Welcome to The Afternoon Show Blog, on today’s edition of the show Gavin Grace was joined by Mary Skehan from the Motor Tax Office at Clare County Council to talk about the changes to the driving license system. Drivers renewing their licenses or those applying for the first time this year will not be able to bring along their own photos. A European credit card-style licence is being phased in here from January 19th. It means you will no longer be able to use your regular chemist or photo booth image. Instead it will have to be taken by the company appointed by the Road Safety Authority (RSA) to process the licences. Also joining the discussion was Darragh Connolly of the Irish Pharmacy Union. The IPU has expressed serious concerns at changes to the new driving licence. They say the decision will have a devastating and unfair impact on hundreds of companies, including community pharmacists, who have invested considerable sums on photographic equipment. The IPU is also concerned that the RSA has awarded a tender that allows the successful recipient of that tender to exclude the services of a significant proportion of participants, including pharmacists, currently operating in the market.
Eamon Timmons from Age Action also spoke to Gavin as the government is being praised for their quick u-turn on cuts to the personal alarm scheme for elderly people. Last week community groups – who administer the scheme – received letters to inform them that funding would be cut from 2.4 million to 1.15 million in 2013 – meaning many people in need of an alarm would be left without one.
Michael Cox is the External Services Manager at LIT and joined the show to let us know about a number of events taking place on the campus this week. It’s that time of year once again when students fill out their CAO forms and making. The deadline for online discounted CAO applications is January 20th, but students have until February 1st to choose a college course. Michael will discuss some of the events taking place across campus to help inform prospective students. See www.lit.ie or www.lit.ie/courses for more details.
Katy Egan is an Ecology and Sustainable Living Officer with Presentation Ireland and talked to The Afternoon Show ahead of a special talk taking place in Tubber this week. Burrenbeo Trust has organised a special talk this Wednesday night in Tubber Hall (8.30pm) on the subject of Biomimicry. Biomimicry is the term used to describe how technology can look to nature for solutions to problems. This talk, given by Katy Egan and Sophie Nicol, will give some examples of this innovative switch within modern technology seeking answers in nature as opposed to being destructive towards it.
Trudi van der Elsen from the Courthouse Gallery in Ennistymon also joined the show to let us know about their current exhibition – Circus Europe. The show is a series of 8 large collages created by Machteld van Buren in 2012 (Holland) and illustrate how the struggle for survival is being waged in various European countries. . Eight poets were invited to offer their interpretation of these images. The Irish poets taking part in this project are Jo Slade, Frank Golden, Jessie Lendennie and Patrick Chapman. The Dutch poets are Arnoud van Adrichem, Martin Reints, Lieke Marsman and Peter van Lier. Publisher Salmon Poetry, based in Co. Clare, will publish a booklet of this project in an English edition. The collages are to be exhibited in both Ireland and the Netherlands.
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