Morning Focus Thursday January 24

A new bill to regulate the taxi industry is being discussed in the Seanad this week
The Taxi Regulation Bill proposes measures including removing serious criminals from driving cabs and giving the Gardai more powers to refuse licenses

On Thursday’s Morning Focus John Cooke was joined in studio by Ennis Taxi Driver and Irish Taxi Drivers’ Federation representative Martin White and Sean McLoughlin, Shannon Councillor and Taxi driver to discuss the proposals and how the industry is doing in Clare at present.

A cross-border report on suicide shows the rate among young people on the island of Ireland is one of the highest in Europe.
An estimated 165 teenagers and young men took their own lives in the Republic in 2011, and 72 teenagers and young men took their own lives in Northern Ireland during the same year.
The jointly funded cross-border report found the high numbers in both jurisdictions coincide with the economic downturn and rising levels of unemployment.
The "Young Men and Suicide Project" shows that over the past ten years men have been five times more likely to take their own lives than women
John discussed with the author of the Young Men and Suicide Project Report, Dr. Noel Richardson, Director for the Centre for Men’s Health at IT Carlow.

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The new plastic credit card sized driving licence was launched by Transport Minister Leo Varadkar and the Road Safety authority yesterday 
The move is part of a European Union directive to upgrade and standardise licences across the union
All paper driving licences remain valid until their expiry date – new and renewed licences will cost €55 – Conor Faughnan of the AA discussed the changes.
 
Redemptorist Priest Fr Tony Flannery is being threatened with excommunication from the Catholic Church for suggesting that, in the future, women might become priests and calling for this and other matters to be open for discussion. Fr. Flannery joined the Redemptorists in 1964 at seventeen and was ordained ten years later
The founder of the Association of Catholic Priests has criticised his Vatican superiors for censoring him, saying they are out of date, and are pursuing policies which are unjust and unfair
Fr. Tony Flannery, a well known missionary, was summoned to Rome a year ago to be censored for his liberal views on issues such as homosexuality
He has not been allowed to practise as a priest since then or to take part in the work of the Association of Catholic Priests
Fr. Flannery spoke with John saying his life has changed completely.

Do you think the voting age should be reduced to 16?
National Youth Council of Ireland youth representatives will meet this Saturday to propose a reduction of the voting age to 16.
The Constitutional Convention will consider whether to recommend lowering the voting age from 18 to 17 years
Young people from the NYCI Vote at 16 campaign have been invited to present their arguments for a reduction of the voting age to the lower age of 16, which would allow 16 and 17-year-olds to vote in National, Local and European Parliament election – as Maria Kelly
NYCI Vote@16 Campaign Youth Spokesperson explained.

Scarriff National School are launching their  Sustainable Travel Art Exhibition at Scarriff library tomorrow
The students and staff have taken huge steps to reduce their car dependency on the school run
They have been running very successful ‘Feet First Fridays’ since last year
This is where the whole school walk or park and stride to school every Friday morning
In fact it proved so successful that they expanded it to Tuesdays when they have’ Tip toe Tuesday’ mornings where again the whole school get out of the car and walk some or all of the way to school
John spoke with Scarriff NS Green School Coordinator Anne Corbett and 6th class pupils
Jack Devaney, Leah Lowry and Shauna Quigley.  

Findmypast.ie, is hosting the inaugural “Irish Family History Day” today
They have 21 million new Irish Birth, Marriage and Death records and will publish records covering the island of Ireland from the 1800’s right up to the 1950’s
Today is “Irish Family History Day” and family historians will be able to access these records free of charge – Cliona Weldon of www.Findmypast.ie spoke with John.

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