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Some €4m of taxpayer funding is being allocated to providing improved childcare services nationally. This new funding is expected to help put further infrastructure in place in an effort to support plans to convert Ireland’s expensive childcare system into one that is both practical and paramount to our country’s future needs.
 The 2017 Early Years Capital Funding programme is to be made available to childcare centres, crèches and other early year services under three strands:
Strand 1: Additional childcare places with €3 million in funding allocated.
Strand 2: Provision for building improvements and maintenance expected to see €500,000 in allocated funding.
Strand 3: Provision of natural outdoor play areas will see an allocation of €500,000.
Some 30% of families are expected to qualify, according to Early Childhood Ireland; benefiting directly either from targeted or universal subsidies. However, the non-means-tested payment will only apply until the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) scheme kicks in at the age of three.
Note: An estimated 40% of families use family relatives to undertake their childcare requirements, thus it is not currently feasible to make this scheme relevant to them.
The maximum household net income (after deductions of various taxes, pension contributions, USC and PRSI and other allowable deductions) is €47,500 a year.
The newly announced scheme will come into effect from September 2017. Qualifying families are expected to start directly benefiting next Autumn with the subsidy paid direct to the provider of the childcare.
Between now and September next is considered sufficient time to sort out any /all operational details with those offering childcare provision.
We understand ‘Pobal‘ will be responsible for administering this programme and Tipperary Childcare Providers are being urged to make their applications. The submission process officially opened on Friday last and will close at 3.00pm on Friday 21st April next.
Grant outcomes can be expected to be announced next June and all endowments awarded must be fully spent and reported to Pobal, not later than 30th November 2017.
  
Thurles Eco Spirituality Group reports:
 Eco-spirituality is based on a simple fundamental belief in the sacredness of Nature, Mother Earth and our Universe. Promoters and exponents of such spirituality come from an assortment of beliefs and religious faiths including: Christianity; Judaism; Buddhism, Islam and many other indigenous traditions.
While many of the above named religious group’s and their beliefs may differ considerably, one central theme remains that there is a spiritual dimension to the present ecological crisis being currently experienced.
International Earth Hour is an annual campaign that brings attention to the effects of climate change by asking people to switch off non-essential lights for one hour on this evening, Saturday 25th March, between 8.30pm and 9.30pm. (In roughly one hour’s time.).
This campaign was begun in Sydney, Australia in 2007, making today its 10th Anniversary.
Simple actions to assist in bringing about climate justice:
- Turn off lights when you leave an empty room.
- Switch off and unplug TV’s, Chargers, Laptops, etc. when not in use.
- Do not leave the tap running while preparing food or brushing your teeth.
- Buy locally produced food and plan your shopping to avoid wastage.
- Plant trees and shrubs.
- Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.
- Encourage family and friends to do all of the above.
Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Ms Mary Mitchell O’Connor will most certainly want articles and pictures taken of her at last years ploughing championships to be most definitely sent once again to all Tipperary rural newspapers, after the announcement yesterday of over 200 job losses in Nenagh, Co Tipperary. Here once again she is being slammed over her complete failure to create even one job in rural Tipperary.
[Remember this is the same “Minister for Jobs Lady” who suggested that tax incentives be given to Irish people who ran out of this country to find employment; in an effort to encourage them to return home. If you are from Tipperary and are reasonably happy abroad, stay where you are folks, there is certainly nothing on the employment front for you in rural Tipperary. Watch ‘Leaders Questions’; sure even our TD’s are failing to turn up for work in Dáil Éireann at present.]
As Independent.ie made us aware, the Jobs Minister instructed her advisers, on September 22nd 2016 last, by email at 5.39am, sending them the first paragraph of a story that appeared in our own Tipperary Star newspaper.
 Photo Ms Mary Mitchell O’Connor, courtesy Independent.ie To quote Independent.ie “It stated that Fianna Fáil TD Jackie Cahill slammed the minister for continuing to allow a two-tier Ireland take hold.
He quoted jobs figures from the previous government, saying almost half of IDA-supported jobs were in the greater Dublin area.
Four minutes after sending her first email, Ms Mitchell O’Connor wrote to her advisers: “I want Op-Eds [comment articles] going into local papers all over country.” She added: “Get a pic of me at ploughing and with Kerrygold. Agri food, artisan food and farming will need to be referenced.”
A spokeswoman for the minister last night said that “following further discussion” it was decided that all communications with regional newspapers “would be done around the regional action plan for jobs”.
On a previous occasion, Ms Mitchell O’Connor sent her advisers a link to an RTÉ story headlined “Minister criticised over Roche job losses”. The job losses were in Clare, Fine Gael TD Joe Carey’s constituency, and he called on the minister to travel to the company’s HQ in Switzerland to try to save the jobs. Ms Mitchell O’Connor asked her advisers to get her contact details for the pharmaceutical firm’s boss in Co Clare and to get an update from the IDA on replacing the facility.
She also asked: “What about a trip to Swiss HQ?”
A spokeswoman confirmed that the minister didn’t travel to Switzerland as it became clear that Roche’s decision was final and such a trip “would not have changed the outcome”. She said last night that: “All regions have seen an increase in employment.”
No Minister O’Connor, “All regions have not seen an increase in employment.”
Where are the jobs promised prior to the last General Election, held on 26th February 2016?
We can confirm that the 1,432 jobs announced, highlighted and published in mid to late 2015, by former Tipperary Labour Minister Mr Alan Kelly, (700 for Nth Tipp. & 692 for Sth Tipp.), same promised employment prospects have not as yet materialised in 2017.
 Staff at the Coty plant situated in Nenagh, County Tipperary have been called to a meeting at midday today, fueling fears for the future of over 200 jobs.
Following a briefing after a Tipperary County Council monthly meeting yesterday, members were informed to expect the worst scenario.
In 2015 the Coty cosmetics manufacturing company, which boasts revenues of over €9 billion and is one of the biggest beauty companies in the world, took over the Proctor and Gamble facility, which had been in operation, since 1978, at the Gortlandroe Industrial Estate, situated in Nenagh.
The take over deal worth €11.3 billion, saw Coty acquire the brands Hugo Boss, Gucci and Max Factor, also hair and fragrance brands such as Calvin Klein, Clairol, Wella, and Rimmel are all part of its product range.
There were a number of concerns then about the takeover last year, including pension rights and last year the Labour Court recommended that the staff receive a once off loyalty payment.
Today’s midday meeting is likely to announce that all production at the plant in Nenagh will cease over an 18 months period, with all jobs moving from the area to the UK.
Worst scenario; staff at the Nenagh plant will receive redundancy payments under the terms previously available from Procter & Gamble, which amounts to six weeks pay per each year of service, plus two weeks statutory redundancy.
UPDATE
Coty this afternoon have confirmed that its plant, situated in Nenagh, Co Tipperary, will close by the end of 2018 with the loss of around 200 jobs.
The company confirmed it had carried out a detailed study of its global manufacturing and had decided to consolidate its total cosmetics operations, resulting in the complete closure of their Nenagh plant.
This decision came about following the merger of the Proctor & Gamble Speciality Beauty brands with Coty, and is reminiscent of so many other company mergers and take overs in recent years in Tipperary towns like Nenagh, Clonmel and Thurles.
The plant had been one of the biggest employers in Tipperary, with a workforce of over 500 persons since 1970.
The Insurance firm ‘Axa’ has stated that it is currently investigating 36 allegedly staged accidents in Co Galway and another 19 suspected such accidents in Co. Donegal.
The company, one of the largest insurers in the country, claim that the potential costs of such claims arising out of the various accidents, are likely to be in excess of €3.2m.
This information comes to light at a time when the motor insurance industry has come under scrutiny; with government departments, at the end of last year, publishing various reports on issues surrounding soaring premium costs.
Axa, who back in 2002, initially set up its own Special Investigation Unit, are understood to have opened up more than 600 investigations in relation to suspect household claims; personal injury claims; accidental and third party damage claims and allegations of staged car crashes.
The company have identified organised rings of persons involved in staged traffic accidents in certain areas of the country, and in particular the Galway region. Links have been found where personal injury claims are being pursued for a total sum in excess of €2m.
In Co Donegal, 19 such ongoing investigations, also suspected of being staged accidents, are being pursued for in excess of €1.2m.
It is estimated that the cost of motor insurance fraud nationally represents a figure of some €200mn, placing approximately €50 on the average sold motor premium.
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