Water metering to deliver 400 jobs for unemployed and graduates in Ireland
400 jobs for the unemployed through the water metering project – Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan today said the programme is an opportunity for skilled workers to re-enter the workforce.
The Irish Water Metering Programme will set aside around 400 jobs for people from small, local businesses, the long term unemployed and graduates.
The programme is set to create up to 2,000 jobs in total – 1,600 jobs installing meters and a further 400 in Irish Water’s call centre.
The installation of water meters will start in July this year and will run until September 2016, during which time over one million meters will be installed in homes across the country. The charges themselves will kick in in 2014.
Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government Phil Hogan said the jobs will be created with “particular focus on ensuring that skilled workers are given an opportunity to re-enter the workforce and for small businesses to benefit. “Irish water will install 27,000 meters per month, which is a challenging target but deliverable by having local crews working on the ground,” said Minister Hogan. He added that sufficient training would be provided.
Irish Water is currently tendering for the provision of over one million meters and boundary boxes, as well as regional management contractors to run the metering programme and a customer call centre. It is expected that contracts will be awarded in May.
Irish Water Meters installation training information click here
The Irish drink problem is hidden in plain sight, and it’s getting worse
Drug-related crime and deaths are constantly highlighted in the media but the fact that the problems caused by alcohol abuse are much greater than those caused by illegal drugs is hidden in plain sight.
Alcohol consumption in Ireland is 12 litres of pure alcohol per person per year – putting Irish people among the highest consumers in the EU of 27.
Consumption doubled between 1970 and 2003, when it peaked at a record level of 14.3 litres at a time when alcohol consumption was falling in most developed countries.
Consumption fell to 11.5 litres in 2009 but increased again to 12 litres in 2012, despite a fall in overall consumer spending in that period.
The huge increase in alcohol consumption has led to a commensurate increase in alcohol-related harms to society.
The problems related to high alcohol consumption in Ireland are exacerbated by the fact that over half of Irish drinkers have a harmful pattern of drinking, usually referred to as “binge drinking”.
At least four people die every day in Ireland from an alcohol related illness.
A quarter of those attending accident and emergency departments have alcohol- related injuries.
Illnesses: Alcohol-related admissions to acute hospitals doubled between 1995 and 2008.
On an average day, about 2,000 Irish hospital beds are occupied by people suffering from alcohol-related illnesses.
Most of those patients are not suffering from conditions such as liver cirrhosis, though these have almost trebled over the past 15 years.
The majority are in hospital suffering from illnesses such as coronary heart disease, strokes and cancers to which their alcohol consumption has contributed significantly.
Some are recovering from unsuccessful attempts to take their own lives as alcohol is a factor in half of all suicides.
Solidarity vigil for Galway City Magdalene women
A solidarity vigil for the women who were retained at the Sisters of Mercy Magdalene Laundry in Galway City will take place this Sunday 3 March.
The event has been organised to offer for the people of Galway an opportunity to acknowledge and commemorate those women, both the deceased and the survivors, who were forced into the Magdalene Laundry.
At the vigil, playwright Patricia Burke Brogan, whose stage play ‘Eclipsed’ depicted the lives of the women cast into these institutions, will perform a reading from her work.
The play, first produced in Galway in 1992, exposed the judgement, repression and harshness that the ‘inmates’ suffered under these regimes.
Catherine Connolly, who had been vocal in calling for “a frank and humble apology…as a first step in the healing process”, will give a short address as Gaeilge and in English, while Treasa Ni Cheannabhain, a renowned sean-nos singer from County Galway, will give a rendition of some of her fitting songs.
The vigil will take place at the ‘Women of the Magdalene Laundry’ memorial statue on Forster Street on Sunday 3 March at 3.30pm and organisers have encouraged people to bring along flowers or candles.
The vigil is supported by a number of womens and social justice groups in Galway City including Galway Debt Justice, Galway Pro-Choice, and Women in Media and Entertainment.
Court sittings to continue on Aran Islands
The Courts Service sittings in Cill Rónáin on Inis Mor will not be affected in the review of our courts service in Ireland.
The Courts Service said sittings in Cill Rónáin on Inis Mor will not be affected.
Business at An Spidéal will be transferred elsewhere following the review.
A new location for the court in Derrynea in south Connemara has been identified.
The Court Service says this will result in an improved venue for sittings in that area.
No decisions have been made in relation to the four locations under review in Co Mayo. These are at Achill, Ballyhaunis, Swinford and Westport.
The consultations involve discussions with solicitors, gardai and community groups.
Sir Ranulph Fiennes abandons Antarctic crossing after suffering frostbite
Sir Ranulph Fiennes has abandoned his winter crossing of the Antarctic due to frostbite, after making the “small slip” of removing his glove in -30C temperatures.
The 68-year-old explorer hoped to become the first person to cross the frozen continent in winter later this year, but pulled out of the journey after suffering the injury during training.
A spokesman for the expedition, dubbed the “Coldest Journey on Earth”, said Sir Ranulph had fallen while skiing in a blizzard and attempted to fix his binding with his bare hands.
His five team-mates are attempting to extract him to South Africa, but have agreed to embark on the 2,000-mile (3,219km) without him, beginning on March 21.
Tony Medniuk of the Coldest Journey expedition told the BBC: “In seeking to reattach his binding he felt that he couldn’t get it on and had to take his glove off in very cold conditions and exposed his hand to snow and as a consequence he has contracted frostbite.
“After five years of preparation, a small slip like this and a few moments can undermine the most meticulous preparation.”
The team will attempt to transport Sir Ranulph 43 miles (70km) by skidoo to the Princess Elisabeth Station, from where he can be flown to Cape Town via the Antarctic Novo airbase, but are unable to leave until the current blizzard subsides.
The veteran explorer has experience of frostbite from his previous expeditions, losing the top third of all the fingers on his left hand during an expedition to the North Pole in 2000.
On his return to Britain, he removed his fingertips himself using a fretsaw after reportedly balking at the cost and time it would take doctors to amputate them.
Hannah McKeand, a polar guide who has trekked to the South Pole a world record six times, said frostbite is now extremely rare on polar voyages but might occur if someone had lost core body temperature, for example after not eating enough.
Taking precautions against the injury is “absolutely basic Antarctic 101″, but Sir Ranulph’s previous frostbite would have made him more vulnerable to a second bout, she told the Telegraph.
She said: “I take my gloves off to do things all the time. If there is something like a broken ski binding or a really fiddly job you really need your bare hands to do, experience tells us you are going to be able to do that.
“The problem with [Sir Ranulph] is he has suffered severe frostbite before, and the moment you have suffered any cold injury of that nature you are susceptible to it in those digits for the rest of your life.”
Sir Ranulph, described by Guinness World Records as the world’s greatest living explorer, holds the distinction of being the first person to walk to both poles and crossed Antarctica unsupported in 1992-93.
But his attempt to cross the continent during its winter months was to be his most daunting challenge, in conditions of almost permanent darkness and temperatures as low as -90C.
The furthest anyone has ventured into Antarctica during its coldest season until now was a 60-mile (97km) expedition in the early 20th century.
A spokesman said Sir Ranulph would continue to support Seeing is Believing, the expedition’s chosen charity.
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