Galway City Council are warning of increased traffic volumes across the city this Sunday, due to the Galway v Mayo games at Pearse Stadium and the Installation of Bishop Brendan Kelly at the Galway Cathedral.

Galway City Council will be assisting the gardaí with coordinating the traffic management across the city throughout the day.

Increased traffic is anticipated on Sunday 11th due to matches at Pearse Stadium and Installation of Bishop B. Kelly at Galway Cathedral. The public are advised to use the primary N6 and Seamus Quirke Road to access both events and to park legally and responsibly at all times.

— Galway City Council (@GalwayCityCo) February 9, 2018

The travelling public are advised to use the primary N6 and Seamus Quirke Road to access both events and to park legally and responsibly at all times.

Bishop Brendan’s installation on Sunday, the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, takes place at 3pm while the games at Pearse Stadium begin at 12pm and 2pm.

We wish to advise customers of a disruption to Galway City Route 401 this Sunday, 11 February 2018 due to the football match in Pearse Stadium https://t.co/6YsAIZT4Xw

— Bus Eireann (@Buseireann) February 9, 2018

RSA experts will check child car seats and restraints free of charge at two locations in Galway this month, as part of their campaign to check 10,000 child car seats every year.

They want to ensure that children are using the right car seat for their height and weight, and make of car,  that these seats are fitted correctly.

The RSA’s team will fix any incorrectly fitted seats and restraints, show parents how to do it themselves and answer any queries they have.

They say that it takes just a few minutes, so you don’t need an appointment and it is open to all makes and models of cars and child car seats.

Though the two Galway events are unconfirmed, the events are scheduled for later this month, at SuperValu, Church Street, Gort on Thursday 22 February, between 10am and 5:30pm, and SuperValu, Athenry Road, Loughrea, Friday 23 February from 10am to 5:30pm.

The next phase of the works at Parkmore will commence on Monday 12 February, with the provision of a second traffic lane on the Parkmore West road approach to the Parkmore Road roundabout.

This additional lane will be 330m long from the roundabout and fronting the adjacent Medtronic and Merit facilities in the Galway Technology Park.

Traffic surveys have shown that during the 3pm to 6pm period, 39% of traffic from Parkmore West turn left towards the Tuam Road and this additional 330m long lane will provide a reduced exit time for road users during this peak flow period.

The work will require road widening onto the frontage of Merit and Medtronic facilities to provide an additional traffic lane and footpath as well as associated accommodation works, services and street lighting modifications.

The works will begin on Monday, during school mid-term break and will be completed by the end of the Easter break in April.

They will be undertaken so as to minimise disruption to traffic flows. No traffic restrictions will be permitted during morning and afternoon/evening shift change periods.

This additional phase of works in conjunction with improvements delivered in 2017 have help in alleviating overall congestion in the area and to reduce journey times to the Parkmore Business and IDA Parks.

Galway City Council says it will continue to work with the PTAG Committee and in conjunction with Galway County Council, the National Transport Authority, Transport Infrastructure Ireland and the IDA in delivering further access improvements to the Parkmore Business and IDA Parks

“I do not accept the logic that somebody will buy drink just because it is near the butter and that it must be segregated, while yards down the road there is an off-licence with a sign offering two bottles of Buckfast Tonic Wine for €20.”

Galway West TD Catherine Connolly has said there is a certain hypocrisy when it comes to talking about alcohol, and that banning it or prohibiting it will not make a difference to our drinking culture.

The Independent TD said that alcohol is not bad in moderation and that young people are ‘far too clever’ for elected representatives and that they see their hypocrisy.

She added however that the level of over-drinking is ‘astounding’ and that it must be dealt with by growing up as a society.

The comments were made during the Public Health (Alcohol) Bill 2015 debate in the Seanad yesterday, which Connolly supports.

“It is an offence for a publican to serve somebody who is intoxicated. It is an offence to drink on the streets of Galway. We introduced by-laws prohibiting drinking on the streets in Galway. Immediately, however, we had to make exceptions because it is a city of culture, of which I am proud, a bilingual city and a city of festivals,” she said.

Catherine Connolly criticised alcohol related by-laws that ‘mean nothing’, saying gardaí told us they could not enforce the law because they did not have the authority to confiscate and destroy.

“We introduced by-laws to allow gardaí to confiscate and destroy the drink, but then exceptions were introduced. There was also a lack of gardaí on the ground.

“One can see the level of hypocrisy and duplicity here.

“It is okay to drink to excess during a racing festival. We could not possibly stop people in Galway drinking in the streets during the races, yet we will tell young people not to drink. I have a difficulty with the hypocrisy of how we do that at a societal level. I am glad that changes have been made with regard to the physical barriers. Otherwise, I certainly would not have voted for the legislation, even though it contains many good sections,” the Independent TD said.

Connolly also criticised that the legislation utterly ignores off-licences, which are allowed to be as attractive as possible.

“What captured the difficulty for me was the attempt in the Bill, particularly before it was amended in the Seanad, to have physical barriers erected in shops, as if that was the problem. It is as if someone going into the SuperValu near my home – although it has changed its name now – and seeing drink would be encouraged to buy it.

“I do not accept the logic that somebody will buy drink just because it is near the butter and that it must be segregated, while yards down the road there is an off-licence with a sign offering two bottles of Buckfast Tonic Wine for €20.”

There has been a 33% decrease in Galway’s community gardaí, according to Councillor Mairéad Farrell.

Cllr Farrell, who will be Sinn Féin’s Galway West candidate in the next election, said that she is appalled at the loss of these gardaí across the county, which fell from 21 in 2011 to just 12 in 2017.

Figures obtained by her party colleague and Justice spokesperson in the Dáil for Sinn Féin, Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire TD, show that across the state the total number of community gardaí in the force has fallen from 1112 in 2010 to 691 in 2017.

Cllr Mairéad Farrell said that the government has ‘no interest in investing in Community Policing’.

“As elected representatives, we know from working with designated community gardaí that the difference a good community Garda can make to an area and to individuals and families is huge. It can be transformative. Community Gardaí can build up relationships and trust with people at risk of offending, particularly young people, and direct them in a more positive direction, such as through the Garda Youth Diversion Projects,” she said.

The Galway Councillor said that she has seen for herself the difference that the gardaí can make.

“Failing to make these kinds of investments could undo the good work that was built up, particularly in disadvantaged communities, over many years.

“The National Model of Community Policing was launched in 2009, amid much fanfare, and it does represent a very positive approach. However, it has been ignored,” Cllr Farrell added.

Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment Denis Naughten says that New Inn, a village in East Galway, will have broadband speeds as fast as New York by the end of this year.

The Roscommon-Galway TD said that eight out of ten households will have broadband by the end of this year, and that the vast majority of Irish villages, like New Inn in Galway, will have access to up to 1,000 Mbps high-speed broadband.

“Villages like New Inn in east Galway will now have broadband speeds equivalent to what is available in New York City,” said the Independent TD.

“When I became Minister 21 months ago, five out of ten homes in this country had access to high-speed broadband. Today that figure is seven out of ten.

“I gave a commitment to the people of rural Ireland that I would not allow this process to continue one minute longer than was absolutely necessary in order to deliver a future-proofed broadband network for every place name in rural Ireland.

“Standing on the eve of delivering that, an historic project for the economic development of rural Ireland, I do not intend to allow politics to push this procurement process out further.

“I intend to supply real high-speed broadband to rural Ireland, and I have the confidence that this contract and its infrastructure will stand the test of time.

“I believe there is unanimous support in this House for the speedy and efficient delivery of the national broadband plan. Now is the time to continue that momentum, not the time for indecision, reflection, point scoring or diversion.”

However, the plan was criticised by some opposition TDs, including Sinn Féin’s Brian Stanley.

“The broadband plan to connect 542,000 homes and businesses with high-speed broadband is in complete disarray,” he said.

“With only one bidder left in the procurement process the Government has lost control. I have warned it of this outcome many times over the last two years.

“The seeds of the fiasco were sewn in the privatisation of the State telecom company, Telecom Éireann, in 1999, which has turned out to be a disaster.

“Investments were made with taxpayers’ money and it was built into a modern, state of the art communications network in the 1980s and 1990s by the workforce, only to be sold off under the Fianna Fáil Government in 1999. Sinn Féin said that the privatisation route with national broadband was not the way to go.”

Middle Street has been closed to traffic due to emergency sewer repairs.

It is expected to remain closed until at least 7 pm this evening, Wednesday 7th February 2018.

Galway City Council regret any inconvenience caused to members of the public during the course of this essential emergency repair work.

Midlands North-West MEP, Matt Carthy, has called on the Irish Government to demand an immediate halt to Mersocur trade talks, after it emerged that the European Union has increased its offer on beef quota to the South American bloc to 99,000t.

Matt Carthy said that news of the inflated offer has come at the worst possible time for the Irish beef industry who are already dealing with the uncertainty created by Brexit.

“Since the publication of the EU’s initial offer of 70,000t, which was irresponsibly high, we have witnessed crocodile tears from Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil representatives who have promised to support Irish farmers in the Mercosur process,” Carthy said.

Carthy said that he wrote to Commissioner Hogan requesting that he insist that Irish and EU farmers be protected by removing sensitive sectors, such as beef and poultry, from the negotiations but that he refused and instead later set a ‘red line’ for beef quota at 100,000t.

“I don’t even think Commissioner Hogan will be brave enough to claim that allowing the offer to be 1,000t short of his supposed red line has done farmers any favours. It is an utter insult to set a red line at 100,000t but accept 99,000 as a reasonable compromise.

“The fact that a new increased offer has been made proves that neither Fine Gael, or their appointed EU Commissioner, can be trusted to defend Irish interests in EU trade deals.

“Their support, and that of Fianna Fáil, to the CETA trade deal with Canada (which includes an annual beef quota of 50,000t) proves that they are willing to sacrifice indigenous Irish industries, farmers and our democratic institutions rather than stand up to the European Commission or corporate vested interests.

“The truth is that the Mercosur talks are progressing at the behest of German car manufactures in the knowledge that Irish and EU farmers will be sacrificed.  The Irish government can and should call halt immediately.

“It is clear that we cannot trust sentiments such as those expressed by lead EU negotiator Sandra Gallina who has acknowledged in the context of Brexit this is not the time to be jeopardising Irish beef further.

“Seventy five percent of imported EU beef already comes from the Mercosur countries, this new offer makes oversupply inevitable causing a race to the bottom on prices that Irish farmers simply cannot win.

“The time for rhetoric is over.  Irish political representatives can support dangerous trade deals such as Mercosur and CETA or they can support Irish farmers.  They cannot support both,” said the Midlands North-West MEP.

A Galway West TD says new figures from the Department of Public Expenditure reveal a huge appetite among Dublin based civil servants who are seeking a transfer to regional locations.

Fianna Fáil TD Éamon Ó Cuív said that over 700 civil servants in the capital have applied for transfers to other parts of the country, while only 29 people from the rest of the country have applied for transfers to Dublin.

The numbers were compiled following the launch of the Civil Service Mobility Scheme for Clerical and Executive Officers last November.

This scheme is part of the Civil Service Renewal Plan, which aims to ‘expand career and mobility opportunities for staff across geographic, organisational and sectoral boundaries’.

“This surge, in such a short space of time, shows there is clearly a demand for a more regionalised civil service.  The spiralling cost of living, combined with unsustainable rental prices and long commutes are making less and less attractive for people to continue living in Dublin,” Deputy Ó Cuív explained.

The Galway TD pointed out that in many cases, the income levels these civil servants are on make it extremely difficult for people to afford to live in Dublin.

“These figures show a large appetite for a move to the regions.  Not only is it more affordable, many feel they would have a better quality of life.

“Ministers need to take note of these figures and realise that the redeployment of government staff and state agencies to regional and rural towns must be seriously examined and facilitated.  This model has worked in the past – improving economic conditions and creating long-term sustainable employment to rural towns and areas.

“The Civil Service Mobility Scheme clearly demonstrates a demand from civil servants wanting to work in regional locations.  The scheme must be backed up and expanded to bring jobs to rural Ireland,” Deputy Ó Cuív added.

University Hospital Galway is the second most overcrowded hospital in the state today with 43 people waiting on trolleys.

This comes a week after the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation released figures showing that January was the the worst beginning to the year ever experienced at UHG for overcrowding.

Nationally, the figure for today is 594. At Cork University Hospital, 45 patients are waiting on trolleys.

Last week, Phil Ni Sheaghdha, INMO General Secretary said: “This is an incredible level of overcrowding and the appalling conditions experienced in Emergency Departments are now beyond anything we have ever seen. It now amounts to a humanitarian crisis for patients and a risk rich environment for those trying to work in such chaotic conditions”