News Ireland update as told by Donie on Saturday

Over 5,600 Parents have child benefit

suspended for 2012

  

 More than 5,600 people have had their child benefit for January suspended for failing to respond to a Department of Social Protection check on details and entitlements. 63,000 recipients were contacted by post last year

 5,672 people have had their child benefit for January suspended for failing to respond to a Department of Social Protection check on details and entitlements.

The Department contacted 63,000 recipients by post last September to confirm that they still reside in Ireland and satisfy the conditions for child benefit.

Any of those people who did not write back within 42 days had their payments suspended – meaning they will have to go without children’s allowance this month.

The Department says payments will be reinstated if people provide the requisite information.

Arrears will be paid once entitlement has been confirmed.

The Department says this is part of their ongoing control work to ensure resources go to those who need them most.

Fr Frank Garvey at funeral of  the Leitrim student pleads for an end to ‘senseless’ 

assault's & violence

 

Former president Mary McAleese with her husband Senator Martin McAleese at the funeral yesterday. 

THE PRIEST officiating at the funeral Mass of Leitrim student Andrew Dolan yesterday questioned why so many people no longer feel safe walking the streets of Irish towns and cities.

Parish priest of Carrick-on-Shannon Fr Frank Garvey described 20-year-old Mr Dolan as a naturally quiet young man who never raised his voice in anger.

“How utterly unthinkable that he should be the victim of such an unprovoked and vicious assault,” Fr Garvey told the thousands of mourners who gathered at St Mary’s Church to support Andrew’s parents Joe and Rosie and his brothers Jack and Gavin.

The priest told the congregation that everyone who respected the “precious, fragile gift of life” was asking why. “Why can young people not go out and enjoy themselves celebrating with their friends, without the menace of an unwarranted attack from those who seem intent on random acts of violence?” he asked.

Mourners heard that the last thing Mr Dolan’s father said to him when he dropped him to a train on December 22nd last was “mind yourself Andy and be careful”.

Joe Dolan told his 20-year-old son that another young man had recently been assaulted in Carrick-on-Shannon and was fighting for his life in Beaumont Hospital.

At yesterday’s funeral Mass prayers were said for that young Longford man, Mark O’Shea.

Hours after his father’s warning, Mr Dolan himself was to be the victim of a “vicious, senseless assault” and ended up in the same unit of the same Dublin hospital, where he died on New Year’s Day.

Fr Garvey questioned why such random acts of violence “are happening with alarming frequency”. In an emotional plea to young people he pleaded with them “in Andrew’s name” to look out for each other and to live within the rules. “May his death not be in vain,” the priest added, telling the young people who thronged St Mary’s church that Mr Dolan’s wish for them would be that this not happen again.

Mourners heard how Mr Dolan had left for Mullingar “with a song in his heart” . He had given his parents the thumbs up when they asked him how the exams had gone and he was looking forward to meeting up with old school friends in Mullingar.

The congregation included former president Mary McAleese and her husband Senator Martin McAleese, local TD Frank Feighan, president of NUI Galway Dr James Browne, former senior diplomat Dermot Gallagher and his wife Maeve, and local Senators Michael Comiskey and John Kelly.

They were told of Mr Dolan’s ready smile, independent spirit and the enthusiasm with which he embraced everything from his academic endeavours to playing with his beloved Shannon Gaels. His father Joe ruefully noted that despite what people might now claim about his prowess on the field, the family knew Andrew would never be an All-Star.

Mr Dolan’s tribute to his son, read on his behalf by Mr Dolan’s aunt Heather Laird, recounted how in their anguish they were delighted that three other families were celebrating thanks to Andrew’s insistence on carrying a donor card.

In Ireland more than eight out of 10 who get to 100 are women

  

IRISH CENTENARIANS set a collective record last year when the highest-ever number of them received the presidential payment of €2,540 when they turned 100.

About 85 per cent of centenarians are women and that figure does not vary much from year to year, says Áras an Uachtaráin.

Last year a record 368 centenarians received the award, 214 of whom are resident in Ireland while another 154 Irish citizens who live in Northern Ireland and overseas also received it.

Irish citizens who reach 100 years of age receive the €2,540 and a congratulatory letter signed by the President. A spokesman for Áras an Uachtaráin confirmed that €934,720 was paid out in 2011.

“This is the highest number of centenarians to receive the bounty since the scheme was extended to centenarians living abroad,” he said.

The number of people receiving the award reached 315 in 2010, while 303 Irish citizens received the award in 2008 and 2009 respectively, according to figures provided by Áras an Uachtaráin.

Although 337 received the bounty in 2007 this can be partially attributed to those aged 101 and upwards who applied for the award in 2007 having failed to do so in 2006, the year in which the award was first extended to Irish citizens living abroad.

The latest census figures show that in 2006, 289 people in Ireland were aged 100 or more.

A detailed breakdown revealing the number of people who are aged more than 100 in the 2011 census will be available in May

The first president of Ireland, Douglas Hyde, introduced the centenarian’s bounty in 1940, at which time those who reached their 100th year received £5. In 1996, the bounty stood at £300. But in 2000 the payment was increased to €2,540. In 2000 the president began marking the birthday of those who had their 101st and subsequent birthdays. They receive a special commemorative coin in a presentation box. A new coin is designed each year.

Information about people who are about to reach 100 years and in receipt of an Irish pension is forwarded to the office of the President by the Department of Social Welfare. The office of the President then makes the award directly to the individual.

Information on Irish citizens living abroad who are eligible for the award can be sent to their nearest diplomatic mission or the Department of Foreign Affairs. An application form is on president.ie.

The State’s oldest citizen is Mary Kate Byrne of Co Laois who turned 107 in August.

HSE Cleaners in Castlebar hospital 

to commence industrial action

  

CLEANERS AT CASTLEBAR General Hospital plan to serve notice of industrial action to management in the coming days.

The SIPTU workers said the action is a response to the HSE decision to outsource the work of support staff who are due to retire before 29 February.

Hospital management has told the employees that it is proposing to engage the services of private contractors to cover the hours of the eight workers.

“We have tried for almost six months to secure a meeting in an effort to avoid confrontation on this issue,” said Paul Bell, the union’s health division organiser.

“We met under the auspices of the Labour Relations Commission in mid-2011 but HSE management has refused to engage in any serious way since then.”

In November, the 80 cleaners agreed they would cover the hours of eight workers who left employment during 2011.

“That involved home-helps carrying out cleaning duties in the hospital,” explained Bell. “However, neither the hospital management nor the HSE has put this arrangement in place.”

The SIPTU representatives claim that any engagement of private contractors to carry out their work would be a breach of the Croke Park Agreement.

Bell told TheJournal.ie that the union’s members will decide what the most effective course of action is in the next couple of days but added that anything agreed will not adversely affect patient care