Politics « Thurles Information

Promised €200 Energy Rebate To Be Paid From April Next.

Last month, the Irish government announced a range of measures to help with the rising cost of living. One of these measures agreed was a once-off payment of €100, later doubled to €200; same to be deducted from all electricity bills, over the next billing period.

Around 2.25 million account holders will now benefit from this scheme, the decision having been officially signed into legislation by Irish President Mr Michael D Higgins.

Following this, a once-off payment of €200, now due, will be automatically deducted from all electricity bills, including Pay-As-You-Go customers, within the Irish Republic.

Households do not need to apply for the payment and account holders will see the money automatically taken off their bill. From next month consumers will see €200, (exclusive of VAT €176.22), as a credit line item on their twice monthly bill charges.

With regards to Pay-As-You-Go customers, this €200 electricity credit will be applied over the course of three separate top-ups, in the form of €90, €90 and €20; since meters have a €300 credit limit. Customers will be advised only to pay €10 on each occasion to receive their credit, and to allow one day between each payment.

Anyone with multiple electricity accounts will get the payment for each house.

You can view your supplier’s website to obtain further information if required.

Government Accepts Motion On National Driving Licence Service (NDLS) offices.

The Government has accepted a Private Members Motion seeking a reversal of the decision to downgrade National Driving Licence Service (NDLS) offices across the Irish State.

The Independent Group of TDs put forward a motion in the Dáil today (Wednesday, March 2nd) seeking a resumption of walk-in services at all 34 NDSL centres, the acceptance of cash payments and the discontinuation of the requirement of a Public Services Card for online renewals.

Independent Clare TD Mr Michael McNamara, who first introduced the motion, says it’s recommendations must now be implemented by government.

“In the space of ten years, we have gone from a place where anybody would be able to walk into their local authority office to renew their licence; to a situation where people are not even able to book an appointment online,” stated Deputy McNamara, latter who first raised the issue with Junior Transport Minister Hildegarde Naughten in the Dáil some two weeks ago.

He continued, “What ought to be a public service is no longer public because it’s provided by Swiss logistics company SGS, and it’s no longer really a service, if you have to spend in excess of an hour on the phone to book an appointment.”

Deputy McNamara added, “The removal of the walk-in service during the pandemic was made permanent last year after the Road Safety Authority awarded the contract to Swiss group SGS over An Post which has a network of 950 post offices. Covid was used an excuse to remove the service and the Government’s claim that the move was aimed at making the service more efficient has proven to be wrong based on the scale of complaints about the service received from members of the public at the Constituency Offices of TDs across the country.”

“I welcome the support of opposition TDs for this motion as well as the Government for accepting it. I am now looking for government to accept cash payments immediately, to drop the exclusive requirement for a Public Services Card for online renewals, and to ensure that a tendering process of a walk-in service is introduced as soon as possible and no later than the end of 2022,” concluded Deputy McNamara.

Thurles Supporting Ukrainian People.

**Elwira Patan, Aneta Hughes** *(Proprietor Polish Shop, Thurles)*, **Monica Kowalska, Janus Dobrowolski and Krzysztof Hryc wrapping clothing and medical supplies bound for war torn Ukraine**.

Today, on the border with Belarus, a Ukrainian delegation continues to hold talks with hostile Russian officials. French President Mr Monsieur Emmanuel Macron has been speaking by phone with President Mr Vladimir Putin, urging him to halt his oppressive offensive against Ukraine.

Here in Thurles Co. Tipperary, the ‘Polish Shop’, (Sklep Polski Jelonek) with an address at Stradavoher, Thurles, Co. Tipperary, today deal with a continuous flow of Tipperary people, all anxious in particular to help refugees crossing over the polish border.

Speaking to the proprietor of the ‘Polish Shop’ in Stradavoher, Mrs Aneta Hughes, this afternoon, confirmed that volunteers continue to work in shifts packing the many donations of food and clothing being brought to her retail premises.

**Medical supplies bound for Poland & Ukraine**

Indeed, as we talked a courier arrived (see poster in top image above) to transport yet another donated cargo, picked up free of charge for delivery to Poland’s northern border.
Donated items to-date have included clothing, ground sheets and tinned or dried food goods.
Proprietor, Mrs Hughes has pointed out that she is no longer seeking clothing items, but is continuing to accept medical goods, ground sheets and tinned or dried food goods.
She is also seeking help from hauliers who can transport, free of charge, medical and food supplies into North Eastern Europe. [Tel: Contact (0504) 36081]

Meanwhile, Western placed sanctions on Saturday last, triggered by this wanton Russian invasion, have sent Russian currency (The ruble lost about 25%) plummeting, forcing ordinary Russian inhabitants to line up at banks and ATMs.

Strategic Plan To Deal With UHL Overcrowding.

Independent Clare TD, Mr Michael McNamara, has received confirmation that HIQA is to undertake inspections of the Emergency Department at University Hospital Limerick (UHL) and work with hospital management to develop a strategic plan to address capacity issues at the Mid-West facility.

In response to Deputy McNamara’s call for an independent inquiry into ongoing overcrowding at the hospital, Health Minister Mr Stephen Donnelly says HIQA has received an evaluation of the current factors influencing crowding in the emergency department from the Hospital Group CEO.

Deputy McNamara said he hopes the strategic approach to tackling the trolley crisis will have a wider scope than the approach taken up to now.

“UHL is the most consistently overcrowded hospital in the country with over 76,000 attendances in 2021, up 16% compared to 2020 and up 7% on 2019,” stated Deputy McNamara. “Hospital management and staff appear to be firefighting on the issue of overcrowding as opposed to identifying and rectifying the issues that are causing the problem.”

“The Minister informed me that a key part of the solution for Limerick is additional beds,” stated Deputy McNamara. “However, the problem of overcrowding in Limerick has worsened rather than improved since the delivery of the 60-bed modular ward block, the provision of an additional 38 inpatient beds and the anticipated delivery of a 96-bed replacement ward block, for which a works contract will be awarded in early Quarter 2 of this year subject to HSE Board approval and funding availability. A full review of operations within the UL Hospitals Group is required if we are to ultimately find lasting solutions to the overcrowding issues.”

Deputy McNamara said HIQA has a limited remit and would not be able to put forward such recommendations as the upgrading of Ennis, Nenagh or St. Johns to Model 3 Hospitals. He continued, “There also needs to be an assessment of admission and discharge policies at UHL, as well as the impact of population growth on the demand for services within the UL Hospitals Group. I would hope that some additional outside expertise and input can form part of the delivery of any future strategic plan for tackling the long-standing overcrowding problem.”

Responding to Deputy McNamara, Minister Donnelly said surge capacity had been opened to manage the “extremely high levels of activity” being experienced at UHL. He added that the UL Hospital Group have reported that they are continuing to deal with high volumes of patients attending the University Hospital Limerick ED, a pattern that has been sustained over a number of months and is being replicated around the country.

“University Hospital Limerick is working to ensure that care is prioritised for the sickest patients,” Minister Donnelly stated. “As part of their escalation plan, additional ward rounds, accelerated discharges, and identification of patients for transfer to UL Model 2 hospitals are all underway. Surge capacity has been opened to manage the extremely high levels of activity.”

The Minister added, “HIQA has also been in recent correspondence with the Hospital Group CEO to seek further information and assurances from them relating to their evaluation of the current factors influencing crowding in the emergency department. The resultant evaluation which HIQA received is very comprehensive and strongly highlights the Hospital Group’s view as to the factors at play, not least their opinion that they remain short on bed capacity at the hospital in the context of limited bed stock across both the public and private sector in the region.”

Covid Downgrading Of Tipperary NDLS Offices Made Permanent.

National Driving Licence Service “blackguarding” the elderly, says McNamara

Junior Transport Minister Hildegarde Naughten has confirmed that the temporary Covid downgrading of all National Driving Licence Service (NDLS) offices across the State, including the Tipperary offices in Clonmel and Nenagh, has now been made permanent.

“The walk-in service previously available was originally discontinued to ensure social distancing and compliance with occupational and public health requirements,” she told Independent Clare TD Michael McNamara in the Dáil this evening (Thursday), continuing: “the current NDLS contract, which was put in place with the front office service provider in 2021, no longer offers a walk-in service.”

She outlined that an online service is available for all application types but stated that a “verified MyGovlD account, which requires a public services card (PSC), is needed” to avail of the online service. “This is despite a Data Protection Commission investigation into the legality of the Public Services Card which found that there was no lawful basis for a person to be told they needed the card for anything other than accessing social welfare or benefits,” Deputy McNamara explained.

In the Dáil this evening, Deputy McNamara raised the issue of difficulties encountered by his constituents in availing of the NDLS service in Ennis and explained to the Minister that not everybody was able to go online. He pointed out that government TDs were rightly critical of banks moving their services online because of the effect it had on various sectors, especially the elderly, and here was a government agency doing exactly the same thing.

He told the Junior Transport Minister that a man of retirement age in his constituency had to get his grandchild to make an online appointment for him, as he could no longer walk into the NDLS Centre. Having completed the forms at the office, he received a form in the post to be signed and he returned same to the NDLS and the form would not be accepted. The man subsequently went to the TD’s office, where he was assisted and the paperwork was emailed.

Another constituent took time out of work to attend his appointment in the NDLS Centre in Ennis and his paperwork was in order – only to discover that the staff would not accept cash from him and he did not have a card. He rang his wife for card details but this would not be accepted as his wife was not present.

McNamara informed the Minister that a woman in her 80’s had told him she spent an hour and a half on the phone trying, in vain, to get an appointment. The TD’s office rang the NDLS and spent 45 minutes waiting, but nobody answered.

Minister Naughten claimed that no ‘show rates’ at the Ennis office in January were 12.3% of all booked appointments and to date in February same were 13.3% and she urged customers to ensure that they attend at their appointed time as, where appointments are not held on time, this affects the service for following appointments.

However, Deputy McNamara said he had received reports from neighbouring businesses of elderly customers leaving the office in distress, as they had been turned away for being a couple of minutes late, but within their 10-minute allotted slot which, he said, might account for the apparently high “no-show” rate.

Minister Naughten confirmed to the Clare TD that an additional staff member was due to commence employment at the centre which, she said, would enable the Ennis office to operate at a two-booth capacity. She also confirmed that she would have the long telephone wait times looked into.

McNamara insisted that the NDLS were “blackguarding the elderly” with the service currently being provided.