Joining Clare FM’s John Cooke on today’s Morning Focus was Michele Burke from Killaloe, who spoke of how she and her husband, who have been spending almost €1,400 a month on rent and a mortgage for more than four years, remain "locked out" of a fully completed four-bedroom house in a ghost estate. Michelle and William Buck (both 33), are renting a house in Ballina, Killaloe, despite buying a house at Ard na Deirge, Killaloe, on September 7, 2006. They paid a booking deposit in 2006 and were ready to draw down the remainder of the mortgage and move in December 2009 when a receiver from KPMG was appointed by AIB after the original developer ran into financial difficulties. This meant that services were not connected to the house and they were unable to move in. They had already drawn down €155,000 of their mortgage (half the €310,000 full amount) and are paying €740 per month for that as well as €650 in rent. The bank will not release the remainder of the funds until the house is ‘completed’ by having services connected. The estate containing 27 dwellings – excluding three completed ones – was put up for sale by private treaty last October. Confirming the estate is at the sale-agreed stage, John Phelan of Harry Brann, Auctioneers, Killaloe, couldn’t comment on the buyer or the sale price.
Dermot Hayes of the Alliance of Social Protection Recipients in Ennis and Siobhan O’Donoghue, Director
of the Migrant Rights Centre of Ireland also joined the show to discuss how important legislative and other changes that affect households in receipt of welfare will be discussed at a special seminar in the Temple Gate Hotel in Ennis on Friday 22nd March from 9.30am to 1pm. The seminar, organized by Clare Citizen Information Service and the Alliance of Social Protection of Recipients, will focus on the major changes in legislation and delivery systems that have taken place over the past five years. Dermot Hayes of the Alliance of Social Protection of Recipients said that he hopes the Seminar will produce a Social Policy Paper which will be sent to Citizen Information Board in Dublin in the expectation that it will prompt the government to make changes.
Eoin Ronayne is the Director General of the CPSU (Civil, Public and Services Union) and spoke to John Cooke about how four leading trade unions, who are opposed to the proposals for an extension to the Croke Park agreement, will host a major public meeting in the Kemmy Building in the University of Limerick next Wednesday evening as part of a nationwide campaign against the proposals. The meeting will start at 8pm. The four unions are: the INMO, the IMO, the CPSU and Unite. The four unions believe the proposals to extend the Croke Park Agreement would if passed unfairly penalise workers on lower incomes and women in particular
Prof. Austin Stack is the Chairman of the Department of Medicine at UL and is a Consultant Nephrologist – he spoke to Morning Focus along with Peggy Eustace of the Clare Branch of the Irish Kidney Association, about an information evening in the West County Hotel Ennis on Wednesday 20th March at 7 30pm. Guest speakers are Professor of Medicine at UL Austin Stack, Consultant Nephrologist on ‘Living Well on Dialysis: Challenges and Opportunities. Aileen Counihan, Transplant Coordinator at Beaumont Hospital, an Overview of Organ Transplantation in Ireland and Mike Kelly, Coordinator of Counselling Services at Donor House on Coping With Crisis. There will also be the local launch of Organ Donor Awareness Week on the night. They also discussed Organ Donor Awareness Week, which runs from March 30th to April 6th.
Clare Fine Gael TD and Chairman of Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs – Pat Breen also joined the show from Washington. He discussed how the US president has called for changes to immigration law to help Irish American families. Addressing 400 VIP guests at a special reception in the White House last night Barack Obama said the success of the Irish in America serves as a reminder that the US needs to build an immigration system that works. President Obama who was presented with a bowl of Shamrock to mark St Patrick’s day paid tribute to the contribution Ireland had made to American life and called for immigration reforms to help Irish families. Deputy Breen was attending events in Washington and Capitol Hill; the Irish delegation also visited Breezy Point and victims of Hurricane Sandy and also the site of the Twin Towers.
Anne Marie O’Reilly Clare Citizens’ Information Service was also in studio to answer your queries in relation to the property tax and more.
To contact the show please email [email protected]
