Call to stop imprisoning children [IrishExaminer]
- Published: 30 November 2009
CHILDREN’S ombudsman Emily Logan has backed calls in a new report for an end to the locking up of children in prisons.
Ms Logan welcomed recommendations in the report that her office be given the power to investigate complaints from children held in St Patrick’s Institution.
Full Story: www.irishexaminer.com
Schools fail to follow child protection guidelines [IrishTimes]
- Published: 30 November 2009
A STUDY of more than 100 Dublin primary schools has found significant breaches in official child protection requirements for schools.
The study by academics at Trinity College Dublin and NUI Maynooth found that just 16 per cent of 103 newly qualified teachers surveyed had read official department child protection guidelines.While the religious background of the schools surveyed is not included in the research, official figures show the Catholic Church controls more than 92 per cent of primary schools in the State. The Department of Education has been issuing guidelines to schools on child protection since 1991. For the past 10 years, all schools have been obliged to have child protection policies in place.
Full Story: www.irishtimes.com
Action is an exercise in futility for public sector [Independent.ie]
- Published: 29 November 2009
THERE were 18,000 hospital appointments cancelled. Hundreds of thousands of schools closed. Government departments practically closed down and pickets were placed outside hospices.
So what did Tuesday's strike achieve -- other than providing a huge bonanza for Newry retailers? Answer: absolutely nothing.
Full Story: www.independent.ie
Striking twice: pay deadlock looms again [thepost.ie]
- Published: 29 November 2009
‘The worst of weather and the best of people,” was Eamon Gilmore’s description of the public service workers who excluded their colleagues in the country’s flood-hit regions from last Tuesday’s strike action.
But not everyone shared the Labour Party leader’s image of a dedicated public service - particularly after it emerged that many of the strikers seemed to have joined a mass exodus of shoppers heading to the North for the day. The shutdown of schools and offices and the curtailment of hospital services by 250,000 public servants served further to polarise public sentiment and put the emphasis on the continuing pre-budget talks between unions and government.
Full Story: www.thepost.ie
Gaelscoil-lite plan to treble number of Irish speakers [TimesOnline]
- Published: 29 November 2009
A proposal to give children in primary schools a taste of “gaelscoil-lite” education, as part of a 20-year strategy to spread the use of Irish, has been given a lukewarm reception by some opposition TDs.
Michael Ring, Fine Gael’s gaeltacht spokesman, said that parents who decide not to send their children to gaelscoileanna should not then see them being forced to learn through Irish. “Let’s not make the same mistake with Irish that we’ve made since the foundation of the state,” Ring said.
Full Story: www.timesonline.co.uk
