Burton insists free travel scheme is not in danger and it will continue
The new Tánaiste Joan Burton steps away from reshuffle talks to reassure the Dáil that the free travel scheme is not in danger.
A train leaving Connolly Station in Dublin for Belfast. Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton has tonight insisted that the free travel scheme will continue.
The free travel scheme will continue, Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton has said.
Ms Burton told the Dáil tonight that the Coalition had provided steadfast support for older people.
“And in that context, I want to say loud and clear here tonight: this Government has protected the free travel scheme for beneficiaries in all of its budgets to date, and will continue to protect the scheme,’’ she said.
Ms Burton took time out from preparing for the Cabinet reshuffle to reply to aFianna Fáil Private Member’s motion opposing any diminution of the scheme.
She warned against scaring old people in particular about something being taken away which was iconic and they valued and used in their lives.
“So I would really like the people in Fianna Fáil to acknowledge that,” Ms Burton added
Ms Burton said the Government made no apology for carrying out a review of a scheme, which was almost 50 years old. Its purpose, she added, was to examine and report on the current operation and future development of the scheme.
Fianna Fáil social protrection spokesman Willie O’Dea said free travel was a lifeline for many pensioners, as it allowed them to interact socially and have a reason to get up in the morning.
The €77 million cost involved was a drop in the ocean in the overall context of Government expenditure, he added.
Over 80% more Irish people sought legal advice for housing issues last year
THE TOTAL NUMBER OF QUERIES TO FLAC CENTRES WAS UP MORE THAN 10% COMPARED TO 2012.
Queries to the Irish Free Legal Advice Centre’s (FLAC) telephone service relating to housing issues surged by 83.5% last year, the organisation’s annual report shows.
There was also a 56.1% rise in callers getting in touch over ‘neighbour disputes’, and 47.5% for general legal services.
Meanwhile, FLAC centres saw a 26.5% rise in credit and debt related issues.
Speaking at the report’s launch today, Chief Justice Susan Denham said this wasn’t surprising “these challenging times”, and praised the organisation’s continuing work in “advocating fairness for those on low incomes dealing with personal over-indebtedness”.
“My wish is that justice is done for the people of Ireland in terms of their access to the legal system,” she said.
“Rights are meaningless without access. FLAC is playing an important role in making rights a reality for thousands of people.”
A total of 27,546 were assisted by FLAC with queries last year, up roughly 10%, with the majority continuing to contact the service in relation to family law issues such as divorce.
CONCERNS RELATING TO COMPANY LAW FELL BY 27.9%.
“It is quite obvious that the ‘Great Recession’, which has blighted the lives of so many Irish people, has created an increasing workload at FLAC,” Denham said.
ESB First wave energy project awarded by EC €23m
ESB West-Wave, which will develop the first Irish wave energy project, awarded funding by the European Commission.
ESB WestWave is expected to generate an initial 5MW, equivalent to the electricity consumption of households in nearby Kilrush and Kilkee of clean renewable electricity.
Ireland’s first wave energy project off the west coast has been awarded € 23 million in funding by the European Commission.
ESB WestWave, which will develop the first wave energy project in Ireland by 2018, is the only Irish project to receive funding under the EU New Entrant Reserve (NER300) scheme.
The project is expected to generate an initial 5MW (equivalent to the electricity consumption of households in nearby Kilrush and Kilkee) of clean renewable electricity from the plentiful wave energy resource available off the west coast of Ireland.
The project team is already developing the site at Killard, near Doonbeg, Co. Clare and procuring technology designs to deploy the pioneering wave energy generators. Construction is expected to start in 2016 with ocean power being generated in 2018.
According to the ESB, the project “ will demonstrate Ireland’s ability to construct, deploy and operate wave energy converters successfully”.
“Demonstration projects like ESB WestWave are critical if we are to realise the ultimate aim of progressing to larger commercial scale projects and a low carbon future,” said John McSweeney, head of innovation with ESB, noting that the funding award is a “huge boost” to the project.
Nine food outlets get closure orders for breaches of food safety laws
Businesses include a pub, three takeaways, three restaurants, a food stall and a butcher.
Prof Alan Reilly: “Again and again, we encounter cases involving improper storage of foodstuffs and poor cleaning and sanitising.”
The Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) served closure orders on nine food outlets in June for breaches of food safety laws. The businesses include a pub, three takeaways, three restaurants, a food stall and a butcher.
FSAI chief executive Alan Reilly said: “Each enforcement order sends a clear message to food businesses that unsafe food safety practices or non-compliance with food legislation is not tolerated by the inspection officers.
Again and again we encounter cases involving improper storage of foodstuffs and poor cleaning and sanitising. These breaches are completely avoidable when food businesses have proper food safety management systems in place.”
The China House Food Stall, trading at the Charlemont Food Market in Dublin, and the Golden River Chinese Takeaway in Co Donegal were two businesses served with closure orders under the FSAI Act of 1998. Those orders have not been lifted. Under the Act closure orders are issued in two circumstances: where grave and immediate danger to public health is likely or for noncompliance with an improvement order.
Food businesses issued with closure orders were:
Golden River Chinese Takeaway, Ramelton, Co Donegal; China House Food Stall, Charlemont Jetty, Dublin 2; Little Chipper, Killimor, Co Galway; Hibernia Inn (closed area: food production), Bray, Co Wicklow; New Paddy Field, Tullamore, Co Offaly; Apache Pizza, Tallaght, Dublin 24; Lisa’s Trattoria Restaurant, Terenure Road North, Dublin; Ruposhi Indian Restaurant, Drumcondra, Dublin 9; Country Meats, Lifford, Donegal.
A pod of 13 whales beach and die on a Donegal beach
Thirteen whales beached in Donegal died despite desperate efforts by volunteers to help rescue them.
Irish Coast Guard teams and members of the National Parks and Wildlife Service yesterday sealed off two beaches in Ballyness Bay, outside Falcarragh, to allow the whales to die.
Although eight of the pilot
whales did return to sea on the high tide they later beached again and died there last night.
But experts said that the deaths of the whales was just ‘part of nature’ and people should not try to rescue
others.
RESCUE
Local people spent hours pouring water over the 13 animals when they beached at the bay yesterday morning,
At one stage more than 100 people were involved in the rescue attempts including local councillor Seamus O Domhnaill.
Dave Duggan, deputy regional manager for the Irish Wildlife Service, said it was his belief that beached whales should be allowed to die.
Rescue attempts, he said, rarely worked and caused more distress to the whales.
“We asked people to let nature
take its course. It is very unfortunate but it is not uncommon for pilot whales to be involved in mass beaching incidents like this,” he said. “We know people mean well but attempts to refloat them are not usually successful and only cause more distress to them.”
Donegal County Council are to help with the disposal of the 13 whales
today.
Biggest ever bird had over a 20-foot wingspan, lived 55 million years ago
Fossil finds confirms largest bird ever to fly in Earth’s skies, researchers say. From 55 million years ago, the 24-foot wings of the creatures would have been seen over every continent on the globe.
A prehistoric fossil unearthed almost 30 years ago has finally been identified, and it’s nothing less than the biggest bird to have every soared through Earth’s sky, paleontologists say.
Excavated in Charleston, S.C., in 1983, the fossil is that of a bird possessing a wingspan of more than 20 feet, twice the span of the wandering albatross, the largest flying bird in existence today, they say.
The fossil has been identified as a previously unknown pelagornithid species, Pelagornis sandersi, from a group of giant seabirds looking like massively overgrown seagulls, the researchers report in the Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences.
The sheer size of the creature, which appeared in the Paleocene era after the extinction of the dinosaurs around 55 million years ago, is perhaps its most impressive feature, the researchers say.
“Anyone with a beating heart would have been struck with awe,” sayspaleontologist Daniel Ksepka of the Bruce Museum in Greenwich, Connecticut. “This bird would have just blotted out the sun as it swooped overhead. Up close, it may have called to mind a dragon.”
The giant birds, weighing between 50 and 90 pounds, lived on every continent including Antarctica until they went extinct about 3 million years ago for unknown reasons, the researchers say.
The fossil shows the bird had short legs and was probably somewhat ungainly while walking of land, however its immense wings would have allowed to glide effortlessly and stay aloft for long periods of time despite its huge size, they say.
The fossils skull of the creature, unearthed during work to enlarge Charleston International Airport, is nearly complete and in excellent condition, paleontologists say, and important wing bones, along with leg bones, the wishbone and the shoulder blade, have also been recovered.
The wingspan and mass of the giant creature seemingly defies aerodynamic theory, but like the bumblebee it appears not to have noticed.
“Pelagornis sandersi surpassed theoretical mass limits for flapping flight and wingspan limits for soaring flight based on previous models,” Kspeka says, “but the extremely elongated wings and reduced hind limbs indicate it was a volant (flying) bird.”
“New data suggest that they were remarkably efficient flyers, which together with their global distribution across all seven continents and long temporal range, makes the cause of their ultimate extinction all the more mysterious,” he says.
Their method of flight, with emphasis on gliding rather than wing flapping, would have been similar to the extinct flying reptiles known as pterosaurs that lived in the time of the dinosaurs and had the greatest wingspans of any known flying creatures, approaching 36 feet.
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