Healy Eames calls for better payments system for small farmers

Thu, Feb 25, 2016

There has been a call for the future front loading of farm payments in order to make small farm holdings sustainable.

Irish Cancer Society announces further investment in blood cancer research initiative being led by NUI Galway

Thu, Feb 25, 2016

The Irish Cancer Society has announced a further significant investment in blood cancer research that will benefit more patients across Ireland. The national cancer charity is committing €450,000 over the next five years to support the expansion of Blood Cancer Network Ireland, a new clinical research network for blood cancers, which is being led by NUI Galway.

NUI Galway to launch marine coding challenge for young people

Thu, Feb 25, 2016

An exciting new challenge for young members of Coder Dojos in Galway city and county will be launched this Saturday.

GMIT student wins top physics and instrumentation award from the international society of automation

Thu, Feb 25, 2016

GMIT Science student Aoife Monahan from Tubber, Co Clare, has won a prestigious award from the International Society of Automation (ISA) at the ISA Honours and Awards ceremony held recently in University College Cork. Aoife won ‘Best Final Year Degree Student’ on the GMIT Bachelor of Science degree in Physics & Instrumentation.

I want to become the first Independent female TD for Galway, says Connolly

Thu, Feb 25, 2016

Independent candidate Catherine Connolly is asking voters for the privilege of representing them as the first Independent female TD for Galway West.

Extension of mortgage interest relief to 2020 will help hard pressed families – Connolly

Thu, Feb 25, 2016

Fianna Fáil General Election candidate for Galway West John Connolly has described the party’s proposal to extend mortgage interest relief for owner occupiers to 2020 as a major boost for hard pressed families.

Mortgage interest for home loans is currently available to people who bought their home between 2004 and 2012. 310,400 mortgage holders are in receipt of mortgage interest relief on their home.

MADRA says think responsibly before getting a dog as the number of stray dogs in city and county explodes

Thu, Feb 25, 2016

Galway-based dog rescue charity MADRA has asked that people think long and hard before introducing a dog to their home as the number of stray and surrender dogs continues to rise.

Fianna Fáil claims it will tackle hospital waiting lists

Thu, Feb 25, 2016

Galway West election candidate Councillor Mary Hoade says it is time ‘dignity and decency’ were put to the fore of the Health Service. She is unhappy about the size of the waiting list for scheduled treatments at University Hospital Galway, and claims the issue will be tackled by Fianna Fáil if the party was to return to Government by reactivating the National Treatment Purchase Fund.

Fianna Fáil is also claiming it would convene a special task force to produce a plan to ensure that all scheduled day case/inpatient care is delivered within the internationally recognised target of six months. Councillor Hoade says a sustained focus on waiting lists and waiting times is required. “Up to the end of 2014 the target maximum waiting time for inpatient/day cases was eight months, and for outpatients it was 12 months. Minister Varadkar abandoned this for an 18 month target and despite moving the goal posts he still missed. The Government has since approved a HSE Service Plan for 2016 that leaves hospitals short by €100 million and the situation can only be expected to deteriorate further without a change of Government. Our health service is in crisis and this Government has no real plan to address it. We need a fresh start in health and a new approach that delivers real change and restores dignity for patients. The reality is we can’t risk more of the same.”

Vote — Don’t waste the chance to make a difference

Thu, Feb 25, 2016

So do you know yet? Have you made up your mind if so-and-so deserves your vote? Have you decided if you can trust your candidate to really care or has he/she the look of a chancer about them? Do you feel respected when you hear them talk or do you feel a just a little bit patronised. Do you feel that whether you vote or not will not impact on the result. Or your life? Or the life of those around you? Apart from those who are actively involved and engaged with the parties and candidates, there are many who feel that voting does not matter and so they don’t bother. So there is a dilemma. Do we participate in a politics of cynicism or a politics of hope?

Change never starts from the top down. Change is almost always inititiated from the bottom up. And it can take time. And good candidates. And wise decisions. Popularity should never be a determining factor for the election of a candidate. Were that to be the case, our Dail would be full of hail fellows well met. As it can be. Great characters to have at a party. oO a funeral, but to work on your behalf?

'I wanted to have a feisty female protagonist'

Thu, Feb 25, 2016

Orange Boy Blue is the recently-published debut novel by Galway-based writer Julia Roddy, a lecturer in screenwriting at GMIT. A thoroughly absorbing read, the novel is an across-the-divide love story set in Roddy’s native Belfast. It charts the blossoming of an against-the-odds romance between teenagers - Catholic Ella and Protestant Will, an Orange Order member, which unfolds against the fraught backdrop of The Troubles.

Keaveney demands regional mapping to upgrading phone coverage in the west

Wed, Feb 24, 2016

Ireland is in the "midst of a digital divide" with "thousands of people" throughout the west "without proper mobile phone coverage", a situation which is also impacting negatively on western businesses.

Precedent exists to extend Annaghdown graveyard, Healy-Eames tells department

Mon, Feb 22, 2016

With no burial plots remaining in Annaghdown graveyard, and a lack of funding available to Galway County Council to buy a site for a new burial ground, the current graveyard must be extended.

15 ambulances broke down in Galway last year

Thu, Feb 18, 2016

A total of 15 ambulances broke down and required recovery assistance in Galway during a nine-month period last year – this was the highest number of such incidents anywhere outside Dublin.

Election fever hits The Kenny Gallery

Thu, Feb 18, 2016

AS ELECTION placards leer at us from every lamp-post, and vote-wheedling leaflets are daily stuffed through our letterboxes, The Kenny Gallery’s new exhibition of Irish political posters, flyers, and assorted ephemera from down the years, could hardly be more topical.

Climate change and the election

Thu, Feb 18, 2016

For as long as Insider can remember, early January was the time for our one major storm in Galway, but since November we have had nine such storms. Met Éireann has even begun devising names for future storms. It is a sign of the times to come.

Shooting the breeze with Galway impressionist Shane Cunningham

Thu, Feb 18, 2016

Caroline Whelan meets Galway based impressionist Shane Cunningham

Fahy demands flood drain channels for south Galway

Thu, Feb 18, 2016

Independent county councillor Michael Fahy has stated that, if elected to Dáil Éireann for Galway East in the forthcoming General Election, and if he “holds any association with the balance of power”, his support will be conditional on securing specific measures to tackle the flooding in south Galway.

GUH - only hospital in Ireland and UK to broadcast procedures live at international conference

Thu, Feb 18, 2016

Galway University Hospitals showcased the expertise of its interventional radiology department recently when it hosted “live cases” for a major international radiology conference which took place in Germany.

Galway’s ‘rapidly deteriorating’ roads like ‘stepping back into the eighties’ says Healy-Eames

Thu, Feb 18, 2016

The state of the roads in county areas is so bad, a competition for the “worst roads in Galway would be very popular and there would be many justified entries”, according to Independent senator Fidelma Healy-Eames.

Lyons demands response as Knocknacarra Primary Care Centre declared ‘no longer a priority’

Thu, Feb 18, 2016

While there was much talk of the importance of primary care centres by the Taoiseach and Tánaiste during Monday’s televised leaders’ debate, a Galway councillor has accused the Government and HSE of showing “little urgency in providing one for Knocknacarra”.

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