Morning Focus Thursday January 10

On Thursday’s Morning Focus John Cooke spoke with Ciara Staunton of the School of Law at the National University of Ireland, Galway

Ciara was among the legal experts who yesterday told the Oireachtas Health Committee that fears of widespread abortions being carried out as a result of new legislation are completely unfounded
Legal experts say allowing suicide as a threat to the life of a woman for an abortion willnot open the floodgates to abortion on demand
They appeared before the Oireachtas health committee hearings before the coalition drafts new legislation
They say doctors need to be trusted on the issue of abortion in the same way as they are with other life and death decisions everyday
Ciara Staunton from N-U-I Galway says legislation as planned in line with the X case is actually very restrictive.

A third of Irish households have less than 30-thousand euro in gross income.
55 percent have less than 50-thousand euro coming in
Those findings are part of new research from the Nevin Economic Research Institute, which is released its 4th quarterly economic observer yesterday
Ennis native Dr Micheál Collins, Senior Researcher with NERI, discussed the findings with John saying the findings should help form public policy.

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Ennis businessman Pat McCarthy has been a resident of Ardlea Road for 44 years
He spoke with John about the positive effect the new inner relief road in Ennis is having on the residential area
He says the residents they’re very pleased with it and in the past suffered greatly with the high levels of traffic over the last twenty years, causing great inconvenience
He said people might not be aware of what they had to endure, he added that the traffic lights are having a taffic calming effect on the road. 

Dr Claire Hayes is a clinical psychologist, lecturer and author, with over 25 years experience in assisting people who are coping with challenging life circumstances, she is the clinical director of Aware
More than 18,500 senior-cycle students in secondary schools in every county in Ireland have taken part in Aware’s revised positive mental health programme Beat the Blues in the past four months
The programme focuses on positive mental health and how to deal with challenges in life, as well as building strength and resilience for the future, is especially important given the difficult situations which many young people in Ireland now face
Dr Hayes spoke with John with some advice on how to indentify and help depression in teens.
See www.aware.ie

The 49th BT Young Scientist and Technology exhibition is underway and Clare is strongly represented at this year’s event
A total of 550 projects qualified for the event, 18 of which come from the Banner county

Students from six Clare schools in Ennis, Ennistymon, Kildysart and Lisdoonvarna will display their efforts at the RDS from today through to Saturday
The feasibility of harvesting rainwater in North Clare, an examination of factors which influence the sound quality of a mandolin and a study of the curvature of hair are among the works which will be displayed by students from the Banner county
John Sims, Young Scientist coordinator with Mary Immaculate Secondary School in Lisdoonvarna, had a word with John to introduce three of their projects  and John spoke with some of the Lisdoonvarna secondary school students involved about their projects
Keelan McMahon, a 5th year student, who is interested in football and so got the idea for his project, one of the aims of which is to investigate if there is a relationship between the population of the catchment area of GAA clubs and the success of these clubs
Deirdre O’Connell, a 3rd year student, researched computer and internet usage among adults in North Clare
Claire Costello and Ellen O’Loughlin are 2nd years, they chose the purple sea urchin, Paracentrotus lividus, for their research.
 
John Underhill of Burren Vets joined John to answer listeners’ pet and livestock health queries.

If you have a story, comment or query for the Morning Focus team email [email protected]