A 1,000-piece Central Perk LEGO set (celebrating the 25th anniversary of the sitcom’s September 1994 launch) complete with minifigs of Ross, Rachel, Chandler, Monica, Joey, Phoebe and Gunther.
Available next month for €69.99.
St James’s Hospital, Dublin
Journalist Sean Finan, in The Dublin Inquirer, reports:
Between 20 to 25 people are being discharged into homelessness every week from St James’s Hospital, says Dr Clíona Ní Cheallaigh, clinical lead of the Inclusion Health Service.
In 2014, Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government Alan Kelly, and Minister of State Paudie Coffey said they would put in place a formal discharge protocol so that “as far as possible, no patient will be discharged into homelessness”.
…Sometimes people come into the hospital housed and leave homeless, says Ní Cheallaigh – a situation facing a sick patient at the moment, whose wife has just died while he’s been in hospital, and who just lost his private-rental apartment, too.
“Now he’s facing homelessness for the first time after leaving hospital,” says Ní Cheallaigh.
As part of the ongoing $90 million renovation of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra’s new home at the historic Warner Grand Theatre, engineers were required to expand the old cinema stage area while retaining the building’s original 1931 back wall.
Which they did, by moving the whole thing back 10.6 meters – upright and intact – along a series of specially built tracks.
In fairness.
(Top pic: Brian Jacobson)
Plagiarism
at
If you’re at a loose end this weekend, why not head to Clane in Kildare for @TPFFest!
You’ve got @TheStunningBand @the4ofus @frankandws @VivaJerryFish @declanorourke and may others playing over the weekend!
Really looking forward to this festival.#irishmusicparty
— #IrishMusicParty (@irishmusicparty) August 19, 2019
Go surfing in Kildare this weekend.
Clane GAA will play host to the Playing Fields Festival featuring some of Ireland’s greatest musicians – The Stunning, The 4 of Us, The Frank and Walters and, to be sure to be sure, The 2 Johnnies.
Struck Down
at
From top: Ryanair pilots strike outside Dublin Airport last October; Fórsa’s deputy general secretary Matt Staunton, national secretary Angela Kirk, and head of communications Bernard Harbor outside the High Court this morning
Helen Coffey, in The Independent UK, reports:
A planned strike by Ryanair’s Irish pilots will not go ahead this week after a ruling from the Dublin High Court was issued this morning.
The Irish court said it would grant Europe’s biggest airline an injunction to prevent a 48-hour stoppage beginning on 22 August.
Justice McDonald said he would restrain the union “from directly or indirectly, organising, directing or endorsing their members to participate in a strike on 22 and 23 August 2019”.
The view from Peig Sayers’ cottage window. As inspiring and timeless as the woman herself.
(Peig doesn’t deserve the criticism she gets, don’t @ me) pic.twitter.com/ksHWK8Y0cq
— Lesley (@island_lesley) August 19, 2019
She had little to complain about, in fairness.
From top: John Wall and medical card entitlement for ‘Frontier Workers’
;
Whilst The @HSELive were granting “Frontier Workers” & their dependents medical cards without a means test (as is their right under EU Regulations) Terminal #Cancer patients like myself have to beg, before being refused!
No deal #Brexit may have implications?#medicalcardscandal pic.twitter.com/iNNyIWOWy2— John Wall (@walls2) August 20, 2019
Meanwhile…
I can go one better @walls2 My husband returned to college after he lost his job and qualified for a Back to Education Allowance which AUTOMATICALLY entitled him to a medical card just for being a student!!! What made this worse was that I was jumping through hoops…1/2
— Vicky Phelan (@PhelanVicky) August 20, 2019
…at the time as I was just after being diagnosed with cancer and had to appeal my application TWICE before I finally qualified for a medical card. I remember my husband’s card arriving in the post before I got mine and was confused. I rang to find out why my husband got one 2/3
— Vicky Phelan (@PhelanVicky) August 20, 2019
I eventually got a medical card after appealing twice but the effort it took to have to go through it and knowing that my husband had to do nothing for his one enraged me at the time #medicalcardscandal
— Vicky Phelan (@PhelanVicky) August 20, 2019
Then Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Paschal Donohoe, at the Public Services Card Centre, D’Olier House in Dublin after he registered for a Public Services Card (PSC) with the Department of Social Protection on September 8, 2016
This morning.
Cianan Brennan, in The Irish Examiner, reports that Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe was briefed on Data Protection Commissioner Helen Dixon’s interim report on the Public Services Card a year ago.
This is despite him telling RTÉ last Friday that he had been briefed by his officials on the report’s “key points” that morning.
Ms Dixon’s report found that there is no legal basis for anyone to have to present a Public Services Card in respect of any transaction between a person and a public body outside the Department of Employment and Social Protection.
She also ordered that the supporting information that the 3.2 million card holders had to hand over in order to get their card – such as utility bills, proof of ID, etc – and held by the department must now be deleted as it was unlawfully held.
It’s interesting to note comments made by Mr Donohoe after he apparently saw the report:
On September 25, 2018 he said:
“During 2017 and over the course of this year, my Department and the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection have worked with a number of specified bodies to integrate the PSC and MyGovID, into their processes in order to improve access to and the security of public services.
“Currently, the PSC and MyGovID underpin access to social welfare entitlements, first time adult passport applications, citizenship applications, Revenue services, SUSI grants, driving licence and driver theory test applications.
“During the rest of this year and 2019, access to more public services will be underpinned by the PSC and MyGovID. My Department along with the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection is engaging with the relevant Departments to assist with the transition of services in line with the schedule set out in the eGovernment Strategy 2017-2020.”
Also, on October 24, 2018, he told the Dáil:
“I listened to Deputy [Éamon] Ó Cuív’s comments about the need to simplify the tax code and the sharing of information between Departments, which is what underpins the public service cards.
“I agree with his point that if a citizen supplies information to the State, particularly when it is created by the State in the first place and then made available to the citizen, it should not be the case that the citizen must supply the same information to multiple agencies.
“It is a fair point and it is why the work is under way in the SAFE 2 process, where citizens who must provide information to the State receive a single digital identity which, once it is has been provided, is used by the State to ensure information is available to all Departments more quickly than it is now.”
Meanwhile, separately, before Mr Donohoe would have seen the report, on March 22, 2018, Mr Donohoe told the Dáil the following:
“I want to reiterate to the House that we have the highest level of protection in place to ensure that citizens’ information and private data are safe, secure and stored and regulated in accordance with data protection law.
“I am aware of the issues of concern that were raised in the second half of last year. That is why we have published the document I referred to a moment ago on the website of the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection.
“It explains to citizens how we are handling the various issues of concern. We have responded, and will continue to respond, to any matters of public concern and any observations or views that the Data Protection Commissioner may have.
“We are dealing with matters of concern for the public, and that is why we have tried to communicate what the benefits are.
“At a time when there are such legitimate concerns about how we protect our digital identity and make sure information that people share is securely protected I would have thought that the rationale for the public services card has actually grown rather than been diminished.”
Transcript: Kildarestreet.com
Previously: Your Card Has Been Declined
Paying Mary
at
Magdalene survivor Mary Cavner (O’Sullivan) has been awarded a five-figure settlement after she was forced to do unpaid work at the Good Shepherd Convent (top) for nearly six years.
The mother of five spent years trying to convince the State she worked at the Good Shepherd Convent in Co Cork, from the age of 11 after her dad’s death.
The Government formally apologised to all of the women confined to the Laundries in 2013 and set up a redress scheme for the victims.
But Mary, who now lives in England, was denied compensation after the Irish authorities claimed she was at St Finbarr’s Industrial School which was not listed as part of this scheme [see below].
The Ombudsman ruled Mary is eligible for the redress scheme and awarded her the cash.
Meanwhile….
“They held me there and worked me until I was nearly 18. We weren’t allowed to talk or associate with anybody else which affected me throughout my life.
“To then be told that I was lying was devastating. I had never mentioned what happened to me to my husband or my children, so it took all of my courage to admit what I had been through and then they called me a liar.
“My experience in the laundry left me unable to communicate properly. I have had really low points as they have made me live this again and to be accused of not telling the truth made me feel rejected.
“I am speaking out as I want to tell all of the women who went through this but don’t have a voice to stand up and fight.
“This was never about getting compensation as whatever money they had given me it wouldn’t give me my lost childhood back.
“This was about holding those who made me stay in that laundry and work throughout my childhood to account.”
Mary Cavner (O’Sullivan)