The Cabinet has accepted the recommendation of the Constitutional Convention and will hold a referendum on civil marriage for lesbian and gay couples in 2015
The decision has been welcomed by campaign groups GLEN, Marriage Equality and the ICCL
On Wednesday’s Morning Focus Marian Egan spoke with Brian Sheehan of GLEN – a Kilrush native to get his views
She also spoke with another Kilrush native Orla Howard who is a Board Member of Marriage Equality; and the National Lesbian and Gay Federation.
The current water shortages in Dublin have led to renewed focus on plans to extract water from Lough Derg
Though strongly opposed by many in the Midwest, there have been many calls nationally for extraction to commence
Marian heard from both sides in the debate
Senator John Whelan of the Labour party is Laois based and last week called for a strategy to be put in place to push the development ahead
Opposing any such move was Declan Collison of the Shannon Protection Alliance
Declan is a Dromineer green guest house and cafe owner and on Tuesday night he spoke with members of East Clare Tourism in Scariff on dangers of abstraction
He fears that water levels on Lough Derg will suffer if this goes ahead and thinks this is being approached as if it’s already a done deal.
A Clare Fine Gael TD has said that he is open to the decriminalisation of cannabis
Joe Carey says that while he is not convinced of the merits of legalising the drug, he would consider backing a Portuguese-style model, which removes criminal penalties that he says has seen people here suffer
The Clare TD spoke with Marian as the Dail debates a Bill to legalise cannabis altogether
Roscommon Independent TD Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan insists that wouldn’t be a radical move.
Helen Bullock is a Midwest based teacher and the Editor of ‘How I Learn’
This book is a study of learning styles and experiences by educators and learners – it is raising money for the children’s charity Barnardos.
Paul Wolfe of the Clare Citizens’ Information Service joined Marian in studio to answer listeners’ social protection, employment and consumer law queries Contact 0761 07 5260.
If you have a story for Morning Focus email Focus@clare.fm
