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Emergency departments around the country are reaching crisis point with patients being treated on trolleys reaching an unprecedented 500 on Wednesday.

With a large workload being placed on Mayo County Council outdoor staff to repair damage caused during the recent cold snap, the members of the Ballina electoral area expressed their anger that the council is not allowed to replace retiring staff. The issue was raised by Fine Gael Councillor Eddie Staunton. “I recently attended a retirement function in Crossmolina where four members of the outdoor staff in this area had retired,” Cllr Staunton told the meeting. “Unfortunately another member of the outdoor staff has also died recently. That is five outdoor staff that this council are not allowed to replace. How can the council be expected to provide the services to the people if they are five people down on where they were last year?”

Local Fine Gael TD James Bannon walked out of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Environment, Heritage & Local Government on Tuesday, in protest at the Government’s failure to set up a river Shannon authority to ensure that flooding will not devastate housing, farming, business, and tourism in the Midlands again.

A total of almost €1.5 million has been paid out by Westmeath primary schools for the rent of prefabs over the last 10 years, according to figures released by the Department of Education this week. In Athlone alone, prefabricated structures have cost schools some €485,000 in rent, as several schools await approval on urgently needed extensions.

The prolonged cold spell not only had a drastic impact on peoples’ lives in Kilkenny but it also took its toll on local authority coffers with the final figure spent on dealing with the big freeze calculated at €500,000.

The Minister of Social and Family Affairs has been accused of engaging in an attack on farm spouses, who had been awarded pensions retrospectively but are now being asked to refund what has been awarded to them by the Department.

An allocation of €2,000 has been announced for Midfield Development Association under the Clár Bilingual Signage Scheme. The scheme provides funding towards the erection of private, community, and townland bilingual signs.

Mayo Fine Gael TD John O'Mahony has called on the Transport Minister Noel Dempsey and Environment Minister John Gormley to reverse their decision not to provide emergency funding to repair roads damaged by the recent bad weather. Deputy O’Mahony said the current state of the roads will cost lives if they are not repaired.

The Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Mary Hanafin TD has urged voluntary organisations which provide family counselling services to apply now to the Family Support Agency for funding under their 2010 scheme of grants.

Fine Gael Leader Enda Kenny TD has criticised the Fianna Fáil/Green Government for what he calls “their reckless approach to job security and creation” as Mayo’s unemployment figures went through the roof over the past two years. The figures obtained from the Minister for Social and Family Affairs for January 2007 shows 4,760 people signing on in the county. This is compared to 12,114 in September 2009 and demonstrates the seriousness facing a substantial part of Mayo’s population.