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IRELAND IS SET to lose one of its 12 MEPs when the next European elections are held in June 2014.
The cut follows the approval by a European Parliament committee of a draft report which reallocates the number of MEPs to make space for Croatia when it joins the union this July.
The recommendation by Europe’s Constitutional Affairs committee will see seats scraped from a number of other countries – predominantly larger ones – in order to make room for the 11 seats that Croatia will receive as a result of its population.
After the rearrangement, Ireland (population 4.6 million) will be alongside Croatia (4.3 million) and Lithuania (2.9 million) in the number of MEPs it holds.
The new arrangements also account for shifts in populations in other countries, and will see Spain gain four MEPs – from 50 to 54 – while France and Sweden will both get two more, to 74 and 19 respectively.
Committee approval means the new system for seat assignments – which brings the membership up to 751, its legal limit under the Lisbon Treaty – is almost guaranteed to be approved by the parliament as a whole next month.
The proposal will then be sent to the European Council – the body made up of the heads of government of all 27 member states – for final approval.
The rearrangement will mean some difficulty for the Irish government, however, as last year’s Constituency Commission assumed Ireland would keep 12 MEPs when it proposed to maintain the status quo for the 2014 elections.
New legislation will need to be brought through the Oireachtas this year to redesign the constituencies that currently exist – and possibly lead to another reform of the European constituencies.
Ireland’s 12 MEPs are currently split equally between four constituencies: Dublin (which incorporates the four Dublin council areas), South (all of Munster except Clare), East (all of Leinster excluding Dublin, Westmeath and Longford) and North-West (the remainder of the country).
The cut to 11 will mean the constituencies will have to be redrawn – and because Irish law requires the seats to return either 3, 4 or 5 members, the most likely prospect is a single constituency for Dublin (or the greater Dublin area) with the remainder of the country split on a north-south basis.
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It’s been raining for 2 months non-stop!
The water supply in areas all around the country has been tainted in some way or another, and big Phil Hogan wants to introduce “water charges”.
Good luck with that Phil…!!
Bad luck to Phil Hogan wanting to rip us off even more.
But surely the Water charges would pay for a better infrastructure like in every other developed country!
Here come the down thumbs and angry comments!
Heavy rain washes slurry and other nasties into the water supply.
We will be ask to pay water bills soon just like the rest of Europe ..they want to add lithium to our drinking water(to stop people from killing them selfs) how can they charge us for our water… (you can’t sell something you don’t owned) water is going to be the next oil
I’ve often thought if people don’t want to pay water charges when they come out, just don’t. Youll be cut off, but just harness your own rain water and threat it your selves. You will then acknowledge the value of water and realise that it is NOT free.
You’ll have to set up tanks and maybe some pumps and whatever else. I priced some of it up at one of the energy shows earlier this year and I’m happy enough to just pay water charges for now if that’s the case.
I love a cold glass of corporation juice in the morning
our water contains toxic waste also known as flouride. which despite what we are told is really bad for you. we are one of only a few in the world to still do this. it’s a scandal that we have a drug added to our supply without our consent. it has been linked to increase your risk of other illnesses including cancer and osterperosis. inform yourself on this topic thru the internet, books etc
I am only starting to learn about this Stephen I’m posting things on Facebook etc about the our water most people just don’t want to know
Yes, according to the EU you are not supposed to drink or cook with fluoridated water and you aren’t meant to use it to prepare infant formula..
Why our government insist on paying to dump toxic waste in our water supply I’ll never know.. The old “it makes your teeth stronger” only applies to its topical use (eg, toothpaste, which, incidentally you aren’t supposed to swallow because of the FLUORIDE!!)
Perhaps it’s affected all of their IQs..
never drink tap water myself. expensive but i wouldnt trust it. they even actively put things in you shouldnt drink. you know flouride makes you docile? could explain a few things
And they want to introduce water charges.!!! Setting themselves up for a law suit.
“a non complint water sample” why wont they tell us what the water is contaminated with and how it entered the supply. Relevant info if you ask me. Sounds like they are hiding something.
Am I the only one who thinks this nation is a joke gone wrong?
Would that include drumcondra? Sorry I’m not long living up here that long!
Welcome to Dublin, Colm.
Love how I’m finsing this out now, from this website, as opposed to any official communication from DCC….
After umpteen cups of tea and drinks of water today… And I live in the affected area… If I grow tentacles, I’m suing
Listen, people. It’s true we have bad infrastructure, poor pipes and bad water systems. Its all the politicians fault, reasons being! We have too many of them, looking after each other and not rocking the boat. we have 753 councillors in 26 counties, who’s paying for that and where is it coming from? Solution, get rid of them all! Reform the Seanad, elect the Senators and have them nominated for election by petition of people. Say, you need 30% of quota in signatures of people before you could run for election. So, no parties can control who runs for the Senate. Then let the Senate run all the local Authorities, one per county or four regional councils. They could pass all the laws, pass the budgets, appoint managers and hold them to account. The Senate could also hold a reformed Dail to Account, having the same system for T.D.’s to be nominated to run for election!
Jesus, some people here are so paranoid. Fluoride is dangerous, then I take my life in my hands when I brush my teeth. The real reason is a smokescreen to justify the household charge.
Do you spit or swallow?
How long have we had floride in the water? And over that time, has our national average lifespan increased, or decreased?
Clue: it’s the first one.
Er, P Wurple..
The majority of the EU do not fluoridate, they reckon it’s unethical to forcibly medicate citizens, and there’s plenty of research that proves its toxicity..
How are their life expectancies next to ours?
I’m all for getting things easily without any effort on my part. I have a single filling in my whole life and I’m not much of a flosser. My husband’s parents had every tooth in their heads removed at my age. A lot of people have no idea how many ailments start with dental decay. It’s the main entrance to your body. If your mouth is full of pus, disease and festering bacteria, how healthy can you expect the rest of your body to be when you swallow that disease constantly.
Plus, how expensive is dental work? Prevention is better than any cure in my book, but I suppose not everyone feels that way. Are the anti-floride gang also anti-vaccine by any chance?
I’d be on for putting folic acid, or even aspirin in the water supply as well if there was a benefit.
Ok, where to start..
1. The “are anti fluoride people also anti vaccine” (paraphrased) statement sounds very much like a circumstantial ad hominem..
We are talking about water fluoridation, something that is not done in the majority of EU countries for the same reasons that “anti fluoride” proponents argue it should be stopped here.
Vaccines have nothing to do with this debate.
2. I repeat my earlier point, the majority of the EU do not fluoridate their water supply. And their dental problems are not in fact any worse. In fact for the most part they are doing better than us, and they do not have to worry about dental fluorosis which is quite common here (FYI, dental fluorosis, caused by excessive fluoride build up in the body actually rots the teeth out of your head – so you have to wonder whether it’s really beneficial at all – first symptom is mottled spots on the teeth – pretty common in this country)
3. It’s pretty apparent why we do not add aspirin to the water – some people have allergies and there are plenty of negative side effects. As for folic acid – there are conditions which can be worsened by high levels of folate.
In reality we should not add anything to water – we should ensure that it is clean and leave it as is, because us humans are not all the same, what’s good for one is not necessarily good for another.
4. The government does not have the right to do me harm. The bodily integrity clause in our constitution states this, funnily enough this section was added following a case brought on the subject of water fluoridation (Ryan vs AG if I remember correctly), at the time there was insufficient evidence of harm (in the subsequent decades, much more evidence has surfaced), and the claimant did not have a contract with the water supplier and so they couldn’t object to what was added.
In light of the impending water charges as well as the wealth of evidence of harm that has emerged since, I think we could possibly have reasonable grounds to demand this practice be stopped. I for one will not pay to be fluoridated.
As for dental health, that’s largely down to diet and hygiene. Having the correct nutrients in order to build strong bones and teeth in the diet is crucial, many people here have sub optimal levels of vitamin D3 (just check out how much sunlight we get), magnesium – also essential for bone health – is a common deficiency as well. Not eating so much refined sugar reduces the amount of acid that damages enamel in the mouth (as this is a by product of amylase in the mouth digesting glucose)
Fluoride is put into toothpaste because in this capacity – provided it is not swallowed – it has a beneficial effect on the teeth. It is not supposed to be ingested, adding it to the water supply is lunacy and causes more problems than it was intended to prevent.
our life span has indeed increased.. however diabetes, cancer, osterperosis and another illnesses are increasing at huge rates. I think it may be the dutch that put it in their constitution never to add it to theyre water. a small town in europe, may have been switerland added to the water for a 10 years as a experiment and illnesses increased massively in that time and the years after.
Actually with Drumcondra only 1 kilometer from clontarf it’s possible.
eh no Colm!
Thanks
In response to itchy brain!!
What on earth am I paying income tax for?
Then I have the “Universal charge!!!!!! / levy!!! (lmfao) universal levy for what!
The household charge!!
Carbon tax, proposed water charges!!
I pay if I have to see a doctor.
I pay for the privalige of lying on a trolley for 24-48 hours in a hospital.
I pay for a visit to the dentist .
I pay for my bins to be collected.
I pay tolls on the roads I drive on.
(even though I PAY road TAX. )
I pay for taxi’s home at night, because the powers that be cut nite links.
(nobody works after 11pm in Dublin!)
I pay for parking , even though I pay road tax!! Again.!!!!!
But if I was unemployed……….!!!!!
I don’t pay for doctors,
I don’t pay for dentists
I don’t (necessarily have to pay property tax)
I don’t have to pay for my bins.
I don’t pay to sleep on a trolley in a hospital.
I don’t pay tolls, carbon tax or road tax(cos I don’t drive)
Why is the water polluted .. nail the fu@kers polluting the water. Then it might not need to treat it so much.
Fix the leaks while they’re at it.
Imagine we will be paying for this service shortly. We never learn. Give us a system that works then we’ll pay for it.
We never needed to pay eater charges in the past.Our tax covered bin charges.Street lights.And the water was never an issue.Thanks to Europe and the wave of privatisation-open door to low wages by yhe way-we must now endure all this parting with our hard-earned money.I will say it again BOOOOOO to our precious government.And to most of us who accept everything without question.
Water charges sorry typo.
It’s a boil water notice now and they’re chlorinating the water to ‘flush out’ our bacterial friends, which takes 3-7 days to come through the whole system, plus it’s officially been detected since the 3rd.
A dose of Cryptosporidium won’t kill you, might lose a few lbs! :)
Flouride is not going to make your teeth stronger its made up so the government can dump flouride into our water supply for free without having to pay thousands for its disposal. Nutritional deficiencies is the cause of all tooth decay if you lose all your teeth it’s usually due to being on an unnatural diet and lack of minerals. Refer to Dr Weston Price if you need more info. I filter all my tap water through my kangen water machine
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