Latest news with #Kearon
Irish Times
05-05-2025
- Automotive
- Irish Times
Drivers push to swap US licences for Irish ones amid test backlog
Proposals that would allow people to swap their US or Canadian driver's licences for Irish licences without sitting a driving test have been hailed as 'pragmatic' by Ceann Comhairle Verona Murphy. A group of people who live in Ireland and hold North American licences have put forward a number of alternatives to sitting the driving test, due to extensive waiting lists . Waiting times for driving tests have risen significantly, with some people waiting up to 10 months . The group's alternatives to sitting the test include requiring these drivers to sit the theory test, requiring them to take 12 driving lessons (up from the current six), and ensuring they have maintained a clean driving record for at least three years. READ MORE Gene Kearon, a dual American-Irish citizen, is leading the group's efforts. The 60-year-old was born in the US to Irish parents and spent part of his childhood in Wicklow. He relocated to Gorey last October. The group has contacted a number of TDs with their proposals. In an email reply sent to Mr Kearon on April 14th, Ms Murphy described the suggestions as 'pragmatic' and said they aligned with the need to maintain road safety while 'reducing pressure' on the Road Safety Authority (RSA). People who move to Ireland and hold a driving licence from countries including the US can drive on Irish roads for up to a year. After this 12-month period, people from certain countries (and certain regions in Canada) can exchange their licence for an Irish one. However, the US is not one of the countries so recognised. Mr Kearon said he and others 'don't want to compromise Irish road safety', but that the current model does not make sense. 'You're telling me, I arrive on day one and I can drive unfettered throughout the country - why does that change on [day] 366? Wouldn't it be smarter to say, 'Okay, you can drive, but in order for us to give you that licence on day 366, you have to take the 12 lessons that everybody else takes'?' Mr Kearon has started the process of applying for an Irish driver's licence but has been told it could be September before he can sit his test. [ Learner drivers face having to start again if they have more than four permits without passing a test Opens in new window ] His one-year grace period ends in October. If there is any delay, he could be without a licence, and unable to drive - something which could affect his job. Mr Kearon knows several people in a similar situation and said 'they're all desperate for a solution'. He said he has been driving for four decades, without a road traffic incident, and believes he is 'unnecessarily taking a spot away from somebody else who's never driven before'. There is a commitment in the Programme for Government to examine 'reciprocal driving licence arrangements with the USA, Australia and Canada'. A spokesperson for the Department of Transport said Ireland has a licence exchange agreement with Australia and seven of the 10 Canadian provinces, but that reaching an agreement with the US is more complicated. 'US driver licensing operates at state, not federal, level. This means that there are 50 licensing systems, with widely varying testing standards and road safety performance.' A spokesperson for the RSA added that 'agreement with any one state [in the US] would mean taking into account the licence-exchange arrangements between that state and the other 49″. As such, a blanket agreement 'would not be feasible'.
CBC
26-03-2025
- Health
- CBC
Costco, Masonville mall, Walmart: Health unit releases latest list of measles exposures
Cases of measles in the London region have jumped to 16 this year, health officials warned Wednesday after releasing a list of busy places visited by people infected with the highly contagious virus. As always, public health doctors were tight-lipped about the individual cases, citing privacy concerns, but said most of the cases are related to a larger, unvaccinated cluster linked to a broader outbreak in southwestern Ontario, according to Dr. Joanne Kearon, the associate medical officer of health for the Middlesex-London Health Unit. All but one of the 16 people were not vaccinated against the disease, she added, and the majority of cases are in kids between the ages of five and nine. The youngest person to get measles is six months old, and the oldest is 35 years old, Kearon said. The more significant outbreak has been linked to a large gathering of Mennonites in New Brunswick in the fall, the province's chief medical officer of health has said. "Cases could spread in any unvaccinated community or population but are disproportionately affecting some Mennonite, Amish, and other Anabaptist communities due to a combination of under-immunization and exposure to measles in certain areas," Dr. Kieran Moore wrote to public health officials across the province earlier this month. Elgin, Oxford, and Norfolk counties have large populations of Mennonite and Amish communities. The outbreaks have forced the London Health Sciences Centre to tighten its visitor rules, and Southwestern Public Health officials are offering vaccines to infants that normally wouldn't be eligible. Here in Middlsex-London, the cases that aren't linked to the broader outbreak are related to international travel, or the origin isn't known, Kearon said. The measles virus can live in the air for up to two hours once an infected person leaves an area and can infect nine out of 10 unvaccinated people. People are asked to monitor themselves for symptoms of the illness for up to 21 days from the date of exposure. The health unit released the following list of places visited by infected people in the previous week: March 20 - Costco on Wonderland Road North, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. March 20 - Walmart on Fanshawe Park Road West from 2:15 p.m. to 5 p.m. March 22 - Masonville Place from 2 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. March 22 - St. Michael's Parish from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. March 23 - St. Joseph's Urgent Care from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. March 23 - Victoria Hospital adult ER from 1:20 p.m. to 3:45 p.m. "We are intending to use that exposure list as a way to communicate to the public all of the potential places that the public may have been exposed to measles," Kearon said. "The most important thing that people can do to protect themselves is to get vaccinated." The Middlsex-London region has a 95 per cent vaccination rate for those over 17 years old, so the overall risk is low, she added. "Measles vaccine with one dose is 90 per cent effective and with two doses it's 97 per cent effective," Kearon said. The health unit previously released the following list of places where people may have been exposed to measles: March 14 - Tiger Jacks on Wharncliffe Road South from 3:20 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. March 14 to March 15 - Jack's on Richmond Street from 9:30 p.m. to 4:10 a.m. March 15 - Burrito Boyz on Central Ave from 2:15 a.m. to 4:30 a.m. March 15 - St. Michael's Parish from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. March 16 - Binge Bins on Wonderland Road South from 9:45 a.m. to 4 p.m. March 16 - Argle Mall Walmart from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. March 16 Carter's Osh Kosh at 1925 Dundas St. from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.
CBC
31-01-2025
- Health
- CBC
Middlesex-London Health Unit reports multiple measles exposures at 2 local hospitals
As the number of measles cases continues to climb across the province, officials with the Middlesex-London Health Unit reported on Friday that there have been multiple exposures to confirmed cases recently at two local hospitals. The exposures occurred in the emergency departments of Strathroy Middlesex General Hospital on Jan. 19 and 23, and the pediatric emergency department of London's Children's Hospital on Jan. 24, 25, and 28, the health unit said Friday. Specifically, the health unit says the exposures occurred on: Jan. 19 between 9:10 p.m. and 11:10 p.m. at Strathroy Middlesex General Hospital's ER; Jan. 23 between 3:45 p.m. and 8:15 p.m. at Strathroy Middlesex General Hospital's ER; Jan. 24/25 between 8:30 p.m. and midnight in the waiting room of Children's Hospital's pediatric ER; Jan. 24/25 between 8:45 p.m. and 3 a.m. in Children's Hospital's pediatric ER; Jan. 28 between 10 a.m. and 2:45 p.m. in the waiting room of Children's Hospital's pediatric ER; and Jan. 28 between 11:20 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. in Children's Hospital's pediatric ER. In a statement, Dr. Joanne Kearon, the region's associate medical officer of health, said parents and guardians should seek medical care if they or their child is sick with suspected measles. "We ask, however, that you phone ahead so that staff can put precautionary measures in place to prevent the spread within the health care setting," Kearon said. The best way to protect oneself from measles is to get vaccinated, health officials say. Two doses of the measles vaccine are recommended for anyone born in or after 1970. In Canada, the vaccine is only available in the form of the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine and the measles-mumps-rubella-varicella (MMRV) vaccine. Measles is highly contagious and causes symptoms including fever, a red blotchy rash, red, watery eyes, and cough, provincial health officials say. On Thursday, Chatham-Kent health officials warned of possible measles exposures this week at the city's emergency department. Public Health Ontario has reported an uptick in measles cases in recent weeks, most involving children. As of Jan. 29, the province said it had seen 26 confirmed and 27 probable cases since October involving 41 children and 12 adults. Of the 53 confirmed and possible cases, reported by Grand Erie Public Health, Grey Bruce Health, and Southwestern Public Health, only six involved patients who were vaccinated against measles, the province says. On Wednesday, Grand Erie and Southwestern health units declared measles outbreaks connected to at least 19 patients in their communities, mostly children, who had fallen ill in recent weeks. In comparison, the province as a whole saw an average of seven measles cases per year between 2013 and 2019. No cases were reported in 2020 or 2021, one case was reported in 2022 and seven in 2023.
