Latest news with #Farrelly
RTÉ News
4 days ago
- Health
- RTÉ News
New LGBTQIA+ services guide launched by Mental Health Commission
CEO of the Mental Health Commission, John Farrelly discusses a new guide that has been launched to help mental health staff support LGBTQIA+ service users. Farrelly says the guide will offer clear advice to mental health professionals.
Irish Independent
24-05-2025
- Irish Independent
Meath man who was swinging baseball bat in garden of Louth house given chance to avoid jail
Conor Farrelly, De Valera Park, Drumconrath, Co. Meath, had been sentenced in the district court to concurrent nine-month jail terms for trespassing and producing a baseball bat at Tullykeel, Ardee, on September 23, 2023. The appeal at Dundalk Circuit Court heard that no one was in the house at the time. The homeowner got a notification on his phone that someone was on the property which was covered by CCTV. The appellant arrived in a blue-coloured car. He climbed over a gate with a bat in his hand. He began shouting and swinging the bat and attempted to strike two dogs in the garden. The animals were unharmed. Mr Farrelly approached the front door and then went around the back of the house before climbing over the gate and leaving. Gardaí arrived shortly after 4pm. An officer subsequently identified the culprit from the CCTV. He was located two weeks later in Donore, Co. Meath in a similar vehicle. A voluntary statement was taken in which he made full admissions. Mr Farrelly indicated where the baseball bat was. In the statement, he said that he and a teenage boy had a falling out after the younger person called him a heroin addict and a junkie. He called to the house. He got the baseball bat to scare him. 'I had a bad day'. Sgt Paddy Skehan said that the teenager had been 'winding him up' on Snapchat. There had been no further interaction between them. There were 19 previous convictions, including eighteen for Road Traffic offences which occurred within the space of a year. The other was for an affray in 2016 for which an 18-month suspended sentence was imposed in 2023. Solicitor Catherine Taaffe said that her client struggled with a predominantly heroin addiction. He had been on remission for eight months but relapsed. He was struggling and needed intervention. He was due to undergo a methadone programme. Ms Taaffe continued that this seemed an isolated incident. The situation had calmed down. Mr Farrelly had removed himself from all social media platforms. Judge Dara Hayes adjourned the appeal to July 31 for a probation report and community service assessment. If the report was positive and Mr Farrelly deemed suitable for community service, the judge said he would impose 150 hours community service on one of the counts and would suspend the other for 12 months. Legal aid was granted. Funded by the Courts Reporting Scheme
Irish Independent
21-05-2025
- Politics
- Irish Independent
Bill to lower voting age to 16 introduced in Dáil – and Taoiseach ‘wouldn't rule anything out'
Social Democrats TD Aidan Farrelly, who represents Kildare North, introduced the Forty-first Amendment of the Constitution (Reduction of Voting Age to 16 Years) Bill yesterday. The last reduction in the voting age was in 1972, when the electorate endorsed a drop from 21 to 18. Taoiseach Micheál Martin said he 'wouldn't rule anything out' in relation to a voting age of 16, adding that the issue merited 'serious consideration'. 'I don't have an issue with reducing it to 16. We will give that serious consideration. We'll engage in the debate,' Mr Martin said. Tánaiste Simon Harris, however, said he was not sure now was 'the right time' for such a proposal. Two separate government referendum proposals in March last year were heavily beaten. Mr Farrelly, in introducing the bill, said lowering the voting age to 16 was one of the recommendations from the Convention on the Constitution in 2014. 'If one can work full-time and pay taxes at 16, it is only fair that people have the formal opportunity to influence how these taxes are spent locally and nationally,' he said. He acknowledged that many young people choose not to vote, and there was no doubt that many aged 16 and 17, if afforded the opportunity, would also choose not to do so, he said. But he called for a focus on those who will: 'The many thousands who care about their communities and their society, who are as passionate about politics, public administration and civic duty as their peers aged 18-plus.' ADVERTISEMENT Mr Farrelly said he had been a youth worker and had run many mock elections over the years encouraging young people to participate. 'Whether it was a referendum, or a local or general election, the vote was nearly almost mirrored in their local ballot box, or nationally,' he said. He said the Dáil could achieve something momentous. It was 'an opportunity to tell the 16 and 17-year-olds of Ireland that we value them and their voice, that we trust them and their power, and that we need them and their participation'. He added that the bill was 'one of inherent importance to me as a father, youth worker and citizen of Ireland'. It was an issue of fairness and equality, not maturity, he told fellow TDs. Government Chief Whip Mary Butler said the legislation was not opposed at this stage.
The Journal
20-05-2025
- Politics
- The Journal
Social Democrats to table Bill to reduce voting age to 16
THE SOCIAL DEMOCRATS will later table a Bill seeking to reduce the voting age in Ireland from 18 to 16. Soc Dems TD Aidan Farrelly is the party's spokesperson for children, equality and youth. He will introduce the Bill today and remarked: 'People aged 16 and 17 are as civically informed as their peers aged over 18, but are unjustly restricted when it comes to democratic participation. 'If one can work full time and pay taxes, it is only fair to afford that person with the formal opportunity to influence how these taxes are spent, locally and nationally.' He noted that reducing the voting age to 16 was one of the recommendations of the Convention on the Constitution in 2013-2014. Ahead of last June's local and European elections, Fianna Fáil Senator Malcolm Byrne had called for the voting age to be lowered to 16 in time for polling day. A Bill sponsored by Byrne and fellow Fianna Fáil Senators Mary Fitzpatrick and Erin McGreehan which would lower the voting age to 16 for local and European elections is currently before the Seanad . Advertisement 'The last government was to consider reducing this change in time for the Local and European Elections in 2024, but failed to do so,' said Farrelly. He said the Bill he will table seeks to facilitate a reduction in the voting age in time for this year's Presidential Election. Farrelly also noted that 16-year-olds were able to vote in the 2014 Scottish Independence referendum and that 16-year-olds can vote in Welsh Parliament and local elections. 'Our youth should be able to participate in our democratic processes, the outcomes of which will affect their lives as much as anyone else's, and more than some,' said Farrelly. While he acknowledged that some 16 and 17-year-olds would not vote if able to do so, he noted that this is also the case for those aged over 18. 'We should focus on the many thousands who care about their communities and their society, who are as passionate about politics, public administration and civic duty as their older peers,' said Farrelly. 'The Reduction of Voting Age to Sixteen Years Bill 2025 is an opportunity to tell the 16 and 17-year-olds of Ireland that they and their voices are valued, that they're trusted, that their insight is needed for the future of this country.' This will be Farrelly's first Bill as a TD and he said that it is 'one of inherent importance to me as a citizen of Ireland, a youth worker, and a father'. Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone... A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation. Learn More Support The Journal
Irish Examiner
02-05-2025
- Health
- Irish Examiner
HSE budget overruns more than €30m on 10 capital projects in past five years
The HSE has run more than €31m over budget on 10 large-scale projects over the past five years, new figures show, including an extra €5m spent at a community hospital on Cork's northside. The HSE incurred expenditure of €248.3m on the 10 capital infrastructure projects approved since 2020, numbers released by the Department of Health show. However, those projects were initially approved at a contract value of €217.1m — some €31.2m less than the finalised spend for the projects. The news comes after a difficult couple of years for the Department of Health in terms of budgeting. In October 2023, the overall health budget was underfunded to the tune of more than €1.3bn. That underfunding led to the HSE imposing an immediate moratorium on recruitment meaning that hundreds of positions in the service went unfilled in the 10 months following that budget. While that funding was broadly restored in last October's budget, the new capital project figures suggest that issues of working within budgetary constraints still exist for the HSE. Projected costings The numbers — provided to Social Democrats TD Aidan Farrelly in response to a parliamentary question regarding the funding of large-scale projects — detail 10 projects completed since 2020 which were priced as likely to cost more than €10m. Each of the 10 projects ran over-budget, with four of them running more than 15% above their initial projected costings. One of those projects involved the construction of a ward block at the Mater Hospital in Dublin, which when first approved in November of 2020 was slated to cost €58.5m, but which eventually incurred expenditure — excluding Vat — of €68.3m. A contract award for the development of a 60-bed extension at St Mary's community nursing unit at Gurranabraher in Cork was budgeted for €20.9m in November 2020 — but its final cost came in at €26.1m. Mr Farrelly said it is 'extremely disappointing to see capital projects in the health system running over', noting that the 'two standout projects' were the Mater and St Mary's Cork projects — which ran 17% and 25% over budget respectively. 'It would be interesting to review the paper trail for the schedule of projects provided in the context of award values and final values given the HSE board signed off on the spending,' Mr Farrelly said. I am as eager as most of us to see what the minister for public expenditure brings to the table on curbing financial overruns on capital projects now that infrastructure forms part of that brief A spokesperson for the HSE said that, given the average increase for the 10 projects was 'within 15%', the larger expenditure 'would be within the normal contingency expectation for the project [sic] of this scale and complexity'. They added that the 'majority of these contracts were carried out during a period of hyper-inflation', adding that when ex-gratia payments of €7.5m made to contractors to counter that inflation are excluded from the total costs, 'the increases are within 11% of the original contract award'. Under the Government's capital works management framework 'the contract figure is not a fixed price', the spokesperson said, adding that allowances for potential 'scope changes' resulting from poor weather or inflation may be included. Read More Why is Beaumont getting a new emergency department and not UHL? asks campaigner
