|
|
 Portuguese Motorway employees allege unfair conditions by their employer, named as ‘RAC Eire Partnership’; while building a section of the N7 motorway, between Limerick and Nenagh.
Mr Armando Agostinho Alves da Silva, a Portuguese construction worker has claimed, in the High Court, that he and his colleagues lived in deplorable conditions at a work camp in Co. Tipperary. The camp, now demolished, was provided by his former employers, while they were building a section of the N7 motorway, between Limerick and Nenagh, back in the years 2007 and 2008.
Twenty workers allege they were underpaid while working for three Portuguese companies, latter who traded under the name ‘RAC Eire Partnership’. Mr Da Silva told Ms Justice Carmel Stewart that they were expected to begin work at 7.00am and continue until 10.00pm or 11.00pm at night. He and up to 90 other Portuguese workers were obliged to live in a cramped prefab outside the town of Nenagh, in Co. Tipperary, with six to eight persons allocated to a single room, latter which lacked even the very basic facilities.
Showers did not always work all of the time and clean water was undrinkable. Bags of rubbish from the facility provided, were not always collected on time and there was a constant smell from waste water. There were no cooking facilities in the building and meals were only provided by their employer on working days, while on days off they were obliged to fend for themselves. Deductions made from wages for this accommodation and for domestic laundry were not deemed as being reasonable by the workforce.
Following a later take-over by a new company, Mr Da Silva was moved into a house in the locality and received an increase in pay and shorter working hours.
The Portuguese construction workers have now taken proceedings against three allied companies, namely (1) Portuguese-based Rosas Construtores SA, (2) Constructocoes Gabriel AS Couto SA, and (3) Empresa Deconstrucoes Amandio Carvalho SA, all of which traded as RAC Eire Partnership.
This case is just the latest in a similar number of actions to come to the attention of the High Court. One similar case, back in 2016, saw 27 workers awarded €1.5 million.
The case continues.
An ‘Status ORANGE’ low temperature warning has been forecast by Met Éireann from 9.00pm tonight until 10.00am tomorrow morning (Monday) for Tipperary.
A Status / Category ORANGE level weather warning is for weather conditions which have the capacity to impact significantly on people in their affected areas, and implies that all recipients in the affected areas should prepare themselves in an appropriate way for the anticipated conditions.
 It will be dry with clear skies resulting with severe air and ground frost tonight. Lowest temperatures will range -3o, as is presently, to -6o, with light winds travelling from the east and south-east.
Most main roads in Tipperary are expected to be gritted by the local authority, however motorists are advised to travel, exercising extreme caution.
Tomorrow, Monday, will remain dry with the severe frost clearing in non-sheltered areas by mid-day due to the bright sunshine. Cloudy skies will increase from the south and west through the course of the day with a few outbreaks of rain and drizzle expected to appear along southern coasts in the afternoon. Weather will become milder with highest temperatures reaching 4o to 7o degrees.
Possible outlook up to and including Friday next.
Monday: Overnight the county will remain dry throughout.
Tuesday: We will see a mostly cloudy day, becoming slightly milder in a freshening southerly wind. Expect a band of rain to cross the country from the west as the day goes on.
Wednesday: A colder day with a mix of sunny spells and scattered passing showers. The showers will affect mainly the west and a longer spell of rain may affect south-eastern areas. Winds no more than moderate.
Thursday: Will be cool and mainly dry with frost early and late. However, rain and freshening winds will spread countrywide on Friday next.
Our website, Thurles.Info, first raised the issue of the road surface on the junction of Slievenamon Road and Clongour Road, Thurles, on September 29th, 2017. Now if you think our local elected paid representatives are not reading our site content, then check this out.
 Photo: G.Willoughby. Fianna Fail Councillor Mr John Hogan announced the following good news, yesterday, on his Facebook.
“€654,000 has been granted by Transport Infrastructure Ireland for the upgrade of the road and footpaths on Slievenamon Road Thurles, for 2018. We have all raised this issue over and over again for the past two years and thankfully our voices have finally been heard. This road has been in a desperately dangerous state and at last will be made safe.”
What year Councillor; go on suprise us?
Anyway, ‘Well done Councillor Hogan’; now what is the story regarding Emmett Street, which was just freshly repaired by a Highway Maintenance Crew on Thursday afternoon last, January 4th 2018? Same surface is now actually worse than before this same specific upgrade was undertaken on that aforementioned date? To put it another way, IRA man James Leahy (God Be good to him) would never have escaped on Jack Feehan’s old bike, had the surface of Emmett Street been so rock and gravel strewn back in 1918, exactly 100 years ago this year.
Since the time period, referred to as “The Season of Good Will to All Men”, remains still within its limitations, we won’t mention Barry’s Bridge, as same could cause major embarrassment.
Then again, on the other hand, perhaps it is time to begin roasting chestnuts on an open fire, if you get my drift.
Back in January 2014, in an RTE exposé, the Irish columnist, playwright and scriptwriter, Fiona Looney hit the headlines, world-wide by announcing she had located a couple of dog turds on the pavements around Thurles.
Tipperary Municipal District Councillors, would-be future political hopefuls and resident politicians (currently in receipt of €89,965 basic pay; latter part of the Lansdowne Road agreement), please take note ahead of your next Council or Cabinet meeting; here is the perfect project to “get your teeth into”. 😉
The good news is that this ongoing “Doggy Doo problem” haunting the town may now have become short lived, thanks to one man, namely a Mr Brian Harper, a native of Worcestershire, in England.
Mr Harper, is experimenting with a dog turd-powered street gas light, which is currently helping to light the darkness for those descending from dog walks in the Malvern Hills; latter an outstanding area of natural beauty. Worcestershire is also the home of that delicious Lea & Perrins ‘Worcestershire sauce’.
It works like this; dog walkers in this Worcestershire area are provided with free compostable bags and encouraged to deposit their dogs do-do into a hatch which leads to an anaerobic digester positioned beside a street gas light. Dog owners are then encouraged to turn a handle five times, which in turn helps to break down the contents in the digester, thus producing methane to fuel this particular street light.
Ten standard bags of dog turds are deemed sufficient to provide up to two hours of gas light, as dog walkers return from the areas hills at dusk. It remains essential that those contributing to the digester, do not use ordinary plastic bags, but rather compostable bags, since the use of plastic would block it.
We originally produced this video, hereunder, in 2014 – nearly four years ago – did anything change or get updated in Thurles?
The English idea for this gas light was borrowed from conceptual artist Matthew Mazzotta who is using dog faeces to power lampposts in a park in Cambridge, Massachusetts state in New England.
The English street gas lamp began receiving doggy doo from passing walkers back in mid-November 2017 and its presence had already resulted in a reduction of dog faeces in the area.
So what happens the left-over faeces when all the methane is depleted, I hear you ask?
This digester product can be turned into harmless garden fertiliser, to which even Fiona Looney would have no objection.
So, all you Tipperary developers, inventors, young scientists and entrepreneur; I am handing you a goldmine here, so get to work you ungrateful lot, or do I really have to do everything myself.
P.S. In particular the €4.5 Million Euro National Bio-economy Centre starting up at Lisheen Mines should take note; you know the place to which I refer, some 400 jobs were triumphantly replaced by 40 in the recent past.
It would appear that Thurles residents spent most of the pre-Christmas period staring heavenwards. Since there were no public reports of a large bright star moving across the heavens, having suddenly appeared in the east; we must assume that their gaze was understandably drawn to our superb display of overhead Christmas lighting.
However, this heavenly distraction may have led to a failure to notice the deplorable and totally unacceptable state of our street surfaces here in Thurles, over this busy festive period.
Note: Tarmac Does Not Attach Itself Successfully To Plastic.
Last week some of our local councillors rushed to their Facebook pages, as they are wont to do, to upload details of their extreme municipal district powers; recording personal achievements regarding the improvements made to the surface of Barry’s Bridge. Alas, imagine their disappointment when for the 4th time in just 28 days, 16-wheeler trucks, required to pass through our narrow streets, have turned all such improvements to the state of mere gravel.
A couple of questions now need answers.
(1) Would you find road surfaces akin to that found presently in Thurles; around Leinster House, Kildare St, Dublin?
(2) Would you find road surfaces akin to that found presently in Thurles, in any street in Dublin city?
(3) Is this all part of Fáilte Ireland’s attempt to attract tourism; as in “Ireland’s Ancient East.” ?
(4) In a county where elected Councillors voted to increase Local Property Tax (LPT) by 10%, why do we tolerate this neglect?
We have been informed that 13 million Euro has been allocated for works on National Primary and Secondary roads in 2018; up from 2.16 million Euro this year. Among the schemes to benefit will be the N24 through Tipperary Town including Davitt Street, where 1.5 million Euro will be spent along with works on Main Street and Fr. Matthew Street. The N74 through Golden is also earmarked for works costing over €350,000 and works will continue on the N62 at Lismackin, Roscrea.
A further 4 million is allocated for an overlay of the N24 bypass in Clonmel, while sections of both the N24 and N74 in Carrick on Suir will also benefit, together with 2.5 million Euro earmarked for the N52 in Borrisokane.
There is no mention of the Thurles bypass, initially promised some 16 year ago; so here is hoping that the early medieval Barry’s bridge, can continue to take the strain of modern heavy duty vehicles.
|
Support Us Help keep Thurles.info online by donating below. Thank you.
Total Donated 2026: €300.00
Thank You!
Daily Thurles Mass Livestream
|
Recent Comments