On Friday’s Morning Focus Marian Egan was joined in studio by Deputy Pat Breen of Fine Gael ahead of the deadline for the Household Charge is tomorrow
The Chief Executive of the Local Government Management Agency has stated he is pleased with the way his organisation has dealt with the household charge
Paul McSweeney says they have carried out the task given to them by the Government – and he expects a lot of activity next week
550 thousand households have now registered to pay the 100 euro tax – ahead of Saturday’s deadline
Also, the deal to delay payment of the Anglo promissory note is coming in for some criticism
Yesterday, Finance Minister Michael Noonan said it’ll be settled with a Government bond instead – but added efforts must continue to find a long-term solution to the debt
Deputy Breen also commented on the Fine Gael Ard Fheis that will take place this weekend.
Karen McCormack of the West Clare Anti Household Charge Campaign explained that they are organising a bus to travel to Dublin tomorrow to show their opposition to the Household Charge.
The first definitive results of the 2011 census, undertaken just less than a year ago on 10th April 2011, were released today and show that Ireland’s population has continued to grow strongly since 2006, increasing by 348,404 to 4,588,252, and that the total number of non-Irish nationals has increased by 124,624 persons or 29.7 per cent from 419,733 to 544,357
The population of Clare was recorded at 117,196 (58,298 males and 58,898
females), an increase of 5.6% over the 2006 population
A fifth of all houses across Clare lie vacant despite a modest rise in population numbers over the past five years
A breakdown of the county’s figures in Census 2011 also reveal women outnumber men and the number of couples separated or divorced in Clare stands at over 4 percent
Deirdre Cullen – Senior Statistician with the Central Statistician Office – discussed the results.
The great American photographer Dorothea Lange spent a month in Clare in 1954, and this resulted in Gerry Mullins’ bestselling book of this work in 1996 called Dorothea Lange’s Ireland
There is a new film on Dorothea Lange called Child of Giants at it will be screened in Ballyvaughan on Sunday April 1st at 7pm in the Art College
The granddaughter of Dorothea Lange and Hollywood Screenwriter Leslie Dixon and her husband and the filmaker Tom Ropelewski spoke with Marian.
In the third of our Grow It Yourself slots Carmen Cronin- Munster Coordinator with Grow-it-Yourself and Jo Newton of Irish Seed Savers joined Marian in studio to speak about ‘Our Most Precious Inheritance’
Jo spoke about seed saving and heritage, why we should save our own seed and gave a brief intro to how to save seed, e.g. 5 rules
There are 5 groups in Co Clare (Ennis, Ennistymon, Miltown Malbay, Kilrush and Scarriff)
GIY Stall @ Seed Conference on Sun, 01st April.
GIY Munster Event ‘Grow your way to 5-a-day’ with Kitty Scully and local experts
Sun, 15th April, 2pm @ Radisson Blu, Little Island, Cork City
Eoin O’Neill from Newmarket on Fergus is 29 years old
Seven years ago he received a kidney transplant having been on dialysis for 15 months
He joined Marian on the occasion of Organ Donor Awareness Week 2012 to speak about how he is doing now and to encourage people to consider becoming donors
Organ Donor Cards can also be obtained by phoning the Irish Kidney Association Lo Call 1890 543639 or Free text the word DONOR to 50050
Visit website www.ika.ie
The legendary Kilfenora Ceili Band are performing at the West County hotel Ennis tomorrow night in aid of TLC4CF- Tipperary, Limerick Clare for Cystic Fibrosis
John Lynch – Leader of the Kilfenora Ceili Band and Linda Drennan of the Clare branch of TLC4CF encouraged people to come along and support.
Clare County Council, in association with An Taisce, is urging people all over Clare to get involved in the 14th annual National Spring Clean Campaign
Last year, hundreds of people across the County and more than a half a million people nationally came together to organise clean up events in their communities
Participation in this year’s campaign, themed “Working Together – For Our Community”, is open to individuals, schools, businesses, and community groups such as Tidy Towns committees, residents’ associations, development associations and sporting organisations
Betty Devaney from Clare County Council discussed this with Marian- it gets underway Sunday.
If you have a story, comment or query for the Morning Focus team email Focus@clare.fm
