Minister Ruairi Quinn insists that disability services at Cregg House Sligo will continue
Education Minister Ruairi Quinn has denied that government cuts will result in the loss of services to people with disabilities in the north-west.
It follows the announcement by the religious order the Daughters of Wisdom that they are to withdraw services at Cregg House in Sligo because of underfunding.
Cregg House provides care, education and support for more than 200 people with intellectual disabilities, but the order claims it cannot bridge the gap caused by a €1.3m cut to its HSE allocation.
The HSE said that it understands funding difficulties at the centre, but insists cutbacks are in line with those at other disability services in the region.
But Minister Ruairi Quinn told the Dáil this morning that the HSE will continue to provide the same services after the order withdraws.
“The Daughters of Wisdom know that the service will be continued and will be provided – it simply will not be provided by them,” he said.
“I would draw your attention to the fact that religious orders have in other aspects of social life in this country themselves chosen for different reasons to withdraw from the provision of service,” he said.
He said he could assure the people who depend on these services, that based on what had been told Minister of State Kathleen Lynch, that the services would continue.
The Minister was responding to queries from Fianna Fáil Spokesperson on Children Charlie McConalogue, who raised the matter during Leader’s Questions in the house.
“The way the Daughters of Wisdom and the 214 users and their families are being treated is a national scandal,” the Donegal North East deputy said.
“Why would there be a conscious decision to deplete funding being provided by the Daughters of Wisdom particularly when they have served the community for the last 60 years?”
“We all know that efficiencies are necessary and that more must be achieved with less resources,” Deputy McConalogue added.
“But the obvious underfunding of essential front line services the north-west by this Government is simply indefensible, and should be immediately reversed.”
Sister Jean Quinn of the Daughters of Wisdom said that the order had run the service for more than 60 years.
“It’s a very difficult morning for us and has been a very difficult few days,” she told Ocean FM
“We finally made our decision in our administrative office in England on Monday.
“The decision… is not made out of choice, but out of necessity.”
Meanwhile Sinn Féin TD for Sligo/North Leitrim Michael Colreavy expressed disappointment over the breakdown in talks between the management of Cregg House and the HSE.
“The HSE must now step up to the mark and take full responsibility for Cregg House,” Deputy Colreavey said.
“However, the handling of the Cregg House issue by the HSE has, so far, been a failure.
“The patients of Cregg House should be a priority and the high standard of service that has been provided by the Daughters of Wisdom must be continued by the HSE.”
Westlife’s Shane Filan’s company is declared bankrupt in The UK
The Boyband star has lost millions after the Ireland property crash
The singer, whose band have sold over 44 million records during their career, was declared insolvent earlier this week at Kingston County Court in Surrey after admitting that he could not pay his debts.
Despite a successful singing career, Filan’s property company, which is based in the Republic of Ireland, has endured a torrid time and went into receivership last month.
Filan has issued a statement, in which he says that filing for bankruptcy had been a difficult decision to take but he had “exhausted all other options”.
He went on to say: “Together with a team of financial and legal experts I have spent months exploring all possible alternatives to bankruptcy but to no avail. I have worked long and hard to try to reduce my debts, and I am devastated that it came to this conclusion.”
He continued: “I now intend to focus on the remaining dates of the Westlife tour and my commitments to the band before looking to rebuild a future for my wife, my three children and myself.”
Westlife announced that they were splitting up earlier this year and will end their 14-year career with a huge outdoor show at Ireland’s Croke Park on June 23.
AIB are to cut salaries of its top executives, & freeze staff pay until 2014
Allied Irish Bank is cutting the pay of its senior management and will introduce a pay freeze for all staff until 2014. Top executives at the bank are to get a 15% pay cut.
All other managers and executive staff will see their pay decrease by between 7.5% and 10%.
Staff in the defined benefit pension fund are being transferred to a defined contribution pension scheme.
The bank is also scrapping a number of perks for all staff including gym and club subscriptions and preferential rates on loans and deposits.
In an internal e-mail seen by Newstalk chief executive of AIB David Duffy said the cost to income ratio for the bank was unsustainable in the current economic environment.
“It is imperative that the cost base of the bank is sufficiently aligned with the overall operating performance to attract external investors” he said.
“A number of sacrifices have already been made by employees to help meet this cost imperative” he added.
It goes on to say that all members of the Executive Committee have agreed to a 15% reduction in total compensation from August 1st.
A reduction of up to 10% in salary and pay-related allowances will apply to those in Executive roles with a reduction of up to 7.5% in salary and pay-related allowances for those in Senior Manager.
It adds that all proposed reductions will be based on a benchmark exercise that will be completed in the final quarter of this year.
New cancer vaccine breakthrough using ‘cold virus’ Scientists claim
Scientists claim to have overcome a major hurdle in their work on finding a way to wipe out cancer with viruses.
Scientists suggest the reovirus, which usually causes mild colds or stomach upsets, has the power to shrink tumours.
They have created the viral vaccine that can be injected into the bloodstream, “hitching a ride” on blood cells and avoiding the immune system.
Previous research has focused on injecting the virus into tumours.
The reovirus treatment acts both like chemotherapy and a vaccine. It kills tumour cells while at the same time causing an anti – cancer immune response.
Dr Kevin Harrington, from the Institute of Cancer Research in London who co – led the study, said: ”Viral treatments like reovirus are showing real promise in patient trials.”
”This study gives us the very good news that it should be possible to deliver these treatments with a simple injection into the bloodstream.
It would have been a significant barrier to their widespread use if they could only have been injected into the tumour, but the finding that they can hitch a ride on blood cells will potentially make them relevant to a broad range of cancers.”
He added: ”We also confirmed that reovirus was specifically targeting cancer cells and leaving normal cells alone, which we hope should mean fewer sideeffects for patients.”
Scientists had feared that immune system antibodies in the blood would mop up the viral particles, preventing them from reaching their target.
Instead, the viruses evaded the immune system by hitching a ride on red blood cells. The discovery could pave the way to viral therapies one day becoming a standard form of cancer treatment.
Dr Julie Sharp, from the charity Cancer Research UK which part-funded the research, said: ”This promising study shows that reovirus can trick the body’s defences to reach and kill cancer cells and suggests that it could be given to patients using a simple injection.
”We look forward to seeing how this research develops and if this could one day become part of standard cancer treatment.”
The research involved a small group of 10 patients with bowel cancer tumours that had spread to the liver. Patients were given up to five doses of reovirus over a period of a few weeks before they were due to have surgery.
Blood tests shortly after the treatment showed the active virus associated with blood cells. Tissue removed during surgery revealed ”viral factories” in the tumour, but not normal liver tissue.
Reovirus is an extended family of viruses including rotavirus, which can cause stomach upsets.
The study was published in the journal Science Translational Medicine.
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