Irish Government has announced details of a €1.5bn programme,
‘To provide 80,000 new school places’
The programme will provide 80,000 new school places and 15,000 jobs over the next five
Minister for Education Ruairi Quinn has announced details of 219 new school building projects. The new schools will be built over the next five years as part of a €1.5bn programme.
The new projects are in addition to 56 school building projects already announced for 2012.
Mr Quinn said this investment will create an estimated 15,000 direct and 3,000 indirect jobs over the period of the programme.
The plan sees the construction of 106 primary schools, 43 secondary schools and eight special schools.
There will be extensions to 65 primary schools, 49 secondary schools and four special schools.
The Government said the plan is necessary to meet the demands placed on the education system by the baby boom of the last decade.
Mr Quinn said: “We have to ensure that every child growing up in Ireland can access a physical school place.
“Our programme . means that schools and parents will be able to plan much better for their children’s education at a time when enrolments at both primary and second level are rising dramatically.”
More qualified GPs needed for new legislation medical card scheme
More GPs will be able to enter the medical card scheme as a result of the enactment of new legislation, health Minister James Reilly has announced.
The Health (Provision of General Practitioner Services) Act 2012 provides for the elimination of restrictions on doctors wishing to obtain contracts to treat medical card patients.
From now, any fully qualified and trained GP can ‘set up shop’ to treat medical card patients.
Previously, access for GPs to the medical card scheme was restricted to applying for vacant GP posts in the medical card scheme or through serving time as a GP assistant.
Dr Reilly said the new opening up of the medical card (GMS) scheme is a major step forward in the development of primary care, allowing any young, highly qualified and trained GPs who were previously prevented from obtaining a GMS contract early in their careers to apply for contracts now.
GPs previously excluded from the medical card scheme will now be allowed establish their practice in the location of their choice.
However, a contract holder approved by the HSE in an area who wishes to move location may only do so with the prior approval of the HSE – this is designed to ensure continuity of care for patients.
Private patients of GPs who newly-join the medical card scheme and who subsequently qualify for a medical card or GP visit card will not have to change their GP
Primary schools to drive Ireland’s science and maths programme
Primary schoolers and Ireland’s science and maths drive
Pictured above at the launch of the 2012 Discover Primary Science and Maths programme are students from Our Lady Of Victories National School, Ballymun. (From left) Laura O’Toole, Lorcán Cahill, Hannah Ryan Murphy and Jamie Kennedy
The Irish Government’s Discover Science and Engineering initiative is calling for all national primary schools to register for its 2012 match and science awards programme.
In 2011, 472 primary schools from across Ireland entered the Discover Primary Science and Maths programme, but especially with Dublin being European City of Science this year, the aim is to inspire more students from an earlier age to delve into the STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) areas.
Schools that register on the Discover Primary Science and Maths programme can subsequently apply for an Award of Science and Maths Excellence after they meet certain criteria.
So how can schools go about entering the awards? Dr Graham Love, director, Discover Science and Engineering (DSE), said that to qualify, schools must keep a log of the science and maths-related activities they have undertaken throughout the year.
Schools will get credits for visiting Discover Science Centres, for inviting speakers to the school to talk about science and maths and for showcasing their work and other explorative activities.
Credits will also be awarded for taking part in other DSE programmes, such as the Greenwave mass science project that tracks the arrival of spring across Ireland, as well as completing activities related to the annual Science Week.
Love said a lot of the steps within the programme conform with the primary science curriculum.
And for this year’s awards, DSE will be partnering with Abbott. The healthcare company will sponsor science equipment vouchers for 60 schools, randomly picked from those that achieve an award.
Love spoke this morning at the awards launch about how it is vital that children in Ireland are inspired at a young age to embrace and appreciate science and maths.
“These children will be the future scientists, mathematicians and engineers that our economy today craves,” he said.
Research and Innovation Minister Sean Sherlock, TD, was also at the launch of the awards this morning. He spoke about how the growth of the STEM subjects is extremely important for the recovery of Ireland’s economy.
“Initiatives such as the Discover Primary Science and Maths Awards offer our children an engaging platform to kick start this growth and interest and I encourage as many schools as possible to get involved with this fun and exciting project,” he said.
Schools have until 24 March to submit their intention to apply for the awards. Logbooks must be with the Discover Primary Science and Maths office by 27 April, DSE confirmed this morning.
Ireland & Galway: A great place to be on St. Patrick's day
Craic & a damned good time,
By Sharon Stephenson from New Zealand
Irish hospitality abounds in Galway’s pubs, museums parks, festivals … and pubs.
Escape from the pubs and Galway is a captivating city begging to be explored
Drinking Guinness at 11am on a Wednesday isn’t my usual practice. But we are on holidays, we’re in Galway and, as the slurring chap next to me has so accurately observed, I need to get in some practice for St Patrick’s Day.
Not wishing to insult that famous Irish hospitality, I don’t mention it is September, a full six months until it’s time to commemorate Ireland’s patron saint of drinking. Instead, my husband and I join him in a pint of the black stuff.
“In Ireland, we say you should never have just one drink. After all, a bird never flew with only one wing,” he says, which may go some way to explaining why the tiny pub, on Galway’s Upper Cross St, is heaving at this time of the day.
But then Galway is famous for its “craic”, and there’s no doubt this city, which stretches like a contented cat across western Ireland, knows how to let down its hair. There’s no shortage of pubs and our new best friend tells us Galway has always attracted musicians, artists and intellectuals. It’s also catnip for festival goers: had we been here last month, we would have caught the Cuirt International Festival of Literature, while the Galway Arts Festival and Film Fleadh in July is one of the biggest in the country.
The city’s biggest knees-up, however, is dedicated to the humble mollusc: the Galway International Oyster Festival has been staged here since 1954, and participants from all over the globe come to wash down local oysters with lashings of beer.
Tear yourself away from the pubs and you will find Galway is an extremely easy city to navigate. We start at Eyre Square, once a jousting ground and now, if not the heart, then certainly the lungs, of the city. Its proper name is Kennedy Park, in honour of the former US president who visited in 1963, but you’ll never hear locals refer to as anything but Eyre Square. Avoid the shopping centre and instead check out the Brown Doorway, a relic from the home of one of the city’s leading merchant rulers.
You can’t come to Galway and not visit Lynch’s Castle, originally built for Galway’s most powerful family who held the position of mayor no less than 80 times between 1480 and 1650. Even if, like me, your architectural knowledge is rubbish, you’ll still appreciate the detailed stonework on the castle facade, including dastardly gargoyles and Henry VII’s coat of arms. Did I also mention it’s now a bank? Apparently even castles have to do double duty in these grim economic times.
Down by the River Corrib is the 16th-century Spanish Arch, which is believed to have been an extension of the city’s medieval walls. It was built to allow ships bearing alcoholic goodies from Spain, but the day we visit it seems to be hosting a convention of the homeless and folk familiar with Class A drugs. But it’s not every day you hear a junkie panhandler quoting W.B. Yeats (who lived around these parts for some years).
We slip into the swanky Galway City Museum. My husband is so captivated by the 9m hooker, a traditional sailing boat suspended in the atrium, he feels the need to engage the poor museum staff in a long and detailed conversation about it. It’s possibly the world’s tiniest museum, but the room out the back of Dillon’s Jewellers on Quay St is also worth a visit for its overview of the famous Claddagh rings, which originated in the late 17th century at the fishing village of Claddagh.
The village has long since been swallowed by Galway city centre but the rings – which feature a pair of outstretched hands and are often given as a symbol of love – are now one of Galway’s most famous exports.
We end the day, surprise, surprise, in another pub. I’m reminded of something else our friend from this morning said: “If you come to Galway for a weekend, you’ll stay for a year.” Not, I imagine, because it takes you that long to recover from the Guinness hangover (although that may well be the case), but because the city is so charming you’ll never want to leave.
Michael Noonan confirms debt negotiations underway with ‘EU bureaucrats’
The Minister for Finance has confirmed that the Government is negotiating with European authorities to restructure Ireland’s banking debts.
Michael Noonan has confirmed that negotiations on debt restructuring are underway.
The Minister for Finance, Michael Noonan has confirmed that the Government is in negotiations with the European authorities to bring about a major restructuring of Ireland’s banking debts.
He told RTE’s The Week in Politics programme, to be broadcast tonight, that parallel talks were taking place on both the Anglo Irish Bank promissory notes and the legacy of expensive tracker mortgages in the main banks.
Mr Noonan said he would like to see a situation where the repayment of the Anglo Irish debt was more affordable so we would have a longer time to repay at lower interest rates.
He said the talks, if successful, would “be in the medium term rather than immediately”.
Unhelpful: Earlier Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore said it would not be helpful to engage in public discussion about the specifics of the negotiations with the Troika on the Anglo promissory notes.
Mr Gilmore was responding to reports that Ireland could be allowed to suspend the annual repayments of €3.1bn on Anglo Irish Bank’s debt under proposals being considered by the European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
Asked about comments made by Ministers Joan Burton and Brendan Howlin that a deal on Anglo’s debt would provide goodwill towards the forthcoming referendum on the EU’s fiscal compact treaty, Mr Gilmore said the treaty would stand on its own merits.
A new hi-tech blood glucose monitor device via a Smart-phone just launched in the UK
The £48 hi-tech blood glucose monitor, being rolled out at Boots stores, attaches to the Apple iPhone and iPod touch. It allows sufferers to check their blood sugar levels at any time using their phone or MP3 player.
The device, iBGStar, comes with a free Diabetes Manager App that makes it possible to store, track and analyse medical data.
Accurate monitoring of blood glucose is essential to the management of diabetes, which affects 2.9 million people in the UK. It is especially important for people with type-1 diabetes, an auto-immune disease that can lead to dangerous rises in blood sugar level.
High blood sugar can lead to serious complications including damage to the heart, kidneys, nerves and eyes.
Traditional blood glucose monitors (BGMs) are palm-sized devices that test tiny drops of blood obtained by pricking the skin.
iBGStar works the same way but is just one inch long and plugs straight into an iPhone or iPod touch. Software carries out the analysis and flashes the results onto the screen. It also allows users to follow changing trends and variations, and factors in information such as carbohydrate intake, insulin injections and exercise.
Sarah Johnson, from the type-1 diabetes research charity JDRF, said: “Good blood glucose control is vital to reducing the long-term effects of diabetes, but it can be difficult and demanding to achieve. As such, we welcome all developments in technology that can help people with type-1 and type-2 diabetes take control of their condition.”
Dr Andrew Hockey, medical director for diabetes at the pharmaceutical company Sanofi, which produces the iBGStar, said the device was a “huge step forward”. “It harnesses the power of the latest technology to empower people with diabetes to manage their condition on a day-to-day basis,” he added
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