Full review ordered of all children’s orthopaedic surgery in the State
The independent review of spinal surgeries that have been carried out by a consultant in Temple Street hospital is to be widened to cover all paediatric orthopaedics in the State. The review ordered into safety concerns arising from the consultant’s work will also examine the way the spinal surgery service has been run and the long delays experienced by children needing orthopaedic operations, Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly has indicated. Long waiting lists to treat scoliosis and other orthopaedic conditions in children have been a source of embarrassment to successive governments, and have remained high despite substantial investment.
Top News Stories
- Leaving Cert: Revised reform plans do not include teacher-based assessment: Minister for Education Norma Foley has pledged to “accelerate” Leaving Cert reform plans with an emphasis on project work and practicals which will be assessed by the State Examinations Commission instead of teachers
- Micheál Martin defends ‘relevance’ of UN after Michael D Higgins says it’s ‘losing credibility’: The United Nations is “losing credibility”, President Michael D Higgins has said in comments that have drawn a defence of the organisation from Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin.
- Miriam Lord at the Ploughing: Where there’s muck, there’s brass necks: With the sodden masses braving churning swamps on the gushing walkways and President Michael D Higgins in full spate on the platform, there was no escape from the raging torrent on the first day of The Ploughing.
- Ireland’s weather today: Yellow weather warnings are in place for Dublin (until 11am), Donegal and Mayo (until 3pm) this morning, with very strong and gusty winds forecast. Nationwide today will see sunny spells and widespread showers, some heavy with a few thunderstorms. Winds will gradually ease. Highest temperatures of 12 to 16 degrees, mildest in the southeast.
- Happening today: The Dáil returns at 2pm after the summer recess with cost of living pressures, housing and health set to feature in high on the agenda. Our Politics Digest tees up the return.
News from around the World
- United Nations chief warns assembly that world is becoming ‘unhinged’: The world is becoming “unhinged”, the secretary general of the United Nations Antonio Guterres has warned. In his address to the general assembly of the United Nations in New York on Tuesday, he said that geopolitical tensions were rising and global challenges were mounting.
- Zelenskiy implores world leaders to stand united against Russian invasion: Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy implored world leaders gathered at the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday to stand united against Russia’s invasion.
- Libya: Demonstrators set fire to home of destroyed city’s mayor following fatal floods: The aftermath of Libya’s worst ever natural disaster was evolving into a political storm on Tuesday, after demonstrators furious at the failure to protect their city from a flood torched the home of the mayor of Derna.
The Big Read
- What is the nitrates derogation and how does it impact Irish farmers?: Irish farmers are battling challenging headwinds. For starters, they are wrestling with unrelenting weather extremes this year. They must reduce emissions such as methane from belching cattle, knowing a livestock cull is being considered to help decarbonise agriculture by 25 per cent in the period to 2030. A boom in dairying, fuelled by State supports – especially coinciding with milk quotas ending in 2015 – is probably coming to an end, writes Kevin O’Sullivan.
The best from Opinion
- Toxic culture of 2000s gave us Russell Brand but 2020s produced Andrew Tate: “That’s just who he is, that’s what he does. That’s just Russell,” said Alice, who was a 16-year-old schoolgirl when Russell Brand had her delivered to his house by BBC car. Like a pizza. It was the tone that made you look again. Sickeningly familiar. It could have been any woman from any era. There was always, always a “just Russell” and his cretinous chorus, writes Kathy Sheridan.
Culture and Life & Style highlights
- Róisín Ingle: The subversive joy of day-drinking can be one of life’s giddiest pleasures: I didn’t mean to go day-drinking. I had other plans. There was a long to-do list to get through and not one item on that list mentioned pints in a roadside beer garden with a bunch of strangers who might yet become friends, a sentiment Yeats never apparently wrote despite what you might read on a Dublin Marathon medal.
- ‘Ireland has always done death a little differently’: “I love cemeteries,” the social historian Dr Georgina Laragy tells me. And I get it, I love them too: human stories condensed into names and numbers.
Today’s Business
- Cheaper energy bills on the horizon if current trends continue, says ESB: Irish consumers can expect to see cheaper energy bills in the coming months if the current wholesale price trends continue, ESB’s chief financial officer has said.
- Head of Europe’s bank-failure agency ‘reasonably comfortable’ with Irish plans: The head of the euro-area agency that deals with bank failures has said he is “reasonably comfortable” with the recovery plans Irish banks have drawn up in the event of another crisis, in advance of the 15th anniversary of the controversial banking guarantee.
- Amazon to build three data centres in Dublin: Amazon has been granted permission to build three data centres in Dublin, doubling the company’s capacity at its campus in the next couple of years.
Top Sports news
- Savannah McCarthy: ‘It was really tough ... but I’ve come out the other side’: After Monday’s fireworks, when Diane Caldwell aimed several barrels at Vera Pauw’s Republic of Ireland reign, it was a more sedate affair at the squad’s Castleknock HQ on Tuesday morning, none of the players rolled out for media duties this time around having been part of the World Cup experience.
- Exceptional Caelan Doris looks primed for big game against South Africa: In this era of professionalism, of globalisation, of cross-fertilisation in players and coaches and ideas, the boundaries between Irish and South African rugby have never seemed more blurred. Witness the complete role reversal of the Springboks having two current Munster players in their ranks, never mind three coaches who formerly worked with the province.
- Letter from Paris: excavating memories of a stern madame and tennis temper tantrums: Nostalgia prompted me to seek out Villa Escudier, a short walk from the Boulogne Jean Jaurès metro station in the 16th arrondissement, where I spent 4½ weeks while covering the 2007 Rugby World Cup in France, writes John O’Sullivan.
Picture of the Day
Letters to the Editor
Sir, – Philip Wheatley is mistaken in his assertion that the Government’s proposal for a default speed limit of 30km/h on urban roads is a response to the “series of tragic accidents on rural roads this summer” (Letters, September 16th).
In February 2020, Ireland was one of the countries which agreed to adopt the Stockholm Declaration on Road Safety which includes a commitment to 30 km/h in areas where vehicles and vulnerable road users mix. Subsequently Action 6 of the Government’s Road Safety strategy (2021-2030) Our Journey Towards Vision Zero called for a working group to be established to examine speed limits with a specific consideration of the introduction of a 30 km/h default speed limit in urban areas. That working group has recommended that a default 30 km/h limit should apply for all urban centres, residential roads and locations where there is a significant presence of vulnerable and active road users. Love 30, the campaign for lower speed limits, unreservedly welcomes this recommendation.
It is true that more fatalities occur on rural roads, and the review also recommends speed reductions on local tertiary roads and on national secondary roads. However, fatalities and injuries in current 50 km/h zones do occur and at lower speed limits the risk of death and serious injury is greatly reduced. Apart from improved road safety, a reduction in the speed limit in urban centres and in residential areas will serve to create quieter, cleaner and safer streets that are not dominated by fast-moving traffic.
This will promote increased levels of walking and cycling leading to better health outcomes and reduced emissions. Our towns will become more liveable and children in particular will have more freedom to move about. The overwhelming evidence for the benefits of 30km/h speed limits has led to them becoming commonplace in towns and cities across Europe, with whole countries now implementing or considering them. In Spain, 30 km/h is the default speed on single-lane urban roads and just this month Wales has adopted a 20 mp/h national default speed limit for roads in urban areas.
Mr Wheatley states that drivers find it difficult to drive at 30 km/h in free-flowing traffic. In response to a similar complaint, Rod King, the founder of the UK Campaign Group 20′s Plenty for Us said, “Of course 20m/ph seems slow to drivers. That’s the whole point. And it also seems slower, calmer, cleaner, safer and quieter for all the people who are not in cars and living their lives in communities.” I argue that 30 km/h speed limits far from being a Trojan horse intended to tackle rural road safety are a considered and evidence-based response to increase road safety and liveability in built-up areas. The evidence also shows any delays to motorists are negligible.
Love 30 welcomes the proposals for 30 km/h speed limits as part of a suite of measures to enhance road safety. – Yours, etc,
MAIRÉAD FORSYTHE,
Love 30 Campaign for Lower Speed Limits, Templeogue, Dublin 6W
Podcast Highlights
- In the News: For children with spina bifida, issues at Temple Street are just the latest letdown: The unfolding crisis in orthopaedic care
Review of the day
- Dumb Money: GameStop short-squeeze film will have you shouting ‘Sell, for God’s sake!’ at the screen Those who were as confused as they were fascinated by the GameStop short squeeze of early 2021 will find brain mist clearing during Craig Gillespie’s fizzy, lucid Dumb Money. Paul Dano plays Keith Gill, the guerrilla financial analyst – broadcasting on YouTube as Roaring Kitty – who, convinced shares in the bricks-and-mortar tech-store chain were undervalued, triggered a buying spree that boosted the stock and threatened to bankrupt hedge funds betting on GameStop to fail. If you want more technical explanations, watch the film.
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