Tag Archives: review

THE governance of Clare GAA needs to be overhauled, while a CEO, Finance Manager and Commercial/Brand manager should all be appointed, according to the newly published recommendations report of the independent Strategic Planning Group (SPG). In the appendix booklet of the report it stated that every stakeholder group in the county had prioritised governance as an area requiring immediate change and restructure. It says Clare currently does not have the ability to take advantage of financial opportunities that exist. “The expansion of Clare GAA “business of sport” activity has not been matched by increasing the operational capacity of the organisation. “The structures required to operate a multi million euro operation do not exist within Clare GAA with no capacity to adapt to or respond to many commercial opportunities now available. No structures exist to stimulate activity to generate the essential revenues for ongoing investment across all areas of Clare GAA. This represents a key limitation in the organisations capacity to …

When the Nissan Juke arrived on the scene in 2010, it looked like it came from another planet. Based on a concept car, a lot of those features made it to production and the result, with its high, bug-eyed headlights polarised opinions but it was a quirky car that quickly found fans. In fact, it could be said to have started a new market segment for small crossovers, a segment that now accounts for around 10% of the overall market in Ireland. Now there’s a brand-new Juke just launched and we had the chance to drive it in Barcelona. Based on a platform shared with the Renault Captur, the Juke is new from the ground up and in contrast to the petrol and diesel offerings in the outgoing car, there’s only one engine choice, the 1.0 litre turbocharged triple petrol turbo that already sees duty in the Micra. For this application, the power output is 117bhp and there’s an over …

A NEW research paper published by the Irish Medical Journal, which was co-written by a South East Clare obstetrician, has revealed pregnant women living outside of Dublin only have a 38% chance of being offered an anomaly scan in the public system. Parteen native Dr Karen McNamara is a specialist registrar in obstetrics and gynaecology and a clinical research fellow in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at University College Cork. She was involved in compiling the recently-published research, Maternity Ultrasound in the Republic of Ireland 2016; A Review. Dr McNamara noted the number of women being offered an anomaly scan outside of Dublin stands at 38%, a number that has remained largely unchanged despite it being highlighted in previous pieces of research in 2007, 2012 and 2013. She said the review she conducted with Dr Deirdre Hayes Ryan, Dr Noirin Russell, Professor Louise Kenny and Dr Keelin O’Donoghue, showed an inequity in the service that pregnant women are receiving; most notably, that 100% of public patients are being offered the anomaly scan if they attend maternity services in Dublin but only 38% are offered it elsewhere in the country. …

President of LIT, Professor Vincent Cunnane has welcomed the publication of the Financial Review of the Institutes of Technology and has called for the immediate implementation of actions to support the technological education sector. Professor Vincent Cunnane said, “LIT welcomes the publication of this HEA Review. The diagnosis is done, it is now time to implement the remedy.” “It must be said that there is a stark reality at the heart of this review.  It clearly demonstrates serious under-funding of Higher Education in Ireland, and points to a set of actions which must be undertaken to address the situation. “Despite the ingenuity and commitment demonstrated by the sector in recent years, the inescapable conclusion is that the prompt implementation of these actions is absolutely critical if the Higher Education sector is to deliver the skilled graduates necessary to sustain the growth in jobs that we have recently seen. “For our part, we in LIT will work with government, the HEA …

Speculation that there would be calls for the resignation of county board chairman Michael McDonagh along will calls for changes to the senior hurling management team at the September meeting of Clare GAA on Thursday evening, proved to be wide of the mark. A call from Ruan GAA for ‘a discussion on the results and performances of Clare inter county hurling and football teams and a review of proceedures for management teams applications and re-appoinmtments with a view to ensuring that clubs will have the opportunity to discuss openly the performance and results of all teams at season’s end prior to management teams re-appointment’ was before the meeting While a number of delegates supported the proposal, there was no proposal to change any of the existing management teams and the meeting ended with board vice chairman Joe Cooney calling for all ‘to support each other. If people have issues come in here to the county board and have them discussed. …

RETAIL Excellence Ireland (REI) has  welcomed the Seanad’s support of an Upward Only Rent Review Bill, proposed by Senator Feargal Quinn. Ennis-based David Fitzsimons, chief executive, REI stated “This is a significant decision taken by members of the Seanad who are very aware of the untold damage being done to family businesses and jobs because of the continued existence of upward only rent review clauses. “The Bill proposed by Senator Quinn is very fair and balanced and provides for a temporary reduction in commercial rent to a market level. The Government will quote Constitutional issues however our Senior Council advice is clear that the Bill in no way undermines Constitutional property rights. It is a fact that many large private landlords and pension funds have refused to grant tenants any rent relief and have overseen a significant level of business failure and job loss,” he said. Mr Fitzsimons said the last six  years have proven that a cohort of landlords …