Yearly Archives: 2017

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbQy6ZDoxzY

 

“…I would like to take a moment to speak to our soldiers on the streets of Britain. You are doing your duty as you have done so many times before.

I want to assure you that, under my leadership, you will only be deployed abroad when there is a clear need and only when there is a plan and you have the resources to do your job to secure an outcome that delivers lasting peace.

That is my commitment to our armed services.

This is my commitment to our country. I want the solidarity, humanity and compassion that we have seen on the streets of Manchester this week to be the values that guide our government. There can be no love of country if there is neglect or disregard for its people.

No government can prevent every terrorist attack. If an individual is determined enough and callous enough, sometimes they will get through.

But the responsibility of government is to minimise that chance, to ensure the police have the resources they need, that our foreign policy reduces rather than increases the threat to this country, and that at home we never surrender the freedoms we have won, and that terrorists are so determined to take away.

Too often government has got it wrong on all three counts and insecurity is growing as a result. Whoever you decide should lead the next government must do better.”

UK Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn this morning.

FIGHT!

Pic: Sky News

Meanwhile…

Ah here.

From top: Priory Hall; Kevin Hollingsworth, chartered building surveyor

This morning.

On RTÉ One’s Morning Ireland.

In her fourth of a four-part series on the construction industry in Ireland, journalist Jackie Fox recalled the sub-standard housing developments that were built during the boom, namely Priory Hall and Longboat Quay.

In her report, Ms Fox sought to find out if standards are being met today and spoke to Cian O’Callaghan, from the Geography Department at Trinity College Dublin, and Kevin Hollingsworth, chartered building surveyor.

Ms Fox said that, over the past three years, Mr Hollingsworth has been involved in the remediation works of 29 developments which she did not name.

During the report, Mr O’Callaghan recalled:

“One of the main problems during the boom was that there was so much being built, from 2006, there was something like 90,000 housing units built in the country so local authorities didn’t actually have the staff to regulate the standards properly and what was happening then is there was a process of certification that was brought in to play, where developers would hire their own architect, their own surveyor to sign off on the safety standards for the building, the building regulations.

“So, in the 1990s, the building control regulations relaxed and this kind of allowed developers to self-certify. So this is quite an unusual circumstance. You wouldn’t have it in the UK for example. You’d have an independent body who would be responsible for building controls and responsible to ensure that the quality of things was being kept.”

And Mr Hollingsworth said:

“The building control amendment regulations have been put in place and they’re a large step forward. The assigned certifier has to be there to sign off on critical things so that’s a massive step forward.”

But, he added:

“The assigned certifier can be an employee of the developer, the assigned certifier is also just a professional – they do get paid by the end user. They don’t act independently. They’re supposed to act independently but, once there’s that financial link, that leads to a lack of independence.”

Sigh.

Listen back to the report in full here

Government chief whip Regina O’Doherty

On The Ray D’Arcy Show…

Sinéad Harrington writes:

Following this week’s hugely dramatic events in Fair City, actors Johnny Ward and Amilia Stewart (Ciaran and Katy) will join Ray on the couch this Saturday night.

Fresh from his tour of Australia, funnyman Jason Byrne will be in studio to tell Ray all about his recent exploits and to have fun with some unsuspecting members of the audience!

As the Fine Gael party meets to choose our next Taoiseach, Government Chief Whip Regina Doherty TD drops by to give her perspective on Enda Kenny’s decision to step down and to outline her hopes for the future.

Also two years on from Ireland’s historic marriage equality referendum, Ray will catch up with the one and only Panti Bliss (aka Rory O’Neill), who has also agreed to act as judge and mentor to our very special guest performers in the grand finale of this year’s Ray D’Arcy Show Lip Sync battle.

Seems like a decent mix.

*lights hair on fire*

The Ray D’Arcy Show this Saturday at 9:35pm on RTÉ One.

Rollingnews








Last night.

Red Cow Inn, Naas Road, Dublin 22.

Scenes from the Fine Gael leadership debate aired live on Facebook between Leo Varadkar and Simon Coveney (pic 8), chaired by Gavin Duffy (pic 2) and watched by Minister for Health Simon Harris (above beside Simon Coveney’s brother Patrick) Minister for Education Richard Bruton (pic 7) and former Fine Gael MEP Mary Banotti and former Fine Gael justice minister Nora Owen (far left pic 6).

Last night: FIGHT!

Sam Boal/Rollingnews

This morning.

Hotelier Francis Brennan (middle above, and top), with Specsavers’ audiologists Orla Walsh and Jeff Walbran (above)

At the launch of Specsavers’ Sound Check Ireland 2017 – “a campaign that encourages Irish adults to take a more proactive approach to their hearing health”.

Recent research commissioned by Specsavers shows 69% of Irish adults have not had their hearing tested in the last five years.

Two mobile hearing vans will tour the country as part of the campaign.

Visit here for more.

Leon Farrell/Photocall Ireland

Splutter!

Rob writes:

UKIP launched their manifesto for the UK General Election yesterday. A friend of mine has the misfortune of having to read it for his nub and has been sending me the “best” parts. It’s as mad as you’d hope. As well as saying burquas should be banned because they deprive the wearer of vitamin D they are also looking to Bono for policy advice…

UKIP General Election 2017 Manifesto

 

Anthony Flynn, of Inner City Helping Homeless, and new figures from the Department of Housing

Last night.

Just before the Fine Gael leadership debate in the Red Cow Inn, Dublin.

During which contender and Minister for Housing Simon Coveney said the party needs to represent both “the man in a sleeping bag on Grafton Street tonight as well as the man creating 1,000 jobs”.

The latest homelessness report, for the week April 24-April 30, 2017 from the Department of Housing was released, showing that the number of people who are homeless has reached a new record high of 7,680 – 4972 adults and 2,708 children.

The figure surpassed 7,000 for the first time ever in December 2016.

Further to this…

Last night.

Anthony Flynn, of Inner City Helping Homeless, wrote:

The last number of days have been fairly chaotic when it comes to homelessness. Tuesday in particular, we saw the highest ever recorded number of rough sleepers and a drastic situation of no hotel/B&B accommodation for 12 families.

This led to a frenzy of supports required to be put in place and services increased to cope with demand. A number of families were referred to Garda stations as there was nowhere else to go. One such family had to be accommodated within our offices until supports could be put in place Wednesday morning. Some of those that were affected slept in tents others in cars.

How did we come to this situation?

A lack of short to medium-term planning is the best answer I can give. A complete lack of inter-agency communication and a lack of will from the powers-that-be. The eye has been taken off the ball in regard to homelessness and the long-term planning aspect has left short-term problems. Homelessness has become a crisis right across the State but hasn’t been treated as such. Our volunteers deal with thousands of individuals weekly, many of whom have become lost in a system of ‘no hope’.

I have spent the last four years in a voluntary position within Inner City Helping Homeless; I have met an abundance of people, from homeless to colleagues. I have made some great friends and am privileged to lead an organisation that shows empathy, compassion and is made up of decent human beings.

This week however, I can say that it has been the worst week I have seen within the homeless sector. Up to 30 children refused accommodation, whilst those who are charged with solving our homeless crisis enjoy their evening off.

Families sent from pillar to post in order to be left with no hope, no accommodation and no home. Homeless has become an epidemic, a plague that has spread so wide across our city and state.

Homelessness has become a business, a sector, it cost in excess of €100million a year to operate. To some that means profit, which in turn means that homelessness will remain.
This however should not take away from our responsibilities, people are suffering.

Children are being now left on the streets, a prediction that Father Peter McVerry made only a year ago. Homelessness has become socially acceptable. It has become tolerable to pass somebody by in a doorway, it has become bearable to leave families stuck in hotels, and now, this week, it has become justifiable to leave children without a bed.

Inner City Helping Homeless

An impressive graphics showcase at this year’s Google I/O Developer Festival at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, California. To wit:

Fluid Structure is an immersive interactive installation which explores how an ephemeral and amorphous shape reacts under various stimuli, internal and external. Forces and collisions bend the shape until it breaks, recombining it into new aggregates. The result is an ever changing landscape, mysterious yet familiar. A dramatic data-like visualization emphasizes the internal structure of the shape and its motion. Using computer vision the audience is made an integral part of the process, leaving its temporary physical mark, always bound to eventually to disappear. The system is driven by a state of the art fluid solver able to process in real time the forces and constraints the shape is subjected to.

quipsologies