Morning Focus – 30/11/18

Morning Focus began today with TD Joe Carey spoke about agreements made by Iarnród Éireann, the OPW and Clare County Council to end Ballycar flooding.

They have agreed to work together to try and deal with the problem of groundwater flooding on the Limerick to Galway rail line and have appeared before the Oireachtas Committee on Rural and Community Development for the second time.

We heard from Paul Madden, Temple Gate Hotel and Brian O’Neil, Rowan Tree Hostel on a push for non-refundable deposits to tackle the problem of no shows in restaurants. The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission say they have no issue with individual restaurants adopting this kind of policy but that the campaign by the Restaurant Association of Ireland to charge those who don’t turn up is the problem.

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Clare FM reporter and Journalism and New Media student at University of Limerick, Kayley Hardiman joined Gavin in studio to talk about her experiences as a young driver and what it’s like trying to learn on extremely busy roads. Clare FM reporter Ryan Hanton went out and about in Ennis to hear what the people think about young drivers. Ryan asked people how can we get young drivers on the road and then how can we get them to drive safer?

In the second hour of the show we heard from sports broadcaster Des Cahill about his new book ‘Play It Again, Des.’ Des will be signing copies of the book in Ennis Bookshop on Monday next (December 3) at 5pm.

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Singer-songwriter, Seán Keane joined us to speak about his upcoming performance at glór, Ennis on December 6 with the Mayo Concert Orchestra.

After that, we had an arts round-up with Clare County Arts Officer, Siobhán Mulcahy. Tonight (November 30) there will be a Night and Day Craft Fair in the Courthouse Gallery, tomorrow (December 1) there will be spinning in glór, Ennis and Hermitage Green will play at glór tomorrow night.

Michael Coglan, Nissan gave us our regular events round-up. We heard about the Electrical Vehicle Information evening which takes place tonight (November 30) at 4:40pm and at 6:30pm at Dulick Motors, Gort Road, Ennis.

In the final hour of Morning Focus Irene Hamilton, Santa’s ElF informed us about the Santa train for kids which will run in Kilrush from December 8.

We had our Friday panel discussion with Dermot Hayes, Community Activist, Bob Vernon, Retired Anglican Minister and Patricia McCarthy, Former Clare Councillor, Shannon. This week’s topics dealt with whether we are prepared for a no-deal Brexit, how effective government funding announcements will be, the Late Late Toy Show phenomenon whether we are swearing too much and the investigation into the Restaurants Association of Ireland.

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After that, Journalist and Author Valerie Loftus told us about her new book ‘Thanks, Penneys’ which is a love letter to the Irish institution. The book also contains over 100 entertaining illustrations by Ciara Kenny.

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