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Newly elected Senator Jimmy Harte

Labour’s Jimmy Harte from Letterkenny has been elected as a member of Seanad Eireann.

Senator Harte said: “I’m thrilled to have been elected to the Seanad, and I am looking forward to representing the people of Letterkenny and Donegal North East as a member of the Oireachtas in Leinster House.

“As a Labour Senator, I will be in a position to speak directly to Ministers in critical Departments such as Education, Health and Transport, and I will be making sure that Donegal North East gets a fair crack of the whip when key decisions are being made at Government level.

“As an Oireachtas member for a party that is in Government, I will endeavour to repay the faith that has been placed in me by being a strong advocate for my constituency, in the corridors of power.

“I would also like to thank the Labour Party in Donegal for placing their confidence in me. My election is a reflection of the hard work that that they have put in throughout my campaign, and without this support, I simply would not have been elected to the Seanad.

Easter week is the traditional week for all the major teacher conferences and The Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO) conference gets underway today in Sligo.

Delegates are calling for equal pay, pensions and working conditions for new entrants to the profession. Cuts to more than 1,000 teaching posts mean fewer jobs for young new entrants.

Salaries have also been cut by up to 16% as teachers for the first time really feel the pinch that other sectors of the economy have been feeling for some time. 

While there is great sympathy for younger teachers trying to break into the system, the larger public seem to less sympathetic to established teachers as they may have done in the past. They are still seen as being better paid with better pension entitlements than many in Irish society despite their constant arguments to the contrary by teaching trade unions.

The National Transport Authority has today (strangely the Bank Holiday Easter Monday) approved Dublin Bus’ application to increase fares for adult pre-paid tickets by an average of 3.3%.

Child and schoolchild prepaid tickets will not be increased in this move. The average increase across all ticket types is therefore 2.5% and is in broadly line with the increase in cash fares agreed at the beginning of the year. The increases will take effect from Sunday, May 1st.

Donegal based, Fianna Fail Cllr David Alcorn is one of those who was appointed to the authority, just before the fall of the last FF/Green coalition.

Allianz NFL Division 2 final

Donegal 2-11

Laois 0-16

Game played at Croke Park

14-man Donegal were almost plotters of their own downfall rather than their own success at Croke Park yesterday afternoon when they shaded the National Football league Division 2 title by a point, but they won’t be complaining.

Goals from Michael Murphy (penalty) and Colm McFadden (excellent effort) proved the difference as they saw a eight-point lead dismantled to one in the second half after the dismissal of Adrian Hanlon.

Hanlon was dismissed with a little over half an hour to go after receiving a second yellow for an off-the-ball incident. Minutes earlier Michael Murphy had set up McFadden for Donegal’s second goal. Read more

As the NFL Division Two final heads into extra time at the beginning of the first half Donegal lead by 1-05 to 0-5.

Michael Murphy bagged the only goal of the game so far for the North Westerners.

Laois, in truth, should be furtyher behind and will be happy that they are still in the game at the interval. For Donegal they missed a number of other opportunities and hope that these do not come back to haunt them in the 2nd half.

Half time just called – still three points between the teams.

Meanwhile, across the pond Rangers and Celtic have drawn 0-0 in their Premier League encounter at Ibrox. Rangers still head the table but Celtic have a game in hand on their arch rivals.

Gardaí at Blackrock in Cork are investigating the circumstances surrounding a fatal fire at a house at Nutley Avenue, Mahon, Cork City. It is understood that a man has been arrested on suspicion of arson withion the last hour.
 
The fire was discovered at approximately 3.15am this morning 24/4/11. There were eight people in the house, six managed to escape but two persons (25 year old woman and a 5 year old boy) were trapped inside the building. They were recovered by the Fire Service and taken to Cork University Hospital where they were pronounced dead a short time later.
 
The other occupants of the house were uninjured.
 
The scene of the fire will be technically examined later this morning.