The public sector embargo on recruitment and promotion has had a huge impact on the ability of Teagasc to deliver education and advisory services at a time when demand is growing on a daily basis.
The number of people enrolling at agricultural colleges has rocketed and the need for innovation in the agri-sector is growing rapidly.
Teagasc has taken a huge hit on staffing and the overall number has fallen from 1,600 in 2009 to 1,000 this year. This huge cut in staff has impacted on Teagasc’s main areas of activity: education, advice and research. Regarding education, the number of college students enrolling in these courses has soared by 144% – it reached 1,500 this year and that is three times the figure of a few years ago. However, staffing levels have not kept pace and there is a shortage of teachers.
Teagasc has indicated it may have to cap the number of students in such courses. It is difficult to increase class sizes in such circumstances and it might even be dangerous to do so because of health and safety issues relating to machinery and animals. The colleges in Clonakilty and Pallaskenry have been particularly badly hit.
The advisory service has been seriously affected and the number of staff there has fallen from 400 to 250 in the past four years. It is simply not possible to give the type of service necessary.
Research has also been hit and six senior researcher posts have not been filled. It is a hugely important area and the Minister should lift the embargo immediately.
Seamus Healy TD
0872802199
Agriculture Industry: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members] (8 Oct 2014): link to debate
Statement by Seamus Healy TD 087-2802199
Minister should Provide New Houses Not Spin
Minister Alan Kelly has now admitted that only 475 new social housing units will be built in the entire state this year. This government has now been in power for over 3 years.
Tipperary Co Council’s Director of Housing Services Claire Curley told a recent meeting that 750 people presented as homeless in Co Tipperary since January 2013 including 244 so far this year.
There are 2,500 families on the local authority housing list in Co Tipperary at the moment and 90,000 nationally.
In answer to a priority question from me(Question No. 5 of 17 September 2014, Minister Kelly had said: “Overall, I expect some 6,000 social housing units to be delivered across the range of programmes in the calendar year 2014.”(Dáil Report).
But when I asked Minister Kelly for a breakdown in a supplementary written question, it turned out that 2,500 of “the social housing units to be delivered” were in fact the payment of rent allowance to those in private rental accommodation and only 450 were newly built social housing? This spin is totally unacceptable when over half of applicants are on the waiting list for over 4 years and 750 people have presented as homeless in Co Tipperary alone over the last 18 months. Only 750 additional social housing units were provided nationally in 2013
President Higgins has recently criticised the lack of provision of newly built social housing and insisted that the fundamental human right to housing should not be left to the market. I call on the Minister to insist that new and much increased capital funding be made available to social housing bodies and to Tipperary Co Council to tackle this deep human crisis.
Seamus Healy TD
087-2802199
I am backing @IrishCancerSoc #BreastCheck campaign. I raised this issue earlier this year and will continue to fully support the campaign.
Today the Irish Cancer Society were at Leinster House calling on the Government to extend BreastCheck to women aged 65-69.
In 2011 the government promised to extend BreastCheck, this has not happened.
The extension will mean an additional 87 women’s lives a year will be saved through screening.
For WRITTEN answer on Tuesday, 1st July, 2014.
* 590. To ask the Minister for Health the position regarding the extension of BreastCheck to the 65-69 age group; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
– Seamus Healy T.D.
For WRITTEN answer on Tuesday, 1st July, 2014.
REPLY.
The BreastCheck Programme provides free mammograms to all women aged 50-64. A priority of the BreastCheck Programme at present is to maximise national uptake in the 50-64 year age cohort.
It is my intention to extend the upper age range to include the 65-69 age cohort as soon as possible in line with available resources.
Workers & Unemployed Action 