Category: Old Donegal

Junior Transport Minister Hildegarde Naughton has been told that more details will emerge about the deaths of two men in waters close to Port Ronan, Malin head in July 2018.

The comment was made by Deputy Padraig MacLochlainn during a debate on the Marine Casualties Amendment Bill.

The bill is being amended to take into account a European Court ruling that the composition of the Marine Casualty Investigation Board Union does not comply with EU regulations in terms of potential conflicts of interest.

Deputy MacLochlainn told the Dail the ongoing experience of the families of Gerard Doherty and Thomas Weir raises serious questions…………..

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Two projects in Donegal have been included in a national Regional Enterprise Transition scheme, with an emphasis on food.

The first will investigate the feasibility of establishing a Food Coast Incubation Centre at the Glenties Enterprise Centre, while the second, at Killult in Falcarragh, will look at establishing a Gaeltacht-based social enterprise to promote Northwest Donegal as a region known for sustainability, biodiversity, and low-carbon food production.

Agriculture Minister Charlie McConalogue says its significant that out of 18 feasibility studies nationally, two are in Donegal.

Donegal County Council will spend over €162 million next year, almost 5% more than the figure for 2021.

Councillors will meet online today for the authority’s annual budget meeting, after plans to hold the meeting in the Aura Leisure Centre were dropped this week.

Chief Executive John McLaughlin says the budget will focus on a number of key themes.

They include the maintenance and improvement of houses, roads, and other key infrastructure, support for economic development and job creation, and strengthening the Donegal brand as a location for investment and tourism.

He said the council is also peparing a pipeline of plans for housing, roads, public-realm improvements, recreation/leisure, and job-creation infrastructure, and that will be supported in this budget.

Finance Officer Richard Gibson says the budget has increased from €155,285,723 in 2021 to an estimated €162,303,721 in the Draft Budget for 2022.

The Draft Budget includes a new €350,000 Fund to initiate a Pilot Project for Infrastructure within Council Housing Estates, as well as the capacity to ensure that co-funding requirements for all the projects underway can be met, while also maintaining levels of funding provided across the council’s services this year.

3,893 new cases of Covid 19 have been confirmed this evening, with 43 Covid related deaths confirmed over the past week.

611 Covid patients are in hospital, down 27 from yesterday, while the ICU figure is up two, to 132. Latest figures for Letterkenny University Hospital show 15 patients with Covid, three in ICU.

The chief medical officer, Dr Tony Holohan, says one in seven people have had cold or flu symptoms over the past week.

He’s again urged people with symptoms of Covid-19 to “self-isolate immediately”.

1,931 new cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed in Northern Ireland.

Four people have also died there from the virus in the past 24 hours.

The deputy chief medical officer says schools are not as safe now as they were a number of months ago.

New figures show 16,500 children have tested positive for Covid-19 in the past two weeks.

24 clusters were identified in schools last week – compared to only 16 the previous week.

Dr Ronan Glynn says he never said schools were safe……..

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News, Sports and Obituaries on Wednesday November 24th……….

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Having agreed pre-contracts during the season with Derry City, the Brandywell club formally completed the transfers of Michael Duffy and Patrick McEleney from Dundalk today.

Both players left Derry in 2015 but have returned to the Candystrips looking to win trophies. It’s been a busy few days for boss Ruaidhri Higgins who also signed Will Patching on Monday.

McEleney says winning a league and getting to Europe is where they want to go with Derry:

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Duffy, who has signed a 4-year contract says his best days can be with Derry:
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Taoiseach Michael Martin says he will not seek to interfere in a garda investigation after he was urged to guarantee the immediate publication of the Brandon Report into the alleged sexual abuse of residents Ard Greine Court and the Sean O’Hare Unit in Stranorlar.

The issue was raised in the Dail this afternoon by Sinn Fein President Mary Lou McDonald, who claimed that gardai and the HSE, the two agencies charged with protecting people, are the ones blocking the reports publication…………

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The Housing Minister says work on the Mica redress scheme is almost finished – and he hopes to bring it to cabinet next week.

Ministers were due to consider proposals yesterday for compensating homeowners affected by the defective blocks.

But it was delayed again as the government finalises the details.

Darragh O’Brien says that work has almost concluded………..

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Donegal Cllr Frank McBrearty Junior has written to Taoiseach Michael Martin seeking a meeting to discuss the need for a Public Inquiry into the Mica issue.

The Taoiseach told Deputy Thomas Pringle last evening in the Dail that an inquiry would take years to organise and conclude.

In his letter to the Taoiseach this afternoon, Cllr McBrearty claimed that in his response to Deputy Pringle in the Dail last evening, Mr Martin had once again shied away from a public inquiry.

Cllr McBrearty says the establishment of a Tribunal is inevitable because of what he describes as the problems Mr Martin’s Government is facing in the courts.

He says there is no way a tribunal can interfere with the due process of the courts, or the establishment of what the government is promising will be an enhanced redress scheme.

Claiming that in 2001, a Fianna Fail led government sought to delay the establishment of the Morris Tribunal, Cllr McBrearty says the Taoiseach’s response yesterday was akin to Groundhog Day.

Cllr McBrearty concludes by requesting a meeting with the Taoiseach to discuss the Mica issue, as well as a number of the issues raised in the Morris Tribunal.

He says if Mr Martin does not do so, he will confront him publicly at a press conference in the future, with the eyes of the worlds press watching.

 

A Donegal man has died in a work-related accident in Manchester.

It’s understood that he was unloading a load from a lorry last night when he became trapped.

He was taken to hospital in Manchester where he was pronounced dead a short time later.

It’s believed that the 57 year old was from west Donegal.

His name has not yet been released.