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Fears for future of Mayo Cancer Unit The Connaught Telegraph this week.
Threats have been made that the campaign for the retention of full breast cancer treatment services at Mayo General Hospital, Castlebar, will be reactivated. Frustrated activists say that the money needed to maintain and develop the unit in Mayo has not being forthcoming. This controversy is bad news for Fianna Fail as government promises not to downgrade the breast cancer care programme are not believed to be happening. This could lead to an Election Candidate being put forward by the cancer care lobby and severely damaging the election prospects of Dr. Tom Moffatt and Deputy Beverly Cooper Flynn.
The first indication of dissatisfaction over this issue came from the Chairperson of the Mayo Cancer Support Group, Ms. Kate Kane. Ms. Kane says that she had been informed of additional funding being made available to the Western Health Board for the development of symptomatic breast disease services by Ms. Vera McManamon, Private secretary to the Minister for Health, Dr. Michael Martin. However, none of this money has been forthcoming, according to Ms. Kane, and the Western Health Board hasn't confirmed that it has received this money. Sources have indicated that only a "minuscule amount" (around £14000) had been allocated to the breast cancer service at Mayo General.
Due to protests last year and early this year, Mr. Michael Martin promised that the Mayo breast screening service would not be closed down in order to help fund a "centre of excellence" at University College Hospital in Galway. However, Ms. Kane says that "the resources are simply not there to run it".
A spokesperson for the Western Health board, Ms. Miriam Stack, said that they are committed to "continually improving the services for cancer patients in Mayo". She outlined all the facilities currently available in Mayo, along with the plans for phase two of the development of the breast cancer unit. She also stated that the Mayo Cancer Support Group received £75000 from the National Lottery on February 20th.
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On-the-spot fines for rogue anglers The Connaught Telegraph this week.
Rouge anglers are to be netted in a new nationwide drive to streamline fishery prosecution procedures. Authorised officers of the country's Fisheries Boards have been empowered to issue on-the-spot fines of £50 to rogue anglers from this week if they are caught breaching "relatively minor" fishery offences.
Mr. Vincent Roche, manager of the North-West Fisheries board, said the new system was provided for in the Fisheries (Amendment) Act 2000 and coincided with the introduction of the new tagging system for commercial and rod-caught wild salmon.
Several other offences will also be covered by the new regulations including the taking of under-sized fish, exceeding bag limits, contravention of "fly-only" bye-laws, the illegal use of prawn and shrimp and the failure to produce a fishing licence. Mr. Roche said that the fines would help implement these new regulations and will be of great assistance to the Fishery Boards.
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Knock passenger figures to jump by 25,000 this yearThe Connaught Telegraph this week.
Passenger numbers through Knock Airport are officially soaring according to the Board of Knock International Airport. A recent Dail question by Deputy Jim Higgins to Minister Mary O'Rourke revealed that last year, Knocks numbers dropped dramatically to 173,421, in comparison to 1999's numbers of 197,358 - this is a drop of over 13,000. The Board of Knock International Airport, however, has revealed figures showing that Knock passenger numbers have actually increased by 37% in the first six months of this year, with the expectation of being up by 25,000 passengers by the end of the year.
The increase has been brought about by the additional early morning Ryanair flights to the UK, according to Mr. Cathal Duffy, chairman of the Knock Airport Board.
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IDA slammed for neglect of Ballina The Mayo News this week.
Cllr. Padraig Moore, Cathaoirleach of Ballina Urban District Council, launched an attack on the IDA for neglecting the current unemployment crisis in Ballina. Referring to the recent closure of Henniges Elastomers, Cllr. Moore said he was deeply disappointed that the IDA had failed to provide a replacement industry and that they were not giving priority status to the town as they had promised to do.
Cllr. Moore continued by saying that Ballina is in need of "an advance factory and an information technology park...yet the IDA do not appear to be interested in purchasing any of these". Cllr. Moore explained how the IDA were waiting to purchase land on the Sligo road, even though there was another site on the Foxford road that was ideal and would be much quicker and easier for all involved. There is nowhere at the moment for an industrialist to set up industry in Ballina if the opportunity arose and Cllr. Moore stated that this is unacceptable.
Cllr. Moore believes that the £2 million being given to the IDA from Henniges should be reinvested in Ballina and that the IDA should also buy Henniges factory. Ballina has lost Asahi, Rowear and Henniges in the last four years and there is currently an employment rate of 1800. Cllr. Moore's comments were unanimously endorsed by his colleagues and incoming Cathaoirleach, Cllr. Willie Nolan.
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Board supports strategic rail corridor for West The Mayo News.
County Development Boards in nine counties are currently preparing a joint submission to the National Spatial Strategy proposing a Strategic Corridor in the Western Region by re-opening the railway line from Limerick City to Collooney, Co. Sligo. This would then create a rail link from Cork to Sligo.
The Development Boards, which have been set up in every city and county, believe that there would be many benefits for passenger and freight services with this line which previously operated in the 1970s. Iarnrod Eireann have stated that such a service may be viable if the funding was to become available to their company to re-open the line at the estimated cost of £110 million. The line could solve the future traffic problems as they are expected to become 80-100% worse in 20 years than they are now while also attracting more industry to the region.
The City and County Development Boards involved in the preparation of the submission are: Sligo, Leitrim, Mayo, Roscommon, Galway, Galway City, Clare, Limerick, Limerick City, Cork, Cork City and Tipperary North.
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Death of Castlebar's senior citizen The Mayo News this week.
The death has taken place after a short illness of Mr. Tossie Kelly, Spencer Street, Castlebar, one of the towns best loved and distinguished citizens. A member of a well-known Castlebar family, Mr. Kelly was aged 90, but has enjoyed excellent health up to very recently. He has been a resident of the Sacred Heart Hospital, where his death took place on Sunday last.
Three weeks ago, Mr. Kelly had given a fascinating interview for over one hour on his life and times to Cllr. Johnny Mee for a joint www.castlebar.ie - CRC project. The interview was broadcast on CRC-fm under the title "Memories of a Castlebar Gentleman" and was acclaimed, both at home and abroad. [The web video of the interview can be viewed on http://www.castlebar.ie/av/mayomoments/tossiekelly]
Burial took place at the Old Cemetery on Tuesday (yesterday) following Requiem Mass at the Church of the Holy Rosary, Castlebar.
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Council set to give green light to £200m gas terminal The Western People this week.
Mayo County Council is expected to make a decision this weekend granting planning permission to Enterprise Energy Ireland (EEI) for a £200 million gas terminal on a site at Bellanaboy, North Mayo. The application has been with the local authority for over a year now, during which the EEI moved the position of the terminal on the former Coillte site some 500 yards to accommodate the concerns of local residents. The local authority can grant, refuse or request more information at the weekend, but it is expected that there will be a definitive answer as there have been heavy consultations in the past few weeks with the EEI.
The decision will come in the face of a request by the Green Party to postpone their judgement until an independent Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) has been drawn up. Enterprise Energy has already carried out an EIA, but the Green Party and others who are opposed to the development, have argued that it was not an independent assessment. Mr. Niall Herriot believes that there are "numerous flaws" in the EIA carried out by Enterprise Energy and that the socio-economic aspects should also be taken into account as well as the environmental aspects. He also wants an ongoing public forum, inclusive of all views, to debate the merits and demerits of the matter.
Meanwhile, EEI welcomed the announcement by an Bord Gais that their £300 million pipeline to Galway is on schedule. They also stated that job opportunities represented by the Corrib find can already be seen in the decision by Rolls Royce Power Ventures to apply for permission for a gas-fired generating station in Bellacorick.
Ms. Rosemary Steen, Public and Govt. Affairs manager with EEI stated that the proposed development is the second biggest development in Ireland since Intel and that over £500 million will be invested both offshore and onshore in Mayo and that approx. 500 jobs will be created over two years in construction of the terminal with about sixty full-time jobs on completion.
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£218,000 for Mayo IT applicantsThe Western People this Tuesday.
Allocations totalling £218,100 have been secured in Mayo for information technology projects designed to bring the benefits of new technology to elderly and disadvantaged groups. The allocations were announced under the Community Application of Information Technology initiative under the aegis of the Department of Public Enterprise.
Senator Frank Chambers said that the initiatives by Meitheal MhaighEo (which was awarded £95,400), Castlebar Server Project (£78,400), South West Mayo Development Co. (£32,400) and St. John's Rest and Care Centre, Knock (£11,900) were to be commended.
He pointed out that 450 projects had been submitted from all over Ireland and for Mayo to receive four awards totalling £218,000 was a credit to the standard of the submissions.
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New course for aspiring chefs at GMIT The Western People this week.
The Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology will be one of the first colleges to offer CERT's new National Apprenticeship in Professional Cookery Programme.
The pilot programme was officially launched in CERT House, Dublin, by Dr. James McDaid TD, Minister for Tourism and Recreation last week. The programme, developed by CERT in conjunction with industry, college and employee representatives, is designed specifically for aspiring chefs working in industry.
The programme, which is in modular format, will run over a three-year period where apprentices will undertake on-the-job training and college-based study, leading to a National Certification. In the first year, there is a six-week block in college followed by one day a week for the remaining 24 weeks. The second and third years will consist of four weeks in college during the year then one day per week for the remaining 26 weeks.
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