Monthly Archives: September 2012

TWO LOCATIONS in Minister for Health James Reilly’s north Dublin constituency were added to a list of places chosen for primary care centres after the final list drawn up by the HSE was passed to his department, The Irish Times has learned.

Swords and Balbriggan were among five locations added to the priority list for building new primary care centres announced by the Minister last July. Neither featured in lists of the top 30 locations which the HSE recommended should receive priority in the development of new centres by public-private partnerships, documents obtained under freedom of information show.

The decision to change the list was challenged by Minister of State for Primary Care Róisín Shortall, who told Dr Reilly she found it “hard to understand”.

Have you been in politics long, Róisín?

Two sites in Reilly’s constituency added to primary care centre list (Paul Cullen/Martin Wall, Irish Times)

(Sam Boal/Photocall Ireland)


Should you shop in Oasis.

Sinead Noonan (brunette) and Pippa O’Connor model the Autumn/Winter collection today at St Stephen’s Green, Dublin.

Deirdre Vreeland writes:

Fashion changes from year to year?  You’d never know with this Oasis collection, which replicates somewhat unexcitedly what this brand has been doing so successfully for a few years now: safe, wearable, durable, young-but-not-too-young clothes with an early sixties vibe particularly good for petite figures.

The Peter Pan collar (an Oasis staple since September 2011) is sweet but unoriginal.  And the grey metallic dress is a reworking of a strapless one from the previous season with a modesty vest and sleeves added.

City shorts are notoriously difficult to wear and the styling of the ones in the first pic. make the wearer look like Lady Mary from Downton Abbey from the waist up and Lady Gaga from the waist down. And ankle boots without tights should be left to those lucky women (rare over the age of consent) who need a bit of extra padding on their legs.

On the positive side, the dresses are eminently wearable, even for those carrying a few extra pounds, and the colour of the Peter Pan dress is a nice nod to next season’s beloved hot pink for those fortunate enough to be able to wear it. And it’s lovely to see a navy tweed coat as an alternative to corpseifying black…

Conclusion: If you were to apply the ‘kill, f**k, marry” test to clothes…

(Leon Farrel/Photocall Ireland)

Budget
Unlike the other parties, Fine Gael will take on the big vested interests that have contributed to the current crisis – the bankers, the bondholders, the developers and the unions. And we will aggressively cut the waste in our public service to keep all taxes as
low as possible.

Public Sector
Our public sector is too large, too inefficient and too expensive. Fine Gael will improve the quality of public services by prioritizing frontline services – that’s teachers, health professionals Gardaí, Local Authority services etc, and will streamline systems, eliminate
red tape and waste and managers will be accountable. The outdated and inefficient annual budget system will be replaced with an open and transparent system to manage the nation’s finances. Fine Gael’s Public Sector Strategy will reduce the cost of the Public Sector by 10% over the next four years. This will save €5bn by eliminating waste and abolishing 145 quangos.

Still.

Early days.

The Five Point Recovery Plan (Enda Kenny, Mayo FG)

Thanks Lars Biscuits

And here’s where you start paying.

And it’s quite reasonable.

Cathy from the Irish Writers’ Centre writes:

I wanted to share some of our courses, events etc. in the Irish Writers’ Centre on Broadsheet? We’d love to spread the word to encourage aspiring, budding and experienced writers to take advantage of the Centre on Parnell Square. We have some really wonderful classes starting next week and there’s everything from beginning your novel to finishing your novel as well as writing desire and writing for kids. You can have a look through our courses here. If putting this into a limerick of the day might help with this, here’s a limerick:

If you’re lookin’ to find your voice,
and you think a bitta writin’ might be noice,
Come to the north side of Dub,
to our city’s very own literary hub,
The Writers’ Centre will help find your inner Joyce.

Irish Writers’ Centre