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Heathrow slots whave come on the market and the government is being urged to bid for them for Shannon.

The slots became availible after EasyJet acquired GB Airline for a price tag of £stg105;3m. The Heathrow slot were not included in the acquisition and the former GB Airlines would like to offload them before January 31, 2008.

Mayor of Clare and Atlantic Connectivity Alliance member Cllr. Patricia McCarthy, in a statement said “The slots owned by GB Airways are prime slots at Heathrow. This sale of slots represents a significant opportunity for the Government to play an active role in ensuring the retention of services between Shannon and Heathrow.”

“The Government has publicly stated that it will do all that it can to ensure Shannon Airport holds on to its strategic link with Heathrow. Therefore, it should now immediately express its interest in these slots by whatever means necessary, as they are likely to be the subject of intense interest.”

Last week, an application for Heathrow slots by the Atlantic Connectivity Alliance and Astraeus airlines fell flat on it’s face when the UK based Airport Co-Ordination Limited rejected the application.

Just a quick note.

Dan has informed us that there in online petition availible for those interested to sign calling for the postponement of the introduction of new measures being brought in which would see provisional driving licence holders face severe restrictions.

The petition is calling for the potponement until the waiting period for a driving test is universally brought down to three weeks. The certification and assesment of driving inpectors is also called for to ensure an equal standard.

This would eliminate the possiblility of people from Dublin travelling to the likes of Tipperary where the pass rae for drivingtests are higher.

The petition can be found by clicking here

Soccer
With the First division nearing its conclusion and Limerick out of the promotion race, there have been a few fixtures lately which have showcased how frustrating a year it sometimes has been following the blue and white army. Last week Kilkenny city were the visitors to Jackman Park and the blues went down 2-1 to the team who were at the bottom of the league. Then last thursday night, the team travelled to Dundalk who were flying high for most of the season, only to fall back into the playoff picture and managed to beat them 2-0 with two goals from John Tierney! Dundalks first home defeat in 27 games!!Gloriously incostistant as the man says but thats life. Next up is an away game to Athlone on tuesday and then the last home game of the season versus Shelbourne next Friday the second of November.

Rugby
Most of the world cup squad have returned to the provinces and the Celtic league has carried on. Last night all the four provinces were involved in draws with the Red army of Munster being the visitors to Firhill to play the Glasgow Warriors. Despite two late drop goal attempts to win the game, Munster drew 11 all with the warriors with the equaliser being a try scored by Larry Murphy (Mafi) on 69 minutes. One more game against Edinburgh before the Heineken cup rolls around again, first game being away to London Wasps (the game being played in Coventry!!) Fans will have a chance to see the works going on at Thomond Park with the first home game in the Heineken cup being played on Sunday the 18th of November

We wrote about this some while ago and while it isn’t specifically geared for Limerick there are loads of Tesco shops around the place. Anyway Tesco Mobile has launched using the 089 prefiix and is offering 20 cent calls to any network at any time with all text messages cosing nine cent. It is also offering unlimited calls, texts and picture messages to other Tesco Mobile customers by buying In Touch 10 and In Touch 30 Bundles. A range of Tesco Mobile prepay handsets will be rolled out to 48 Tesco stores from Monday October 29. Credit top-ups will also be available in all 97 Tesco Ireland stores and at 3,000 other independent locations nationwide. The service is a virtual one and basically piggybacks on the 02 network, so if you have 02 coverage and want to try it out feel free

The threat of pickets from 0700 hrs this morning at the Moneypoint power plant in County Clare have been lifted pending ongoing talks at the Labour Relations Commission between the ESB, the TEEU and subcontractors ZREand Lentjes.

The dispute is over the non payment of 200 Polish workers employed by ZRE who were sacked last Friday following six weeks without pay.

The workers have finally received an emergency welfare payment of €250 after unions made an appeal to the Taoiseach.

The marathon talks which got underway early yesterday morning have now adjourned for the night and will resume again on Friday.

Julie O’Niell, one of the most senior civil servants within the Department of Transport, was given the full support of the Transport Minister Noel Dempsey after she admitted her part in the communications cock-up surrounding the withdrawal of Shannon’s Heathrow slots by Aer Lingus.

But this is a very serious case of “not doing ones job properly” which warrants more than just a “sorry” to the boss. The people who will be most affected deserve at least an apology and at most, for Ms O’Niell to step down from her position.

The full story can be found here.