MORNING FOCUS THURSDAY 23RD OCTOBER

MORNING FOCUS THURSDAY 23RD OCTOBER

The Action group met with Minister of State Simon Harris yesterday to discuss the issue of flood defence in Quilty. The area was particularly badly hit during in last year’s storms and the community is looking for increased defences to put in place to protect against further storms. Michael Neenan Chairman – Clohaninchy Action Group Quilty and John Crowe , Cathaoirleach Clare County Council joined Marian to discuss how the meeting went.

Householders are putting their lives at risk by tampering with utility meters.In the past 18 months almost 1,300 people attempted to alter their gas meters in a desperate bid to reduce household costs.According to Bord Gáis Networks, 512 people have tampered with their meter so far this year. The overall figure for last year was 740, based on the number of reports of tampering received by the Commission for Energy Regulation (CER). Eoin Wilson, Head of Safety at Bord  Gais Networks spoke to Marian about he issue.

CONTINUE READING BELOW

Its been revealed that nearly a million households have yet to register  with Irish Water  .Following on from last weekends protests in Ennis and more revelations about the bonus culture in Irish Water and issues surrounding the future of many of the board its been yet another difficult week for the new company tasked with implementing water meters and charges.   Clare FM’s Mike Hurley took to the streets of Clare to find out peoples thoughts on the embattled organisation.

Firing parents to employ their children at half their wages was no solution and the EU Youth Guarantee proposal should not be seen as an opportunity to abuse young people.This was stated by Independent MEP Marian Harkin in the European Parliament in Strasbourg.The Midlands-North –West MEP who is a member of the Parliament’s Employment Committee was responding to the statements of the European Commission and Council on the ‘Outcome of the High Level Conference on Employment in Europe”, held in Milan on October 8th. The MEP spoke to Marian about this issue this morning.

In our Morning Focus Health Matters slot we speak with Dr Finn from the Ennis Family Medical CentreToday’s topic: This week  Maire  looked  at the issue of Childhood obesity.  The topic got a great response from our listerneres who were keen to find out more about the subject.

Ahead of the Switch music concert we had  live music form one of the acts who will be performing on the night. Switch is a music initiative which was set up by members of the Clare Youth Service. It is a drug and alcohol free night which promotes original music groups from Clare and around Ireland. It is a music gig which runs from 8 – 11 pm and is targeted at a 18 – 25 age group  which is taking place this Friday 24th of October. Sean Griffen ,Switch Event Organise and Paddy Mulcahy ,Los  Paddies’ Folk Band were in studio ahead of the new innitative.

People, Food & Nature: a vision for a sustainable future’ is the title for the first ever Burren Winterage School which will take place in Carron, Co. Clare on the 24th & 25th October. The school – composed of a day of discussion and debate followed by a day of farm visits – will feature six ‘Stories from the Land’ where scientists, rural development specialists and farmers from some of Ireland's most renowned landscapes including Sligo, the Aran Islands, Donegal, the Slieve Aughty mountains, the Shannon Callows and, of course, the Burren. Michael Davoren:, The Burren Beo Trust  and Burren IFA chairman spoke to Marian ahead of the event.

If you have a story, comment or query for Morning Focus email [email protected] or write to us – Morning Focus, Clare FM, Francis Street, Ennis, Co. Clare.