On Tuesday's edition of Morning Focus with John Cooke
Irish Water, yesterday confirmed details of its ongoing investment in Shannon and Bunratty, which will address a number of historical issues with the wastewater infrastructure in the area. They are currently undertaking a number of briefings with residents, the local business community and elected representatives, to update them on these works. Irish Water has issued a tender for two separate pieces of work on the network and for Project Management of these works:1. Cleaning and surveying of sewers in the Shannon Town area; 2. Sampling, analysis and flow measurement on the broader network.
Aisling Buckley Regional Information Officer Irish Water spoke to John Cooke.
The Tánaiste is defending the government's controversial new plans to deduct unpaid Irish Water bills from wages and welfare payments. Joan Burton says the measure is long overdue, because it will stop people from going to jail for unpaid bills. Opposition parties say the new rules – described as "Thatcherite" – will turn the government and other agencies like private landlords into 'pickpockets'. But Joan Burton says the rules are designed to make sure that people who refuse to pay water bills, or other utilities, can't get away with it. Carrigaholt native, Fintan McNamara, Director at Residential Landlords Association, Ireland explains the issues arising from this Government decision.
Martin Halley of O'Gorman Street Kilrush contacted the show to say that on Friday last, he was having a radiator repaired when the worker went to turn off Martin's water (he lives in house no. 16) nothing happened, so they chanced turning off his neighbour's at no 15 and discovered Irish Water had mixed the two up – Martin 'house sits' for no 14 and so turned off their water to discover they had actually turned off no 11. The fear is now, people will be charged wrong – Martin's neighbour contacted Irish Water to get them to rectify the problem but so far nothing has been done.
Dermot Hayes Community Activist, Ennis joined us on the show next to outline his plans for a Bank Protest scheduled for the coming weeks. Dermot explained Irish mortgage holders are carrying the highest mortgage debt ratio in the euro zone – relative to the value of their homes. Variable rates holders run at 4.2%, almost twice that of other European countries where they pay 2.2%. The Irish people owes over €390,000 euro per head of population in comparison to Germany, which owes €51,000 euro per person. Dermot is proposing that we picket each bank in Ireland for 1 hour per day using a minimum of 3 people for each bank – commencing on Monday May 25th.
Mairead Doyle Family Law Solicitor and Partner at Michael Houlihan and Partners Ennis joined John Cooke in studio to highlight some of the legal issues that arise in the debate about marriage equality. Mairead outlined there are significant differences that exist between civil partnership and civil marriage.
Shannon mother of two and IT worker Claire McCarthy runs the popular clairewiththehair blog covering topics related to health and fitness, food and fashion, she contributes to RSVP Magazine and most recently her Blog has been shortlisted for an Irish Beauty Blog for Best Blog Content this year! Claire also attended the Stop Cyber Bullying Summit last week with her 12 year old daughter. Claire outlined some of the Summit highlights, but says this is only the beginning in putting a stop to Cyber abuse.
This week is National Volunteering Week
Gerard Kennedy from Corofin is a volunteer in his early 60s who has been an active volunteer for most of his adult life in a variety of roles from hands on volunteering to committee roles. Gerard is very much aware of the important role that volunteers play in our communities and would be keen to encourage more people to volunteer. Nancy Belfiore orginally from Italy, but now based in Ennis has been a volunteer with The Clare Volunteer Centre since 2010. She has been involved in many different projects including with Clare Haven services. Sharon Meaney Manager, Clare Volunteer Centre also outlined the many projects they are responsible for and how volunteering is a great way to use our skills and learn new ones.
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