Irish Phrase Of The Day "Cad atá ar súil agat ?" - What are you doing?
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 Noel Coonan with Alan Shatter Minister Alan Shatter has assured Deputy Noel Coonan that Templemore Garda College will remain open.
The Minister for Justice Alan Shatter addressed Templemore Town Council last Thursday where he passionately assured all present that: “There was never ever any doubt of any description that Templemore Garda College would close. It represents a crucial part of the architecture of our Garda force and is here to stay.”
Minister Shatter also moved to reassure all present that he “hopes to resume recruiting within 18 months.” These words of fortitude and reassurance were given following a passing out ceremony in the Garda College.
Minister Shatter continued: “The financial envelope handed down from the last Government has put huge constraints on our economic activities but we have to abide by it. There is no means of raising additional moneys; arrangements have been entered into with the IMF/EU bailout. We will know a lot more next March about where we stand financially and it will be clearer then when recruiting can recommence.”
Deputy Coonan welcomed the Justice Ministers’ comments and thanked him for agreeing to address the council. The local Fine Gael TD also outlined that it was the last Government who undertook to reduce Garda numbers to 13,500 by the end of this year, and to 13,000 by the end of 2014 but the Garda College remains one of the leading police academies worldwide.
The Minister also said that if a greater number of the Garda force retire than anticipated in the coming year then that may bring forward recruitment. “Recruits will be brought back in as soon as the force meets limits outlined by the IMF. I’m very conscious of the importance of the Garda College to this area and it’s crucial it stays vibrant. I have a great affection for the college and we are constantly looking at initiatives that can benefit from skills and facilities within the college. For example, the college could be utilised to provide police training for other countries or used by groups such as those participating in the London Olympics. These discussions are at a very early stage but these initiatives would bring revenue and tourism to Templemore. The backlog of in-service training will now commence and I want to compliment the management of the college who have put these in place. We have more gardai now that we had at the height of the troubles in Northern Ireland and we still have a strong and superbly trained force.” said Minister Shatter.
In conclusion, Deputy Coonan asked the Minister if extra patrol cars could be allocated to Templemore Garda Station as they currently have one small car to cover a huge area. Minister Shatter gave reassurances that he will raise the issue with the Garda Commissioner.
 Michael D. Higgins has won his party’s nomination to contest the Presidential Election, defeating Fergus Finlay and Kathleen O’Meara, at a Labour Party convention in Dublin this afternoon.
Some 52 TDs, senators and MEPS were joined by 14 members of the Labour Party’s executive council for this afternoons selection process which ended with Mr Michael D Higgins polling 37 votes, compared to 18 votes for Mr Fergus Finlay and just seven votes for Nenagh, Co Tipperary native, Ms Kathleen O’Meara.
Addressing the assembled press gathering this afternoon, Labour Leader and Tanaiste, Mr Eamon Gilmore stated that the forthcoming Presidential Election campaign will not be a competition between political parties, rather it will be a campaign between the candidates and the people who elect.
The next Irish presidential election is due to take place in October 2011, unless the incumbent President of Ireland, Mary McAleese, elected in 1997, vacates the office prematurely. Presidential elections are conducted under the Presidential Elections Act 1993, as amended.
Constitutionally, the election must be held not more than 60 days before the ending of the term of office of the present incumbent, or within 60 days of the office becoming vacant.
The exact date will be fixed by an order made by the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government Phil Hogan, TD.
Personally, I believe we should invite the present incumbent, President Mary McAleese, to remain in office on a yearly contract, until such time as we have ‘gambled,’ our way out of our present financial difficulties. To be fair she has been one of the few Irish Public Representatives who have done this country proud, during her period in office.
But then that’s Irish Governance, we wave legal contracts and remove those who perform, while allowing the creeps, the snake-oil salesmen and spoof’s to sit in positions of power.
But then again, just for once, maybe we should inform those we elected, that we would like them to follow our democratic wishes. Let’s change the terms of the Presidential Contract, what we have is proven successful and will be cheaper to implement.
 Dr Sima Samar Tipperary International Peace Award Recipient. Dr Sima Samar, chairwoman of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission, was presented with the Tipperary International Peace Award at Ballykisteen Hotel in Limerick Junction on Thursday last at a ceremony attended by members of the diplomatic corps and leading public figures, which included National Women’s Council director Susan McKay and Senator David Norris.
Speaking at the award ceremony, Dr Samar said: “I am honoured and it is a great pleasure to receive this award. When I am recognised by the international community outside of Afghanistan, it serves to give me protection from being targeted by fundamentalists. I have bodyguards and when I go from my house to my office, I have 24-hour bodyguards. I cannot walk in the street or go to every public event.”
Dr Samar, who is under constant threat because of her constant campaigning for the rights of women in her country, went on to state that the award represented recognition by the International Community and such recognition would now greatly assist her own personal security in Afghanistan.
Dr Samar has had to flee Afghanistan on a number of occasions, however she continues to return, much to the anger of conservative religious leaders and Islamic radicals.
Irish President Mary McAleese, in a message to Dr Samar, stated: “This is a high honour and reflects the courage, generosity of spirit and great humanity that Dr Samar has demonstrated, during her untiring fight for the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan and Pakistan.“
 Our recent post on Illegal Dumping and Weee collection here in Thurles, forces Thurles native Proinsias Barrett to put ‘pen to paper ‘ or should I say, in his case, ‘fingers to keyboard.’
More is the pity that others of our discerning readers do not follow suit, (Hint, Hint ) and express their views, remembering the quote by Irish political philosopher Edmund Burke “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
(Note: Leave a Comment tag is directly under each daily Post and we do really love hearing your views.)
Proinsias Comments:
“Where do we recycle unwanted politicians, or indeed unsuccessful former City Council Managers?
In Ireland Seanad Éireann is a good hiding place for rubbish politicians. They can keep their heads down and draw a good salary, or as recently mentioned in a national press article, they can decide to slip away to spend more time with their outrageously generous pensions…. and reminisce on all those great deeds they performed for the sake of Ireland. City Council Managers who presided over numerous fiasco’s simply find a gullible County Council to take them on as ‘County Managers‘, it’s great!
I see Thurles now has a third recycling bin added lately, a brown bin for food waste and garden clippings, grass etc. We got the full three bin system here in Galway City back in 2000/2001 and in general we are told is working out well enough. But where is this ‘fly-tipping ‘ (illegal dumping) epidemic emanating from? Obviously there are people who don’t subscribed to any collection service and these facts are well known by Councils. If a household is not signed up to a collection service then what are they doing with their rubbish?
The simple remedy for this situation is to ensure that everyone is subscribing to a collection service, and if they are not then it is up to the Council to find out why? If it is for financial reasons, then some arrangement has to be made with these ‘go-it-alones‘ until such time as the three bin system evolves and recycling achieves an 80% re-use rate and charges are substantially dropped for the household. Recycling will have to become just another routine in everyone’s life.
But I have always disagreed with the flat charge for household waste collection. From the first introduction of the wheelie bin system here in Galway a decade ago, I submitted my ideas to the City Council (for all the interest they showed) when the public was invited to submit ideas relating to waste management etc. If households are properly separating their refuse, with intent, into the corresponding bins, the only charge on the household should be on the land fill bin, the one which contains items which cannot be recycled.
I went so far as to suggest that if households comply completely with recycling directives and recommendations, they should be paid for the raw materials they are giving the collection companies every week for free.
The Recycling industry is obviously a financially viable one, else no-one would be in the business. Why charge for what is essentially a raw material being collected and re-used (paper, cardboard, plastic, tin etc)
Again it’s a case of just not following through on introduced legislation. People are left to their own devices as usual. There are no inspectors (yep, bin inspectors, we had them in Galway for about two months when the bins were first introduced, then removed due to a lack of funding). Still almost twelve years on from the recycling initiative in Galway many apartment complexes are still operating a communal skip system … just throw in your black plastic sack full of everything and off it goes to land fill, and the Council aren’t interested. Some apartment dwellers share a three bin system with their neighbours resulting in one apartment making huge efforts to recycle everything and their neighbour dumping black sacks of mixed refuse into which ever bin appears least used.
Without a common sense approach backed up by information, encouragement and finally enforcement, our recycling system here in Ireland is becoming another half hearted attempt, handed over to private operators, and now there is a multinational demanding that an incinerator be opened at Poolbeg in Dublin which will require massive tonnage to ensure viability, this is a complete reversal of recycling initiatives…. one hand doesn’t seem to know what the other is doing! Oh Man! “
 Labour Party - Kathleen O'Meara Tipperary communications consultant, journalist and former Senator Kathleen O’Meara is to seek the Labour Party’s nomination for the Irish Presidency. Kathleen (born 24th January 1960) is widely expected to formally launch her bid for the nomination later today.
Michael D Higgins and Fergus Finlay have also declared an interest in the Labour nomination, which is expected to be decided on June 19th next.
The 51 year old is a native of Tipperary, a triplet, and the identical twin of journalist Aileen O’Meara. A graduate of NUI Galway, before entering politics, she was an RTÉ journalist and served in the 21st and 22nd Seanads, elected by the Agricultural Panel. She has also worked as a freelance journalist and is now head of Advocacy and Communications with the Irish Cancer Society.
During her second term in the Senate (2002–2007) O’Meara came to national prominence as a health campaigner. She drove the Nenagh Hospital Action Group, as vice chairperson, latter being one of many groups formed to oppose recommended health policies contained in the Hanly Report and campaigned against the removal of emergency services from smaller general hospitals around Ireland.
Kathleen was an unsuccessful candidate for the Labour Party in the 2007 general election in Tipperary North, getting 10.3% of the vote. She did not contest the Seanad elections in the same year.
The presidential election itself, will not take place until this Autumn.
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