Finance « Thurles Information

Thurles Lions Club Leads New Heritage Trail Initiative In Thurles.

Thurles Lions Club has secured €29,600 in grant support under the LEADER Programme toward the development of a new heritage trail in Thurles. The initiative will offer both visitors and local residents a looped walking route through the town centre, complete with interpretive signage and digital access to the town’s rich history and heritage.

**Members of Thurles Lions Club at the Official signing of the Thurles Heritage Trail were:**
**Back Row:** *Chris Delahunt, Pat Donnelly, Gary Roche, Una Crowley, Eamon Medley, John McCormack, Anne O Dwyer, Anne Bolton, William McDonagh, Tom O Toole, and Paddy Hickey.*
**Front Row:** *Jane Ryan (Thurles Tourism), Margaret McCormack, Pat Shanahan, Mary Slattery and Louis Curley.*

The project will be delivered in two phases:
Phase One involves the identification of the route, the design of the signage, translation of the sign content, consultation with the public and the development of the online component. The total cost of Phase One is €39,600, of which the Thurles Lions Club will provide €10,000 in matching funding to be achieved through public fundraising.

Phase Two will proceed with the manufacture and installation of the physical signage at strategic locations around the town core, and this element will be funded by the Tipperary County Council via the Thurles Municipal District.

**Photographed at the Official signing of the Thurles Heritage Trial**.
**Photo L to R**: William McDonagh *(Thurles Lions Club)*, Patrick Killeen *(North Tipperary Development Company)*, Pat Shanahan and John McCormack *(Thurles Lions Club)*.
*Pic: Louis Curley*

Each sign will incorporate a dedicated QR code, enabling users to explore detailed online content about the town’s heritage and history as they walk the trail.

“The trail will not only enhance Thurles’s visitor offering, but it will also give local people an attractive recreational amenity that connects them with the heritage of their town,” said a spokesperson for Thurles Lions Club.

The project builds on the club’s commitment to supporting community infrastructure and promoting sustainable tourism in Thurles. Once fully implemented, the heritage trail will provide a memorable, interactive experience that combines physical way-marking with digital storytelling.

Uisce Éireann Begins €1m Upgrade Of Templetuohy Water Supply.

Uisce Éireann has begun a €1 million upgrade of the Templetuohy, Co. Tipperary, Public Water Supply, in a project aimed at ensuring a safe, secure, and reliable drinking water supply for more than 800 customers in the area.

The works, which are now underway, will deliver significant improvements to the local water treatment plant, strengthening the system and ensuring ongoing compliance with national drinking water standards.

The Templetuohy supply is currently listed on the Environmental Protection Agency’s Remedial Action List (RAL), which identifies public water supplies requiring improvements. Uisce Éireann said the upgrade will address these issues through a more robust and advanced treatment process.

Key elements of the project include the installation of a modernised disinfection system and an enhanced monitoring process to ensure greater efficiency and reliability.

Ward and Burke Construction is carrying out the works on behalf of Uisce Éireann, with the upgrade expected to be completed by early 2026.

Mid-West Oireachtas Members Back Three-Tier Hospital Expansion Plan.

Oireachtas members from Clare and Limerick have given their backing to a three-tier plan to expand hospital capacity in the Mid-West, following publication of HIQA’s review of urgent and emergency care services in the region.

At a meeting in Limerick today, eight members of the Oireachtas agreed that all three options proposed by HIQA should be advanced in parallel, in order to relieve ongoing pressure at University Hospital Limerick (UHL).

**Oireachtas members from Clare and Limerick listen to a presentation by Dr Terry Hennessy, at a meeting held at the Great National South Court Hotel today.**

Under the preferred approach, immediate investment would focus on expanding bed capacity on the existing UHL site at Dooradoyle. Medium-term development would see the establishment of a second UHL campus nearby comprising of out-patients department, diagnostics and adult mental health, with a longer-term goal of moving the maternity hospital and other acute services including a new Emergenct Department (ED) to the nearby site under shared governance. This would provide a high quality multi-generational and emergency care service for the Mid-West Region.

It was agreed that Option A combined with Option B will ultimately deliver Option C.

The meeting, held at the Great National South Court Hotel and convened by Clare TD Joe Cooney (Fine Gael), was attended by Minister Patrick O’Donovan (Fine Gael), Minister of State Timmy Dooley (Fianna Fáil), TDs Cathal Crowe and Willie O’Dea (Fianna Fáil), Senators Maria Byrne, Martin Conway and Dee Ryan, and Clare County Council Cathaoirleach Paul Murphy.

Dr Terry Hennessy, the HSE’s Regional Clinical Lead for Strategy and Development, briefed members on the significant constraints to expansion of the UHL site at Dooradoyle, the lack of capacity for that site on its own to deliver for the long-term future needs of the area, along with the HSE Mid-West short, medium and long-term plans for implementing the HIQA recommendations.

Following a positive and very constructive meeting, members agreed to support the HSE Mid-West’s commitment to pursuing all three strands and to engage with the Department of Health to secure full Government backing.
A follow-up meeting is planned for early November 2025 in Leinster House, with Health Minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill and senior department officials to be invited.

Thurles Blisters Burst After Just 6 Weeks.

Blister tactile paving, installed in early September of this year; same, as part of the long awaited and current upgrading at the junction at Irerrin Road and Kickham Street in Thurles, are already disintegrating.

**New blister style tactile paving & kerbing shows signs of physical breakdown just 6 weeks after installation**.

This paving is designed especially for visually impaired pedestrians (and those with the more modern affliction of staring intently at their mobile phone screens, surfing Google), while out walking.

Seriously, same should indicate controlled and uncontrolled street crossings, thus warning pedestrians that the pavement is about to end and the road begins.

The paving on this junction indicates an uncontrolled crossing and is earth buff (light earth brown) in colour, same designed colour to provide an additional visual cue for those with low vision.

Sadly, as in this case, engineers in their design, failed to understand that same are not suitable for busy street corners or for parking areas where 18 wheeler trucks halt, forced to park on a narrow street in an effort to off-load their merchandise.

Ah, sure it’s only another €1,000 or so of taxpayers money to spend to correct; a small price to pay for engineering stupidity.

Cost Of Recent Deportation Flight To Pakistan €473,000.

“Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds nought and six, result misery”.
Extract from Charles Dickens’s 1850 novel “David Copperfield”.

Government Confirms €473,000 Cost Of Recent Deportation Flight To Pakistan.

The Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration, Mr Jim O’Callaghan, has confirmed that a chartered flight used to deport 24 men from Ireland to Pakistan on September 23rd last cost approximately €473,000 — almost €20,000 per person, the most expensive deportation operation to date this year.

It was the fourth chartered deportation flight in 2025, following earlier flights to Georgia and Nigeria, which together cost over €530,000. In total, 130 people have been deported via chartered flights so far this year, with a further 137 removals carried out on commercial flights by the Garda National Immigration Bureau (GNIB).

Mr O’Callaghan said the cost of the Pakistan flight may rise as invoicing is still being finalised. He noted that deportations are “costly and complex to enforce,” adding that voluntary returns remain the preferred option.

“The returnees on this flight were accompanied by Garda personnel, medical staff, an interpreter, and a human rights observer,” he added.

The Department of Justice has issued 3,035 deportation orders so far this year, up from 2,403 in 2024.

One wonders would it have been cheaper to have allowed them to stay and found them jobs in the catering industry at the new national minimum wage of €14.15 per hour, but then I suppose what with no houses and despite global warming, tents can be still be draughty in Ireland in our winters.

Sadly, the government Learjet 45 owned by Irish taxpayer has only 7 passenger seats and the new one we the taxpayers just bought for world influencers Mr Simon Harris and Mr Micheál Martin at a cost of €53m; (due for delivery Xmas 2025, in time for Ireland’s EU Presidency in the second half of 2026), will only have 10 seats.

Could they not have used an Emirates Economy Return Flight from Dublin to Karachi which would only have costs €842.37 per person, (a saving of €19,000 per person), but then I suppose unions representing Garda personnel, medical staff, an interpreter and a human rights observer, would have objected to travelling Economy Class.
Meanwhile, we read last month that Community Foundation Ireland, ranks Ireland 16th out of 27 European Union countries when child poverty is rated.