David Browne

As I walked through an industrial estate this morning it occurred to me there is one thing that Ireland is doing totally wrong.

We are allowing Ireland become a defeated scrap yard. I passed by unit after unit, boarded up, shutters down, overgrown, broken up footpaths, weeds taller than me!

What is the first thing a hotel does when a customer leaves a room, is it a) leave the beds a mess, and let the next customer clean it, or is it b) Employ someone, invest in it, at possibly a short term loss, to clean it, freshen it up and make it look the most inviting that it can, and advertise it as somewhere to stay even if means at knock down prices.

Likewise these run down industrial estates could easily afford to invest in some care takers. Even if it is with the help of Government to make with the long term goal of preparing for new tenants and foreign investment, it could also take people of the dole, thus saving money and seeing a return to people being able to spend money.

We have one of the potentially best tourism destinations in the world, with our greenery, history, and the old ‘Cead Mile Failte’, that disappeared during the years of the Celtic Tiger, it’s time to brush ourselves down and reclaim it.

Ireland is like a 5 star hotel, just needing a lick of paint, budget deals for tourist and investors alike, and an enthusiastic work force.  One business unit generating a little revenue is better than 1000 business units generating no revenue.

Now the next question is where does this investment money come from?  The truth is it wouldn’t take a whole lot, with the money that people are getting on the dole topped up a little by a scheme to get Ireland going, taken from the rents and rates being paid from the working businesses in the area, it could be done at very little cost, considering the long term return.

 

Reblogged from Meath Chronicle

 

Additional beds will be provided at Drogheda and Navan hospitals.

An investment of €725,710 in the Louth-Meath Hospital Group in a bid to fight unprecedented levels of overcrowding at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda will see the provision of additional beds at Our Lady’s Hospital in Navan.

The Minister for Health, Dr James Reilly, announced the funding boost through the Special Delivery Unit for a range of measures to tackle overcrowding in Drogheda, where a record 58 patients had been waiting on trolleys one day last month.

The measures include increasing beds available in Our Lady’s Hospital and the Louth County Hospital, Dundalk, as well as further measures in the community.

An additional 28 non-acute beds are to be provided in Navan and Dundalk along with 27 non-acute beds in the community and a further eight beds in Drogheda.

The acute Medical Admissions Unit will be extended to operate 18 hours a day seven days a week and five additional long-term beds are to be organised.

Additional assisted discharge packages, including home help, home care and funding for aids and appliances, will also be provided.

The funding will last until the 31st December this year and it is expected that the measures will stay in place in January of 2012 with funding from the HSE.

The measures have been welcomed by Deputy Peadar Tóibin, chairman of the Save Navan Hospital Campaign, who had called for a HIQA investigation into overcrowding in Drogheda.

“We welcome this and hope that it goes some way to alleviating the problem. However, we will monitor this situation over the coming weeks to ensure that people are not left waiting on trolleys,” he said.

The TD pointed out that there had been between 45 and 55 patients on trolleys and chairs in Our Lady of Lourdes in recent weeks.

“This is the highest number of inpatients without beds in any hospital in this State. In a further recent development, three patients and an unspecified number of staff in Our Lady of Lourdes, Drogheda, were screened for TB two weeks ago. The enormous pressure on the emergency department represents a clear threat to patient safety and welfare,” he said.

He said government plans to close the A&E in Navan were ludicrous in their own right and should not not be even countenanced in the face of such overcrowding in Drogheda.

He recalled that, a year ago this week, 10,000 people marched in Navan in protest at the closure of surgery in Navan.