LIMERICK TAOISEACH RESPONDS TO ATTACKS
To suggest the welfare of Limerick mothers and babies was being sacrificed in order to pay off German banks was “outrageous,” Taoiseach Enda Kenny has told the Dail in response to criticisms this week by consultant obstetrician Dr. Gerry Burke.
Deputy Willie O’Dea, Fianna Fáil, had asked the taoiseach for a response to Dr. Burke’s concerns over an “exodus” of midwives from the Mid-Western Regional Maternity Hospital, the Limerick Leader reports.
Up to 20 are expected to go next month under a retirement scheme that sees public servants get pensions based on their pre-cut salaries. Combined with those who have already left the Ennis Road hospital, this would leave the Maternity more than 20 per cent short of its complement of midwives and no contingency plan had been presented by government or the Health Service Executive to date, Dr. Burke said.
Responding to O’Dea, Kenny said there was a plan in place to cope with those retiring from the health service, which was why the first review of the HSE service plan was set for the end of February so that numbers could be assessed.
“Deputy O’Dea can take it that the HSE have a contingency plan here but you can’t determine the outcomes until you’ve seen the numbers who will actually leave. They can decide to make their minds up right to the very end,” Kenny said
But Deputy Niall Collins, O’Dea’s Fianna Fáil colleague, described the taoiseach’s assurances in relation to Limerick Maternity as “waffle.”
He told the Limerick Leader: “The government are sleepwalking into a situation where mothers and their unborn or newborn children will be put at risk due to the application of the embargo and the lack of a contingency plan.”
CLARE MYSTERY POLS JOIN COUNCIL
Two mystery councilors have managed to infiltrate Clare County Council without anybody noticing.
According to the popular encyclopedia website, Wikipedia, these previously unheard of representatives joined the local authority after being elected in 2009.
"Anyone who opens this website would see that apparently we have a member of Sinn Féin and who is this mysterious John Collins who is supposedly from North Clare and is listed as a member of Fianna Fáil? It's annoying," said Councilor Brian Meaney. He added that he found other errors.
"The veracity of information that people have access to on the internet needs to be verified and I would like to see Clare County Council actively engaged with this,” said Meaney, a Green Party councilor. “This website is a huge, positive resource for Clare County Council but we need to make sure the information that relates to us is accurate. I would like to see the information technology section or others involved in making these corrections."
In response, Michael McNamara, senior executive officer, Corporate Services, Clare County Council said: "Clare Local Authorities was not responsible for creating this website page and has no direct control over its content, as anybody can change the information on the Wikapedia website by simply creating a log-in and then clicking on the 'edit' links on the Wikipedia page."
KILDARE WHEN HORSES WENT OFF TO WAR
Steven Spielberg's "War Horse" is sparking some interest in the World War I phenomenon, not least in the horse-breeding stronghold of the Curragh in County Kildare.
A local expert talked to the Leinster Leader about one aspect of the story: the animal being taught to lie down to save soldiers' lives on the battlefield.
"It was not a new trick - they have been doing that since the Napoleonic wars," said Simon MacDermott, a master from Dunlavin.
"I wasn't involved in 'War Horse' - I wish - but I've been involved in a number of movies and TV series such as RTE's Rough Diamond as a friend of mine is a producer."
“War Horse,” based on a children's novel by Michael Morpurgo set before and during World War I, follows the battlefield adventures of a horse named Joey.
"There were several different regiments from the Curragh in World War 1, so certainly it was a big provider of horses for the war," MacDermott said.
"Quite a few of the horses did come back and were sold in lots for Guinness and Smithwicks. A number of them went to work for the breweries and some went to the fairs. Either they would have stayed in the army when they got back or went into the public domain," he said.
"The horses would have been traumatized and affected by the war just as badly as any soldier who went through it," MacDermott added.
TIPPERARY COPS RELEASE DEER
Nenagh gardai came to the rescue of a deer after it was reported caught in fencing around a development near Birdhill. The animal was in a distressed state, but was uninjured and when released went back into the nearby wood to rejoin the resident herd, the Nenagh Guardian reports. There are two separate deer herds along the M7 -- one on the Newport side and the other on the Ballina side. It is not uncommon for motorists to spot deer, the paper said, crossing the motorway during the rutting season as stags go in search of a mate.
