Morley's Mouthfuls
Traffic was again a big issue this week on Galway Talks, but it was traffic safety, not congestion, that dominated. I went out to Kinvara early on this week and spoke to some of the locals about some of the traffic safety measures they want to see in the village. They want urgently to have two pedestrian crossings, as well as, a number of other knock-on safety measures. It follows two accidents in the village over recent weeks, and they're calling on Galway County Council, TII, and all the relevant stakeholders to get safety measures in place as a matter of urgency.
The Global Sumud Flotilla was boarded by Israeli forces this week as they tried to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza. A number of the people who are on the boats, including Salthill poet Sarah Clancy, have been taken as captives and will be deported to their countries in due course, according to Israeli forces.
Now, they maintain that they are trying to deliver humanitarian aid and are allowed to so by international law, making what Israel did a war crime. Israel says these people are going into their waters and that they need to make sure that there is no weaponry in this aid before it makes its way on to Gaza.
There is increasing pressure on governments across the world from citizens to put pressure to bear on Israel to end the genocide.
Insurance was again a topic of discussion this week. There have been recent hikes by three of the main four providera in the last week, seeing some premiums increase by as much as €600. This follows other increases throughout the course of this year by the majority of the four players in the market, with Level Health increasing theirs back in April.
We had Dermot Goode, of Health Insurance Ireland on the show. He explained some of the reasons given for this increase in health insurance, including more people going to seek assistance in private health hospitals.
He also gave some advice to our listeners as to what is best practice to find the best premium out there and the best deal for a given individual and family. He set out the pros and cons to having and not having private health insurance in this country.
In a week where local Fianna Fáil Deputy Albert Dolan has brought out a tracker to allow the public to see the breakdown of tenders in the public procurement process, wastage of monies at a national level was very much to the fore again. It centered in and around the €100,000 tender for the bike shelter at the National Maternity Hospital.
Now, Sinn Féin have called for this to be scrapped outright, while the government parties have said there is a tender process and to wait and see if someone can bring in a tender at an affordable rate.
We discussed this on the program earlier on this week with Fianna Fáil Deputy John Connolly and Sinn Féin TD Mairéad Farrell.
School transport came to the fore yet again this week after nearly a month since schools returned for the new academic year. We spoke to the grandmother of two children with language disorders who had to move to Loughrea to avail of a nearby school at the loss of the services they badly needed in Ballinasloe.
We discussed this on the program with the grandmother of the children in question, Josephine Clarke. She was joined on the program by local Fianna Fáil representative in the Loughrea area, Michael Regan.
She is calling for the Department of Education and the School Transport Office to get their school bus route back for her grandchildren so that they can fulfill their education to the full potential.
Staying on the topic of schools, two schools in East Galway are still waiting on the go-ahead for much-needed expansions.
For over 20 years, that's been the case for Carrabane National School in the Loughrea hinterland, but also for Scoil an Chroí Naofa in the Ballinasloe area, but that particular projects stretches out to nearly 30 years.
We discussed what can be done to expedite the process and give final approval to both projects with Sinn Féin Deputy Clare Kerrane and Fianna Fáil Senator Shane Curley.
