page-4593 [view: normal]

Friday, 27 March 2009 - Drivers across Clare can breathe a sigh of relief following a dramatic reduction in driving test waiting times in the county.

Minister of State Tony Killeen T.D. announced this week that average test waiting times at Clare’s three test centres are down by 55%, from 61 weeks to 28 weeks.

The local T.D. welcomed the significant decrease in waiting times and paid tribute to th...

The fact that the number of ‘affordable’ houses on hand in local councils has increased by 40 per cent in just 15 months is a clear indication that the units are overvalued, and that prices need to be dropped.

According to information provided to me by Dept of Environment officials, 2,200 units were on hand at the end of 2007, but that has shot up to 3,700 today.

Either the level of construct...

Dublin Labour MEP, Proinsias De Rossa, speaking today in the European Parliament in Strasbourg has said, “The political conservatives in this Parliament and in the member States are like naughty children. Having stamped their feet for years demanding deregulation of Banks and shadow banking, they are now prepared to accept strong regulation, but only if we pretend that it was their idea all a...

Speaking from the European Parliament in Strasbourg Dublin Labour MEP Proinsias De Rossa has called on ComReg to launch an immediate investigation into the cost of residential telephone line rentals in Ireland after a new EU report issued today revealed that residential users in Ireland are charged more than anyone else in Europe each month.

Mr De Rossa said: “Today’s EU report on telecoms ma...

While the caricature pictures of Brian Cowen which were mischievously hung in a Dublin Gallery were without doubt in bad taste, the response today by An Garda Siochana was completely over the top.

The visit by a Garda detective today to the offices of Today FM radio station, demanding that staff from the Ray Darcy Show hand over information they might have had about the artist of these piece...

Labour Transport Spokesperson Deputy Tommy Broughan has called on Transport Minister Noel Dempsey to come clean on when his Department was informed that SR Technics planned to pullout of their Dublin Airport operation.

“From meetings held between the Oireachtas Transport Committee, the SR workforce and local management and the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) in recent days, it is clear that t...

We know that this Budget will be tough. But we have no guarantee that it will be fair. In fact the record so far, of this Government has been to attack the vulnerable and protect the powerful. It is a government bloated with too many junior ministers and private consultants and too little product to show for it. It flounders from action to reaction when its decisions prove inadequate to the t...

Tuesday, 24 March 2009 - Minister of State Tony Killeen T.D. has urged County Clare students and teachers with Irish to apply for the Ireland Canada University Foundation’s Irish language awards.

The Clare T.D. said that the scheme offered students and academics a wonderful opportunity to gain valuable teaching practice, to experience living in Canada and to use their Irish in a new and exciting e...

Wednesday, 25 March 2009 - Clare County Council today confirmed that it has received a report of non-compliances from the EPA regarding odour issues at its Central Waste Management Facility at Ballyduffbeg, near Inagh in County Clare.

The report relates to out-of-hours odour surveys carried out by an EPA inspector, who was based in the vicinity of the landfill from 31 January to 4 February 2009.

Labour Spokesperson on Energy, Liz McManus TD welcomed today’s announcement from Minister Ryan that the Home Energy Saving Scheme is open for business and has urged the Minister to ensure funding for this scheme is secured in the upcoming budget.

“I welcome today’s news that the much anticipated Home Energy Saving Scheme is going ahead.  The huge public interest in this scheme which has amou...

Monday, 23 March 2009 – Limerick County Council has announced today that it is to revisit and review the Route Corridor Selection for the N21 Adare Bypass.

Changes in national infrastructural policy along with the recent announcement of the Emerging Preferred Route for the M20 Cork to Limerick Motorway Scheme have led to the revaluation of the original preferred route.

The current review, once com...

Monday, 23 March 2009: A Limerick man who died shortly after becoming the first Irish person to climb K2 - the world’s most dangerous mountain - was honoured by his native county today.

Gerard McDonnell’s historic achievement was officially recognised by Limerick County Council at a ceremony attended by members of the late mountaineer’s family.

The native of Kilcornan, Co Limerick was entered int...

On Friday, management at the Mercy University Hospital in Cork announced to staff that effective immediately, as a cost saving measure, they will no longer be topping up staff members maternity benefit.

The measure has been brought in by the hospital in response to the refusal of staff to agree to take a minimum of five days unpaid leave as requested by their employer.Their refusal to take un...

Embargo: 6.30pm 23^rd March 2009

Speaking at a public meeting on job creation in Wicklow at the Grand Hotel, Wicklow Town at 6.30pm, Monday 23^rd March 2009

Thank you all for coming here tonight.  Your attendance reflects just how seriously you take the need to create jobs for our community.  Job creation is vital - both for the wellbeing of those who have lost their jobs recently and their fa...

Friday, 20 March 2009 - The Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries & Food, Tony Killeen TD, has announced that based on estimated milk deliveries as submitted by Milk Purchasers for the period up to 28th February 2009, Ireland is 2.86% under quota when account is taken of the butterfat content of milk deliveries during the same period.

He said that the rate of super levy for...

It is becoming clearer by the day that Education Minister Batt O’Keeffe is hell-bent on reintroducing third level tuition fees and Labour will fight tooth and nail to oppose any such proposals.

Since Labour Education Minister Niamh Bhreathnach abolished fees in 1995, tens of thousands of people who would otherwise not have had the opportunity, have benefited from a third level education. Now...

The news of yet more job losses at Dell will heap further misery on a local economy that is still reeling from the near 2,000 redundancies announced in January.

This latest announcement represents economic catastrophe for Limerick and the mid-west region and a personal tragedy for those who are now to lose their jobs.

This announcement is particularly disappointing, given that the workforce i...

There is worrying lack of awareness amongst the parents of school-going children about what is supposed to be, a major public consultation process currently underway which will have serious implications on determining the future operation of the school transport scheme.

Parents are already up in arms over a 50 per cent increase in the cost of school transport fees for post-primary pupils, wh...

Dublin North East T.D. Tommy Broughan and Dublin North Senator Brendan Ryan have led a Dáil Transport Committee delegation to visit the SR Technics aircraft maintenance and engineering site in Dublin Airport this morning. Deputy Broughan also met the SR workforce at the Alsaa complex at Dublin Airport following their protest march this morning.

Deputy Broughan said, “The Dáil Transport Commit...

The decision of the US House of Representatives to slap a 90% tax on bonuses paid to top executives of bailed-out firms such as AIG is an example that this country could well follow.

The decision to pay a €1m bonus to the Chief Executive of Irish Nationwide Building Society, just weeks after the government committed up to €440bn of taxpayers’ money to a guarantee scheme to protect the entire ...

Thursday, 05 March 2009 - Hundreds of students attending Mary Immaculate College of Education in Limerick witnessed the full horror of a road traffic incident at a graphic demonstration today.

The mock exercise formed part of a newly launched road safety initiative for third level students in an effort to educate, improve road safety awareness and reduce the number and severity of road traffic col...

This was the first place we stayed in the Rockies, Banff is one of the most expensive places in Canada to stay, more expensive than a bloody good hotel in Vancouver - this surprised me.  I thought we would head into the countryside and hotels would be cheaper and the areas would be quite quiet. [...]

As unemployment grows at an unprecedented rate, it is clear that the Government needs to become far more pro-active in getting to grips with this problem.

The response to the crisis must be multi-faceted, including education, training and skills development strategies. In this regard, an increase in the number of Community Employment schemes and places could be one way of addressing the probl...

Tuesday, 03 March 2009 – Minister of State Tony Killeen T.D. has welcomed the official launch of a new Public Lending Remuneration Scheme which benefits Clare authors whose books are loaned by public libraries.

Launched by the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government this week, the scheme is administered by An Chomhairle Leabharlanna (The Library Council) with the co-operation ...

Labour Transport Spokesperson Tommy Broughan has strongly criticised the government’s continual broken promises to road safety campaigners.

Deputy Broughan said, “Road safety organisations such as the outstanding Donegal-based Public Against Road Carnage (PARC) led by Ms. Susan Gray has long been campaigning for the introduction of new road safety measures including the mandatory testing for ...