INTREO OFFICE
Our intreo office in Kenmare Town fulfils a very important role in our community dealing with and assisting people who need engagement with the department of social protection who need advice, guidance. We are extremely grateful for the excellent staff who work there and who have provided advice over many years. I am extremely disappointed and I have raised this with the Minister for Social Protection the fact that the office has been closed two days a week since January to the public.
This is not right and it is leading to a lack of delivery of very important services. For example a supplementary welfare payment which is a discretionary payment that can be paid by the department of Social Protection to a person who has an exceptional need and needs urgent funds. Many people find themselves in need of this payment but it needs an actual engagement with a community welfare officer to process this application . I am asking that our Intreo office would be opened fully to the public five days a week. I believe this is the only office that is being targeted in this way.
Again we have the excellent personnel who work there and who are willing to give the best service to the community but unfortunately they are being hampered by Management.
FARM BURNING
Every farmer and indeed private individuals at different times have to burn what I would call green waste. This could be garden, scrub, hedge clippings, bushes, briars or any of the materials that can be accrued from farmers clearing ground and wanting to improve their holding. The tradition always was that this would be put in a corner, left to dry and rot and then it would be burned. Every year the Minister for the Environment would have to sign an order to allow this to happen every year. In other words a person wouldn’t be doing anything illegal by doing so. This year however the Minister delayed the signing of this from the 1st January until just last week and now he has announced that this is going to be the last year of this exemption. In other words after the 1st January 2023 it will not be possible to burn this type of scrub in the future. This is an insane proposal, the Minister has suggested that people will have to mulch and make into compost this type of material. If he really thought this through the only way you can mulch is by using machinery which burns diesel so it is absolutely counter productive for him to be saying that this is good for the environment. This is more nonsense coming from Fianna Fail, Fianna Gael and the Green Party and I will remind you it is not the greens alone that is doing this. They are being ably supported by their Government colleagues. This is going to be detrimental to our farmer’s and it will ultimately lead to ground becoming overgrown and people literally will find it difficult to be able to do anything with it if burning is going to be illegal and of course it will be enforced because people will be in danger in their farm payments if they break the rules. This is a matter that I will be working on over the next twelve months to try and persuade Government that what they are doing is totally and absolutely wrong. I would be seeking support from the farming organisations in this regard also.
HOLY CROSS CHURCH KENMARE
It was with great shock and sadness that over the weekend we witnessed for the first time ever damage and graffiti to our beautiful church. It was indeed very upsetting for everybody and people are rightfully outraged that anybody would want to carry out such a senseless act of vandalism such as this. We will all stand together against such awful incidents.