3,000 residential and business ESB customers remain without power in Donegal this evening after damage was caused to the company’s network by strong winds and snow showers.
The custromers affected are primarily in the Moville area.
The ESB says it expects most to have their power returned by 8 o’clock this evening but some will remain without power overnight.
The Joint Oireachtas Committee for Agriculture has invited Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly to make a presentation on the Special Report on the Lost at Sea Scheme.
It represents a u-turn by the government which was heavily criticised by the Ombudsman for refusing to debate the report or implement its recommendations.
One of those was that compensation be paid to the Byrne family of Bruckless, following the sinking of the family trawler which claimed the life of Francis and Jimmy Byrne in 1981.
An application by the family was rejected by the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, which had control of fisheries at the time, a decision slammed by the Ombudsman.
Gardai are warning people to be wary of letters purporting to be from Special Branch.
Gardai in Milford say they have received reports of letters looking for information, and advising the recipients to travel to a garda station at a specific time.
They say the letters have a Garda crest and look genuine, but no such letters have issued, and anyone with queries should check with their local garda station.
A senior garda officer said they have no idea what the motive for this is, and confirmed a nunmber of such letters have been received in Falcarragh.
The UNITE and TEEU trade unions have suspended their strike action at the Medisize plant after it was agreed that the dispite will be heard before the Labour Relations Commission
Nine workers associated with the unions had been on all out strike since Monday, they claim management reneged on an agreement reached with unions on the restructuring of the plant.
It was feared that the dispute could escalate with all 120 workers being call on to strike.
Dan Miller is the Assistant Secretary of the TEEU, he says the company unilaterally changed a long standing agreement, and they will use the hearing to seek to have that agreement reinstated:
According to the latest Property Barometer issued by MyHome.ie, the price of a 3 bedroom semi in Donegal has fallen by a further 3.66% .
The average price in the county is now just under €184,000, down over 11% from peak prices.
Meanwhile, Estate agent Sherry Fitzgerald says there are signs the crisis is bottoming out.
Its latest index finds the national market contracted by 2.8 per cent in the first quarter of 2010.
It has emerges that Donegal Council has paid €1.2 million to 159 members of the county’s fire service due to an administrative error.
Firefighters who are employed by the council, are normally paid about €8,000 on a quarterly basis but some workers received up to three times their normal salary when they checked their payslips last Friday.
It is understood at least one person was paid as much as €24,000, while payments of €16,000 each were also believed to have been made to members of the fire service for three months’ work.
In a statement, the council’s finance department said that an error occurred in the processing of payroll for staff remunerated on a quarterly basis during the week ending Friday, March 26th.
“A total of 159 such staff are included in this payroll run. This error is specific to this category of staff, and does not affect any other groups.”
The council says it is working in conjunction with software providers to rectify the error, and will then make the necessary corrections.
The UNITE trade union says it is making contact with other trade unions at the Medisize Plant in Letterkenny with a view to all out strike action.
Nine workers associated with UNITE and the TEEU have been on all out strike since Monday, they claim management reneged on an agreement reached with unions on the restructuring of the plant.
The striking workers say that if outside labour is brought in to to cover their duties they will be calling on all of the 120 staff at the plant to join their action.
The UNITE spokesperson is Gareth Scott:
Figures released by Donegal County Council show that illegal dumping last year cost almost 650,000 euro to clean up.
The figures were released to Councillor Patrick McGowen who has called on the council to outline what plans are in place to clean up the primary entrance roads to the county.
He has also queried the level of littering fines issued and collected on by the local authority.
In 2009 the council spent 316 thousand euro on its Mobile Litter Units which are responsible for the clean of litter on the roadsides, recycling banks and public areas.
124 thousand euro was spent providing skips, black bags and litter pickers to voluntary groups while 107 thousand euro was spent cleaning up the county’s beaches.
These costs don’t include street sweeping and litterbin collection.
However of the 650 thousand it cost to clean up illegal dumpin just 1,600 euro was recouped through fines.
191 fixed penalty notice were issued under the Litter Pollution Act, 55 were paid and of 136 that weren’t just two were persued in the courts.
Almost 300 people have signed a petition calling on the government to give a firm funding commitment for the St Johnston Sewerage Treatment Plant.
While some work was carried out on the project last year there is local concerns that money may not be allocated to finish the project.
In a petition circulated it is claimed that as a result of building activity and poor planning in recent years the waste infrastructure in St Johnston is under severe pressure.
Councillor Frank McBrearty handed the petition to the council on behalf or residents:
Donegal anglers will converge on Doochary tomorrow morning to protest about lost fishing rights on the Gweebarra River.
The protest is an escalation of the dispute between the Donegal Games Angler’s Federation (DGAF) and the Northern Regional Fisheries Board.
The protest is now going into it’s fourth year.
Chairman of the Donegal Games Anglers Federation, David McGill, said it’s undemocratic that anglers cannot get membership of a club on a river they’ve fished all their lives..
