Galway Bay fm newsroom – A Galway senator says new requirements being brought in by government next year could put childcare jobs across the county at risk.
A new regime being introduced next year will require childcare staff to upgrade their qualifications.
Senator Trevor O’Clochartaigh says he’s been contacted by Ionad Tacaíochta Teaghlaigh in Inverin, which says there are now fears it may have to close due to the new requirements.
The provider believes that up to 23 jobs could be lost as a result.
Senator O’Clochartaigh says he’s written to the Children’s Minister Katherine Zappone, about the situation.

Galway Bay fm newsroom – A team of Galway researchers are developing sensors which alert people to ‘triggers’ which may lead to a heart attack.
Triggers such as anger, stress, and high blood pressure are known to cause a rupture in the narrowing of artery walls in people prone to cardiac illness.
An NUI Galway research team is developing a medical device that can monitor “trigger” activities electronically using wearable sensors.
According to the Irish Times, cardiovascular disease accounts for 33 per cent of all deaths in Ireland.

Galway Bay fm newsroom – Minister of Defence Paul Kehoe is in Renmore today for a special 1916 event.
As part of the 2016 Centenary Programme, Minister Kehoe will present the 1916 Commemorative medal to serving members of the Defence Forces at Dún Uí Mhaoilíosa.
The medals were commissioned to mark the role of the Defence Forces in the centenary year.
John Concannon is Director of Ireland 2016 – he says the role the Defence Forces played was vital in many areas, including providing education to schools.

Galway Bay fm newsroom – Milltown’s new wastewater treatment plant has been being officially opened.
Construction began last year following a €5m investment by Irish Water in Wastewater Treatment Schemes for Milltown and Claregalway.
The works involve the provision of four new pumping stations, the upgrade of three existing pumping stations and the connection of housing estates to the new sewer collection system.
Previously, both areas relied on individual treatment systems within housing developments, and septic tanks.
OPW Minister and Galway East TD Sean Canney officiated at the opening earlier today and says it marks an important milestone following a long campaign.

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation says the cancellation of a visit by the Health Minister to University Hospital Galway today is a terrible indictment of the Government’s policy on healthcare.
INMO spokesperson Anne Burke says there are 20 people waiting on trolleys in the A&E and on wards at UHG today.
This follows a record of 70 people waiting on trolleys on a single day last week as the hospital remained in Code Black due to overcrowding.
Health Minister Simon Harris says he had to cancel today’s planned visit due to ‘Dáil and Government business’ and will visit the hospital in early January instead.
However, Anne Burke from the INMO says healthcare ‘is’ government business.

Planning permission was granted for 64 houses in the city and 129 houses in the county, in the third quarter of 2016.
That’s according to the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office.
The CSO data shows that between July and the end of September, planners granted permission for 64 houses in the city and one apartment.
This compares to a figure of 5 houses granted planning permission in the city for the same period last year and 11 apartments.
Meanwhile in the county, 129 new houses were given planning approval between June and the end of September compared to 66 for the same period last year.
Planning permission was granted for 2 apartments in the county in Quarter 3, representing no change from last year’s figure for the same period.

County councillors have this evening been presented with a fresh round of proposals aimed at solving a long-running deadlock over the ferry service to Inis Mór.
The service is currently operating on a temporary basis until January 4th, at which time the ferry will be once again suspended if no compromise is reached.
The plug was pulled on the ferry service to Inis Mór at the end of last month amid a long running row over passenger levies.
Island Ferries Teo has always argued that levies imposed by the County Council in 2012, which charge a fee of 80c per passenger, make the operation of the service ecnomically unviable.
However, the service was temporarily reinstated earlier this month following talks between the company, the county council and the Department of the Gaeltacht.
In a fresh set of proposals presented to County Councillors this evening, Island Ferries Teo argues that a reduction of the passenger levy to 40c for retrospective trips between 2012 and 2016, and 55c for ferry sailings from 2017 onwards, is critical in reaching a resolution.
It says such a reduction would allow it to pay retrospective passenger levies of almost 300 thousand euro to the local authority – as well as pay off legal fees of some half a million euro incurred during High Court action over the controversial levy at the centre of the impasse.
In the proposal document, the company says they have never collected levy rates from their passengers, but will instead absorb such costs – as to do otherwise would jeopardise competitiveness and effect the growth of tourism to Inis Mor.
Island Ferries Teo says that if their proposals are accepted, it would envision repaying it’s legacy debts and legal fees by the end of 2017.

Half of a debt of more than €500,000 owed to the county council in respect of ferry passenger levies to the Aran Islands has now been written off.
The plug was pulled on the winter ferry service to Inis Mór at the end of last month amid the long running row over levies.
Island Ferries Teo argued that levies imposed by the council in 2012, which charge a fee of 80c per passenger, make the operation of the service economically un-viable.
The service was subsequently restored to operate on a temporary basis while discussions continued.
In a fresh set of proposals presented to county councillors at a meeting last evening, Island Ferries Teo said a reduction of the passenger levy to 40c for retrospective trips between 2012 and 2016, and 55c for ferry sailings from 2017 onwards, is critical.
At last evening’s meeting councillors agreed to the new payment scheme of levies by the ferry company, which was proposed by Fianna Fáil Councillor Seán Ó Tuairisg and seconded by Fine Gael Councillor Eileen Mannion.
Court costs of between €450,000 and €600,000 still have to be paid to the council by the ferry operator, once the final figure has been reached.
Chief Executive of the County Council, Kevin Kelly told Keith Finnegan that the retrospective debt has now been halved to protect the service for islanders.
Councillor Eileen Mannion says it’s important to ensure a service for islanders.

Galway Bay fm newsroom – Galway county councillors have signed off on plans to expand a cemetery in Connemara.
The Part 8 plans for the extension of Beal an Daingin burial ground have been given the go-ahead by the local authority.
Connemara area councillor Sean O’Tuairisg says locals have been calling for the extension for over 5 years.
He says local landowners have been very accommodating, as more burial space is badly needed.

Galway Bay fm newsroom – 1.5 million euro has been sanctioned to upgrade accommodation at a halting site in Craughwell.
The funds have been ringfenced by the Housing Department to develop and upgrade the Dunkellin halting site.
Loughrea area councillor Michael Moegie Maher says the money will help to provide appropriate accommodation for the families living there.

The owners of the derelict Dawn Dairies premises on the Dublin Road in Renmore have sought permission to demolish some of the buildings on the site.

Husband-and-wife investors Padraic and Martina McHale from Clonbur (who are also part of the McHale farm manufacturing group in Mayo) said the buildings need to be demolished as they are a hazard to public safety and have become a focus for antisocial behaviour.

Through their company Welmount Investments, they propose to demolish three of the five buildings on the site.

“The application site has effectively been derelict for a number of years since Dawn Dairies ceased trading from this location. In the intervening period the existing buildings and structures on the site have deteriorated and are in poor physical condition.

“This deterioration means the site in its current condition represents a potential hazard to public safety in the event of unauthorised access.

“It should also be noted that the site and the subject buildings have become the focus of vandalism and antisocial behaviour. We understand that individuals and groups have been accessing the site and buildings for the purposes of partaking in antisocial behaviour.

“This behaviour represents a threat to local residential amenity. Given the location and nature of the site, however, it is difficult to secure against this type of activity.

“It is the intention of the applicant to redevelop the site in due course. However, there is an urgent need for the demolition of the subject structures on site in the immediate term.

“The buildings have no potential re-use and it is not considered appropriate to continue to maintain their structural integrity.

“The building to the rear of the site is in significantly better physical condition than the other buildings on the site. It also has the potential for re-use in the shorter term hence why it is not proposed to demolish it at this time,” the application reads.

It adds that it is proposed to tarmac the site once it has been cleared.

The McHales purchased the 1.15-acre site in 2011 for €1.28 million.

A decision on the planning application is expected from Galway City Council at the beginning of January.

The McHales are also currently in the process of demolishing the former Connacht Laundry premises off Henry Street to make way for a €10 million luxury hotel, which they expect to complete in 2018. They purchased that site in 2013 for an estimated €2m – a fraction of the €30m paid for it at the height of the property boom in 2006.

They have also partnered with the Comer Group to invest in a number of properties around Galway, including the ‘Odeon’ lands on the eastern side of Eyre Square and the Corrib Great Southern Hotel.

The number of burglaries committed in the city has halved, which has helped to drive down Galway’s crime rate.

Garda Chief Superintendent Tom Curley brought good tidings to the pre-Christmas meeting of the Galway City Joint Policing Committee (JPC) when he informed members there were 1,515 fewer crimes recorded in the first 10 months of the year compared with 2015.

That represented a 22% reduction in crime compared to the previous year.

The reduction was attributed largely to big falls in property-related crimes.

According to his latest report to the JPC, there were 191 burglaries in the city between January and October. That represented a 51% reduction, or 200 fewer burglaries.

Thefts from the person – which includes stealing of mobile phones and pick-pocketing – has fallen by 44%, down by 50 to 64.

There was one fifth fewer ‘other thefts’, down by 49 incidents to 199. Thefts from shops fell by 9%, down by 41 incidents to 429.

And the number of thefts from vehicles was down by 14% to 106, which was 17 fewer than the corresponding period last year.

Fianna Fáil City Councillor Peter Keane was among a group of several members who welcomed the overall reduction in city crime rates.

Cllr Keane said any day you see a report showing crime has fallen by 22% is “a good day for the city”.

He said it was particularly good given the constraints on Garda manpower in recent years.

In response to questions from Cllr Keane, Chief Supt Curley said schemes such as community alert, text alert and neighbourhood watch had helped to reduce burglaries.

So too had the increased awareness by homeowners, who were taking more precautions to safeguard their properties.

Cllr Keane praised sergeant Pat Flanagan, the Crime Prevention Officer, whose message, he said, was getting across to the public.

Chairperson of the JPC, City Councillor Mike Cubbard welcomed the reduction in crime.

However, he warned the public to be vigilant in the weeks leading up to Christmas.

Cllr Cubbard reminded the meeting that last year a family’s Christmas was ruined, after burglars broke in and stole presents from under the Christmas tree.

He said he didn’t want to see a similar scenario this year.

Galway City Council has sought €200,000 in Government funding to progress plans for a new pedestrian bridge beside the Salmon Weir Bridge.

During a discussion in the Council chamber on the new €250 million Galway Transport Strategy (GTS) – which sets out proposals for the next 20 years – councillors honed in on plans for a second Salmon Weir Bridge.

“This is the third time that a proposal for a new bridge has come before the Council,” said Cllr Frank Fahy.

His Fine Gael party colleague, Padraig Conneely said: “This has been going on since 2004. I remember getting funding for budgets in 2005 and 2006 for over €100,000, and there were lovely drawings of a pedestrian walkway.

“Where’s that now? Gathering dust? Now we have commissioned new consultants.

“I brought in a petition with 8,000 signatures to the Council from students who use that bridge. It is dangerous and waiting for an accident to happen.

“After 12 years, now you tell me you’re going to come up with something for 2017? I hope in early 2017 you’ll bring it here (the chamber) and we can proceed and erect it for pedestrian safety,” said Cllr Conneely.

Jim Molloy of the Galway Transportation Unit said the biggest issue facing the Council is funding.

“We regularly request funding to advance it [the new Salmon Weir Bridge] and don’t get it. A pedestrian priority route is needed there,” said Mr Molloy.

He later added that the Council has asked for €200,000 funding to carry out an Environmental Impact Study so that a design can be finalised for the new bridge.

Chief Executive Brendan McGrath said the new bridge is a priority and would serve as a pedestrian/cycle bridge, and the existing one would be for motorised traffic.

However, he said the design would have to take cognisance of its surrounds.

“It’s sensitive environmentally . . . and its location is in front of the Cathedral. If we get to the design stage, we could then start lobbying the National Transport Authority for funding,” said Mr McGrath.

Alcohol and drugs is a factor in nearly all public order offences and assaults committed in the city, according to Galway’s top Garda.

Chief Superintendent Tom Curley, confirmed the correlation between alcohol and drugs misuse, and public order offences and assaults.

He warned that over the coming weeks of Christmas, with parties in full swing and alcohol flowing, his members will have to deal with many more assaults and public order offences.

In his report to the Galway City Joint Policing Committee (JPC), Chief Supt Curley said the number of public order offences in the city in the first 10 months of the year had increased by 5%.

Public order was up by 26 incidents to 560, which equated to 56 for every month since January. There was one racially-motivated public order offence during that period, compared with three in the first 10 months of 2015. That represented a 67% reduction.

It is only in recent reports that Galway Garda have provided information about racially-motivated public order offences, at the behest of members.

Meanwhile, the number of assaults causing harm has fallen by 37% in the first 10 months of the year. During that period, some 46 incidents were reported to Gardaí, compared with 73 for the corresponding period last year.

Minor assaults had also fallen in that time – they were down by 13%, from 180 to 157.

Fianna Fáil City Councillor, Peter Keane, a solicitor, said he saw the impact drink was having on society through his day job.  Cllr Keane said every case involving public order and assaults before the District Court in Galway related to alcohol consumption. He said being drunk and over consumption of alcohol was nearly always proffered as an excuse by defending solicitors in court cases.

Galway City Councillor Pádraig Conneely said the city was paying ‘lip service’ to alcohol. The main attraction at the Christmas Market, he said, was the beer tent; alcohol is served at civic receptions at City Hall; and beer is the main attraction at Connacht Rugby games.

Meanwhile, Maireád Farrell (SF) expressed concern at the increase in domestic violence incidents.

The JPC heard how alcohol was a factor in many domestic incidents.

There was a 31% increase in breaches of barring orders, safety orders and protection orders in the first 10 months of the year.  That was up by 11 to 46. There were 10 more domestic incidents where the offence isn’t disclosed, up 7% to 145.

Rapes were up by 30%, from 10 to 13; and non-aggravated sexual assaults were up by 21% from 19 to 23.

Many of the sexual offences were historic, and the alleged crimes were perpetrated years and decades ago, said Chief Supt Curley who confirmed Gardaí were following definite lines of inquiry in relation to any fresh sexual assault cases.

The County Council is hoping to deliver 173 accommodation units for Traveller families by 2018.
A review of the council’s Traveller Accommodation Programme for 2014-2018 has been presented to councillors this week.
The report reveals that around 48 Traveller families are currently living in unauthorised encampments across the county.
These include road-side sites and involuntary sharing accommodation, and the families are classed as being in urgent need of accommodation.
The Traveller Accommodation Plan highlights the Tuam/Abbeyknockmoy area as the area with the greatest need for Traveller specific accommodation – it’s hoped 43 units can be provided there by 2018.
In a review outline presented to councillors this week, the council executive says its received three submissions on the plan.
These came from the HSE Traveller Health Unit, the West Traveller and Intercultural Centre in Tuam and Galway Traveller Movement.
The submissions highlight issues including fire safety, allocations policy, homelessness, maintenance issues and transient sites for the summer months.
The Traveller Accommodation Programme outlines the current urgent need for accommodation for 48 families- and a projected need for a further 125 units by 2018.
The County Council says its confident these targets can be met.

Galway Bay fm newsroom – Revenue of more than a quarter of a million euro is being lost to the city due to a delay in valuing properties for commercial rates.
That’s according to Sinn Féin councillor Mairéad Farrell who says the Valuations Office, based in Dublin, has a backlog in sending inspectors to evaluate sites and issue certificates.
As a result, 27 premises in the city currently have rate-free status, when they could be paying rates, had they been valued.
The Sinn Féin councillor says that there is potentially up to 285 thousand euro in potential commercial rates available from those 27 units.
Councillor Farrell says this is vital money which the local authority needs for services.

The County Council executive is being urged to engage with a voluntary housing group in Tuam amid concerns over the withdrawal of rent supplement from up to 60 households.
The matter has been raised at County Hall by Tuam area councillor Donagh Killilea.
Councillor Killilea says in recent weeks, 60 out of 68 residents of the Racecourse Estate have had their rent supplement payment withdrawn.
The council executive says letters about the withdrawal of the supplement were sent out by the voluntary housing association which runs the estate – and the council was not consulted.
Councillor Donagh Killilea says a large number of residents in the estate are elderly.
He says the last thing householders need in the run up to Christmas is more financial stress, to the tune of up to €40 per week per household.
The council executive says its hopes to meet with the housing association concerned in the coming week to discuss the matter.

A retired North Galway couple whose house went up in flames last April are now back and looking forward to Christmas in their totally renovated home.

Billy and Marian Staunton from Moylough were devastated when their house was destroyed by fire despite Herculean efforts by neighbours to bring the blaze under control.

But when word of what happened spread throughout the local community and beyond, the couple could scarcely believe what was to come over the following weeks and months.

Within days, they were inundated with support – both financially and from those involved in the construction trade – and it was not long before a committee was formed to help out the Stauntons.

Builders, roofers, plumbers, electricians and painters all volunteered to provide their services free of charge in order to get Billy and Marian back into their home.

It was shortly after 7am on the Saturday morning, April 9, that Billy was up making tea in the kitchen when he saw what looked like a fog outside.

But on closer examination he discovered that a fire had broken out in the living room. He alerted his wife Marian who was still in bed and they both made their escape as the fire quickly spread through their home.

Efforts by neighbours and passers-by to bring it under control were unsuccessful such was the speed at which the blaze ravaged the house.

In the immediate aftermath, the couple moved in with their daughter before they were offered a house to rent just opposite their own home for a modest amount.

There was then a huge community effort to renovate the house – and this was completed in recent weeks and it allowed Billy and Marian to move back into their own home.

See full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune.

Galway’s favourite turkey, Trixie is as ‘happy as Larry’ again this Christmas!

Because not only will the luckiest turkey in the land survive a record fourth successive Christmas, she’s got new friends to spend time with on Christmas Day – two alpacas, named Happy and Larry.

Trixie was destined for the dinner table of St Mary’s nursing home, in Shantalla in the city at Christmas 2013. But fate and a broken wing intervened to save Trixie from the Christmas chop – she was put on a course of antibiotics . . . and turkeys on medication cannot be eaten.

The residents became so attached to Trixie, they voted not to eat her the following two Christmases either.

And now, Trixie, aged four, is one of the oldest turkeys in the land that was bred for the Christmas market.

The secret to her longevity, apart from good luck and the goodwill of her fellow residents at St Mary’s?

“A bowl of Alpen every morning, and a good walk every day,” said Yvonne Carpenter, St. Mary’s Director of Nursing.

Though she has survived the oven over successive Christmases, Trixie almost got gobbled up by a fearsome fox that lurks around Shantalla.

To mark her fourth birthday earlier this year, St Mary’s purchased two alpacas from a Ballinalsoe farm.

Happy and Larry – named following a competition run by Colm’s Pharmacy in Salthill Village – act as bodyguards for Trixie and his feathered friends, Snow White, the goose, and three red hens.

See full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune.

Galway Bay fm newsroom – Galway County Council is calling for significant changes to planning legislation.
It follows a motion by Athenry/Oranmore Councillor Jim Cuddy, who says individuals from outside a local authority area should not be permitted to object to planning applications.
The motion has received unanimous support at county council level, and will now be forwarded to the Minister for the Housing & Planning for consideration.
Councillor Jim Cuddy says the change would stop objections by individuals with no link to a county.