Joan Burton says very solid and good progress made on Irish Water
the ONLY PROGRESS REPORT the PUBLIC WANT IS THE ABOLITION OF the WATER CHARGES says SINN FÉIN
Mary Lou McDonald says she ’lives in the real world’ and believes that if the Tánaiste had any sense of the real word she would abolish water charges.
Tánaiste Joan Burton has told the Dáil she believes good progress has been made in addressing the Irish Water issue.
She did not however confirm her remarks earlier in the week that a family of four adults would pay less than €200 a year in water charges.
Instead, she said her objective and that of the Government was to have a charging regime that was “affordable and where there is clarity and where there is certainty in relation to the pricing structure”.
Ms Burton was responding to Fianna Fáil’s Timmy Dooley, who said the Taoiseach described the Tánaiste as expressing a personal view when she suggested the charge for four adults would be €200. During Leaders’ Questions Mr Dooley had asked her: “It is now your professional view that €200 will now be the charge for a family of two adults and two adult children?”
She said: “I believe very solid, very good progress has been made in relation to Irish Water.”
Mr Dooley called on the Government to “halt the runaway train” and allow TDs to fully debate the issue, a debate “that was denied them in December when the Bill on water charges was rammed through the House and down the throats of Irish people”.
He said it was “not too late to pause the charging structure for a number of months, allow a comprehensive debate and produce a plan that will meet citizens’ needs and take account of their ability to pay”.
Ms Burton said the Government had an ambitious programme of investment in Irish Water amounting to more than €10 billion over the next 10 years. She said they were using the same model as was used by ESB and Bord Gáis as publicly owned utilities, “to bring forward desperately needed investment in the country’s infrastructure”.
Sinn Féin deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald said the only progress report people wanted to hear was that the Government was going to abolish Irish Water “no ifs, no buts, no bribes, no threats. That would provide clarity.”
There followed heated and cutting exchanges as Ms Burton pointed to the fundraising dinner party leader Gerry Adams was to attend last night in New York at $500 a head.
Ms Burton accused the Sinn Féin leadership of “living between two continents”.
She said: “You live here for the purposes of ordinary life and for the purposes of high life you jet off around the world to eat dinners in luxury hotels that cost more than what will be the average water charge, potentially for a couple of years.”
Ms Burton said Mr Adams was a regular visitor to the US and received his health treatment there and did not use the Irish health system. The Tánaiste also hit out at Sinn Féin changing its mind from agreeing to pay the water charges to then opposing them.
But Ms McDonald hit back and accused her of making a “pathetic” comedic effort to divert from the central issue of water charges and said it would cut no ice with the public, who could not pay €200 or €100.
M/s McDonald said she lived in the real world and if the Tánaiste had any sense about what the real world was like “you will abolish those charges”. The Tánaiste said the people Ms McDonald was talking about were precisely the people she was concerned about and the Government had made provision for a water conservation payment of €100 for each household.
Government departments striving to pay their bill on time
NEW FIGURES SHOW THAT MOST DEPARTMENTS ARE WORKING HARD TO SETTLE ACCOUNTS WITHIN 15 DAYS
The Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport was the most prompt – paying 99% of the amount it owed within 15 days
More than 90% of Government department bills were paid within 15 days of receiving a valid invoice, according to figures published today.
A total of 45,743 payments were made by departments in the months from July through to September, amounting to over €689 million. Of the total payments made, 39,914 payments, or 93% of all invoices were paid to suppliers within 15 days.
The figures come after a series of Government measures to get credit flowing in the Irish economy by encouraging prompt payment in all business transactions. These include the introduction of a prompt payment code of conduct, which was introduced earlier this year.
The code is a joint initiative between the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, the Institute of Credit Management Ireland (IICM), the main business representative bodies (ISME, SFA, Chambers Ireland & IBEC) and the Banking & Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI).
The Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport was the most prompt – paying 99% of the amount it owed within 15 days. The Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht was the worse payer with just 70% of invoices settled within the desired time frame.
Figures also released in respect of the agencies under the Department of Jobs, Enterprise & Innovation show a total of 11,981 payments were made in the third quarter of 2014, amounting to just over €42 million. Of these 92 per cent or 10,941 payments amounting to €38.6million were paid within 15 days.
“I am pleased that Government Departments and the Agencies under my own Department are continuing their efforts to comply with the Government requirement to pay business suppliers within 15 days of receiving a valid invoice,” said Minister of State for Business and Employment Ged Nash.
“Anyone in business knows that cash flow is the life blood of a business. Any disruption to that cash flow, particularly for small businesses, can mean the difference between solvency and bankruptcy. Therefore, it is vitally important that businesses continue to be paid on time,” he added.
Ireland to get its own ‘Orient Express’
Belmond has bought 10 Irish Rail carriages, with plans to transform them into a luxury ‘Grand Hibernian’ train.
Belmond’s ‘Royal Scotsman’ – a model for the Grand Hibernian
The Orient Express is coming to Ireland, in the shape of a luxury, 10-carriage train set to provide overnight rail experiences throughout the island.
The ‘Belmont Grand Hibernian’ anticipates its launch in summer 2016.
The train was announced after Belmond Ltd., a global collection of luxury hotel and travel adventures, acquired ten carriages from Irish Rail. It plans to transform them into a luxury sleeper train with accommodation for up to 40 guests over the next two years.
The ‘Orient Express’-style train will be the first luxury overnight rail experience of its kind in Ireland, with plans for tours of the countryside, coast and cities both north and south of the border.
Guests of Belmond, which also operates the legendary Venice Simplon-Orient-Express and Belmond Royal Scotsman, will travel in 20 elegant, en-suite cabins.
The ‘grand Hibernian’ will offer two, four and six-night rail experiences, with all-inclusive prices starting from €3,200.
Travel on-board “will be akin to a land cruise, offering daily excursions such as tours of historic estates, rounds of golf and visits to Titanic Belfast,” the company says.
David Franks, Chief Executive of Iarnród Éireann Irish Rail said:
“We are proud and delighted to welcome Belmond Grand Hibernian to Ireland’s rail network… Rail is a key element of our national tourism product, and the launch of Belmond Grand Hibernian represents a strong endorsement of Ireland as a destination by Belmond.”
The train’s interiors will be designed by James Park Associates, who have worked on Belmond’s Eastern & Oriental Express. They will draw inspiration from Dublin’s classic Georgian architecture, adding a “contemporary twist” to Ireland’s ancient folklore and traditions.
Belmond Grand Hibernian will feature an Observation Car with a bar, contributing to what a PR representative terms a “country house party” atmosphere on-board.
There will be nightly entertainment, with local musicians and story tellers embracing the spirit of Ireland.
The train will also feature four interconnecting suites to accommodate families, two restaurant cars and an observation bar car.
John Scott, President and Chief Executive Officer, said:
“Ireland offers today’s luxury traveller a rich and diverse cultural experience, with unrivalled scenery and warm hospitality that fit perfectly with Belmond’s offering of enriching and authentic hotel, rail and river cruise experiences.”
The train’s haulage services and Dublin depot facilities will be provided by Irish Rail.
Monaghan student Christopher Carragher triumphs at SciFest 2014
MONAGHAN STUDENT CHRISTOPHER CARRAGHER WINS SCIFEST 2014
Christopher Carragher, a sixth year student from Our Lady’s Secondary School in Castleblaney, Co Monaghan, has been named the overall winner of all-island science initiative SciFest 2014.
Carragher won for his project ‘Memory Buddy’. Using the time-management web application Google Calendar, the automated system assists people suffering from memory loss by setting alerts for appointments and reminders for medication through a series of flashing lights, sounds and also via the TV. Carragher – who was inspired by a family member who began displaying signs of short-term memory loss – also included a remote controlled drawer that presents medicine at set times, as well as a feedback facility that informs carers when medicine has or has not been taken.
Over 6,000 students entered SciFest this year – a record for the initiative – with 15 finalist projects exhibited at the Marino Conference Centre in Dublin earlier today.
“This year there was a very high standard of projects exhibited at SciFest,” said Sheila Porter, SciFest CEO. “All projects exhibited show that when students engage with STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) outside the classroom, they bring their learning to a new level and produce amazing results. Participation in SciFest helps students to develop the skills sets essential for the next generation of creative problem solvers and entrepreneurs. The innovation and the creativity on display at the national final is a testament to the hard-work and dedication put in by the students and their teachers.”
Carragher will now go on to represent Ireland at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in the USA next year.
In addition, Dundalk sisters Rachael and Shannon Ní Dhonnachadha scooped the Long Night of Science in Berlin Award for their project which examined the science of punching. The duo sought to discover if rotating the wrist before impact adds to the effectiveness of a punch, finding that the movement provides no increase in punch force.
Why the Universe is brighter than we thought
Last year, a series of sounding rockets were launched to better asses all the light in the known Universe. Based on the resulting data, experts have now determined that there is a lot more infrared light between galaxies than we can account for, leaving astronomers wondering “so where did it all come from?”
Last year, a series of sounding rockets were launched to better asses all the light in the known Universe. Based on the resulting data, experts have now determined that there is a lot more infrared light between galaxies than we can account for, leaving astronomers wondering “so where did it all come from?”
The results of these rocket flights, two of four launches as part of the Cosmic Infrared Background Experiment rocket (CIBER) project, were recently detailed in the journal Science.
According to the study, NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope (SST) had previously taken a lot of infrared readings that just didn’t makes sense. There appeared to be far too much background infrared light than galactic sources could account for.
Now, the CIBER readings indicate that this excess light may be coming from stars that are being scattered out into space during galactic collisions, spreading light into the void between galaxies that otherwise wouldn’t be there.
“While we have previously observed cases where stars are flung from galaxies in a tidal stream, our new measurement implies this process is widespread,” leady study author Michael Zemcov explained in a statement.
“It is wonderfully exciting for such a small NASA rocket to make such a huge discovery,” added Mike Garcia, program scientist from NASA Headquarters. “Sounding rockets are an important element in our balanced toolbox of missions from small to large.”
But why were they needed? According to the study, because Earth’s atmosphere glows brightly, certain wavelengths of light can only be measured from space. The rockets then were necessary to snap photographs of the Universe as they drew further away from our planet.
The pictures were then poured over by experts, who systematically eliminated any sources of infrared light that they could attribute to a known source. What remained was a mess of light in the short blue spectrum.
“The light looks too bright and too blue to be coming from the first generation of galaxies,” added James Bock, principal investigator of the CIBER project. “The simplest explanation, which best explains the measurements, is that many stars have been ripped from their galactic birthplace.”
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