Taoiseach Kenny hopes Obama will help Irish undocumented to travel home & back
Enda Kenny wants the US president to allow stranded immigrants the ‘right to travel’
Taoiseach Enda Kenny said “I think this is very important for Irish emigrants who are immigrants to the US they have the right to come home and the right to travel back.”
Taoiseach Enda Kenny says he hopes US President Barack Obama will allow “stranded” undocumented Irish to travel to and from Ireland while on the path to American citizenship.
Speaking at Croke Park in Dublin this afternoon, Mr Kenny said he was looking forward to Mr Obama’s announcement tonight on his plans to change the US immigration system.
“We want to see a situation where there is a pathway to citizenship for immigrants in the United States including the 50,000 that we have here from Ireland.
“But one point that I think is very important for Irish emigrants who are immigrants to the United States is while that pathway is being set up that they would have the right to come home and the right to travel back.”
Mr Kenny indicated he and Mr Obama discussed the matter last March in Washington.
“I would like to see the president include the right to travel home and back while people set about the path to citizenship. If they want to be citizens of the US and they pay their social security and they pay their taxes I feel that’s an issue with Irish people and the diaspora have made that point very strongly to me.”
The Taoiseach said he recently opened a family room in a hospital, and one feature of the room was a large screen for people who are undocumented and can not travel when somebody dies at home. “That’s a sad fact,” he said.
“I look forward to the president’s announcement very much indeed,” he added. Mr Kenny was speaking after attending an Comhairle na nÓg event.
Don’t blame the German’s for Ireland’s economic woes
The suggestion that German banks had a kamikaze fascination with Ireland touches an Irish victim button but stems from confusion over the German banks with interests in Ireland
‘I have yet to find any compelling data to suggest that German banks were over-represented in Irish banks just before the bailout’
Writer, activist and film-maker Thomas Fazi asks a pertinent question in The Irish Times (November 18th). Why do countries who fundamentally disagree with Germany’s austerity approach to managing the euro crisis not step in and put an end to it? Unfortunately, he leaves this question dangling.
Perhaps because a pro-active approach would undermine his article’s passive, periphery victim narrative. Countries like Ireland are solely victims, not beneficiaries, of the euro area and are now easy prey for the bloc’s largest member, Germany, he suggests.
In Fazi’s framing, the last decade of boom, bust and austerity in the euro area are one big “Made in Germany” conspiracy.
The problem at the heart of his argument is how, with a mixture of suggestion and omission, he revives the “German banks shouldn’t have given us so much money” narrative that played out in the Irish media during the bailout years.
Fazi says German banks lent banks in Ireland, Greece, Spain and Portugal and Italy some $720 billion at the end of 2009. He doesn’t say where he got the number, nor does he put it in context. $720 billion is a lot of money but Germany is a big country and the five recipient countries, with a total population of 120 million, were capital-hungry markets before the crash. In hindsight, they were bad investments, but few were listening in 2009.
Is he suggesting German banks deliberately, recklessly, lent into Ireland and other periphery countries?
This suggestion, that German banks had a kamikaze fascination with Ireland, has been doing the rounds for some years now. It touches an Irish victim button but stems from confusion over the German banks with interests in Ireland. Most came to the IFSC to take advantage of Ireland’s negligible banking oversight rules and low corporate tax demands.
These banks, though big players, were never part of the domestic Irish economy and were not in the business of lending to Irish banks. Banks with German parents, like Depfa, were lending to into infrastructure projects worldwide, not Ireland’s housing bubble.
So, putting Germany’s internationally-operating banks to one side, what about German lending to Irish banks and their customers? Were German banks lending recklessly into the pre-crisis Irish economy?
I spent quite a lot of time digging up information on whose money was in Irish banks at the time of the bank guarantee and bailout. Data is spotty and incomplete, but I have yet to find any compelling data to suggest that German banks were over-represented in Irish banks just before the bailout. If anything, the data I found suggested they were under-represented.
Which Irish county had the most workplace smoking convictions this year 2014?
AND WHICH PART OF THE COUNTRY HAS MOST OVER THE LAST FOUR YEARS?
A total of 278 people have been convicted for smoking in an enclosed workplace, selling tobacco to minors, and similar offences, since the workplace smoking ban was implemented in March 2004.
There were 25 convictions so far this year under the Public Health (Tobacco) Act , according to figures released by the HSE today.
From January to September, 15 of these had to do with smoking in pubs, nightclubs and hotels.
These were violations of Section 47 of the Tobacco Act, which makes it illegal to smoke in an enclosed workplace, and made Ireland the first country to introduce such a ban, a decade ago.
The county with the most convictions for smoking indoors this year has been Donegal, where five people were fined for violating the ban.
Dublin, Cavan and Longford had two convictions, and there was one each in Tipperary, Monaghan, Meath and Westmeath.
The Tobacco Act also makes it illegal for licensed premises and shops to sell tobacco to anyone under 18 (Section 45), and require them to register to sell tobacco (Section 37).
Section 46 of the Act obliges pubs, hotels and restaurants to have a sign up notifying customers that it’s illegal to smoke there.
Taking all these tobacco-related offences into account, Donegal has had 9 convictions so far this year, accounting for more than one-third of the entire country.
Dublin, Cavan and Longford saw three convictions each, and Louth had two.
Meath, Westmeath, Wexford, Tipperary, and Monaghan had one each.
HSE figures obtained by TheJournal.ie show that the West region has had the most convictions for workplace smoking, over the last four years.
From 2011 until September 2014, there were 82 convictions nationwide under Section 47 of the Act.
36 of these were in the HSE’s West region, 23 in the Dublin/North-east region, 15 in the South, and just 8 in Dublin/Mid-Leinster.
Glenfarne in Leitrim comes out tops in Pride of Place Awards
Pictured on Monday last are Glenfarne Community Development Trust Limited members with pupils and staff of St. Michael’s National School celebrating winnning the IPB Pride of Place Award. The national title was achieved in Ennis, Co Clare in the 0-250 population category.
There was plenty to smile about in the close knit north Leitrim community of Glenfarne this week, after it scooped one of the top prizes in the annual IPB Co-operation Ireland Pride of Place Awards announced on Saturday, November 15 in Treacy’s West County Hotel, Ennis, Co Clare.
Glenfarne won the top prize in Category one, for populations of up to 250 people.
Speaking about Glenfarne, the Judges said they really enjoyed their visit to “this warm and welcoming remote community in a lovely scenic area in north Leitrim”.
“Crucially this community recognises the value of its many wonderful environmental and cultural assets and realise the importance of making them work for the benefit of the whole community. To their great credit the community has restored for community and cultural use the iconic ‘Ballroom of Romance’ which is justifiably a great source of pride in the area. The plans for the future of Glenfarne are very exciting indeed,” noted the Judges in a glowing report of the area.
Glenfarne and Dromod had been selected by Leitrim County Council to represent Co Leitrim for this year’s Pride of Place Awards. More than 800 people attended the gala ceremony to hear the announcement of the winners and runners up in the 12th Annual IPB Awards in association with Co-operation Ireland.
Speaking today following the win, Cllr Sean McDermott, who also spoke on behalf of the Glenfarne Community Development Trust, said that everyone was delighted to see all their hard work pay off.
“When the judges visited Glenfarne in August we showed the Forest Lake amenity, the Railway Station and explained the Boleybrack Project to them. I think the clincher for us was the Ballroom of Romance. The judges were very taken with the redevelopment of the centre and were also very impressed by the many local organisations who came to display local craft, art and products on the day,” he said.
The Judges were also treated to performances from local dancers and musicians in The Rainbow.
“It was a real community effort from the hard work put in by the Glenfarne Community Development Trust, through to the many volunteers and other community groups who came forward and got involved right up to and including the day of judging and I think that made a huge difference,” said Cllr McDermott.
He paid tribute to Leitrim County Council for their assistance in preparing Glenfarne for the competition and noted, in particular, the contribution and support of Leitrim County Council CEO, Frank Curran, as well as Council Staff, Tracy Ferguson, Paul Kilpatrick and Gerard Doherty.
“This a hugely significant achievement for Glenfarne and for Co Leitrim. It’s not too often that Co Leitrim, or Glenfarne for that matter, win an All-Ireland. This is something for us to be proud of and the fact that a small area like Glenfarne has been so successful, will hopefully inspire other small communities,” said Cllr McDermott.
He praised fellow Co Leitrim representatives, Dromod and said that Leitrim had every right to be very immensely proud of its representatives in this year’s IPB Co-operation Ireland Pride of Place Awards.
Glenfarne Community Development Trust had already received congratulations from ex-pats here and abroad following their win. “Everyone is just so proud,” said Cllr McDermott.
Watch amazing footage of London captured by an eagle with head-mounted camera
The imperial eagle soared across the London skyline, flying over landmarks including St Paul’s Cathedral and the ArcelorMittal Orbit sculpture
London like you’ve never seen it before.
An imperial eagle has captured a bird’s eye view of the capital after a Sony HDR-AZ1VR Action Camera was strapped to its back as it took to the skies over the capital.
Darchan the eagle helped film the London skyline over the course of a week and several flights.
During his journeys, Darchan caught extraordinary footage of some of the city’s most famous landmarks, including St. Paul’s Cathedral, City Hall and the ArcelorMittal Orbit sculpture.
The flight was organised by The Freedom Project to mark the 50th anniversary of the International Union of Conservation of Nature and raise awareness of their Red List of Threatened Species.
The Red List compiles the most endangered animals and plants across the world, and it’s considered one of the most comprehensive guides to species under threat.
The imperial eagle is in the “vulnerable” category on the list.
Farm crops could have a significant impact on changing world’s CO2 cycles
A recent video from NASA has revealed that farm crops may be one of the biggest factors in the planet’s shifting carbon cycles.
While there are many different factors that contribute to the changing cycles of our shifting planet, it appears that farm crops may be the latest culprit.
Every year, plants go through a “breathing pattern” where they uptake and then release a certain amount of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, a process which has increased over the last 50 years.
The Christian Science Monitor reports that a new video from NASA, which shows the rise and fall of CO2 levels since 2006, reveals the significance of this “breathing pattern.” Two different teams of researchers have found that farming is responsible for 20 to 50 percent of the long-term increases in the amount of CO2 taken up and given back by plants during that time-span.
This increase in CO2 comes from, not an increase in acres planted, but rather an increase in farm productivity. Fertilizers, better irrigation and stronger breeds of crops have all been twice as influential as the fertilizing effect on rising CO2 levels.
In addition, such productivity has also had an impact on longer growing seasons which have come with global warming. Popular crops such as maize, wheat, soy beans and rice all accounted for a 25% increase in CO2, with corn being the most impactful, accounting for two-thirds of the overall increase.
The results of this video could alter the way scientists interpret the increase in plant uptake and the release of CO2. This is because before this video researchers had thought the fluctuations in CO2 exchanges between plants and the atmosphere was due to larger forests, fast growing species and the distribution of plant species that have migrated north. As such, many of the models were incorrect.
However, if this new data holds up under scrutiny the newer models could become more accurate then they have ever been.
No comments:
Post a Comment