Thurles Information

Those of you, our valued 194,522 readers, who doubt our claim that present Government Ministers actually rush to read our blogs every morning, (as soon as they clock in.) please now take note. I am referring of course to our recent blog entitled “Integrated Plan Generating 300,000 Jobs A Fairytale“.

More than 1,800 schools will wake up this morning to the unbelievable news that they are to receive grants worth almost €10 million in total. (Less than the National Lottery prize this week) to help reduce their water usage, and save on bills of €3m annually, paid to local councils.

Water Storage Tank

Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills, Mary Coughlan (Great on the maths, our Donegal friend) will announce today that department officials will contact 1,823 schools with €9.75m of our taxes, offering up to €5,348 per school, to cover the costs of installing percussion spray taps, thermostatic mixing valves and water displacement devices.  Of course she forgot to include, in her plans, provision for roof rain water storage which would assist in conservation and a reduction in flooding. Obviously John Gormley wasn’t consulted about the action plan, prior to the announcement. Big into water conservation our John – or was it water charges – I forget.

Our Tánaiste Mary Coughlan stated: “I would ask schools to ensure that they get best value for money on prices for jobs in the more competitive construction market. These works will reduce the water charges being paid by schools and I am delighted to be able to provide boards of management and trustees with a means to do so.”   No Mary, pet, we the taxpayers are delighted to be able to provide school boards of management and trustees with a means to do so.

Now Mary while you are on the subject of water, could you please sort out something else, the standing charges for water, applied by various local authorities.

Example: The standing charges in different local authority areas vary widely for some, as yet, unknown reason. Standing charges vary widely, from €212 in Thurles born Mary Hanafin’s own constituency of Dun-Laoghaire/Rathdown, to a humble €100 a year in our own Thurles Town. Schools in Co Mayo are paying 0.91 cent per cubic metre for their water supply compared to Roscommon Co Council who charge  €2.39 per cubic metre.

Forget the digital projectors, white boards and teacher’s laptops Mary. Check first if the teacher can send an e-mail and secondly check if broadband is actually available.  Once this information is established, now use the remaining €19 m of that recent €20m school technology fund to get the water sorted and reduce, for the short term at least, our rising flood water and rising unemployment numbers.

Why do I have to spell everything out for you, now get on with it, or I will be taking that trip to Áras an Uachtaráin and you know what that means.