Extra funds will help to retrain redundant construction workers

Regina Doherty TD, has welcomed the news that the European Commission has approved funding worth €55 million for the retraining of redundant construction workers. The money is being made available under the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund, and must still be approved by the European Council and the European Parliament. “This is very positive news for thousands of construction workers who were made redundant during the height of the economic crisis. The ECF will help to co-finance a range of retraining measures to help up to 9,000 people from the building trade who lost their jobs between July 1st 2009 and March 31st 2010.
“Like areas right across the country Meath has been severely affected by the unemployment crisis, which was accelerated by the collapse in the construction sector. Hundreds of former construction workers across Meath are struggling to find work and many of them need to adapt their skills to ensure they can find sustainable employment for the long-term.
“At least €22 million under this programme has already been invested in training initiatives to date. This additional EGF support will help to provide a range of opportunities from evening training and further education courses to full-time third level education programmes. These measures are firmly aimed at getting people into the workforce.
“An inter-agency group within the Department of Education is focused on maximising the supports available to redundant workers. I am hopeful that the additional money being made available will be of benefit to many people across Meath.”

Questions and Answers evening in the Ashbourne House Hotel

You are cordially invited to

Questions and Answers

An evening with your Dáil representatives

Minister Shane McEntee and Deputy Regina Doherty

with special guest Deputy Peter Mathews

in the

Ashbourne House Hotel

on

October 13 at 830pm

Participants will be able to put questions on local and national issues.

Councillor Maria Murphy and Gerry O’Connor will also be answering questions on the night. For further information e-mail ashbourne@meathfinegael.ie.

Meath Enterprise Board Awarded €140,000 extra funding

Deputy Regina Doherty, TD for Meath East, is delighted to announce that Meath Enterprise Board has been awarded €140,000 extra funding to directly fund job creation in Meathby the Minister for Small Businesses John Perry TD. This funding was awarded at the Small Business Advisory Forumas part of the €3.1million extra funding awarded to County Enterprise Boards around the country. This funding is in addition to the €15million already provided to CEB’s in 2011.
The additional €140,000 was awarded to Meath CEB in direct response to specific requests from the County Enterprise Board who feared that they would not have the funding to support all those entrepreneurs and businesses in Meath.
The additional funding is provided from savings elsewhere in the Minister for Small Business Department and it is estimated that with the new injection of funding 13 additional jobs will be created in the first instance with potential for more in the future.  
Deputy Doherty, speaking of Meath County Enterprise Board said “We are lucky in Meath with our County Enterprise Board. It provides vital and invaluable services to encourage start up and expanding business in Meath. The staff on the County Enterprise Board are excellent and try in every way to encourage & support the start-up spirit that exists in many individuals in the county.”
“Meath County Enterprise board is a dynamic, vibrant and forward thinking organisation that makes the most of every opportunity to provide employment. We only have to look at that recent website TaraDays.com which was established byMeath CEB to encourage tourists through networking opportunities and online shopping service to support local businesses during the period of the Soliem Cup Tournament in Killeen Castle.”
“Businesses in this county would be lost without the supports offered by Meath County Enterprise Board and this additional funding will enable them to assist more business in Meath and allow us as a county to do our bit to create employment.”

The Discovery Zone

How would you like to :

 

• Discover New Ideas?
• Discover new Business Opportunities?
• Discover your True Potential?

 

The Discovery Zone is an exciting new 12 week programme designed to assist experienced professionals who find themselves at a time in their careers where they want to develop new ideas, start a new business or explore ways in which they can use their skills, experience and talents to exploit commercial opportunities.  Based at the Kells Enterprise Centre, The Discovery Zone aims to :

 

• Help participants to both generate new business ideas and/or to evaluate existing business ideas
• Assist participants with the technical and commercial evaluation of these ideas.
• Enable participants to complete a feasibility study on their most viable business idea.

 

Elements of the Programme will include:

 

• A formal training day once per week.
• A group project to build a strong Team Dynamic.
• Compulsory attendance in the dedicated Discovery Zone Incubator for two days per week for project work, workshops, assignments etc.
• Support from a dedicated Programme Manager
• Mentoring by experienced Business People.
• Case Studies from real Entrepreneurs.
• Informal access to technical advice from Researchers/Academics at DKIT.

 

This project has been co-funded by Meath County Council & Enterprise Ireland.

 

NOTE:  Attendance at the Discovery Zone will not jeopardise receipt of Social Welfare Payments.

 

To request an application form, please contact Joanne Kearns at 042 9370435 or email joanne.kearns@dkit.ie

Apply for Social Welfare online

This link allows customers to file online applications for:

• State Pension (Contributory) (if you have been invited to apply online)
• Widow(er)’s Contributory Pension (if you are resident in the Republic of Ireland)
• Child Benefit (if you have been invited to apply online)
• Jobseeker’s Payment (if you have been invited to apply online)

Note for Jobseekers: This service is not yet available to all Jobseeker customers.
You can only use this service if the Department of Social Protection has written to you inviting you to apply online, or if you have been advised by your Local Social Welfare Office to apply online.

Visit this service now

Minister Varadkar boosts council funding to cope with another severe winter

Local authorities will have 60,000 tonnes of salt this year for regional and local roads

 

Minister for Transport, Tourism & Sport Leo Varadkar announced today (Friday) that local authorities will share an extra €1.25 million in funding this year to prepare for extreme weather conditions.

 

The Minister has increased the Winter Maintenance Grant from €10 million to €11.25 million to assist local authorities with winter maintenance and to keep important roads clear.

 

“We must do everything we can to prepare Ireland for extreme weather conditions. Every extreme winter in recent years has seen salt stocks running perilously low.  Hopefully, local authorities will have access to sufficient supplies of salt this year, and sufficient resources to spread it, as a result of this extra funding.

 

“We have no way of knowing whether another severe winter is on the way. But we must do our very best to be prepared.”

 

The extra €1.25 million, along with the direct purchase of some 60,000 tonnes of salt, was possible through savings in the Department. It means that local authorities will have access to some 60,000 tonnes of salt, on top of the supplies purchased separately by the National Roads Authority.

 

The funding will help to cover the cost of purchasing, transporting, storing and spreading salt, and other works associated with extreme weather conditions.

If you have a bright start-up idea and want to get it off the ground quickly and funded then apply today!

Following on from The Success of Round One of Smart Start, They have decided to add two more programmes to the list in the months ahead, yes that’s right ... TWO!

One cohort in the South of Ireland and for the First time ever, one in Northern Ireland!

So if you have a bright start-up idea and want to get it off the ground quickly and funded then apply today! - Easy!

They will announce the selection list in the second week of October and begin work straight away!
Have you got what it takes?... Apply Now!

http://smartstart.ie/apply-now

€6 million investment programme for Irish Rail

Deputy Regina Doherty welcomes the €6 million investment programme for Irish Rail announced today by Minister of State Alan Kelly.

The funding will go to line speed improvements, further rollout of Wi-Fi on the train service and important fuel saving technology to reduce costs.

The funding is coming from reallocated capital within the Department of Transport, Tourism & Sport and is being spent on works that will be completed by year end.

Under the initiative, an additional €1million will be spent on improving journey times between Portalington and Dublin, €1million on ticket validating machines and €300K for the additional roll-out of wifi on 63 rail cars and €600,000 for order point heaters to ensure depots are not unduly affected by a harsh winter.

roject			Proposed allocation
Line Speed Improvement Design & Work	Major programme to enhance railway competitiveness in terms of travel time to major urban centres.		€1m	Work would commence on parts of mainline from Dublin to Portarlington
Order Point Heaters	Programme to reduce impact of harsh winter conditions on service		€600K
Provision of WiFi on the remaining ICR fleet	Enhances customer experience & gives competitive advantage over other transport modes. Last section of fleet to be so equipped		€300K
Loco Fuel Savings Enhancement	Green alternative that also reduces operational costs		€400K	Device to limit idling time to improve fuel efficiency and reduce  costs
Security Enclosures for new ATMs	ATMs have impact on manpower costs and provide easy access for customers (security enclosures are essential for ATMs outside stations)		€860,000	Protection for 91 machines to be purchased for the Non Greater Dublin Area, at approximately €12,500 each with the majority of expenditure this year. The remainder - €150K – would be required next year.
LED Signals	More efficient and less maintenance		€900K
Purchase of ticket validation machines	Exit Validation is priority for manpower savings and revenue protection		€1 M	For stations in key regional cities and towns. The ticket validation programme will enhance revenue protection capability on both access and egress and also improve the passenger throughput. All machines would be smart card enabled.
Embankment Stabilisation	reduces threats to services in high risk areas		€900,000
Station Upgrades on Lightly Used Lines	Requirement to keep assets on all lines in good repair		€140K
TOTAL			€6.1 M

New website hopes to make it easier to complain about the health service

A new website has been launched today to make it easier to complain about the health service.

Seventeen agencies are coming together under www.healthcomplaints.ie to facilitate patients who feel their treatment was unsatisfactory.

http://www.healthcomplaints.ie/

Sunday times article - 18 September 2011 - Backbencher rebels over autism policy

A FINE Gael backbencher is organising a nationwide campaign against her government's education policy on autism. Regina Doherty, a Meath East TD, will write to the parents of 4,000 autistic children to ask them to act against the approach taken by Ruairi Quinn, the education minister.

"I will be asking parents to put pressure on the government to change their policy," Doherty said. "I don't believe the department even has a policy on autism. It is giving a pretence of delivering a service, nothing more than that."

Doherty is representing parents in favour of implementing applied behavioural analysis (ABA), a specialist teaching method, in schools.

Quinn was strongly in favour of ABA while in opposition.

In February 2008 he called the previous government's rejection of the teaching method "an issue of major concern", saying the department's decision was "more to do with institutional rigidities and conservatism within the civil service than a real and open evaluation of the effectiveness of the ABA method".

In July, the Achieve ABA school in Donaghmede, Dublin, was forced to close after the state refused a request for funding. Daniel O'Mahony, a parent who helped set up the school, said the government had betrayed the trust of voters.

"Fianna Fail created this mess 10 years ago, but I'm flabbergasted Ruairi Quinn hasn't done anything to change it," O'Mahony said. "They told us they would support us. The only reason we kept the school going for the last year was because we were waiting for the new government, because they said they'd help us.."

Instead of ABA, Quinn is supporting the previous government's decision to create special classes for autistic pupils in mainstream schools. Doherty has claimed teachers of these classes are not properly qualified to carry out their duties. "The teachers are not being given any special training, apart from a three-day inservice course. You cannot become qualified in this very specialised teaching method in three days," said Doherty.

"These children are not getting the education they need, and they will start to regress.

When that happens, boards of management are going to be sued by parents for failing to provide their children with an education."

Doherty said she believed Quinn was still in favour of ABA, but had been conflicting views from his civil servants.

"I think he's getting bad advice from his department, and you're only as good as the advice you're getting," she said.

A spokeswoman for the department denied that it had no policy on autism. It said it was not accurate to say that teachers in special classes are not qualified to teach autistic children, because they were all qualified primary teachers.

"The department ... provides a comprehensive programme of continuing professional development," she said.