Tag Archives: services

An investment of approximately €700,000 per year will see Jigsaw provide a new mental health service for young people in the Mid West. News of the investment was announced by Kathleen Lynch, Minister for Mental Health, Social Care and Primary Care and recruitment of a Project Manager for the Limerick project will commence in February. Jigsaw will provide early intervention and prevention services and also help to integrate existing resources to better support youth mental health. Minister for Education and Skills and Labour TD for Limerick City, Jan O’Sullivan, warmly welcomed the establishment of the new youth mental service for Limerick. “Jigsaw is a fantastic service, provided by the organisation Headstrong.  It is already making a very positive impact on youth mental health in ten communities across the country and I am delighted that my colleague Minister Kathleen Lynch has provided the funding to extend the service to Limerick this year.” “Jigsaw is based on the principle of “somewhere to …

IN the run up to Willie Walsh’s appearance at the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Transport and Communications it was noticeable that while IAG were offering to guarantee that the Aer Lingus Heathrow slots would be used on Irish routes, they were making no commitments to serve Shannon or Cork. However that changed last Thursday, as after a little pressure, Mr Walsh confirmed that he was offering guarantees of five years of connectivity for the two airports. Mr Walsh also said that as it stands Shannon or Cork have no such guarantees, and that a takeover actually gives them greater certainty. While some of the Committee members asked him about giving an even longer guarantee, he insisted there is absolutely no way that he will do so. Early in the sitting Mr Walsh rubbished claims that any guarantees on connectivity would not be enforceable. “I have heard people say they are not worth the paper they are not worth the paper …

A delegation of County Councillors from the West of Ireland met with Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Pascal Donohue, T.D., in Dublin this afternoon to express their concerns about the proposed sale of Aer Lingus to IAG. The meeting was organised by Councillor John Crowe, Cathaoirleach of Clare County Council who was joined in Leinster House by Damien Ryan, Cathaoirleach of Mayo County Council and Michael Fitzgerald , Cathaoirleach of Tipperary County Council. While unable to attend this afternoon’s meeting, the Mayors of Limerick, Galway and Kerry have also backed the message delivered to the Minister which outlined that elected members in the West rejected any commitment from IAG that does not “explicitly guarantee” Aer Lingus’ long term commitment to services between Shannon Airport and London Heathrow, as well as transatlantic services. “At today’s meeting we stressed the necessity of securing a 15-year guarantee from IAG in respect of Shannon’s Heathrow slots and service levels as the 5-year guarantee …

Shannon Airport’s strong momentum across 2014 has continued into the final month of the autumn, with passenger numbers for October showing a 28% increase on the same period twelve months ago. The biggest gains in passengers through the terminal were again on European services, which were up by 63% on the same period 12 months ago thanks to a range of nine attractive new routes that were launched for the summer season (April through to end of October). Eight of those were on the European market, which resulted in a 111% increase (from 20,347 to 42,950) in passengers to and from the continent last month compared to October 2013. Transatlantic passengers were up by 15% (from 23,511 to 27,108) thanks to the increased frequency across New York and Boston services this year, with Shannon’s biggest market, the UK, up by 6% (from 61,681 to 65,243). Welcoming the growth, Airport CEO Neil Pakey said, “It’s been a really great summer season …

CLARE  county councillors have voted to slash the Local Property Tax (LPT) by 15% following a special meeting of theb local authority on Friday morning. An alliance of Fianna Fáil councillors and some members of the so-called Technical Group ensured the maximum reduction will be passed on to property owners in Clare next January after it was passed by 17 votes to ten. The reduction, which prompted some heated exchanges during the meeting, was supported by 11 Fianna Fáil councillors, Sinn Féin Councillor Mike McKee as well as Independents Gerry Flynn, James Breen, Ann Norton, Michael Begley and P J Ryan. Two members of the Technical Group – long serving Independent councillor Christy Curtin and Ian Lynch broke ranks by opting to oppose the cut with eight Fine Gael councillors. The council’s chief executive, Tom Coughlan told councillors in a report on the “Local Property Tax Local Adjustment Factor” a sum of €1.56 million would be available for additional services …

UNITED Airlines has re-introduced its summer Shannon-Chicago service. 2013 was the first year of it and this summer it has been extending, running from May 23 to September 15. The frequency of it will be five flights weekly from May 23 to June 16, daily from June 17 to August 18, five weekly again from August 19 to September 1 and four a week from September 2 to September 15. “We’re delighted to re-introduce and extend our summer service between Shannon and Chicago in response to the great customer support we received last year,” said Yvonne Muldoon, United’s sales manager for Ireland. “We are pleased to offer more flexibility and choice for our Irish customers, not only to Chicago, but to over 300 destinations across the Americas.” There will be 169 seats on the flights, which will depart Shannon at 11am and arrive in Chicago at 1.15pm the same day, local time. The return flight will leave Chicago at 6.25pm …

By CAROL BYRNE EAST Clare councillor Pat Hayes is calling for the Department of Social Protection to roll back on its decision to streamline community welfare services. “The services in the rural communities and smaller towns and villages are being centralised again and people are expected to come into the main towns all the time. In the circumstances the people involved don’t always know they might need community welfare services at the end of a week. I know people who didn’t get their wages and they would have been hungry by the weekend,” he said. Councillor Hayes was responding to the revision of community welfare services which came into effect on January 20 last, when a decision was taken to close 22 community welfare clinics across the county. The Department of Social Protection has made alternative clinics available to those facilitated at the 22 clinics and these are located at five principle locations countywide. In East Clare community welfare clinics …