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UISCE ÉIREANN IS set to immediately purchase an additional 100 generators following the fallout from Storm Éowyn.
The State body, which is responsible for water treatment services across the country, will undertake a review to examine its emergency generator capacity and alternative power solutions for future storms.
Ahead of the review, Uisce Éireann will “front load” its generator capacity by ordering the 100 additional generators immediately.
Minister for Housing and Local Government James Browne will today update Cabinet on the actions taken by the State body following the unprecedented weather event at the end of January.
More than 138,000 people were without water immediately after the storm, according to Uisce Éireann.
Counties Kerry, Limerick, Clare, Galway, Donegal, Laois, Kilkenny, Waterford and Tipperary were the worst impacted.
The supply of water was impacted as a result of treatment plants having no power.
This was despite work undertaken by Uisce Éireann in anticipation of the storm which included hundreads of permanent generators at treatment plants being tested.
More than 300 mobile generators were distributed in advance.
Set up in 2014, Uisce Éireann serves 85% of the population with drinking water and 70% with wastewater services.
Elsewhere, Cabinet will also be briefed this morning on talks between the Department of Children, Disability and Equality and Unions representing Section 39 workers.
These are workers employed by privately owned charities and agencies that are contracted by the State to provide healthcare services.
It is understood Minister Norma Foley will inform Cabinet that plans are underway to resume talks through the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) imminently.
Talks were formally adjourned by the WRC in November until after the general election and a new Government was in place.
The Programme for Government commits to working with the sector to progress pay issues that affect the delivery of disability services.
Historically, the pay of Section 39 staff was linked to HSE staff, but during the economic crash, these organisations were instructed to impose pay cuts in line with those made on HSE staff.
Section 39 organisations were instructed to impose pay cuts in line with those made on HSE staff.
However, during the recovery, HSE staff pay was restored, but additional funding to restore the pay of Section 39 organisation staff was not provided.
In December, SIPTU trade union began consult members in Section 39 organisations about potential industrial action.
Separately, a memo is set to go to Cabinet today allocating a substantial increase in funding towards the delivery of housing.
It comes after the Cabinet sub committee on housing met for the first time last night.
Unsure of what exactly is happening with the earth’s climate? Check out our FactCheck Knowledge Bank for essential reads and guides to finding good information online.
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Chemical free glue???
@Ding Ding Denny: was just going to say, the glue is probably hydro carbon based
@Ding Ding Denny: You didn’t notice all the man-made fibre tents in the pictures? Yes the protesters are using the goods manufactured for the consumer of today, just like people flying to Climate Change conferences it is not hypocritical, if they can affect change the change they cause would far outweigh the damage they have done by using tents made of man-made fibre or chemical glues.
@Diarmuid Hunt: that’s a big if
@Stephen Brady: It is, can’t blame them for trying, sitting idly by definitely isn’t going to change anything.
@Diarmuid Hunt: But the tents are re-usable and last long term… that’s kind of the entire point.
Thats like you calling an environmental activist who reuses the same water bottle for 10 years a hypocrite
@Vin: I never called them hypocrites, I’m pointing out the stupidity of calling climate activists hypocrites for using modern technology as a means to an end, read past the first line of my comment.
@Ding Ding Denny: hopefully they didn’t use the oil derived glue but that made from animal parts. That way they’d be reducing carbon emissions.
Crusties! Well said Bojo!
Knew they were stuck up!
Bring in a JCB, sorted
A bunch of lunatics
@Gisbert Bayertz: The thing about this is when we’re presented with this message in a calm, rational manner, shown the science in a way we can understand, ideally with a voiceover by Sir David Attenborough. Then we’re sold, no need to do any more.
We’ll happily give up all our plastic packaging, we’ll recycle to our hearts content, we’ll clean our beaches and save our tiny animals and even our creepy crawly critters.
The problem begins with what we perceive to be the usual “rent a mob” telling us that we MUST do all the above, most of us will agree with Boris Johnston’s description of them as “unco-operative crusties”. We see the rich and famous like Emma Thompson who will make appearances at events like this, then think nothing of hopping on a plane to fly first class across the Atlantic. No weeks roughing it on a boat for them.
One protester walked out of a Sky interview when he kept insisting how much he cared about the planet and the people on it and wouldn’t stand by and do nothing. Sky’s Adam Boulton pointed out that parliament wasn’t even sitting so all they’d achieved was to cause disruption for everyone else.
It’s the perceived hypocrisy of a bunch of jumped up kids, each of them with the latest mobile phones and never far from a WiFi hotspot telling the rest of us what we have to do. The majority of those protestors will move on next year to protest again at the next virtuous, noble cause. They just happen to be right, this time.
@Arch Angel: Are you for real? Rational arguments backed up by science have been made for years and there hasn’t been enough change made. The reason you’re seeing radical protest is because there hasn’t been enough action on climate change.
@Diarmuid Hunt: I said we get it, I never claimed politicians get it.
@Arch Angel: I don’t know, I understand that you and I get it but I don’t think we speak for the entire populace. Awareness has definitely grown and is going in the right direction but I don’t think that it is as widespread as you think.
@Diarmuid Hunt: You have a point, in which case it may be fair to say those who are going to get the argument have already done so, some will never get it.
These protests by “unco-operative crusties” who seem to make a hobby of protesting from one virtuous cause to the next are doing very little to further their cause and only serve to antagonise people.
@Arch Angel: Possibly, from reading The Journal it does seem to be having a detrimental effect to their cause judging by the reactions of some people and the amount of likes they’re getting. Then again how good is The Journal comment section as a metre stick for the attitude around this? I know you point at the forever-protesters and there will be an element of that in any protest
, you have said that this time they are right, a stopped clock and all that, but some people will latch on to that side of things rather than look at the merits of this particular protest. Any protest should be weighed on its merit and not on whether forever-protesters are present.
@Arch Angel: except David Attenborough has been asking us for years to change and to listen to the scientists and you haven’t listened to him either so the rest of your point is moot.
Tents wont be up to much when they rip them back up.
Does using public money for personal pleasure get you arrested
A good bateing is required
@Michael Wynne: I hear you give a master bateing yourself.
have your say