Author name: highlandnews

A Donegal priest is urging Donegal County Council to outline, in a very clear and visible way, how money raised through the Local Property Tax is spent. This week, the council voted to retain LPT at current levels, a decision which has led to some debate. Supporters say the LPT has not increased, opponents say

The Housing Minister says the state is using every legal avenue available to go after those responsible for defective building blocks. The government introduced a 10% levy on concrete in Tuesday’s Budget to help fund the mica and pyrite remediation scheme. Tánaiste Leo Varadkar earlier this week said he’s frustrated there have been no prosecutions

A Donegal Deputy has sought assurances from the Education Minister that a contingency plan is in place to offset financial difficulties which may face schools next year. A large increase in direct funding for schools was announced in Budget 2023. Deputy Joe McHugh, himself a former Education Minister, says while the additional money is to

The government’s being accused of trying to turn people against Mica homeowners as opposition grows to the new levy on concrete products announced in the Budget to fund the Defective Blocks Redress Schemes. Campaigner Paddy Diver says while the state is determining how to raise money, there’s no urgency from government to help people who

A member of the Regional Health Forum West says the pandemic has played its part in Cashel na Cor not returning to full capacity. Day services at the centre in Buncrana is currently operating on a limited basis. The HSE has said recruitment of a manager for the facility has been challenging. Councillor Albert Doherty

The EU Commission has taken further legal action against Ireland for failing to halt the cutting of peat within Special Areas of Conservation. It’s calling on Ireland to stop the ongoing cutting of peat in areas designated to conserve raised bogs and blanket bogs under the EU Habitats Directive. The commission says peat and turf

The Tanaiste says he’s open to alternative solutions to the concrete levy. It’s after a number of government TDs criticised the measure, which was announced in the Budget earlier this week. The 10 percent levy on concrete blocks has yet to be legislated for, and Leo Varadkar said it was important they get it right.

Clashes between the Tanaiste and Donegal Deputy Pearse Doherty have resumed just two weeks in to the new Dail term. Deputy Doherty told Leo Varadkar that lengthy waiting lists for children awaiting assessment by a disability team is worsening as 17,000 children await an appointment with 2,500 overdue an assessment of needs. He says children

  A Mountcharles GP says the GP card extension will be useful to some people but long waiting lists for referrals will continue to delays medical care. People who earn the median household income of €46,000 or less will be eligible for a free GP card under a new Budget measure. However, Dr Maria Moy

One in two children say they’ve experienced cyber bullying at least once. The survey by Barnardos also found almost one in five say online abuse impacted their ability to learn and feel safe at school. But the study, of 340 children ages 8 to 12 years old, found 60 per cent of children say they

A Donegal TD has pleaded with the Agriculture, food and Marine Minister Charlie McConalogue to stand up for his community and provide emergency supports for the fishing industry. Deputy Padraig Mac Lochlainn said he could not get his head around why the budget did not include an emergency financial aid package to address the fuel

Businesses across Donegal have begun receiving revised rate valuation packs from Donegal County Council this week, with one councillor saying he believes the vast majority of them are seeing their rates bill increase. Cllr Michael McClafferty says this is the first new valuation programme for 10 years, and coming at a time of increased pressure

Donegal students who had been contributing towards the development of a student centre at Maynooth University have been left outraged after the project was suddenly withdrawn. A €150 student levy was brought in seven years ago to build a student centre to be home to the Students’ Union and a hub for student activities. However,

Works are finally complete on a new main water supply in south Inishowen after outages plagued local residents for years. The final section of the new water main supplying Magherabeg and Inch Island has recently been completed by Irish Water. Issues with the water supply had been ongoing for years, and a petition had been

Bank of Ireland’s expected to be fined over 100 million euro today, over the tracker mortgage scandal. The fine set to be imposed by the Central Bank. The issue has so far cost Bank of Ireland almost 330 million euro since 2016 in refunds and compensation, legal fees and administrative expenses. Kathryn Hannon from asset

More students will leave Ireland for a better life elsewhere because they didn’t get the support they needed in the Budget. That’s according to the Union of Students in Ireland who say while the 1 thousand euro reduction in fees is welcome, students are left not knowing where they stand for the future. The USI

The Foreign Affairs Minister is warning that even when the war in Ukraine ends, the price of fuel will still remain high. It comes ahead of a meeting of EU energy ministers this Friday, when members are expected to agree to a cap on energy profits and a solidarity tax on fossil fuel providers. Minister

A major tourism campaign to promote Donegal and Derry has been launched in Great Britain. The nine-week campaign with the tagline; ‘two unique places, one amazing holiday’, will reach at least 6.8 million people with digital ads in London, Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester, Glasgow and Edinburgh. Shane Clarke, Tourism Ireland’s Director of Corporate Services and Policy

A Finn Valley based Councillor says it’s not acceptable that the National Broadband Plan will not be fully rolled out in Donegal until the end of 2025. Briefing members at a meeting this week, National Broadband Ireland executives said they were slightly ahead of schedule, with work practically complete around Letterkenny, and Creeslough the next

There’s calls for immediate action to extend car parking spaces at Letterkenny University Hospital. The Saolta Health Care Group has acknowledged that there is an ongoing issue with the lack of car park spaces for patients, visitors and staff at the hospital and has committed to raise it with Hospital Manager, Sean Murphy this week.

The Northern Ireland Secretary says restoring the powersharing institutions at Stormont is a priority for both the British and Irish governments. Speaking after a meeting with Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney, Chris Heaton-Harris said he believes the ‘mood music’ is positive around reforming the executive before he has to call an election next month. Mr

  A member of the Mica Action Group committee in Donegal has hit out at the Concrete Products Levy, saying that it will be passed on to customers by the industry, and end up imposing another cost on the people the government claims to be protecting. Lisa Hone has described the move as window dressing,

An Independent TD believes the core problem of the defective block controversy is the lack of effective building control. Deputy Sean Canney told the Taoiseach in the Dail today that without regulations in place, defective blocks are going to continue to cost the Government billions. He was critical of the new concrete levy introduced in