Education - Thurles Information

Initiative On Law Against Female Genital Mutilation Taking Place In Dublin Airport.

A two day awareness campaign, raising initiative on law against female genital mutilation is to taking place in Dublin airport this weekend.

An Garda Síochána and the Border Management Unit at Dublin airport will this weekend run ‘Operation Limelight’ to raise awareness around the practice of Female Genital Mutilation in Ireland, including the law and the very serious risks to the long-term health of women and girls, subjected to it.

Operation Limelight originated in the UK and similar initiatives have been implemented in other countries including Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States.

The two day initiative will run on today Friday October 27th and tomorrow Saturday October 28th. in an effort to reach high passenger numbers travelling for the bank holiday weekend.

Members of An Garda Síochána and the Border Management Unit will provide information to passengers travelling to and from Dublin Airport, which will explain what FGM is, outline the law in Ireland, and inform people what they can do if they are worried that a girl may be at risk of FGM.

FGM (also known as circumcision or cutting) involves removing all or part of a girl’s external genital organs including the area around the vagina and clitoris. FGM is performed for cultural and not medical reasons and is totally illegal in Ireland.

Under the Criminal Justice (Female Genital Mutilation) Act 2012 it is a criminal offence for a person to attempt or perform FGM in Ireland and it is a criminal offence for someone resident in Ireland to take a girl to another country to undergo FGM.

FGM is mostly carried out on girls between birth and 15 years of age and it is a form of child abuse which comes under child protection regulations in the Children First National Guidance for the Protection and Welfare of Children 2011.

It has also been recognised as a form of gender-based violence in the Third National Strategy on Domestic Sexual and Gender Based Violence and the current implementation plan for the Strategy contains actions focused on improving the supports and services available to those who have been subjected to FGM.

FGM violates a series of well-established human rights principles, including the principles of equality and non-discrimination on the basis of sex, the right to life when the procedure results in death, and the right to freedom from torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, as well as the rights of the child.

Uisce Éireann Must Use Investment Plan To End Pollution Of Rivers & Coastal Waters.

Uisce Éireann must use its new investment plan to end pollution of our rivers and coastal waters from waste water.

Over half of Ireland’s waste water discharges are not meeting EU standards set to protect the environment.
Uisce Éireann has committed to eliminating raw sewage discharges by 2025 from the majority of the 26 towns and villages with no treatment.
Uisce Éireann still does not have clear plans to prevent pollution at some of the most significantly impacted water bodies, and it is vital these are resolved through its new investment plan.
Treatment plants must be operated and maintained properly to prevent impacts on the environment.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) report “Urban Waste Water Treatment in 2022”, released today, shows that Uisce Éireann has made progress in stopping discharges of raw sewage over the past year, with the connection of six villages to new treatment plants in 2022. However, waste water continues to harm the quality of many of Ireland’s rivers, estuaries, lakes and coastal waters. While works to upgrade treatment plants and prevent pollution are progressing in some areas, Uisce Éireann’s delays in other areas are prolonging the risks to the environment and public health.

Launching the report, Dr Tom Ryan, EPA Director said: “While it is encouraging to see continued progress in stopping the unacceptable practice of discharging raw sewage into our environment, waste water remains a significant pressure on Ireland’s water ways and is adversely impacting water quality. The pace at which Uisce Éireann is delivering improvements needs to accelerate to prevent pollution and protect water quality”.

He added: “Uisce Éireann must take the opportunity of its new investment plan for 2025 to 2029 to deliver waste water infrastructure that meets the needs of our society and protects and improves our environment into the future. The investment plan must prioritise resources to prevent pollution in the priority areas highlighted by the EPA.”

Thirty years after Ireland was required to bring provisions into force to comply with EU treatment standards set to protect the environment, less than half (45%) of waste water is treated to these standards. This is expected to improve significantly to over 90% when the upgrade of Ireland’s largest treatment plant at Ringsend in Dublin is complete.

**River Suir, *‘Barry’s Bridge’*, Thurles, Co. Tipperary.**

Mr Noel Byrne, EPA Programme Manager, said: “It is welcomed that Uisce Éireann is currently building infrastructure at large urban areas, including Ringsend and Arklow, which are designed to treat waste water to a high standard. However, poor management practices at upgraded plants, such as Skibbereen and Courtmacsherry, caused inadequately treated sewage to discharge into the environment. This is not acceptable as these plants have sufficient treatment capacity. Uisce Éireann must implement effective maintenance programmes for existing infrastructure and improve its operation and management of treatment plants to prevent such failures in future.”

The report is now available on the EPA Website HERE.

Hard Undenyable Facts:
It will take a multi-billion euro investment, and at least two decades, to bring all waste water treatment systems up to the standard needed to protect our environment and also provide for future needs. As all the problems cannot be fixed in the short term, Uisce Éireann must direct the resources that are available to the areas where they are needed most and will bring the greatest benefits. The EPA identifies the following as priority areas:

*26 towns and villages that were discharging raw sewage daily in mid-2023. New treatment plants were recently completed at two of these, Kerrykeel, Co. Donegal and Liscannor, Co. Clare.

*15 large towns and cities where waste water treatment failed to meet European Union standards set to protect the environment. These include the greater Dublin area, served by an overloaded plant at Ringsend that treats over 40 per cent of Ireland’s urban waste water.

*39 areas where waste water is adversely impacting the quality of rivers, estuaries, lakes and coastal waters. Uisce Éireann is taking far too long to design and start delivering the improvements needed at many (28) of these areas.

*12 towns and villages where waste water treatment must improve to protect freshwater pearl mussels. Uisce Éireann’s failure to advance works at half of these areas is prolonging the risks to these endangered species.

*6 large towns and cities where collecting systems (sewers) must be upgraded to protect the environment and address the findings of a 2019 judgement from the Court of Justice of the European Union.

You can view the list of priority areas and the environmental issues at each area on the EPA website at the link HERE. This also shows when and how Uisce Éireann plans to resolve the priority issues at each area.

People In Ireland Support Climate Policies, With Opposition Specific To Local Concerns & Issues

People in Ireland feel that ‘others’ – such as future generations or people far away – are more threatened by climate change than themselves in the here and now.
This means that many people underestimate the immediate risks and already-occurring effects of climate change here in Ireland.
The youngest adults (18-24 years) consistently exhibit significantly higher levels of concern, with young women most concerned about climate change.
People in Ireland support climate change policies. Where opposition to climate policies arise, it appears to be driven by practical concerns, rather than by scepticism or suspicion of the science of climate change.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has today published two insight reports from its ‘Climate Change in the Irish Mind’ study. The reports ‘Climate Change in the Irish Mind – Support for Climate Policies’ and ‘Climate Change in the Irish Mind – Climate Risk Perceptions’ provide a detailed examination of some of the findings of the baseline study published in 2021.

The insight reports show that despite high levels of concern among the Irish public about climate change and high levels of overall support for climate action, there is a sense that ‘others’, or people in other countries and people in the future, will be more impacted than Irish people in the here and now. The reality is that climate change is already having real and measurable impacts on people in Ireland, and this is likely to increase in the future without concerted action.

The reports also show that among a minority of people (on average 30%) there is opposition to specific climate policies reflecting practical concerns such as the feasibility of electrifying home heating and transport.

Launching the reports, Dr. Eimear Cotter, Director of the EPA’s Office of Evidence & Assessment said: “This assessment indicates that the majority of people in Ireland support climate policies. People who oppose climate policies are not, however, climate deniers and opposition does not appear to be reflective of underlying concerns or suspicions around climate change. Rather, it appears to be specific to localised concerns and issues which must be addressed to enact major climate change policies”.

She added, “Today’s report also shows that there is an ‘othering’ or disconnection from the impacts of climate change. People believe that it will harm people in the future, far away, animals and plants, other people, and lastly themselves personally. This shows how important it is to convey the immediacy of the threat of climate change to people, that each of us is already being impacted by it and will be increasingly impacted into the future unless action is taken now”.

The Climate Change in the Irish Mind insight reports focus on the national responses to risk perceptions and policy support.

Speaking about the findings Dr. Conor Quinlan, Senior Manager in the Office of Evidence and Assessment said: “Age is the biggest factor in determining how concerned people are about climate change. The youngest adults (18-24 years) consistently exhibit significantly higher levels of concern and risks perceptions in relation to climate, with young women disproportionately concerned about climate change. And unlike some groups, they act on these concerns: young people’s consumer choices and purchasing patterns reflect their perception of climate change as a major risk”.

The insight reports can be found on the EPA website, HERE and HERE.

Mysterious Altars For Revenge.

Ms Maura Barrett, (Cashel Library) Reports:-

Cashel Library’s resident ‘Witch’, Maura, will gives an illustrated talk on Cursing Stones In Ireland, on Tuesday, October 31st, 2023, beginning at 7:00pm sharp.

Also called a ‘bullaun’ (Irish: bullán; meaning a”bowl”, local folklore often attaches religious or magical significance to these same cursing stones, such as the belief that the rainwater collecting in their hollow also had healing properties.

Ritual use of some stones continued well into the Christian era and many are found in association with early churches. These stones supposedly had ‘cures’ but more importantly they also had the ability to place a curse on individuals.
If you wanted to put a curse on someone, you turned the stones anti-clockwise in the morning, however, the curse had to be unprejudiced and equitable, otherwise your curse would come back to curse you later that evening.

This is one FREE and worthwhile event, which should not be missed.

Note: Refreshments will be served, thus booking is essential for attendance at this FREE event; by Telephoning 062 63825.

[ You can locate the Cashel Library building, situated on Friar Street, Lady’s Well, Cashel, Co. Tipperary, HERE. (G487+RX) ]

Urgent Action Needed To Improve Private Drinking Water Quality.

Private drinking water quality is not as good as public water quality.
The total number of small private supplies remains unknown as not all have registered with their local authority.
Eighty four percent of registered small private supplies were monitored in 2022, compared with seventy five percent in 2021.
The government review of the rural water sector identified several key issues in the provision of rural water that need to be addressed to protect public health.

The EPA today released the Drinking Water Quality in Private Group Schemes and Small Private Supplies 2022 report. Drinking water is provided to approximately 200,000 people across rural communities in Ireland, by over 380 group water schemes.

In addition, many rural commercial and public activities such as schools, creches, nursing homes, pubs and restaurants have their own drinking water wells. There are 1,700 small private supplies registered with local authorities, but the total number of small private supplies remains unknown, as many suppliers haven’t registered their supply.

Local authorities are required to monitor registered supplies annually and whilst 84% of private supplies were monitored in 2022, up from 75% in 2021, the results highlight ongoing issues with the quality of private drinking water supplies:

E.coli

Meeting E.coli standards is a basic requirement in the provision of safe drinking water. In 2022, fourteen private group schemes were found to have E. coli contamination, indicating that the water supply has not been properly disinfected. The failure of these disinfection systems put the health of approximately 5,500 people that use these drinking water supplies at risk.

Trihalomethanes (THM)

In 2022, 16 private group schemes supplying 14,000 people failed the standard for Trihalomethanes (THMs). THMs are formed when natural organic matter in the water source, such as vegetation, reacts with chlorine used in the disinfection treatment process. THM levels should comply with the drinking water quality standards, while ensuring that the water is fully disinfected. Actions to prevent THM failures need to be prioritised by suppliers, to protect public health.

Commenting on the findings of the report, Dr Tom Ryan, Director of the EPA’s Office of Environmental Enforcement said: “It is a local public health concern that private drinking water quality hasn’t improved in recent years despite the availability of public funding to support upgrades to water supplies. In addition, as there is no legal requirement to register private drinking water supplies, it is not possible to quantify the full extent of the risk to public health. The registration of private supplies needs to become a legally enforceable obligation on the supplier.”

A review of the rural water sector was completed in January 2023 on behalf of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. The review identified several significant issues that need to be addressed to improve drinking water compliance and reduce public health risk in private water supplies. The key issues identified by the review are outlined below:

All private water supplies should be registered with the local authority.
Access to funding for water quality improvements varies greatly across local authorities resulting in available funding not being used.
Measures are needed to improve management at underperforming private group schemes.

Mr Noel Byrne, Programme Manager of the EPA’s Office of Environmental Enforcement said: “The EPA welcomes the completion of the rural water sector review by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. The review has highlighted several issues that are contributing to poor water quality in private supplies. It is crucial that these issues, relating to registration, funding and management are addressed so that private water supplies meet required standards and public health is protected.”

The report is available HERE on the EPA website.