway infrastructure.

Killala opposes Eircom pull-out The Mayo News.

Killala Community Council, one of the most influential in North Mayo, has condemned unequivocally the pull-out by Eircom from a State-subsidised £30 million project to provide fibre optics and digital subscriber lines technology to the Border, Midlands and Western regions. The Council has written an angry letter to Public Enterprise Minister Mary O'Rourke, demanding that she use the power of her office to persuade Eircom to re-commit themselves to the provision of such communications infrastructure. Said a spokesperson for the Community Council: "We understand the technologies would have provided high speed internet and multi-media over ordinary telephone lines as far north as Bundoran and as far south as Tralee. Communities in the West are endeavouring to promote the area despite the inadequate infrastructure and situations like these do nothing to promote confidence. If the Government are serious about the development of the West then actions like that taken by Eircom should not be accepted or allowed. We require rapid and radical improvement and development of our infrastructure if we are to have any real chance of long-term socio-economic survival".

Airport Chairman appeals for support for new service The Mayo News this week.

Castlebar businessman, Cathal Duffy, the Chairman of the Board of Knock International Airport, has appealed for support from the commuting public for the Ryanair early morning daily service to/from London Stansted which has now commenced. The new service is in addition to the daily evening service to/from Stansted. The service enables passengers to depart Knock at 9.15a.m. arriving London at 10.30a.m. Said Mr. Duffy: "This Ryanair morning London service is a very important addition to the flexibility of travel to/from London and has been long sought by the Board and many interested groups, not least the business sector of our region. I am asking the entire community to support these services both to and from the U.K." Mr Duffy said he was pleased to announce that passenger growth for the month of April had been increased by around 30%, largely due to the services provided by Ryanair. "We are looking forward to a busy summer at the airport with inbound charters operating from Frankfurt, Dusseldorf, Munich, Hanover, Zurich and Amsterdam," he said.

£8m four star hotel development for Ballina The Western People this week.

A £7 to £8m. four star hotel with swimming pool and gymnasium is to be developed on a 15 acres site on the outskirts of Ballina by a family group already in the hotel catering business in the town. The new hotel will have 75 bedrooms and six executive suites, as well as conference facilities for 500 people, a 20 mts. Swim pool, sauna, jacuzzi squash courts, tanning studio and gymnasium. Behind the new project, to be developed on the former Mc Shane's land on the Foxford Road near Ballina, are the Regan brothers, David, Noel and Paul who already operate Bartra House Hotel and the Bard pub and restaurant in Ballina. "It is a very exciting development for us. I feel it is something that will enhance facilities already in the town," said Paul Regan. He added that the idea will be to bring more tourists into Ballina and the more quality established hotels there are in the town the more people will be attracted to the area.

£5m sludge processing industry for North Mayo The Western People this Tuesday.

A new £5m industry in the former Norsk Hydro peat briquetting facility, near Geesala in North Mayo, will process sludge cake from town sewage treatment plants into granular bio solid fertiliser for the export market. Up to 50,000 tons of milled peat from the local bog will be used for the drillers at the plant where 25 people will be employed in the drying of the sludge with a further four being employed in a research and development unit. A further 45 people will be involved as permanent contractors, in the haulage of sludge and in engineering at the plant and other positions. The company running the project are Glancre Teo, a wholly Irish owned company of which the Oran Group, Cork, are principal share holders.

Mayo Towns to get urban extension in near future The Western People this week.

Castlebar and Ballina urban boundary extensions are in the pipeline and are currently being examined by the Dept to Environment and Local Government, Deputy Micheal Ring has been informed. Deputy Ring had asked Minister Noel Dempsey for an updated position regarding the extension of the urban boundary of Castlebar; when the order was made; if the extension has been formally legalised and signed by him; and when he expects the areas covered by the extension to be taken over by Castlebar UDC. Minister Dempsey said that the first town boundary alteration, Killarney, to be effected by any Minister in recent years was implemented from the 1st of January this year. "Castlebar and Ballina are the next cases for consideration and are currently being examined by my Department; the relevant applications were received in May and December 1999. An application for Westport was received last week. The examination of these three cases will take account of the financial, planning and other considerations both as regards the towns concerned and the cumulative impact of these proposals for the county council".

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