Donies up-date Blog for Thurday

60 nurses & 1,000 staff members to retire in from HSE West by the 29th February

    

UP TO 60 NURSES ARE EXPECTED TO RETIRE FROM HSE WEST AS PART OF GOVERNMENT’S EARLY RETIREMENT SCHEME NEXT MONTH, LEAVING SERVICES STRETCHED AND PATIENT CARE COMPROMISED.

Around 1,000 staff members are expected to retire from HSE West on or before 29 February, including 80 from across University Hospital Galway and Merlin Park Hospital, with around 60 of these expected to be nursing staff.

Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) Industrial Relations Officer Regina Durcan said the impending retirements are equivalent to the loss of 48 whole-time-equivalent nursing posts. She also confirmed that a further 12 public health nurses are expected to retire from across County Galway by the end of next month.

HSE West has yet to confirm where staff members will be lost, but Ms Durcan indicated that specialist services, such as orthopaedics and neo-natal care may be impacted by the impending retirements.

She also suggested that a “substantial” number of retirements would be among Clinical Nurse Managers or Ward Sisters.

“It is such an exit of experience and skills, that skillset can’t easily be replaced,” she said, adding that reports from front-line workers would indicate that reducing staff levels would lead to “considerable risk in terms of safe patient care”.

HSE West has acknowledged that the Galway/Roscommon Hospital Group faces “many challenges” in 2012, including reduced budget and reduced staffing levels, and has stated that a clearer picture as to the full extent of the planned retirements would emerge by the end of February.

“We are currently developing contingency plans to deal with the specific difficulties that will arise as a result of these retirements and will refine these plans further when the numbers retiring are finalised,” said a spokesperson for HSE West.

Ms Durcan said yesterday that she is hopeful a meeting on the required contingency plans would be called shortly. “We have a very short timeframe in order to have these plans put to us and for the members to review them and see are they workable. It’s a big job,” she said.

Meanwhile, HSE West Regional Health Forum Chairman Cllr Padraig Conneely has suggested that Health Minister James Reilly would allow increased flexibility in terms of staffing within GUH if “serious gaps” arise that could lead to care being jeopardised.

“We have major problems in Galway, it’s the only place that hasn’t been sorted out,” said Cllr Conneely, referring to UHG’s failure to meet Minister Reilly’s target that no patient should be on a waiting list longer than 12 months by the end of December 2011.

He also stressed that “it is no use” appointing a new Chief Executive Officer, Bill Maher, to the Galway/Roscommon Hospital Group and then “tying one hand behind his back”.

“If the new CEO is showing progress in the system, getting work in order, putting it right, we just can’t tie him down. And, if he needs a bit of flexibility then that flexibility should be given to get Galway right, because it’s not right at the moment,” he said.

IBEC calls for a stimulus by the Government to fight the high unemployment of 439,600 in Ireland

          

Business lobby group IBEC warned that today’s live register numbers remain exceptionally high.
According to CSO figures, he standardised unemployment rate in January 2012 was 14.2%, with a decrease of 3,200 on the Live Register bringing the seasonally adjusted total to 439,600.

Fergal O’Brien, the organisation’s chief economist, again called on the Government to introduce stimulus measures to get people back to work.

“New initiatives are needed to unlock domestic demand and encourage households that can afford to, to spend and invest rather than save,” he said.

“There are steps the Government can take to stimulate the domestic economy, even in the face of constrained public finances.”

Mark Fielding, chief executive of ISME, which represents smaller businesses, urged the Government to “knuckle down”.

“How many more people must we lose to emigration and unemployment before we see some action from this somnolent Government?” he asked.

“With close to half a million people out of work, we cannot afford to be wasting time and need to immediately implement the over-promised and long-fingered jobs plan.”

Mr Fielding said the Fine Gael/Labour coalition has, after almost a year in power, “promised a lot but delivered little”.

Trade union umbrella organisation Congress described the unemployment level as a national emergency.

Paul Sweeney, Congress economic adviser, said there was no comfort to be taken in the overall small drop in the live register figures, which was “almost certainly” down to emigration and people dropping out of the workforce.

“The level of unemployment in Ireland is so high that it really is a national emergency,” he said.

“And the growing numbers of long-term unemployed – up by a substantial 24,000 in just one year – is very worrying.”

Mr Sweeney said bold and dramatic action was needed from the Government.

The Natural Gas find in Leitrim hills could be worth up to 50billion to Irish economy

       

 Little Leitrim could save the Irish economy – there’s gas in them there hills! Initial indications suggest there is enough natural gas underground in Leitrim to supply Ireland’s needs for the next 12 years.

The Irish Times reports that exploration drilling in the much maligned county suggests a gas field worth up to €50billion.

Tamboran Resources, the Australian and Canadian company with exploration drilling licences in the Leitrim and border areas, has confirmed the findings.

The company says the find could create as many as 3,000 jobs on the back of a ‘substantial gas field’ in the Leitrim area.

The Irish Times reports that Tamboran’s findings suggest that production there could ultimately reach 2.2 trillion cubic feet of gas, worth $55 billion at current prices on the New York market.

“The Leitrim gas field could hold the equivalent of 12 years worth of Irish daily natural gas consumption,” said a statement from Tamboran.

Chief executive Richard Moorman confirmed in the statement that his company’s initial analysis suggests the presence of very substantial shale gas reserves in the north Leitrim area.

“Allowing for even modest rates of recovery, the energy and economic benefits would be tremendous,” he said.

“If the field were commercially developed, this would create 600 jobs directly and the knock-on effect would result in a further 2,400 new jobs.

“It could also yield a substantial benefit for the State, which could get €4.9 billion in corporate, exploration and employment taxes.”

Tamboran Resources to frack exclusively in North Leitrim

             

CEO of Tamboran Resources, Richard Moorman

Tamboran Resources have confirmed that they will concentrate their gas exploration programme in the Republic, exclusively in North Leitrim.

CEO of Tamboran Resources, Richard Moorman told the Leitrim Observer “We have ruled out everything in the project area except north County Leitrim and west County Fermanagh. Thur Mountain is still the target exploration area.”

More specific details on the areas they will target in north Leitrim are expected to be released later this week, but at the moment it seems to be confined to the larger Glenfarne area.

The company will not be continuing their exploration of gas in West Cavan, Roscommon or Sligo as the gas extraction will not be commercially viable in those counties.

Mr Moorman recently returned to Vancouver following an investment campaign in Hong Kong and Singapore this month.

The gas company “expect 40 to 60 multi-wellpads to be possible over the next 15 years in north Leitrim. At a maximum size of 2.5 hectares (7 acres) per multi-wellpad, our maximum surface needs are about 150 hectares (420 acres), so surface impact will be very minimal.”

Mr Moorman said there has been no land acquisition in the county as of yet, but he has been quoted saying they are looking at real estate for sale in the area.

As a result of the recent fracking ban in Co Sligo, Tamboran Resources have withdrawn all plans to provide a course in IT Sligo for up to 1,200 prospective employees.

Mr Moorman told the paper, “I can confirm that we have cancelled plans to use any services from County Sligo including the training programme (for our future workforce of 600 to 1,200 people) that we had met and discussed with IT Sligo on several occasions. County Roscommon is similarly excluded.