On today’s Morning Focus John Cooke was joined in studio by Ballynacally Fine Gael TD Pat Breen and Mountshannon Fianna Fail TD Timmy Dooley to discuss how Irish Water or Uisce Eireann has got off to a controversial start before it’s even fully established with talk of over 50 million euro spent on consultants, bonuses for highly paid staff, and suggestions that it may actually be obliged to hired 2000 staff too many at the expense of ordinary householders who’ll be paying domestic water bills this year. John posed the question – is it money well spent? Or is more tax payer’s cash going down the drain? Cormac O’Keefe is the Crime Correspondent with the Irish Examiner and spoke to the programme about his special report on cannabis grow houses in Ireland and the thriving illegal business that it’s become. Criminals are harvesting up to 100 million euro worth of cannabis a year in grow houses and while the trade was once dominated by Chinese and Vietnamese Nationals more Irish and Eastern European Gangs are getting involved. This investigation follows significant crackdowns by Clare Gardai with seven Cannabis Grow houses raided in Clare so far this month including Kilkee, Carrigaholt, Mullagh, Tulla, Caher and Spancilhill. James Doorley is the Deputy Director of the National Youth Council of Ireland and spoke to John about the Government’s publication of a report on the implementation of the ‘Youth Guarantee’ scheme, which aims to tackle youth unemployment. Under the plan, young people who have been unemployed for 4months or more will be offered further education, training or work experience as a gateway to employment. The report has been broadly welcomed by the NYCI. Ruth Gilhool is from Ballynacally and is the mother of Ronan, who’s aged 8. Ronan has autism and he also developed a rare form of cancer in his knee last year. He had been on a waiting list at Ennis General for a year but the lump/tumour grew bigger and more urgent action was required. Ruth kept a journal of Ronan’s care and treatment including surgery and extracts featured in this week’s Irish Times. In it, Ruth details the difficulties of long waiting lists in Ennis and Crumlin, the harsh reality of accepting her child had cancer, and the practical challenges of going through treatment while trying to keep the mortgage and other bills paid. Ruth plans to shave her head for a cancer support charity to benefit other families on her 50th birthday in April. To help support her or for more information please visit www.facebook.com/pages/Aoibheanns-Pink-Tie or see www.idonate.ie/event_list.php Carmen Cronin, Organiser of the Clare Garden Festival 2014 also joined John in studio to talk about the Pop-Up Garden Community Challenge at this year’s festival. It aims to support Community Organisations, Charities, Community Gardens, Tidy Towns Groups, Youth groups, School groups/classes, Horticultural Student Groups and similar groups in their promotional and fundraising work. The group/organisation will create a garden based on their interpretation of the theme ‘Protecting the Environment in my Garden’ to be displayed at Clare Garden Festival on 27th April 2014. For more details see www.claregardenfestival.com and www.facebook.com/claregardenfestival Paul Wolfe from Clare Citizens’ Information Service was also in studio to answer your citizen’s information queries. To contact the service please call 0761 07 5260. To contact Morning Focus please email [email protected]
