Community Interest

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Irish Primary School curriculum soon to be available online

Published

Tom Raftery

on 3/11/2005

in Community Interest and Technology

. 0 Comments

The Examiner reported yesterday that the Primary School curriculum will “soon be available online”.

According to the article:

The Government and private sector have joined forces in a project to post subjects online.

‘Teachnet’ will train 50 teachers in web-technology to develop material for schools everywhere.

I guess “soon” is a relative term. How long is it going to take them to hire and train 50 primary teachers - never mind for those 50 to put the curriculum online?

Lets be honest, the entire curriculum will never be online, not unless they massively change the curriculum - but this development is to be welcomed. It is a (small) step in the right direction.

Eventually every child in Primary School will have a networked desktop, and will submit their homework through the school’s extranet. Parents will be able to login and trace their child’s progress etc. We have a long way to go in Ireland before we reach that stage, though - we need to construct proper school buildings first!

Where to eat in Glengarriff

Published

Tom Raftery

on 3/8/2005

in Community Interest and Personal

. 27 Comments

If you find yourself in the beautiful West Cork town of Glengarriff and you are looking for somewhere to eat, I can heartily recommend you stay well away from Casey’s Hotel Glengarriff.

I was there last weekend with my wife, my son and my wife’s nephew and we had lunch there - the food was vile and the service was appalling.

For instance, I ordered fish and chips - not too much wrong you can do with that, I thought - wrong! The fish was completely tasteless and the chips were so greasy that even the ketchup I tried to put on the chips to disguise their greasy taste, couldn’t stick to the chips and kept sliding back off they were so greasy!

We were asked to pay for our meal after ordering it - i.e. before it was delivered to the table, we had to pay for it! They are obviously used to people refusing to pay because of the poor quality of the food.

The table was dirty when we arrived - no problem there, I asked one of the staff to clean it - he grudgingly cleaned half of it and left the rest filthy.

Just behind the eating area are kept empty soft drink bottles - this attracts hordes of bees/wasps who then buzz around you and your food as you try to eat.

The lunch for the four of us (three and a half really - my son is just over two years old!) was â‚¬41.60

In short, Casey’s hotel has no redeeming qualities that I could find.

If you are looking for somewhere to eat in Glengarriff, eat anywhere but Casey’s Hotel.

Edited to correct the spelling of Glengarriff!

3 Ireland about to launch

Published

Tom Raftery

on 26/7/2005

in Community Interest and Technology

. 5 Comments

3 Ireland is about to launch with a range of services and handsets which are likely to put serious pressure on the current O2-Vodafone duopoly.

On Morning Ireland this morning, 3’s Commercial Director for Ireland, Stephen Pilkington, announced that their 200 anytime minutes offering would be priced at 25 euro per month - that is around half of Vodafone’s price for a similar offering.

Guys, if anyone in 3 Ireland is listening, slip me a cool handset and I’ll post lots of great reviews - shhh, just between the two of us, ok?

UPDATED:
The new 3 Ireland site has launched - it includes an online store to buy your new handset online - head on over to check out their offerings!

Risk Equalisation - BUPA Ireland wins round one

Published

Tom Raftery

on 25/7/2005

in Community Interest and Personal

. 1 Comment

Risk equalisation, according to the Health insurance Authority, is

a process that aims to equitably neutralise differences in insurersâ€™ costs due to variations in the health status of their members. Risk equalisation results in cash transfers from insurers with lower risk members to insurers with higher risk members.

In other words, under risk equalisation, BUPA Ireland would pay a subsidy to the VHI to compensate it for having a greater number of high risk subscribers.

Irish Health Minister, Mary Harney, decided not to trigger the controversial risk equalisation payments in the health insurance market at this time.

According to the IrishHealth.com website:

If risk equalisation had been triggered, BUPA, which has a younger and less high-risk patient profile, would have had to pay the VHI up to 34 million euro in compensation.

BUPA Ireland’s Managing Director Martin Oâ€™Rourke, commenting on the decision recently said:

This is good news for consumers. We have always said that risk equalisation makes competition unviable

As I am a BUPA Ireland member - if this keeps my health insurance costs down, I am happy with this decision!

Bombs in London again

Published

Tom Raftery

on 21/7/2005

in Community Interest

. 2 Comments

Bombers have attacked London again at 4 locations - news reports are just coming in - see BBC News or Sky News for more. Initial reports are suggesting that this attack is not as serious as the attack 2 weeks ago.

Tag: London Explosions