Category Archives: Improve Your Life

Coronavirus, Contacts and Social Welfare Forms, 16 March 2020

Improve Your Life, International, Kieran's Council Work, Uncategorized
This situation is moving quickly and this information is correct as of this morning but will no doubt continue to be updated in the days ahead.
 
Pensions
 
For those unable to collect pensions, they can nominate someone to act on their behalf and collect the pensions for them. An Post have provided the form at this link https://www.anpost.com/AnPost/media/PDFs/Appointment-of-Temporary-Agent.pdf
 
 
Travel
 
As with everything, this is a very fast moving situation and travel advice and guidelines from the Department is being updated regularly.
 
If you have constituents in Spain, please advise them to travel home as soon  as possible, the Department of Foreign Affairs have worked with Spanish Authorities and the airlines to ensure extra capacity is available for Irish Citizens, but they have strongly urged all citizens to make arrangement to fly home by midnight on Thursday.
 
The Department of Foreign Affairs have a dedicated page which is being updated with travel advice and guidelines https://dfa.ie/travel/travel-advice/coronavirus/
As of this morning the situation for travel is
 
Do not travel – Italy
 
Avoid non-essential travel – Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Cambodia, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guiana, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Iran, Laos, Malta, Mexico, Morocco, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Poland, Spain, Slovakia, Suriname, Uruguay, Venezuela, Vietnam
 
The United States
 
The United States Embassy in Dublin is now operating on a limited capacity, only processing emergency services for U.S. citizens and emergency visa processing.
 
The J1 Visa programme has also been suspended for 90 Day. I am working to get clarity on this situation as I have been contacted by a number of families for details on this.
 
Social Welfare
 
A new special social welfare payment has been created for all those left unemployed by Covid 19, this includes those who are self-employed. It is a simple 1 page form that must be downloaded and sent back into the social welfare office through free post at PO BOX 12896 Dublin 1. If people have a verified MyGovId they can apply for this online. The link below is to the form and full details on the payment.
 
 
The Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection (DEASP) has published information on coronavirus for employers and employees.
 
It includes recommendations for employers to help support the response to the virus. It also includes information about changes to the Illness Benefit and Supplementary Welfare Allowance rules. These changes require legislation, which is expected to be passed by the Dáil on Thursday 19th March and Seanad on Friday 20th March.
 
Full details on this are available at  https://www.gov.ie/en/publication/99104a-covid-19-coronavirus/ this will continue to be updated as the situation progresses

Award Ceremony, Discover Cork Schools’ Heritage Project 2020

Arts, Cork City Events, Cork History, Improve Your Life, Kieran's Council Work, S.E. Ward Local History, Uncategorized, Ward Events

   Wednesday evening, 4 March coincides with the Cork City award ceremony of the Discover Cork Schools’ Heritage Project. A total of 25 schools in Cork City took part in the 2019-2020 edition, which included schools in Ballinlough, Ballintemple, Blackrock and Douglas. This year the project was open to new schools within the broader area of the new city boundary. Circa 1200 students participated in the process with approx 220 project books submitted on all aspects of Cork’s local history & heritage.

 The Discover Cork Schools’ Heritage Project is in its 17th year and is a youth platform for students to do research and write it up in a project book whilst offering their opinions on important decisions being made on their heritage in their locality and how they affect the lives of people locally.  The aim of the project is to allow students to explore, investigate and debate their local heritage in a constructive, active and fun way.

 Co-ordinator and founder of the project, Cllr Kieran McCarthy noted that: “The project is about developing new skill sets within young people in thinking about, understanding, appreciating and making relevant in today’s society the role of our heritage – our landmarks, our stories, our landscapes in our modern world. The project also focuses on motivating and inspiring young people, giving them an opportunity to develop leadership and self-development skills, which are very important in the world we live in today”.

   The City Edition of the Project is funded by Cork City Council with further sponsorship offered by Learnit Lego Education, Old Cork Waterworks Experience and Cllr Kieran McCarthy. Full results for the City edition are online on Cllr McCarthy’s heritage website, www.corkheritage .ie.

 

 

Archive, City Edition Results, 2020