The Garda should bring Irish officers home, An inspectorate says
Current system of finding staff is highly inefficient’ as many lose interest in the long process.
A Garda graduation ceremony at the Garda College in Templemore. The Garda Inspectorate report recommends that the force should, for the first time, put a concerted effort into recruiting police officers currently serving in other countries.Gardai.
An Garda Síochána should, for the first time, put a concerted effort into recruiting police officers currently serving in other countries, the Garda Inspectorate report recommends.
Robert Olson, the author of the report, also says Garda management should begin to actively consult with Government ministers and departments about the force’s budget allocation, a process which it currently has no direct involvement in.
Following the HSE’s attempts to entice Irish nurses employed abroad to accept posts at home, the report advises the Garda to employ a similar strategy given the number of fully-trained Irish ex-pats serving in police forces around the world.
An Garda Síochána does not currently have a targeted programme for overseas recruitment, points out former Minneapolis chief of police Mr Olson, who also brands the current recruitment system as “highly inefficient” as many applicants lose interest or find employment elsewhere during the months or years-long selection process.
Skills deficits
The report also identifies “skills deficits” among gardaí due to a lack of training and continuous professional development afforded to members over recent years, and recommends that a programme of “ongoing continuous professional development” should be made available to all personnel.
The Garda College in Templemore should have its own ringfenced budget, and there should be a review of the 32-week residential training course for gardaí at the college “with a view to reducing the duration” of that programme in favour of more time in operational settings and on independent patrol for trainees.
“The majority of Garda training takes place at the college. This is expensive and inefficient,” says the report.
It adds that volunteers with the 1,000-member Garda Reserve could be put to better use, and divesting some time and labour-intensive duties currently carried out by rank and file gardaí such as custody services and healthcare for people in custody to other agencies could also free up additional operational capacity.
Members of the reserve were recently given more powers, meaning they could perform duties including foot patrol and road traffic checkpoints if accompanied by a full-time Garda.
Event policing
Elsewhere, the report says that in order to optimise cost recovery An Garda Síochána should consider addressing the situation whereby the full costs of policing public events are not met by promoters.
Regarding responses to false alarms, an increased call-out fee for the property owner in such circumstances would also lead to greater efficiencies in cost recovery and could free up “thousands of Garda operational hours” if the deterrent is successful.
There are currently no policies in place detailing how to deal with “high-risk” issues such as potential substance abuse and corruption among gardaí, and this should be addressed by developing clearer policies and providing training in those areas it says.
As opposed to the existing policy, Mr Olson suggests that all uniformed gardaí should be issued with a name badge so individual on-duty officers could be more easily identified by members of the public.
Fiasco as up to half of housing offers are rejected
Kelly to review high rate of housing refusals
Environment Minister Alan Kelly is now considering the introduction of new rules surrounding the provision of social housing.
Hundreds of families on council housing waiting lists are turning down homes because they don’t like the area.
In several parts of the country, well over a third of offers made by councils have been turned down in the last year.
The Department of the Environment is now closely monitoring rejection rates.
In Dublin City – where the homeless crisis is most severe – almost one in five families turned down offers of homes.
The refusal figure is as high as 49% in Cork county, 46%c in Waterford, 42% in counties Roscommon and Donegal and 40pc in Cork City.
Families turn down offers of homes for a wide variety of reasons, including poor access to facilities such as schools and other important services.
But councils are now telling the Department of the Environment of their frustration over so-called ‘serial refusers’.
Officials say offers are being turned down in many cases simply because people don’t like the area or the house.
Under the current system, those on the list give three preferred options for a new home – but often turn down an offer if it isn’t their first choice.
Environment Minister Alan Kelly is now considering the introduction of new rules surrounding the provision of social housing.
The housing offer rejection figures are contained in a Department of Environment survey of the country’s housing departments, which has been seen by the Irish Independent.
The figures relate to the 12-month period until the end of September.
In feedback to the department, officials have warned that in many cases, families are rejecting offers because they say they do not feel suited to the area.
“We do have to address the fact that people turn down homes because they don’t like the property being offered,” a senior Government source said.
At the moment, if a family fails to provide a legitimate reason for turning down an offer of a home, they become ‘blacklisted’ for a 12-month period. In cases where a council receives three refusals from the same applicant, they can be struck off the list entirely.
Mr Kelly will now consider new rules aimed at tackling the rate of refusals.
These include reducing the number of refusals families can make before being struck off the housing list.
The minister is also examining the introduction of a ‘choice-based letting’ system whereby applicants have greater say over the areas in which they are accommodated.
One of the country’s leading housing experts called for a overhaul of the waiting list system.
DIT lecturer in housing Dr Lorcan Sirr warned the issue is far more complex and said further studies are required into why families are refusing homes.
But Dr Sirr said the figures show councils, in some cases, are dealing with families who reject offers for non- housing related reasons.
He said that these include “tribal reasons” – families not wanting to live near each other – as well as a lack of suitability of the property being offered.
“In times of depleted resources, this is obviously very frustrating for local authorities dealing not alone with issues of allocation of resources, but also with the sociological side of dealing with families and their non-housing issues that relate to where they want to live,” he said.
Three hours of watching TV could destroy your brain
A new study showed that watching TV in just three hours a day with little to no physical activity can rot the brain.
The data was based on a analysis of three tests answered by the participants involved in the study. Researchers Hoang and Dr. Kristine Yaffe, professors at the University Of California School Of Medicine found that these volunteers are all inclined to watching a lot of TV.
Many people practice watching too much TV and oftentimes fail to do any physical activity. Doing both things for a long span of time leads to the impairment of the brain, as researchers found in their study performed at the Northern California Institute for Research and Education.
Initially, the researchers did not include the cognitive function of the participants for them to have a baseline for comparison of the progress. And on the 25th year of the study, they assessed the cognitive function of the participants with three different mental tests that focus on speed, verbal memory and executive function.
There were 107 volunteers involved in the study who exercised least and at the same time had the habit of watching TV for more than three hours a day. Results show that these people are twice as much likely to perform poorly on the cognitive tests,; given as compared to those who limit their TV use but exercised more.
The researchers said that it is still never too late for adults to change their habits that could lead them to illnesses like Alzheimer’s disease and other types of dementia that usually start with impaired brain and damaged brain cells. Other studies have categorized these diseases due to old age, but there are ways where people can avoid it.
Result show that TV addicts were found to be 64 percent more likely to have poor cognitive performance than others. Same results were obtained when the researchers accounted for several other factors such as age, gender, educational level and body mass index (BMI).
They took note of some possible limitations due to the way the data were gathered because answers were only self-reported by the participants through the questionnaires.
Adolescents who practice little exercise but watch TV frequently had the worst obvious cognitive function 25 years later in their life. In this part of the study, the participants were surveyed at the beginning of the study and every two to five years about their exercise routine, or if they do exercise at all.
Those who watch little TV with high physical activity routine had twice as better cognitive performance than those who did little exercise with too much TV during their midlife.
But the researchers found no link to the verbal memory of the participants with regards to TV use.
Guidelines for tattoo and piercing parlours to be drafted by Irish Government
Varadkar says no specific rules on hygiene and infection control in place in the sector
Official guidelines for tattoo and body piercing parlours are being drawn up for the first time.
Official guidelines for tattoo and body piercing parlours are being drawn up for the first time.
The Department of Health says the draft guidelines, to be published next week, will make recommendations on minimising the risk of infection, protecting the health and safety of tattoo artists and their customers and the operation of parlours within recognised rules and laws.
Hundreds of tattoo and piercing shops have opened across Ireland in the past decade as the popularity of body art soars. However, the sector is largely unregulated, with no registration requirements, operating standards or basic training requirements for staff.
The department says its guidelines will aim to ensure that high standards are “maintained” in the sector. A consultation process is planned before the draft guidelines are finalised.
“Tattooing and body piercing has become increasingly popular as a fashion statement and the number of premises offering these services has multiplied,” says Minister for Health Leo Varadkar.
“However there are currently no specific guidelines on hygiene and infection control for this particular sector, beyond the general guidelines that already exist. High standards of hygiene are vital when performing body piercing and tattooing in order to protect the health of clients, and the practitioners.”
Specific issues to be covered in the guidelines include good practice for infection control and the use of template consent forms and aftercare advice, as well as the need to provide training and supervision for staff and the avoidance of local anaesthetic injections of prescription only topical creams.
The department says the majority of tattoos and piercings occur without incident, but risks arise with the procedures involved and customers need to be briefed in advance.
As well as the dangers of infections and blood-borne viruses caused by poor hygiene, other problems include allergic reactions to ink or pigments, scarring and rejection of jewellery by the body.
Half of Irish people believe climate change is a serious issue
More than 50% say they have a role in tackling the issue ahead of businesses
LESS THAN HALF OF THE IRISH POPULATION BELIEVE CLIMATE CHANGE IS A SERIOUS PROBLEM, A NEW SURVEY SHOWS.
Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) carried out the poll asking 1,000 people for their views on climate issues facing Irish society as the UN Climate Change Conference (COP21) continues in Paris.
The figures showed 49 per cent of the people who responded thought climate change was a serious problem.
However, 53 per cent said they a role to play in tackling the problem ahead of businesses and environmental groups.
Dr Eimear Cotter, head of the low carbon technologies at the SEAI, said the scientific analysis was indisputable and urgent action was needed.
“However, we still have to convince half of the population of the seriousness of climate change,” she said.
“Increased awareness will mean we can have an informed debate about our options and choices that we need to make if we are to take fossil fuels and carbon out of our energy system.”
Dr Cotter said the research showed there had been a large increase in children’s perceived knowledge of saving energy and the influence they have on family attitudes.
“This knowledge and influence will hopefully in time translate into wider societal awareness,” she said.
The figures showed seven out of 10 said energy was an important consideration buying a car, while 60 per cent said power use was significant factor for kitchen appliances and lights .
John Gibbons, a spokesman for An Taisce said low public awareness of climate change risks could be explained by lack of coverage.
“Taken at face value, the SEAI finding that only one in two Irish people is aware of the profound environmental crisis that threatens all our futures is both a wake-up call for Ireland and also an indictment of a collective failure to grasp the scale and gravity of the threats posed by climate change to our way of life,” he said.food production to reduce the carbon intensity of food production and to contribute to both food security.nd
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