Bishop warns of possible prostitution “scourge” in Dundalk

Bishop John McAreavey

A leading bishop in the Catholic Church fears border towns such as Dundalk could be at risk of a prostitution “scourge” unless the Government bring laws in the South into line with those in the North.

Bishop of Dromore John McAreavey has warned that failure to do so would result in major problems for border towns such as Dundalk, Monaghan and Letterkenny.

“What you will find is that people who want to access prostitution could do it legally in the South but not in the North,” he told The Irish Catholic.

Calling on the Government to “prioritise” the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2015, Dr McAreavey said “it would be terrific thing if the whole island had similar legislation in relation to prostitution and human trafficking”.

The bishop pointed to the fact that the proposals in the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2015, introduced by Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald, mirrored the approach adopted in Northern Ireland and other jurisdictions.

Acknowledging that there was a “strong political will to get this Bill onto the statue books”, Dr McAreavey warned that “with the Government coming towards the end of its life span, of course, there would be a temptation to drop it”.

However, the bishop said that he believes “the minister is very committed to it and most of the parties in the Dáil are in support of it.”

He said: “I think there is a strong political will to get this bill onto the statue books and I think it would be a really positive thing for the whole island,” he said.

Dr McAreavey also warned that there was a “lack of public awareness” about the issue of human trafficking in Ireland.

“There is an assumption that it is an issue somewhere else. It’s insidious and obviously fiercely abusive of people who don’t have too many choices and don’t have much protection,” he said.

Less than a third of drink driving cases in Louth lead to convictions

Less than a third of drink driving cases before the courts in Co Louth since January 2013 have resulted in convictions.

That’s according to figures published in today’s Irish Times, which show that just 32% of drink drivers had been convicted between the start of 2013 and May 2015.

Only Kerry, at 29%, had a lower conviction rate than Louth, which had the joint second lowest figure alongside Waterford.

The national average was 40%, with Offaly having the highest conviction rate at 68%. England and Wales both had a 97% conviction rate in comparison.

In Dundalk, there were 134 convictions for 392 offences (34%) while there were 118 convictions for 385 offences in Drogheda (31%). It was revealed that in Ardee of those convicted of drink driving, none had their licence numbers recorded.

The same judges would be present in the District Courts in Dundalk, Ardee and Drogheda, with neighbouring Cavan and Monaghan also having low conviction rates of 41% and 42% respectively.

Just over a week to go to register your interest in the Matthews Arts Showcase Initiative

Sinead McNally with Mary and Paddy Matthews at the launch of the Matthews Arts Showcase Initiative back in May

There is just over a week to go to register your interest for the Matthews Arts Showcase Initiative.

The three year scheme was launched by the Inniskeen-based bus company earlier this year to coincide with their 20^th anniversary in business.

At the time Paddy and Mary Matthews teamed up with Knockbridge-based singer/songwriter Sinead McNally to write a song for the company called “Matthews Takes You There”.

To coincide with the song’s release Sinead was featured on the back of a Matthews bus.

Now the company are offering fellow bands, musicians, performers and entertainers the chance to take her place. The arts showcase initiative is open to anyone in Louth, Monaghan and East Meath.

Sinead said: “This has been an incredible opportunity for me and I really encourage anyone working the arts to apply.”

The winning artist will receive six months advertising to the value of €6,500.

The closing date is October 9^th with further details available here.

A video on the launch of the Matthews Art Showcase Initiative can also be viewed below.

College applicants from Louth amongst the most likely to receive a student grant

College applicants from Co Louth are amongst the most likely in the country to receive a means-tested student grant, according to new data.

The information, provided by Student Universal Support Ireland (SUSI) to The Irish Times, shows that of the 2,242 CAO applicants from the Wee County last year, 65.9% of them received a grant.

Only six counties fared better, namely Longford (71.5%), Carlow (70.8%), Cavan (69.1%), Monaghan (68.6%), Donegal (68.1%) and Mayo (67.9%).

Indeed, Louth’s figure was even higher when just new applications to SUSI were taken into account. Last year there were 2,184 new applications to SUSI, with 1,478 grants awarded, an award rate of 67.7%.

Meanwhile, Dundalk IT have also revealed that they have doubled the number of offers it has made to school-leavers in the North following changes to its scoring system to attract more students south.

The college now awards additional points for each grade at A-Level and extra points for BTEC, another school qualification in the UK education system.

Previously the maximum points a school-leaver in the North could achieve was 450 points, compared with 600 in the South.

President Denis Cummins revealed that 97 offers had been made to students from the North, double that of last year.

Source: The Irish Times

45% of new homes in Louth are one-off builds

45% of new houses built in Co Louth in the last two and a half years have been one-off builds, new figures have revealed.

There were 829 houses built in Louth between January 2013 and June 2015 with 369 of these one-off builds.

The remaining 460 were estates or apartments.

While 45% may seem high to many it is one of the lowest in the country with only seven areas having lower figures for one-off builds – all of those in urban areas including Dublin, Kildare, Galway and Cork.

Neighbouring Monaghan had 70% of its 364 houses fall in to the one-off build category during the same period.

Louth has one of the fewest number of Seanad voters in the country

The breakdown of Seanad voters per 1,000 of population by county

Louth has one of the lowest number of Seanad voters in the country, according to new figures published in today’s Irish Times.

The figures show that just 19.7 of every 1,000 people in the Wee County have a vote in the Seanad elections – the fourth lowest total in the country.

Only Donegal (17.4), Laois (18.1) and Cavan (18.8) fared worse with Wexford and Monaghan having similar figures.

The paper revealed that people in more than 100 countries had votes in the Seanad elections. Of the 161,000 people elegible to vote though, 94 per cent of them are in Ireland.

Louth currently has three Senators in the Seanad – Mary Moran, Jim D’Arcy and Terry Brennan.

Public meeting tonight to discuss N53 road closure

Part of the N53 which is due to close for a period of three months to facilitate road works

A public meeting to discuss the forthcoming road works on the main Dundalk-Castleblayney road (N53) will take place in the Naomh Malachi clubrooms at Courtbane tonight at 8pm.

A section of the road from Barronstown to Hackballscross is scheduled to close for a period of three months from August to facilitate road improvement works.

Local businesses and councillors have reacted with fear over the impact such a lengthy closure will have on the area.

Local business owner Paul Finnegan told The Cross Examiner that the road closure would affect people living and working throughout the general South Monaghan, South Armagh and North Louth areas.

“The last time work like this took place on the road, it was kept open but now,instead of creating a slip road beside the works, a blanket three month closure will be in operation with traffic from County Monaghan diverting at Castleblayney or on to side roads towards Ballybinaby, Inniskeen, Kilkerley and Knockbridge,” he explained.

According to the shop owner, Louth County Council had previously informed local businesses and residents that the road would only need to close intermittently to facilitate certain works and that the planned three month closure was only revealed via a notice of intended works which appeared in local media last month. At a subsequent meeting between local businesses, councillors, TDs  and Louth County Council officials two weeks ago the proposed closure was confirmed “without compromise or prior consultation with businesses, farmers or residents.”

Mr Finnegan added that local farmers could face severe disruption during their busiest period of the year while it would also impact emergency services.

The road is being upgraded as part of the NRA’s 2016 Minor Works Scheme.

All interested parties are welcome to attend.

Shortage of police hindering fight against fuel smuggling

Senator Paul Coghlan with Cllr Oliver Tully at yesterday’s meeting of Louth County Council

A shortage of police resources in south Co Armagh is hindering the fight against fuel smuggling, a Fine Gael senator has claimed.

Paul Coghlan, chairman of the British Irish Parliamentary Assembly Committee, told a meeting of Louth County Council yesterday that there were so few police on the ground in south Armagh that those involved in the illegal trade could “carry on regardless”.

The committee recently published a report on cross-Border criminality, including fuel smuggling, which followed a number of fact-finding visits to border areas by Mr Coghlan and other committee members.

It has recommended the establishment of a multi-agency cross-Border taskforce to tackle the problem of fuel laundering, which costs the exchequers in Ireland and Britain millions in lost excise duty. County councils in Louth and Monaghan have had to bear the cost of dealing with toxic sludge dumped by the fuel smugglers.

Yesterday it was revealed that there were more 597 clean-up cases in Louth in the last five years at a cost of almost €4m. This was almost half of the total nationwide, with four-fifths of the spend taking place in the Wee County.

Mr Coghlan yesterday briefed a meeting of the county council on the committee’s findings and told them that a senior source in the North had described the level of policing in south Armagh to him as little more than “a token presence”.

Fine Gael councillor John McGahon told the meeting that some of the country roads in north Louth were like highways, such was the amount of tanker traffic on them.

Green Party councillor Mark Dearey said fuel smuggling was striking at the very core of the local economy. Not only was the fuel being laundered, but proceeds of the crime were being laundered, which then affected the property and retail sectors.

Fianna Fáil councillor Declan Breathnach said a rebate for farmers was the only way to address the problem, as those involved in illicitly washing the dye from agricultural diesel were able to respond to changes in fuel markets.

Source: The Irish Times

Almost €4 million spent cleaning up fuel laundering waste in Louth in last five years

Fuel laundering is a major problem in this area

Louth Local Authorities have dealt with almost 600 cases of illegal fuel laundering and waste dumping in the county over the past five years at a cost of almost €4 million.

That’s according to new figures released by Minister for the Environment Alan Kelly, who revealed that there were more than 1,200 cases in border counties since 2011.

Almost half of the clean-up operations took place in Louth where 596 cases have been reported. Neighbouring Monaghan was closely behind with 509 sites, while Cavan, Donegal, Offaly, Meath and Waterford also had similar operations carried out.

The issue was raised at a recent meeting of the North-South Ministerial Council in Armagh when a detailed report on the problem by Senator Paul Coghlan was discussed.

In a report to the British Irish Parliamentary Assembly in February, Mr Coghlan detailed the scale of the illegal cross-border trade worth hundreds of millions of euro a year and called for new cross-border task force to combat it.

Mr Coghlan will this morning address the members of Louth County Council about the need for a new approach to the problem, which has had a direct impact on the water quality in the county in recent years.

Minister Kelly revealed in response to a Dáil question recently that since 2011 more than €5 million had been allocated to local authorities by his department to deal with the problem, with almost €4 million of that being spent in Louth.

Brehon Brewhouse now offering brewery tours

The Brehon Brewhouse in Killanny, between Dundalk and Carrickmacross, are now offering brewery tours.

By now most of you will have seen their range of beers such as the Brehon Blonde, Stony Grey IPA or Killanny Red in local pubs and off licences, including The Bar Tender and Callan’s Off Licence.

The craft beers have proved to be a huge hit both near and far, with a new summer ale released in recent weeks.

Visitors will have an opportunity to see the brewing process from mashing in to bottling and kegging, to sample the variety of beers in the Brehon Brewhouse tasting room and to pose questions to the masterbrewer, Phil.

To book a tour of the brewery call 086 8230914. The brewery is based at Dunelty, Inniskeen, Co Monaghan on the L4620.