Galway Bay FM

A Galway toddler who fell into a drain near Carrowbrowne over a week ago has been taken off the critical list.

The 21 month old baby boy is now in a stable condition at University Hospital Galway.

The child had spent the past week in a critical conditon at the intensive care unit.

He was rushed there last Sunday week after a family member found him in the drain near a temporary halting site.

Three separate investigations are being carried out into the circumstances of his fall by Galway Gardaí, the City Council, and the Health and Safety Authority.

Irish Examiner

AN ONLINE initiative that uses a website, blogs and social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter to promote mental health among young people has been launched in Ireland.

ReachOut.com, based on a successful Australian project, is an independent, non-profit initiative that will provide no-nonsense facts, blogs, and stories about mental health and well-being, as well as advice on getting through “tough times”.

Surveys have shown that three students in an average 6th year Irish classroom will experience serious mental health problems but not seek professional help.

The initiative deals with topics from relationships and exam stress to suicide, depression and self-harm.

Irish Times

A SPECIAL needs school in Tallaght faces cuts of up to two-thirds in the number of its teachers and classroom assistants under the review of special needs assistants ordered by the Government.

Breandáin Ó Heineacháin, principal of St Joseph’s special school in Balrothery, said the school had been told that it would lose 66 per cent of its staff by the National Council for Special Needs.

He also said that the Minister for Education had refused to speak to them about the cuts citing the ongoing review conducted by the National Council for Special Needs.

Irish Times

THE GOVERNMENT needs to change the way it deals with children’s rights and should guarantee life-long support for people who grow up in State care, a senior HSE director has said.

Philip Garland, assistant national director for children and families at the HSE, also warned that current Government policies towards unaccompanied children who come to the Republic to seek asylum could be “racist”.

“One of the problems is that if you are an Irish child you are protected under the Childcare Act, because when you hit 18 years of age the State continues to look after you. But if you are an African or Chinese child you are sent all around the country by the refugee agency – away from all the support structures and people you know in Dublin,”

He said he wants the State to change the legislation on aftercare so that for children in care who don’t have stable relations the State would become a parent for life. He said it was both about a change in legislation and a change in culture.

Irish Times

A FORMER manager of Traveller accommodation for Clare County Council has brought a High Court action for damages over alleged harassment and intimidation by Travellers.

Glenn McCreanor (44), Ballyshea, Kilnamona, Co Clare, claims he began his employment in February 2002 but in June 2003 was certified medically unfit for work.

Mr McCreanor claims the council was negligent and in breach of duty in failing to prevent him being physically threatened, intimidated and abused.

There was an attempt to pour petrol into his office through a keyhole in February 2003.

While in town with his wife some Travellers would come up and spit at him, he said. He also received death threats.

Irish Times

IT IS the equivalent of social and economic suicide if a girl does not undergo female genital mutilation in a community where the practice is widespread, a seminar on the issue has heard.

Eileen Morrow of World Vision Ireland, which works to end female genital mutilation (FGM) in Africa, said campaigns against the practice could only be successful if people understood its cultural significance.

She said people carried out the practice to fit in with their communities. Women who were not circumcised were bullied and told they were only children. “They can’t find a husband prepared to marry them,” she said, adding that they were denied access to land and resources. This was because people believed female genital mutilation ensured the chastity and fidelity of a future bride.

She also said that a campaign against this practice must be community led as any criticism was seen as an attack on an entire culture.

Irish Examiner

SOCIAL Affairs minister Mary Hanafin has claimed plans to cut vital financial support to 87,840 single parent families would be in the best interest of Ireland’s economic future.

Ms Hanafin is proposing that any lone parent family with a teenage child will be barred from accessing the state aid.

Under the current scheme, a lone-parent family receives a means-tested payment each year until their child reaches 18, or until the age of 22 if they are in full-time education.

A spokesperson for the minister said the measure is not expected to be implemented for a number of years. Frances Byrne of  OPEN the one-parent family group said this could have dire implications for families who are dependent on the funds.

Irish Times

THE DEPORTATION of a Nigerian mother and her three children – one of them who is seriously ill – has been suspended pending a review of their case.

Ayodola Adekunle (5) has been in Ireland with her mother Eniola and two siblings for two years. She was diagnosed with sickle-cell anaemia and has been receiving treatment at Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital.

A Department of Justice spokeswoman confirmed yesterday the case was being reviewed “following legal intervention” by the family’s solicitor.

Ayodola’s life would be seriously impaired if she returned to Nigeria according to Dr Karina McMahon, the doctor who is treating her at Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital. On the African continent 50 per cent of children with sickle-cell anaemia do not live to see their fifth birthday.

Irish Times

PARENTS HAVE signed up 51,000 children to take part in the Government’s early childhood care and education scheme, which offers a year’s free pre-schooling.

Under the scheme, all children aged between three years and three months and four years and six months on September 1st each year are eligible for a year of pre-schooling paid for by the State.

The scheme replaces the early childhood supplement, which was scrapped in the budget in April last year. It will cost the State €170 million to operate every year.

Irish Examiner

THE Government must put more urgency on implementing laws giving rights to supports in school for children with disabilities, a parents’ leader has claimed.

The roll-out of the 2004 Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs (EPSEN) Act was put on hold in the October 2008 budget but the revised Programme for Government last October makes a commitment that it will be fully implemented in the lifetime of the Fianna Fáil-Green Party coalition.

Among its provisions are that every child with a special need should have the supports they require set out in an individual education plan (IEP) but sections of the act entitling children to the necessary resources are now on hold due to the Government’s budgetary constraints.