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TII – No Proper Road Repairs Imminent On Kickham Street

Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) jokingly claim “Our mission is to provide high quality transport infrastructure and services, delivering a better quality of life and supporting economic growth”.

Following representations to Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII), they have confirmed today that necessary roadworks required to be carried out from the Mill Road Roundabout, through Kickham Street (The Pike) travelling west only as far as the Cathedral Street Roundabout; these same badly required roadworks will not be carried out within the next few months, despite the appalling and dangerous conditions being tolerated, not just by local residents, but pedestrians travelling on the areas footpaths.

The excuse of course is Covid-19 virus restrictions and the works currently being currently carried out on a now terminally ill Liberty Square; latter forced to give up the ghost with the introduction of Tipperary Council’s implemented car parking charges.

It would appear that TII employees are more susceptible to catching Covid-19 virus, than those employees currently working on upgrading Liberty Square and those other road workers currently employed on the Slievenamon Road /new LIDL Supermarket site.

The narrow roadway through Kickham Street, Thurles is by far the busiest entry road into Thurles town. It is not just the traffic accessing the area from the M8 motorway, but also north bound heavy vehicles now travelling from the south-east, who use the Mill Road. Latter are anxious to avoid the long waiting times caused by road workers operating Stop/Go signals at the junction of Clongour Road and Slievenamon Road. By next March we forecast latter area will become the new town centre for Thurles business, due to the more than adequate free parking arrangements

Meanwhile, residents on Kickham Street who pay Local Property Tax (averaging €197.60 per house, per annum, for absolutely no benefit), must tolerate the gravel, the muck and the dirty water striking their ground floor windows and house fronts; pouring through door seals and letter boxes; as local councillors, council engineers and politicians totally ignore the situation.

As can be seen in the video above; traffic movement on the street, spends more time driving on footpaths then they do on the actual road surface, due to a lack of road space.

God help home owners who may require to turn off their water supply in the future, with water metres stupidly and crudely installed on the edges of footpaths, latter which are now being constantly driven over by persistent traffic of all description’s, from 18 wheelers to bicycles.

Interior walls of some Kickham Street houses fronting on the street, are now showing sign of rising damp. This is due to the outside footpaths not being properly sealed, when solid concrete paths were unnecessarily and foolishly replaced with cement slabs in recent years; further wasting tax payers and ultimately Tipperary Co. Council collected taxes.

In the meanwhile, a JCB will be hired, its front shovel full of cold tarmac and a mechanical ‘Tarmac Tamper’ / ‘Rammer’. Two or three men will fill the holes with shovels and tamp down the cold tarmac with the ‘Rammer’. Four hours later same will be loosened by traffic, turning it into gravel, which in turn will further loosen more of the solid road surface. These repairs will continue to be undertaken 3 days a week for at least the next 14 weeks, before any real remedial action is taken.

Some idiotic Councillors in shirking their elected responsibilities; claim that Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) are responsible and not Tipperary County Council. If this is the case, then why is Tipperary County Council carrying out patch repairs?

Seen as a waste of time, proud local residents have now stopped cleaning the area in the front of their homes.

The waste of tax payers’ financial resources, by Tipperary Co. Council, continues unabated; encouraged by the silence of the Thurles community.

Retail Sectors May Remain Shut Until End Of February

An Taoiseach Mr M. Martin

An Taoiseach Mr Micheál Martin, addressing the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party last night, has not ruled out the the fact that restaurants may remain shut until May of this year or indeed even longer.

The Taoiseach has stated that coronavirus transmission numbers remain to high and retail sectors are likely to remain shut until the end of February at least, adding that it will be well into next month before the majority of Covid restrictions are relaxed.

Mr Martin further confirmed that the persons aged over-70, will be in line to receive vaccines by March of this year.

Speaking in relation to the ban on travel; the Taoiseach stated that the best advice was not to travel in or out of the country. The difficulty however is people flying into Belfast.

Speaking to his party’s TD’s, Senators and MEP’s he highlighted that the recent increase in deaths from Covid-19 shows the devastation that this virus now causes, and asserted that Ireland still had some distance to go in dealing with this killer pandemic.

Covid-19 Update: Sun. 17th Jan. 2021 – 13 Deaths – 2944 New Cases

56 new killer Covid-19 virus cases in past 24 hours, as confirmed cases continue to rise in Co. Tipperary.

Thurles native and naive Co. Tipperary Fianna Fail TD, Mr Jackie Cahill, deservedly, suffered severe and strong disapproval to the very point of censure yesterday; on his social media accounts, following his vote catching tweet relating to the failure by the HSE to vaccinate Nenagh Hospital front-line staff. These same comments can be fully viewed HERE.

Amongst the many comments displaying anger and using irony to mock or convey contempt, in relation to Mr Cahill’s canvasing, were the following: –

Do any TD’s in Tipperary know a billionaire who could open a private hospital in Nenagh for ye?
(Referring of course to Mr Cahill’s premature ‘secret’ Holycross Museum announcement, and no doubt also referring to the many known associates of Mr Michael Lowry TD)

Well done Jackie, next time you’re canvassing in Carrick, we can have a chat about St. Brigids hospital.” (St. Bridget’s Hospital is currently marked for closure by the present administration.)

He’s deluded or he’s on an early canvas.”

Your post seems a bit misleading, and to be honest it’s not the first time you’ve made false statements about healthcare provision in Tipperary.” (Referring again to the now expected closure of St. Brigid’s hospital, Carrick-On-Suir, Tipperary.)

The staff had to shame the government to get access to the vaccine. He’s playing spin doctor along with them.”

Ask ur friend @MichealMartin TD how private hospitals (Beacon Private Hospital staff vaccinated) got it before public & where is the €14m given for useless ventilators.

Nothing to do with the hospital staff having to beg for the vaccine, you lemon.”

Disgraceful that nurses/caterers had to go on national news to look for the vaccine. Local rollout appears to be very disorganised ; vaccines not given to the most vulnerable staff members first; very disappointing.”

Ah, getting the old vote catcher ‘tweet’ in, you should have been on top of this from the beginning, but as usual its reaction from you and the big, look what I done for you, tweet.

So now we’re playing party politics with the vaccine! What’s next. FF members to be bumped to top of vaccine list, u should be ashamed to post such a tweet.

“Why would ANYONE have to make representations”.

Jackie the bluffer Cahill, absolute joke of a man, a liar like the rest of our politicians.”

Note Please: The above comments can NOT in any way be associated with website Thurles.Info. One comment posted by me, personally, was removed, latter which conveyed the truth of this Nenagh situation, conveyed by Mr Micheál Martin, for whom I hold the greatest respect.

It was also lamentable that some FF councillors shamefully encouraged Mr Cahill, in what is observed by many as deliberate deception, at the expense of his county’s medical workforce.

It is widely expected that Mr Cahill TD will now apologise for his selfish and unsubstantiated communications on social media; to the front-line staff of Nenagh Hospital on TippFM radio, tomorrow morning.

Hereunder, our readers can view the full video of Nenagh Hospital front-line staff in Co. Tipperary, pleading for what is rightly their entitlement, as a staff required to deal daily, and head-on with the deadly Covid-19 virus, since last March 2020.

Back now to the real facts, the truth and today’s reality.

The Department of Health have confirmed this evening that sadly there have been 13 further deaths caused by the Covid-19 pandemic; leaving the overall death toll, here in the Republic of Ireland, remaining at 2,608.

With our Irish hospital system already operating at surge capacity, there were 2,944 new additional virus cases reported today. This leaves the current total number of confirmed cases, since conception in the Irish Republic, at 172,726.

Of today’s cases nationally; 1,065 are in Dublin, 306 in Cork, 181 in Galway, 180 in Kildare, 160 in Limerick, with the remaining 1,052 cases located across all other counties.

There are 1,923 people with Covid-19 in hospital, and of that number, 195 people are in ICU, according to Ireland’s Covid Data Hub.

According to Ireland’s COVID-19 Data Hub, to date there have now been 3,582 recorded cases of the killer Covid-19 Virus within the borders of Co. Tipperary, per data relevant up to midnight on January 15th, 2021. Fifty six (56) cases are relevant in the 24 hours to midnight on Saturday, January 16th, 2021, or 1,529 over the past 14 day period, up to the same stated date (January 16th, 2021).

The Government have requested early deliveries of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine so that it can arrange to be ready for same to be administered in GP clinics, local pharmacies and appointed vaccination centres, as soon as it is approved at the end of this month.

In Northern Ireland, a further 25 coronavirus deaths have been recorded taking their death toll to 1,606. A further 822 new cases have been confirmed, taking their total number of positive virus tests to 95,361.

Total global cases up to 5.30pm this evening, now stands at over 94.7 million confirmed cases, with global deaths well over 2.02 million and rising.

Only YOU can stop the current chain of transmission.

Please Stay Safe – Stay Home.

40 Doses Of Covid-19 Vaccine Only, For 300 Front-Line Workers At Nenagh Hospital.

Mr Jackie Cahill TD

As was previously expected a small amount of Covid-19 vaccine arrived at Nenagh Hospital today. This was fast-tracked after front-line staff voiced their sheer frustration and anger yesterday, regarding delays with the current rollout to some 300 of their frontline contact workforce.

Some 40 doses will now be administered to chosen workers within the hospital, leaving some 240 front-line workers, without being vaccinated. (Note: We understand some 20 staff who share work with Limerick University hospital had received the vaccine earlier.)
This compares unfairly with some one thousand staff at the private Beacon Hospital, who were vaccinated last week, according to HSE chief executive Mr Paul Reid.

Meanwhile, Nenagh hospital has not been given any clarification as to when these other 240 front-line staff will receive their badly needed vaccine doses.

What has been even more disrespectful of Nenagh Hospital staff, was a claim made yesterday on social media, by Tipperary TD Jackie Cahill, who stated, quote, “The Taoiseach has informed me that an initial delivery of vaccinations will be sent to Nenagh hospital tomorrow morning, for front facing staff, following representations I made to him on this matter.
I have been back in contact with the Taoiseach’s Chief of Staff, late this evening, to state that a full delivery is needed as a matter of priority and I have requested certainty on a date for this.
I am very please (I think he means ‘pleased’) to welcome this news and I thank all of those who contacted me in relation to this.”

It would appear that the Taoiseach, Mr Micheál Martin was misleading Mr Jackie Cahill, during their contact, (which hopefully was 2 metres apart). However, having heard the Taoiseach Mr Martin on Virgin Media News, it appears more likely that it was Mr Cahill who was attempting, not for the first time, to mislead his now dwindling Tipperary electorate.

Driving Licence Exemption For Over 70’s During Covid-19.

Ms Hildegarde Naughton TD

The Minister of State at the Department of Transport, Ms Hildegarde Naughton, (FG Teachta Dála for the Galway West constituency since 2016), has announced an extension in the exemption that allows for those aged over 70 years old, to apply for a driving licence, without the need to provide a medical report.

Her decision comes following the current surge of Covid-19 cases and in order to ease the burden on Irish medical services.

This decision means that persons of 70 years of age, or over, can apply for to renew their current driving licence without the need to submit a medical report. Same is based on the condition that they do not have an identified or specified illness and are not applying for a licence to drive a truck or a passenger carrier, e.g. a bus or similar category.

This measure will now eliminate the need for drivers over the age of 70 years from having to make an unnecessary journey to their local GP or congregate at their National Driver Licence Service centre.

Those over 70 years old, can view the 4b category on their current driving licence, to check the licence expiry date.