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 Councillor Michéal Lowry has today welcomed funding of €3.03m to improve the homes of older people and people with disabilities in Co. Tipperary.
Councillor Lowry stated, “While 80% of this funding is provided from the national exchequer through the Department of Housing, Planning, Community & Local Government, the remaining 20% will be provided by Tipperary County Council.
This funding will allow older people and people with a disability to apply for grants of up to €30,000 for a housing adaptation, up to €8,000 for housing aid for older people and up to €6,000 for mobility aids.
The top priority should now be to use these funds to insure older people and people with a disability, are given every opportunity to continue independent living in their own homes for as long as possible, with the comfort that they deserve.”
 Revenue Commissioners In excess of some 2,500 cigarettes were seized from an address in Cahir, Co. Tipperary yesterday (May 18th 2017).
The tobacco products, branded as ‘Richman’, ‘M1′ and ‘John Bull’, were found, located as part of a search; embarked on under a warrant, issued to officers of the Revenue Commissioners.
The above named cigarettes brands are understood to hold a retail value of some €1,500, with same representing a potential loss of around €1,300 to the Irish Exchequer.
Contiguous inspections regarding the above seizures are understood to be currently continuing.
Town and Village Renewal Scheme 2017 – Call for Expressions of Interest
The Town and Village Renewal Scheme 2017 (an initiative under the Government’s Action Plan for Rural Development, Realising our Rural Potential) was recently launched by the Department of Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs.
The scheme is specifically targeted at towns and villages with populations of less than 10,000. (Note: Census 2016 – Population of Thurles Urban 6,814 and Thurles Rural 2,314; Rural & Urban together 9,128 – Yes Thurles Town Qualifies.). A National Fund of €20m will be made available on a competitive basis for projects developed at local level. The Department have indicated that they will approve nationally up to 300 projects, (or over 66,000 per project) to be commenced in 2017 and completed by mid 2018.
The focus of the Scheme is on rejuvenating Ireland’s rural towns and villages to make them more attractive places in which to live and work, and to increase their tourism potential.
Tipperary County Council is seeking Expressions of Interest from town/village groups who may have a suitable project for consideration under the scheme.
All expressions of interest will be assessed by the Council based on the priorities as contained in the Scheme Outline. A maximum of 15 proposals can be selected for County Tipperary, including those put forward by the Council itself, for development into detailed applications which will be submitted by the Council to the Department. It is the Department who will make the final selection and approval of projects to be funded by the Scheme.
Project proposals must include activities that will have clear positive impacts on the town or village making them more attractive places in which to live and work, and to increase their tourism potential. Extra priority will be given to projects which stimulate economic activity in the town/village and between it and neighbouring townlands.
Up to 80% of the total cost of a project can be provided for any individual project; 20% match-funding has to be provided. A town/village project application can include several linked components to support the rejuvenation of the town/village. The minimum grant which is available is €20,000 and the maximum, generally, is €100,000.
Please find ‘Expression of Interest Form’ etc linked HERE
Any interested town/village group must complete the ‘Expression of Interest Form’ and return it to the Community & Economic Development Section, Tipperary County Council, Ballingarrane House, Cahir Road, Clonmel, Co. Tipperary or email to townandvillage2017@tipperarycoco.ie no later than 12.00 noon on Friday 26th May 2017.
 We understand that some €2.7 million required to finance the new emergency department at University Hospital Limerick (UHL) has not been as yet officially handed over.
The new hospital emergency department, which serves the Mid West Region, an area spanning 8,248 km², and which takes in the geographical borders of the combined counties of North Tipperary, Clare, & Limerick, remains just three weeks from its promised opening date of May 29th next.
Since the downgrading of Ennis and Nenagh Hospitals, the residents of Co. Clare and Tipperary North, have continued to allow themselves, from a medical care point of view, to be treated as second-class citizens. Already the promises made to provide this new A&E department at UHL has been delayed by two months, according to the UL Hospitals Group.
The Siren Study, which was set up to evaluate the development and performance of different emergency and urgent care systems (EUCS) has shown that medical patient survival rates for emergency cases, in the Mid West Region, are among the lowest in the country, tantamount to ‘death caused by geography’.
University Hospital Limerick (UHL) is second worst in the league of most overcrowded emergency departments in Ireland, according to recent figures released by the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organitation (INMO).
However despite the unexplained financial shortfall, we understand that Professor Colette Cowan, Group Chief Executive at UHL, together with hospital management, is committed to meeting the promised targeted opening date.
Some 94 extra staff have already been recruited for the new facility, but further interviews with nursing graduates, to fill posts, at the hospital are not planned until next month.
Yet another significant employer vanishes from the North Tipperary landscape.
The Bord na Móna (BNM) Briquette Factory, at Littleton, Thurles, Co. Tipperary, is to close by April of 2018. This afternoon Management met with staff at the Littleton, Tipperary and Derrinlough, Offaly plants to make the expected announcement.
 The Littleton, Co. Tipperary factory was first commissioned 36 years ago, in 1981.
The semi-state company, a significant employer in a region of high unemployment, announced that the Tipperary facility will close down in April next year, with the loss of at least 69 jobs.
There is also expected to be some bearing on 56 other employees, all who work as part of the peat harvesting operation in the Tipperary area. The company will begin consultation shortly with both unions and employees, to further discuss these job losses.
The Derrinlough plant, which currently employs 61 people, will now be the sole location for the production of peat briquettes, and into the future, the production of a new biomass briquette, for which the company have confirmed, it is to seek planning permission to begin production.
BNM defend their decision to close Littleton, claiming sales had come under pressure due to increased competition, consumer trends, low oil prices, carbon tax and other unnamed factors.
Meanwhile, the Bord na Móna group of unions have stated that they do not accept the decision to close the factory, and they will oppose today’s decision, using all legitimate means.
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