Morning Focus opened with National Co-ordinator Patient Focus Sheila O’Connor who discussed the HSE data protection breaches of 2015, of which there were over 100.
Among these were an X-Ray found in Penneys, a child’s mental health record faxed to the Bank of Ireland and a cancer patient’s chart left on the roof of a car. Patient Focus is one of Ireland’s leading patient advocacy groups.
Michael Michaels of Kildysart Tidy Towns spoke to Gavin about the struggle of finding enough recruits to fill the Community Employment Scheme. Up to recently, there were 26 participants in the scheme in Michael’s local area. There will only be six people on the scheme by this time next year.
There is a lot of uncertainty out there at the moment about what Brexit will mean for Irish businesses. It’s not yet clear whether there will be a hard or soft Brexit, but the Irish Road Haulage Association says that whatever Brexit brings there will be costs involved. With that in mind, Managing Director of Eoin Gavin Transport and former IRHA president Eoin Gavin joined us to tease out the possibilities.
Gavin was then joined on the line by a North Clare listener, Paddy Meere, who’s been a CE scheme participant and a strong advocate of the work they achieve.
Tommy Corbett of Carey Corbett Financial Solutions Ltd was with Gavin in studio for Morning Focus’s weekly financial advice slot.
The Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmer’s Association General Secretary Eddie Punch says the continued delays in payment of GLAS and AEOS to Clare farmers is a ‘fiasco’. ICSA recently protested about payment delays outside the Department of Agriculture offices in Wexford. Figures released by the Department of Agriculture reveal that 348 farmers in the county are still awaiting payment for GLAS while a further 102 are waiting on their AEOS payment. Eddie spoke to Morning Focus about how the delays are affecting farmers.
Clare County Dog Warden Frankie Coote was with us for his usual weekly slot.
In recent days, hundreds of thousands of people have marvelled, smiled or perhaps even been aghast at Ireland’s newest internet star. Dubbed ‘pint baby’, a clip of the young child apparently drinking a pint of Guinness while sitting on his mother’s knee has been the focus of much discussion and the search has been on to find him. We spoke to pint baby and his mother.
It seems like only yesterday the streets of Ennis were packed with musicians and dancers of all ages for the Fleadh last August. Preparations are already well underway for this year and Clare legend PJ Murrihy is hosting a concert at Cois na hHabhna this weekend to raise some funds for the week long event this summer. PJ filled us in on the details.
Tom Clair got a lovely surprise last weekend when he woke up to no less than four beautiful, perfectly identical, Charlaois (Shirley) heifers in his maternity ward on Sunday morning. Mia, Rosie, Fluffy and Jenny, who have Hereford Cross mother and a Charlaois father are all doing well. Tom was with us in studio to talk about his one in a billion shot babies.
Gavin’s next guests were social entrepreneurs, who are using their business brains to do some good in their local community. From Transition Year at St Caimin’s Community School in Shannon, Hannah Alcock is the manager of ‘Nana’s Knits & Bits’, a not-for-profit enterprise promoting goods knitted by a group of local ladies known as ‘the nanas’. Students Cillian Fahy and Niamh Lyons were in studio with Hannah to tell us about the project.
