4th April, 2002
Notice
Board
DOUGLAS ISSUES
By Cllr. Deirdre
Forde
Readers, At last months Area Road Meeting we received a report on
Public Lighting (the Cinderella of Local Authority Programmes!!!)
by that I mean its the poor relation in the larger scheme of
things. The total budget over the four years 2000 to 2003 is 1.1M
euro, 66% on Replacement of older Mercuries and 33% on New Lights.
The Mercury replacement programme is progressing, the number of
mercuries to be replaced in 2002 in Carrigaline is 259 which is a
drop in the ocean really. The ESB contract requires replacement
of bulbs every two years and minor repairs to lighting units. It
does not include replacement of lamp units or the repair of other
types of damage, accidents, cable faults etc. The cost of these
'non contract repairs for 2001 was approx. 100,000. So readers,
you can see why I call it the Cinderella of Local Authority
Programmes.
We submitted requests for lighting and in Douglas these are as
follows :
Kenington Close Grange Hights
Alderbrook Est Frankfield Douglas
Woodview Pinecroft alleyway/laneway
Amberley and Oakview Est.
Church Road Douglas
Opp. Douglas Community Park
Cooney's Lane.
Passage West
Old Church Road
Strand Road to Murphy's Pub
Cut and Cover Tunnel
Marina View
Water Tower to Golf Course
There are move but I don't have space here but if readers wish
they can contact me if they have further requests for lighting in
these areas. (Ph. 4363318).
Divisional Allocation
Planned Expenditure on New lights throughout the Division over
the four years 33% of 860,000 =3D 286,000 (E363,150) There are a
number of proposals for individual allocation per Councillor
which will be discussed and decided upon at the next meeting. For
instance, Councillors could identify individual priorities within
their areas which would obviously be of of general public benefit
and collectively agree the more expensive projects. The cost of
lights on existing poles are E320; and E1600 on new poles.
Ducting cost approximately € 38 per metre. A scheme of new
poles and ducting would cost between € 100 to €130. It
is important that we decide the issues at next months meeting if
the Engineers are to place orders which will allow installation
in time for next winter.
Skateboarding
I was delighted to receive a letter from a young constituent
named Shane who has written to me outlining his ideas of what
amenity he and his friends would like to see in the Douglas area.
He has outlined a number of very good points: when he and his
friend are trying to enjoy their sport (great for fitness and
flexibility etc) they are moved on. They feel they have nowhere
to go to enjoy what after all is a ligitimate sport in other
countries. Surely, it is better that we encourage them to
socialise and play in our community rather that encouraging them
to go to 'town' as he calls it. Anyway, I am going to follow up
by meeting them to hear their views. After all, it is fundemental
to the Governments National Childrens Strategy that we consult
with children regarding their environment. Thanks Shane for
contact me.
Council Engineers have examined the wall at Rectory Carrigaline
Road, it appears that the wall is sound but they are looking at
the cost of installing a railing there also. I am waiting for
residents to come back to me regarding the erection of a railing
in Shamrock Park leading from Grange Erin and Council have agreed
to installation and location of Children at Play sign in the
Meadowlands Rochestown.
Passage West
There is a great committee in the shape of Passage West
Development & Environmental Committee. At these meetings I
get the opportunity to discuss many aspects of the future of
Passage West with local Town Commissioners; Residents; Reverands;
and the newly formed Business Association. I also have to wear
plated armour when they inform me, in no uncertain terms, that
they feel Council is dragging its heels!!
However, the Council like to work with communities who come up
with ideas and are willing to assist them where possible in
enhancing the environment, I have passed on various requests from
residents to the engineers and I have no doubt that they will be
successful in the projects. I enjoy going to these meetings
because we all try to work together with only one agenda - to get
projects moved on for the benefit of Passage. I usually get a
'cup of tea' afterwards and a certain Town Commissioner's other
half has a wicked line in humour!. Is any wonder I love being a
local politician.
Passage West is totally underrated in my opinion. The waterfront
is a huge asset and in the Douglas Traffic Study a proposal for a
river ferry to City may not be as outlandish as people think. I
have a mental picture of the sun shining on colourful houses and
shopfronts, bunting, flowers, walkways and riverfront activity.
It deserves every help and with a bit of imagination and a
positive committment Passage West will go from strength to
strength.
I would like to wish all of you a very happy Easter. All we need
now is a bit of sun and with a bit of luck we'll get it. I'm off
to put manners on weeds! 'Til next week, take care of yourselves.
DEIRDRE FORDE MCC. ph. 4363318
Chamber of Commerce News
Internet Training
Cork Chamber of Commerce has provided Internet training to over
100 companies in the last year. This training has been very
business focused and cost effective. The following training
courses are now on offer. Early booking is advisable to avoid
disappointment.
On 24th April a 1 day Internet Marketing Course at the cost of
€220. This course ensures your website is seen by your
target audience. Learn how to promote your website and blend your
on-line strategy with your offline marketing strategy. Given by a
professional marketer, this course will cover all you need to
know to market your website successfully.
On 25th April a 1 day DreamWeaver Course to build your own
website at the cost of €250. This course shows you how to
design, create and maintain your website using Macromedia’s
Dreamweaver software.
For more information on these courses and to book your place
please contact Renate at the Chamber, tel 4509044
Aengus Fanning to address Chamber Lunch
Aengus Fanning, Editor of the Sunday Independent newspaper will
address the first in a new series of Business Lunches sponsored
by Vodafone to be held at Jurys Hotel on Friday, 5th April.
Always a colourful and sometimes controversial character, it
promised to be a great event. Early bookings are advised.
Reservations to Helen at the Chamber, tel 4509044 or email
helen@corkchamber.ie.
Sourcing European Business Partners
The introduction of the Euro, the subsequent development of the
Internal Market and a more widespread use of e-commerce is making
it easier and more profitable for businesses to expand beyond
Ireland.
Perhaps you are a manufacturer looking for new suppliers or
distributors or a retailer looking for new distribution
agreements with foreign manufacturers and interested in the new
business opportunities offered by EU enlargement. New partners
can be sourced by contacting Cork Chamber’s Euro Info Centre
which is one of a network of over 300 Euro Info Centres (EICs)
throughout Europe. As these EICs are either based in local
Chambers of Commerce or governmental business organisations
ensures a professional environment for creating contacts between
clients or members. Advice on Internal Market policy and
legislation which is in place to protect businesses once new
partnerships are created is also available from the EIC.
For further information contact Kate or Tegwyn at the Cork Euro
Info Centre, tel 4509968/4509044.
ANIMAL CARE SOCIETY
The animal care society does trojan work in
caring for and finding homes for abandoned and mistreated animals
as well as those whose owners can no longer look after them. The
following are just some of these animals for which the society
are are seeking good homes.
Six, all male collie puppies which are 10 weeks old and
innoculated, Tel: 021-4319532 after Saturday.
Also sought is a very special home for a gentle ,calm and elegant
one year old Lurcher bitch, she is neutered and house trained.
This dog loves attention and would make a perfect companion, Tel
021-4371383.
The Animal Care Society has lots of dogs and cats needing homes,
for further information call 021-4551781.
PART TIME WORKERS MISSING OUT ON HOLIDAYS
The Citizens Information Call
Centre received over 11,000 calls from people in Cork and Kerry
last year and almost one third of those calls were from people
wanting to know about their rights at work.
“One of the most frequent problems that we come across”
says Judy Bamford, manager of the Call Centre ”is that of
part time workers whose employers have informed them, quite
incorrectly that because they only work for a couple of days a
week, or perhaps mornings only, they are not entitled to paid
holidays. These difficulties tend to be highlighted at this time
of the year when we are heading into the holiday season, and with
a number of public holidays coming up.
All employees, no matter how little or how infrequently they work
are entitled to paid holidays and the legal minimum is four
working weeks a year on a pro rata basis. There are also nine
public holidays in the year and as long as you have worked for at
least forty hours in the five weeks leading up to a public
holiday you are entitled to benefit, even if you are not normally
scheduled to work on that particular day of the week. However, we
would like to point out that Good Friday is not a public holiday,
and there is no legal requirement for anyone to have an
additional paid day of on that day.
New legislation came into effect this year that gave additional
rights to part time workers, who now have the same rights as full
time workers with regards to company pension schemes, redundancy
entitlements and most other areas of employment legislation.
If you have any queries about this, or any other aspect of your
personal rights and entitlements you can contact the Citizens
Information Call Centre on lo-call 1890 777121
from 9.30 to 6.30 or by e-mail at citizensinformation@eircom.net
DEPRESSION
Broadly speaking there are two types of depressive illness:
endogenous and reactive depression. With endogenous depressive
illness, people tend to exhibit mood variations from mild
depression to that deep black despair where one might state I
can't see any light at the end of the tunnel". There can be
an inability to make decisions, feelings of self-doubt, guilt and
sleeping problems. Physical symptoms may include backache,
constipation, loss of appetite constant headaches etc. Even
though endogenous depression would normally have no obvious
external cause some physical disease such as influenza sometimes
can trigger it. Reactive depression on the other hand is normally
associated with a traumatic emotional experience such as a
bereavement, the break up of one's marriage the loss of a loved
one etc. Reactive depression more often occurs in young or middle
aged people and is frequently accompanied by the symptoms of
anxiety neurosis. There can be an inability to get to sleep or
one may have feelings of shame or guilt and so on. Generally
speaking reactive depression is less serious than endogenous
depressive illness, however both endogenous and reactive
depression may prevent a person from expressing the depth of
misery and despair they are experiencing. If one is experiencing
a deep period of depression that is chronic for more than a
couple of weeks, then it is important to contact your doctor. It
is also important to note that because we are all subjected to
both positive and negative influences we are susceptible to
becoming depressed for one reason or another. If we succeed in a
particular goal we are naturally happy. However if we become
chronically ill or experience great disappointment then we are
apt to experience depression. The problem being that this is the
very time when we need all our resources to help tackle an
illness more effectively. It is important to understand that in
certain circumstances it is normal to become temporarily
depressed. Psychotherapy can help a person to deal with and
release repressed emotions and plan for the future with a renewed
feeling of hope and optimism.
Declan Cronin (Apex Clinic)
Coveney
supports the introduction of Bylaws to
stop the consumption of alcohol in public places.
Deputy Simon Coveney said to-day that he supports
the introduction of Bylaws by Cork County Council in conjunction
with the Gardai to outlaw the consumption of alcohol in public
places, except in exceptional and agreed circumstances.
“These Bylaws would be implemented in areas agreed between
the Gardai and the County Council. The purpose of such Bylaws
will be to stop so-called “Cider Parties” and the
consumption of alcohol in parks and on the street. The Southern
Committee of Cork County Council has already recommended that the
Bylaws be adopted by the full County Council and that they will
be reviewed every 12 months. This will ensure that their
effectiveness could be gauged and that the Bylaws could be
improved on an annual basis should the need arise”, said
Deputy Simon Coveney.
“The new law would provide for two offences. The first being
the consumption of alcohol on the street or in an open space, and
the second to be in possession of alcohol on the street or in a
public place with the intention of consuming it there. The
penalties that are being proposed are fines of up to 1,000 euro
and the Gardai will have the power to confiscate containers of
alcohol. The Gardai can also impose an “on the spot”
fine of 30 euro”.
“I believe that this new Bylaw will assist the Gardai in
ensuring that the consumption of alcohol in parks and other
public places will be reduced and that the type of anti-social
behaviour that sometimes leads from such activity can also be
tackled” concluded Deputy Coveney.
...IN THE DOG HOUSE
(continued from last week)
From David Jones in South Korea
……Their defiant mood is typified by one high-ranking
government information official, who entertained Seoul-based
foreign correspondents at the capital's most exclusive dog
restaurant. The pro-dogmeat lobby has found its champion in a
patriotic 'nutrition expert', Professor Yong-Geun Ahn -'Doctor-Dogmeat'.
Barely a week now passes without him appearing on television or
radio to extol the 'proven' medical benefits of dog flesh, and
urge Koreans to fight back against 'cultural imperialism'.
'Eating dogmeat is Korea's own inherent food culture,' trumpets
Dr Dogmeat, who has written a 347-page book on the subject. 'It
is only westerners who tell us it is barbaric. Theirs is a
racist, anti-Korean viewpoint.'
When I spoke to the eccentric professor this week, he claimed to
have conducted surveys showing that 80 per cent of Koreans had
tried dog. Once, it was eaten primarily by older people, but
proponents suggest it could become the new fad-food of the young
middle classes. It is said to be increasingly popular among
younger people, particularly overworked executives, who use it to
boost their energy, and young women, who believe it improves
their complexion.
According to other experts, however, It is simply untrue that dog
eating in Korea has a long tradition. Indeed, they say, it was
not even eaten widely during the Korean War, when protein was
scarce. But if Professor Ahn is right, and dog consumption is
rising, then the politicians now trying to deny it are largely to
blame. As a transparent sop to world opinion, two laws were
introduced either side of the Olympics, each supposedly designed
to stop dogs being used for food. The first, in 1984, placed a
blanket ban on all 'disgusting foods'. The second, in 1991, made
it an offence to slaughter any animal inhumanely or without good
reason.
Since eating dogs is plainly disgusting, and since they were then
routinely clubbed to death with sticks - a technique said to
flood the meat with 'virility-enhancing' hormones - one might
have thought this would, indeed, put an end to the entire
shameful custom.
Not a bit of it. The fact is that the Government never bad any
intention of enforcing these 'laws'. -According to the
International Aid for Korean Animals lonely voice in a country
where animals are routinely mistreated -the legislation was not
even circulated to the police, nor is there any record of a dog-trader
or restaurant-owner being prosecuted. As a result, the charity's
organisers estimate, an astonishing two million dogs are killed
and eaten in Korea every year. They are usually made into a stew-cum-soup,
called Boshintang, which was on the menu at Ojoo, a speciality
dogmeat restaurant in a Seoul hotel.
CUSTOMERS can also buy them roasted, barbecued whole for special
occasions, or made into a very expensive herbal tonic, sold in
the sort of plastic packs commonly used for soft drinks. 'Over
the past ten years, the only thing that has changed is the method
of execution,' says Kyenan Kum, 54, who founded with her sister,
Sunnan, after their own pet was poisoned by dog-snatchers and
sold for food. 'In the past, the dogs were usually hung up and
beaten to death, but now that happens only behind closed doors,
or in the remote rural areas. The dogs are usually electrocuted
with prods these days.'
Kyenan used undercover investigators to compile a film on the dog
industry. It shows an Alsatian being garrotted, while a Korean
nurangi (yellow dog) - the preferred species for food - yelps in
agony and clings upside down to a tree as it is pummelled with
metal pipes.
The scenes were only marginally less harrowing when I toured
several of the biggest dog markets this week posing as a buyer,
with Kyenan and vet Dr Kyho Im.
Our journey started in Moran Market, in the Seoul suburb of
Seougnam. Most of the food stalls were closed.
but the dog-traders are always open for business.
What struck me first, as we wandered among the dozen or so dog
shops, was the utter silence. Each store was fronted by five or
six cages, some containing as many as 20 thickly-furred 'yellow
dogs', and yet there was not a whimper.
Like the majority of meat dogs, these creatures had been bred for
the table on one of Korea's 500 or more farms. Perhaps the rumour
was true that the farmers sometimes perforated their eardrums at
birth to stop them barking. Or maybe they were simply frightened.
continued next week ...
A WELL KNOWN CORK INSTITUTION RETIRES
Pat Twomey has been the most familiar face in K.C.’s
Fish ‘n Chip shop in Douglas. He is a well known, respected
and much loved character.
He has been in K.C.’s for almost thirty nine years while
dishing out fish ‘n chips there was always a joke thrown in
(free of charge). He would be well known for his ‘one liners’.
While Pat knows half the population of Cork, it seems the whole
of the country seem to know Pat. Even while holidaying on the
Shannon, when people saw him on the barge, there would be shouts
of ‘plenty of vinegar’ or ‘burger and chips there,
please’.
He is already filling his spare time very usefully. He has just
returned from Bosnia where he helped bring a truck full of
supplies to the less fortunate, through the very great work of
“Save the Children Fund”.
He also enjoys his regular Sunday singing in the Lough Church
Choir with his brother Michael and son, Paul. He has an unbroken
record of service of fifty seven years to the choir.
He now has plenty of time to spend with Helen, his lovely wife of
forty one years. And of course there’s the seven
grandchildren to fill his time.
His four children, Anne, Paul, Michelle and Lynn are very proud
of him and wish him a long and happy retirement.
