it came about because a petition was sent in I assumed it was sent to the seven councillors but I learned today that a few of them hadn't received it but the motion was signed by nearly everybody in the estate and I would say not nearly everyone at least 99% of them it's a true road it's an old estate it was started to be built in the 70s so it's nearly 60 years old and the issue is that they have be consistently since my research saying is since 2007 looking for a traffic cam and, and eventually through that, they put in some speed bumps, but they're the very, very small speed bumps.

And I suppose, bump is what you would feel that's it and if you're going through them as excessive speed and it is a true road a lot of us use it i use it myself to go up and down to a rogue and i know a lot of council workers would use it coming from here down to the there in drum biggle and people do use it an awful lot but it's an estate with two sides of the road and children and elderly and people like myself who want to cross the road talk to their neighbor and aren't able to do that it's not just during daytime hours this is going in well into the evening and night time and the response was positive it was a start and they were going to start putting up signs and i do believe visible signs do slower people who follow the law down it does slow them down but there is two existing speed bumps that are there that could be brought up to the quality and the degree of the new speed bumps that are putting in the town and that would definitely slow them down you know yourself there's one out there by Sullivan and Hansbury's, that would slow you down.

There's one on the road there by the golf links.

I'm constantly going, that'll definitely slow you down.

So equally, I would welcome that they're checking into signage, but I would say that the existing speed bumps are there and all they need to do is build them up and that could be done straight away.

I think the residents of Clancy Park deserve to be safe in their own environment.

So important to put something in place before any sort of accident occurs.

Yes.

Oh, it's shocking.

Um, like, a-and out of those figures and researching those figures, Clare have, uh, not only waiting lists, but waiting lists for over a year.

And I, I got stats there that there is even patients waiting over three years.

And as you know yourself with audi-audiology, like if it has to be caught in time, especially for children, because it's learning, speech delays and, and, and it isolates them.

And then secondly, if you're losing your, your hearing quite, uh, later on in life or even middle-aged people, it, it can be quite isolating.

The, it's shocking, these figures.

They say that that would slow down cognitive decline, and, uh, I suppose look at i-maybe if something is caught and treated earlier, it would prevent people being on a waiting list for more serious treatment later in life.

Yes, and it, it is like we all know every two years to go and get a, a, an eye test, and it, it, it should nearly be regular to, like, campaigns to say this needs to be done.

realistically, the question wasn't really answered.

I asked specifically for staff and closures, whereas they kind of give me all these statistics about patients cancelling.

So I have actually gone in with follow up questions to say, look, it hasn't really been answered.

I specifically just want What we're doing, like what the help board is doing, not patients, because that's something you cannot change if someone is canceling their appointment.

But what are we doing that's causing cancellations? So I'm just looking for clarity on that.

But yeah, some of the findings, yeah, kind of shocking.

The number of cancellations due to the escalation policy, is there something that we can do or look for that would, I suppose, have a contingency in place where appointments could still go ahead? Or do you think that's something we'll just always have to grapple with?

Well, there should be, you know, even going in other places, like you can say, the waiting lists are massive.

So I suppose that just goes to show how important this piece of infrastructure, as small as it may seem, would actually be in terms of an addition.

Oh, definitely.

It would be a game changer.

It would take an awful lot of dog walkers off of the streets and out of the neighbourhoods into a designated area and equally in our parks when they're walking around and let the dogs have a little bit of freedom off a leash where they can experience, I suppose, and mix with other dogs, which is always a positive.

This has come up loads and the fact that Clare Collar-Molloy has brought it up previously and now again and Councillor Paul Murphy has brought it up and myself it shows that it is an issue and it people are asking us on the street why can't we have this and now when they see that shannon have it they're kind of saying well why doesn't the county town have it

The fact that it's so successful in Shannon, it makes it all the more worthwhile having it in Ennis as well.

Yeah, and equally now it's a big opportunity.

And I suppose we have an engineer has come from Shannon and has probably identified sites like this for them.

... do you give, and does the, does that limit, the, the cutoff point get, uh, keep being extended and extended and extended then?

I suppose it, it, I can see your point, but it doesn't help the person in that moment when they know they have to choose between going for the groceries or going to see if it's a serious illness or not.

Equally, I, it's, uh, fantastic that the discretionary medical cards have gone up, because that's when people are at their most vulnerable, when they're going through critical illness or have a, a, or have an illness that is long term.

But a- as you know, um, a- and you probably do know when you're filling out forms, it's, it's complicated.

And if you miss out on putting one form in, it's six, eight weeks waiting, and then you could have to fill them all out again.

I know for a fact, when I'm filling out forms, I just did it for the SUSI, and [laughs] I was like, "Oh my goodness." And, you know, it's, it's, you're, you have to be...

It, it's a minefield.

Uh, sh- should the government maybe be doing more, Antoinette, to expand access to the GP visit cards? It provides tr- free GP appointments, access to chronic disease management, or, uh, is there any point in them expanding access to those cards before trying to, um, produce or [chuckles] locate or attract more people into becoming GPs? Which again, that's something, the GP shortage is something we've spoken about before on <i Morning Focus</i .

How concerned are b- are, are you, uh, by what's happening?

I suppose listening and telling this morning, it's absolutely shocking.

Um, we've had three reported incidents, um, listening and telling again, there seems to be a daily incident set f- of intimidation, of fear that aren't being reported.

They, for, for, for whatever reason, um, Alan himself has stated there that he's more security.

He's more in, uh, minding his own business, you know, to, to, for the facilities that he provides out there.

Um, I did a bit of an investigation myself.

I have a lot of really good friends who are open, um, water swimmers, and they're f- they're afraid.

There it is.

I suppose it came to my attention late last summer when a, a number of, um, driving instructors had stated how fast the grass had been growing and how dangerous it was, especially for learner drivers, people who are not quite experienced as we are, and they can't see around the bend what was coming.

So, um, they had asked me to brought, brought it forward.

And in fairness at the time, Paddy cut back some of the, the edges, espe- not just on the roundabout, but on the road going down by Drumbeighl, um, at the back of, um, Carrkilla.

So when I saw it coming up again, and two or three people had contacted me and said that the grass was quite high, I brought up the motion and I had literally just posted it in when they started cutting the edges.

Now, to me, that's fantastic, but not enough.

They need to go in way in.

Mm-hmm.

So they've agreed, and they said they always work on off the health and safety, so hopefully we'll see it.

Why did you decide to speak in support of that?

I suppose I, I, uh, it's a fantastic motion.

It gets it out into the, to the community, and maybe a lot of businesses just need a little nudge, or they had been putting it on the long finger.

We, we saw amazing, uh, businesses now to have taken up.

You see on Mill Road there, some of the buildings, they look absolutely amazing.

All done up, all that dirty paint and smut from the road, all done.

These beautiful buildings.

Is the duty of care or the personal responsibility not being upheld in some areas?

Antoinette, from your own experience as an SNA, and I'm s-- you know, speaking to other SNAs in the county, how challenging has the uncertainty around the role been over the past year or so?

Well, I suppose, like as I said, I'm twenty-four years plus in a role where if, um, a SENO comes into the school, which is very unlikely in my case, SENO comes into the school and cuts, I could be out of a job.

Um, so the, the redeployment is absolutely fantastic and has to be put in place.

But equally, I know in my, the school I work, which is a special needs school, we have substitutes that are there six years working but without a permanent position.

And, um, you know, the uncertainty for them now on redeployment, where somebody from, who obviously, uh, would-- could be let go from another school, could have seniority over that role, where they're in it for six years.

So we need to iron out and protect not just the SNAs within the school system, but obviously long-term subs.

Like w-what they do with redeployment for a teacher.

Uh, the, the updated circular, what difference will these changes make to the day-to-day experience of children who rely on their support?