A round-up of other regional news in brief
Cork-Midleton railway link set to open by summer, says Dempsey
A long-awaited railway line between Cork and Midleton is set to open this summer, said Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey during a visit to Midleton yesterday.
Work on the new line is almost finished following a €75 million investment under the Government’s Transport 21 Programme.
Yesterday’s announcement also gave Midleton residents their first sighting of a commuter train at the station since the platform was closed to passenger trains in 1963.
A total of 20 trains each way will operate daily between Cork and Midleton, with services running every 30 minutes at peak times, and every hour at off-peak times Monday to Friday.
The journey between Midleton and Cork will take about 23 minutes, and all trains will serve the new stations of Midleton and Carrigtwohill, as well as Glounthaune, Little Island and Kent Station, Cork.
New dementia centre lies idle
A new dementia day care unit at Clarecastle, Co Clare remains idle as sufferers await Health Service Executive (HSE) funding to operate the service.
At the centre yesterday, committee member of the adjacent Clarecastle Day Centre, Heber McMahon urged the HSE to provide the money to allow the centre to open, stating that “there is a tsunami of dementia here today in Ireland, it is not tomorrow’s problem”.
The €850,000 centre, partly funded by community donations, was completed two months ago and is designed to to help 25 people per day.
Mr McMahon said that €150,000 will be required to operate the new service in its first year.
This will rise to €300,000 in second year while €420,000 per annum will be needed when the unit is operating at full capacity.
Payout for garda’s thumb injury
A Co Kerry garda, whose thumb was broken while arresting an out-of-control drunk, has been awarded €26,000 damages in the High Court.
Garda John Parker told his counsel, Desmond Dockery, he had been called to Sergeant Pepper’s takeaway in Mallow, Co Cork, in October 2003 to deal with a disturbance in which a French man had received a broken nose.
While handcuffed to his assailant when transporting him to Mallow Garda station, the man had lashed out and hit him on his right thumb, fracturing the bone close to the base joint.
Garda Parker said his thumb still caused him irritation. Medical reports disclosed he was at risk of developing arthritis in his thumb.
Planning refused for ex-GAA site
Planning permission has been refused for a large housing development on former GAA land in the centre of Rathmore village in Co Kerry.
Locals objected, arguing the number of empty houses already in the village would be exacerbated by the expected flight of migrant workers, large numbers of whom rent property in the village on the Cork-Kerry border.
The company paid Rathmore GAA club €3.29 million for the seven-acre site in 2006.
The club bought the site eight years previously for well under €100,000, it is understood.
It is one of a number of GAA clubs in Kerry to have sold pitches and land during the boom.