Category: Old Donegal

 

The hunt is on to recruit over 200 enumerators in Donegal for Census 2022.

They’re needed to work for 10 weeks next year delivering and collecting around 2.2 million forms from every home in the country.

Enumerators can earn € 3,200 working part time, visiting around 450 homes each.

The Census will be held on April 3rd next year, after being delayed due to the pandemic.

Kathleen Golden, Assistant Principal for Census Publicity has been outlining more about what is involved:

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Planning has been approved by Donegal County Council for on-site, renewable, electric vehicle charging stations, with additional energy storage capacity, at the Letterkenny Institute of Technology Campus.

The project will see LYIT become one of the first third level campuses to showcase renewable powered, on-site, EV charging infrastructure in Ireland.

The pilot, conducted under the Northern Periphery and Arctic Programme, project SMARTrenew, will see two solar powered, electric vehicle charging stations, combined with energy storage capacity, installed in the coming weeks, at the LYIT Campus car park, opposite the main college building.

This new facility will enable access to all-day electric vehicle charging to LYIT staff, students, and visitors, and will be an important step in accelerating the shift to EV’s in the Northwest region, where reliance on private transport is high.

The project aims to showcase the benefits of renewable energy and energy storage in the wider community.

In a statement Project lead, and Academic Director of LYIT’s WiSAR Lab, Dr Nick Timmons, noted that with the number of electric vehicles on Irish roads set to significantly expand in the coming years, the rapid rollout of EV charging infrastructure is crucial.

The full details of this project will be presented by Dr Timmons during the SMARTrenew virtual Pilot Showcase Event on Thursday the 2nd of December, at 1pm.

A new entrance is being developed for the Public Services Centre in Letterkenny.

Donegal County Council is currently completing the Neil T Blaney Road Section of the Letterkenny Traffic Management Project, and as part of that work, the entrance to the centre and the Breast Screening Centre is being relocated to Joe Bonner Road.

The change will be implemented from tomorrow, with temporary signage being put in place to advise and guide traffic to the new entrance.

Former Donegal player Paddy Campbell has joined the backroom team of the county senior setup.

Campbell who lead Naomh Conaill to club championship glory back in 2005 has had various coaching and management rolls in recent times in Derry and Tyrone with his latest job at Owen Roe Leckpatrick.

Campbell will work alongside Manager Declan Bonner and Head Coach Stephen Rochford.

Donegal can return to inter-county training on December 8th with the first competitive games being the McKenna Cup at the turn of the New Year with three games guaranteed before the league starts on the final weekend in January.

Holiday home owners affected by Mica are being urged to come forward with their stories.

Campaigners are hopeful the proposals for the long awaited Mica Redress Scheme will finally be ready by next Tuesday following several delays.

The proposals are due to be brought before Cabinet on November 30th following weeks of negotiations however; it’s unclear whether holiday home owners will be included in the enhanced scheme.

Mica Action Group PRO Michael Doherty says its vital people with secondary homes in Donegal or elsewhere affected by Mica have their voices heard:

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Emergency services are currently at the scene of a crash on the outskirts of Letterkenny.

The collision happened shortly after 8am in the Drumkeen area.

Traffic is currently moving freely in the area.

There are no further details at this stage.

 

The number of first-time home buyers under the age of 30 has more than halved in the last 16 years.

It has gone from a 60 percent market share in 2004, to 24 percent this year, according to a new report by the Banking and Payments Federation.

It comes as the Central Bank will today publish its annual review of mortgage lending rules, and outline whether banks can participate in the government’s proposed shared equity scheme.

CEO of the BPFI, Brian Hayes, says lending rules are a factor in the rising age of first-time buyers:

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The Dail has heard that over 340 children died in infancy or early childhood in the Stranorlar County Home.

Formerly the local workhouse, the home admitted 1,646 unmarried mothers between 1922 and 1964.

The stark figures were highlighted this week as part of calls for the Mother and Baby Home redress scheme to include all former residents.

Donegal Deputy Thomas Pringle says the Government must do the right thing:

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Germany’s new ruling coalition has made protecting the Good Friday Agreement part of its programme for government.

Olaf Scholz’s new “Traffic Light” coalition agreed a deal yesterday — bringing the curtain down on a decade and a half with Angela Merkel in power.

The document says “non-compliance” with the “agreed standards and procedures” of the Brexit withdrawal deal must be met by “countermeasures”.

Foreign Affairs minister Simon Coveney says Ireland is the state arguing for the compromises in the EU:

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NPHET will consider whether children should wear masks in primary schools when it meets later this morning.

It comes as nearly one in every hundred children tested positive for Covid-19 last week.

5,375 contracted the virus, according to the latest Health Protection Surveillance Centre report – the highest infection rate of any age cohort.

But just 24 outbreaks have been liked to schools — accounting for 139 cases.

Consultant in infectious diseases, Dr Eoghan De Barra, says infection in children is generally mild:

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The Junior Education Minister says government’s “determined” to keep schools open.

Josepha Madigan says hundreds of millions of euro has been spent to try and prevent the virus spreading in the classroom.

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