Leaving to take up university role in the United States.

Sligo News File.

Sligo County Council chief executive Ciaran Hayes has resigned to take up a fellowship with an American university.

Dublin-born Hayes has headed up the council’s managerial operations for the last six years since his appointment as CEO in 2014 when he succeeded former county manager Hubert Kearns

Signing off at a meeting of the authority, Hayes praised the contribution of voluntary and business groups in the town and county, and also acknowledged the input of staff and councillors to the running of the council. He also paid tribute to his wife, Joan and family for their support during his tenure as chief executive in the area.

Sligo, he said, had seen a ‘transformation’ in recent years. What had been achieved was “extraordinary.” 

Hayes heard tributes from the chairman, Dara Mulvey and other councillors, with all joining in wishing him well in his career ahead.

Clampdown in force from last night.

Sligo News File.

Ireland has closed its borders for travel from the UK in a bid to prevent a new strain of the Covid virus currently rapidly spreading throughout parts of England from taking hold in the State.

Health authorities have revealed that the recently identified variant is a much more contagious form of the disease.

The two-day ban on travel between Ireland and the UK announced by the government came into force last night and affects air and ferry operations, excepting those involved in the provision of essential services.

 Italy, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria, Romania, Bulgaria and Canada are among other countries said to have also shut down passenger travel from the UK. No cases of the mutant, understood to have been identified as SARS-CoV-2, have so far been detected in Ireland but some have reportedly been found in some European States.

SARS-CoV-2 is described as a strain of severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus (SARSr-CoV) of believed zoonotic origins with a close genetic similarity to bat coronaviruses, suggesting it has emerged from a bat-borne virus.

The main symptoms of coronavirus (COVID-19) are a high temperature, a new, continuous cough, and a loss or change in sense of smell or taste.

 

Loans availed of by 27 enterprises in Sligo and Leitrim.

Sligo News File.

As of 3 December 23 businesses in Co. Sligo have drawn down €988,666 in loans under the Covid-19 Credit Guarantee Scheme.

Confirming the details in response to a parliamentary question from Sligo TD Marc MacSharry, Minister of State Robert Troy also stated that some €69,000 has been allocated to four businesses in Leitrim.

A total of 1,516 loans for a value of €74 million were availed of by businesses countrywide in the first three months of the scheme while the draw down rate of the now extended programme is currently €8 million per week, he said.

Sectors using the scheme are wholesale and retail at 20%, accommodation and food services at 14%, agriculture at 11%, and construction 9%.

Loans to the extent of €1 million are able to be obtained for up to five and a half years. No collateral or personal guarantees are required for loans under €250,000 – the State will cover 80% of any claims under the scheme.

The scheme, added Troy, is available to SME’s, companies with under 500 employees and primary producers.

‘Forward and ambitious’ says Minister.

Sligo News File

 

The Minister for Rural Development has told the Dail that the last touches are currently being made to a new rural development policy.

Describing it as “forward-looking and ambitious,” Heather Humphreys said the policy will provide the framework “to respond to the issues which will affect rural Ireland over the next five years,” that is 2021 to 2025.

The emerging strategy, she said, will take a “whole of government approach” to the economic and social development of rural areas “and will include tangible measures for delivery across a range of departments and agencies.”

It will, she went on “recognize the importance of rural communities  and economies to our national wellbeing and development, and to realizing a sustainable and inclusive recovery in which no one is left behind.”

Referencing the work already invested in shaping the policy, she said it has included “a wide range of consultation events with key stakeholders, including government departments, State agencies, rural stakeholder groups, young people, and the wider public. Their insight and views have helped to identify the issues that matter to people living and working in rural Ireland.”

She hopes, she said, to bring the final policy to government for approval, next month, January.

Calleary accepts role of spokesman on social protection.

Sligo News File

Sligo-Leitrim TD has agreed to be Fianna Fail’s spokesman on higher education, it’s reported. The position is in an area where the party in government does not have a portfolio.

According to accounts, similar roles have been refused by a number of party deputies, including Barry Cowen who it’s said was invited by the Taoiseach Micky Martin to be a spokesman on climate action. Both Cowen and Dara Calleary were previously, albeit for a short span Ministers for Agriculture in the current administration. Mayo-based Calleary, a report goes, has accepted to act as spokesman on social protection.

The role of spokesman on Justice has been assigned to Jim O’Callaghan.

None of the appointees will have any function in the administration of a ministry.

Death toll at a new high.

Sligo News File.

Nothing inaccurate about it, the Department of Health reports that the Covid virus has killed another six people in the last 24 hours. This brings the total number of deaths from the disease to 2,140. 

The department has also confirmed that some  431 more have tested positive since the last announcement making for a record 77,197 cases to date.

Experts fear that the easing of restrictions and travel arrangements
could make lockdowns unavoidable, particularly post Christmas.

 

 

 

 

 

 

‘I’m Gutted’ protests TD.

If airport is starved of funds ‘we will not have search and rescue or medical evacuation for critically ill patients who require it.’

Sligo News File 

A Sligo Dail Deputy seeking government support for Sligo Airport – a private development – has been told that “exchequer funding is contingent on airports operating scheduled passenger services as part of the government’s regional airports programme.”

Responding to questions from Deputy Marian Harkin, Minister of State at the Department of Transport Hildegarde Naughton said that in the past, in the absence of high-quality road and rail infrastructure and services, Ireland’s smallest airports had a more pronounced role in national connectivity.

“However, following the substantial development of the national road network, particularly the completion of the interurban motorways from 2009 onwards, Government policy on supporting regional airports has become more focused on facilitating international access to the regions.

“In light of this and the need to maximise scarce resources following the financial crisis of 2008, the Department completed a value-for-money review on supports for regional airports in 2010. The review made certain recommendations in respect of these supports, which were duly incorporated into the design of subsequent regional airport programmes.”

The main outcome of the review, she said, “was the withdrawal of funding for PSO services between Dublin and the airports at Galway and Sligo. As a result, Sligo Airport no longer met the criteria for inclusion in the programme and all Exchequer funding to the airport ceased after 2011. Without passenger flights or plans to develop passenger flights, Sligo Airport’s operations still fail to meet the connectivity objective associated with Government policy on funding of regional airports.”

Continuing, she said she expected to publish a new regional airports programme for the period 2021 to 2025 in the coming weeks, a programme for which, she pointed out, the Government has provided €21.3 million in budget 2021. “The new programme will focus Exchequer funding on our smaller regional airports with scheduled passenger air services and annual passengers of less than 1 million passengers. This programme will help eligible airports remain viable as they begin to plan for recovery and transition away from the devastation of Covid-19. The programme will also support the PSO air services between Kerry and Dublin, and Donegal and Dublin.

“As policy will continue to target support at regional airports that can facilitate international connectivity, Sligo Airport will remain ineligible for funding under the new programme,” she said.

Deputy Harkin: “I am gutted by what the Minister of State said. She said it all. It has been a decade since the airport received any Government funding. She went on to say that funding of airports in contingent on their providing passenger services. Let us consider another airport. Waterford Airport has not had passenger services since June 2016. Let me say, good luck to Waterford Airport; it needs the money to provide its services and it has got it. That is what balanced regional development is – a balance across the regions.

“In the time since Sligo Airport last received funding, Waterford Airport has received almost €5 million. In the past, the Tánaiste has said that he absolutely supports the decision of Government to grant €5 million to Waterford Airport. It needs to be borne in mind that Waterford Airport must stay open because it is a Coast Guard base.

“A couple of years ago, we were looking at moving it to Cork, but it was not viable. Sligo Airport, therefore, has search and rescue facilities. I again wish Waterford Airport well, as it provides essential services, but so does Sligo Airport in the north-west. If it is starved of funds, then that service will not be there. We will not have search and rescue or medical evacuation for critically ill patients who require it.

“The Minister of State may be dealing with a plan for regional airports, but if Sligo Airport is neglected and if she does not look at maintaining the services there, that will be a slap in the face for the people of the region. She will be stating, in effect, that the region from Clifden, in her county of Galway, to Belfast does not deserve a search and rescue operation.”

 

Shock as TD’s discuss report on Irish abortions

Sligo News File.

Nearly 7,000 unborn babies have reportedly been killed under Ireland’s recently enacted abortion laws.

Legislation permitting abortion, campaigned for by Fianna Fail, Fine Gael, Labour, Sinn Fein, and the Greens was rolled out in 2019 but now it’s claimed that even late-term babies are being put to death.

A study undertaken by investigators at University College Cork, detailing interviews involving ten foetal medical specialists providing late-term abortions in Irish maternity hospitals relates the “internal conflict” they experience. It quotes one doctor interviewed for the study as referring to what they do as “stabbing the baby in the heart” while another said: “I remember getting sick out in the corridors afterwards because I thought it (feticide) was such an awful procedure and so dreadful.”

TD’s debating the findings of the study heard a deputy say that the current Fianna Fail Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly refused to entertain a request for mandatory administration of painkilling relief or palliative care for babies surviving abortion attempts.

Independent Deputy Michael Collins said the people of Ireland had voted for abortion “but no one ever thought that there would be 6,666 abortions in 12 months.

“I met so many people who voted for it who are stunned by this,” he said.

Deputy Mattie McGrath said that during meetings of the Joint Committee on the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution in 2018, the then Minister for Health, Simon Harris ignored all appeals from pro-life deputies for the inclusion of pain relief measures in the abortion legislation.

He said: “It’s a shocking situation in our country today, something has to be done about it. It is just not acceptable. It is unspeakable.”

Deputy Carol Nolan said there was now conflict among doctors diagnosing fatal foetal abnormality “and also in terms of palliative care for babies born alive. Questioning what action the government was going to take, she said “we will not allow this to be swept under the carpet. It is barbaric and shameful.”

Deputy Sean Canney said the findings of the study, published in the International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, were “horrific” when read. The report, which, he said, was an independent study not commissioned by any particular group, was “very frightening.” There was an onus on the Minister to ensure it was examined, he said

Deputy Peader Toibin, addressing the Minister of State for Public Health Frank Feighan in the Chamber, said an unborn child was “a living human being “He or she is as human as you, as alive as you and as individual as yourself, and that is according to science. Under the government, however, late-term abortions are being carried out on unborn children and pain relief is not being used.

“On any level, humanitarian basis and understanding of society, how can the Minister of State stand by this? When we put amendments to the Bill when it was rushed through in 2018 Fianna Fail, Fine Gael, the Labour Party and Sinn Fein voted against amendments to ensure that pain relief was included in this regime. 

“I put the question to the Fianna Fail Minister, Deputy Stephen Donnelly only a week ago asking him to ensure that pain relief would be afforded to children when they are being aborted in this country. Deputy Stephen Donnelly, the Fianna Fail Minister for Health refused.”

Deputy Michael Collins said when the people of Ireland voted for abortion a couple of years ago “no one ever thought that there would be 6,666 abortions in 12 months. I met so many people who voted for it who are stunned by this.”

Alluding to the contents of the UCC study, he said “we were assured this would never happen, and it is happening. It is wrong, It is a terrible, terrible wrong.”

Concluding, Deputy McGrath said what was going on was “barbaric, shocking and unbelievable.” With his colleagues he intended, he said, “to bring forward an amendment to this barbaric legislation.”

 

 

 

 

Sligo News File.

County Sligo Macra na Feirme debaters pictured Curry 56 years ago, in 1964. Front row, l-r, John Gallagher, Joan Brennan, Michael James O’Connor, and Anthony Brennan. Back: Billy Sommerville (RIP) Michael Eugene Hallinan, Pat Tuffy (RIP) Muredach Tuffy.

Absence of broadband may prevent many from submitting observations.

Sligo News File.

Dail deputies are being asked to intervene amid growing concern over public consultation on the N17 and Eirgrid Connacht Interconnector power line projects

Secretary of the Sligo Farming Platform John Gallagher has contacted the public representatives over apparently changed closing dates for receipt of observations from the public and a seeming absence of avenues through which, for many, observations can be communicated.

In his representations, Mr. Gallagher said there are “two separate consultations.

“1. N 17 Road Knock to Collooney consultation process, initially this was scheduled for the public to view and make submissions at two venues Collooney and Clarmorris, however, this had to be cancelled due to the reimposed CV 19  restrictions.

“The consultation process was migrated to a online digital platform inviting the public to participate online for the vast majority of people affected the proposed road route proposals (17 in all) few have high speed broadband and in many cases none at all, on the website dedicated to the project <n17knockcollooney.ie> there is a notice stating that submissions are to be lodged by 2nd December, this is incorrect as the closing date is 15th January 2021, serious questions arise about the competency of those organising the consultation when they have left the initial date uncorrected, and then expect the public affected to engage in their digital consultation process.

“There is also a consultation process also conducted online in respect of 110kV North Connacht Interconnector power line Eirgrid Project 0816 following the same digital consultation procedure with a closing date of 11th December, in this case the vast majority of the public in South Sligo are unaware of the projected route corridors

Eirgrid maintain that they distributed 41 thousand flyers to households, I have yet to receive one, some were distributed North of Tubbercurry where there is an existing 110kV line, the sample I viewed is not very illegible or informative and conveys on information that one could determine projected routes.

“Since 2013 the EU have adopted the Aarhus Convention that enshrines under a an EU directive formal public access to information and a consultation process to infrastructure projects of the nature of above, I doubt if the procedures being followed being both Sligo-Mayo County Councils or Eirgrid follow the principle or the spirit of the Aarhus Convention.

“I suggest that the Minister with ultimate responsibility for both Transport and Communications Eamon Ryan be asked if this is a satisfactory process and what steps will be taken to postpone both consultations until the public have proper access to view the proposals and participate in making submissions if they so wish,” he added.

 

No relief from charges or new jacked-up carbon levies.
Sligo News File.

Bills are flooding in for payment of the family home tax which despite a decision of Sligo County Council not to increase the levy this year are still high in the extreme.

Owing to the hike proposed by Enniscrone shopkeeper Cllr. Joe Queenan in 2019, one backed by all but a few elected members of the Sligo authority, the rates are now at a deeply troubling level for many households where incomes are precarious..

To what the massive take from homeowners in the county is being specifically allocated isn’t readily apparent. In a notice of motion tabled for a recent meeting, Cllr. Tom MacSharry proposed that Sligo County Council members get an increase of €10,000 in councillors allocations per annum. This funding is used by councillors for various projects within the Sligo community and that the proposed increase is taken from the LPT.” (LPT means Local Property Tax)

It is scarcly credible that the cost of projects which should fall to be paid for out of central taxation would be dumped on the shoulders of homeowners who are already taxed to the hilt on everything from the heating for their houses to the fuel in the cars rural dwellers depend on and much else besides. Couples building a home for themselves are being hammered with impossible development levies and taxes on materials.

What in the view of some makes the growing demands on the incomes of rural residents all the more unfair is that there is no relief from any of them – most evident not least when earlier this year the government ploughed ahead with, this time, a jacked-up carbon tax on just about the entire gamut of things used to service homes and farms of rural people. Where does it stop?

TD’s in the main have gone along with the levies, knowing the scale of taxes already heaped on rural residents. Similarly councillors – how many of them raised an objection to the rise in the carbon imposition? Indeed, how many public representatives at any level have questioned what the carbon taxes are at all in aid of or how in the name of sanity they’re justified. However, if government and local authorities have their way, it appears probable that both carbon and home taxes will continue to be driven through the roof – continue, that is unless as happened over water charges, people decide they’ve had enough and kick out public representatives or take to the streets to protest against the injustice and unfairness of the whole thing.