No reply from O’Gorman on Council visit

Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth Roderic O’Gorman has yet to reply to an invitation to visit Ballaghaderreen, members were told at Monday’s monthly Council meeting. It had been agreed at a meeting before Christmas that an invite be extended to the minister to discuss growing concerns over additional resources for the town following the arrival of an additional 112 refugees there.

check-up in the first half of 2022,” he said.

“With regard to our orthodontic services, in counties Galway, Mayo and Roscommon, we have 1,343 children waiting. Some are waiting up to two years to start treatment”. The local TD said it also seems some children with a disability have been “completely forgotten” with reports of children with autism in mainstream schools unable to avail of primary school dental services.

“Neglecting our public dental services and oral hygiene leads to emergency dental issues, advanced oral lesions, chronic ill health and sepsis that all add to pressure on our emergency departments, which just cannot cope,” he said.

It was hoped that Minister O’Gorman would meet with members of the local community and local schools to address the issues. However, councillors were informed that no response had as yet been forthcoming from the minister’s office.

Pride of Place groups congratulated

Three Roscommon community groups who took part in this year’s IPB Pride of Place Awards at The Clayton Hotel in Dublin on Saturday night were congratulated at Monday’s Council meeting.

Roscommon featured in three categories with Lough Ree Access For All taking home the runner-up prize in the Community Tour-

Dáil hears of ‘deplorable situation’ in public dental services locally

At this month’s meeting of Roscommon County Council, Cllr Emer Kelly put forward a motion calling on the Council to write to the Health Minister with a view to incentivising dentists to take part in the Medical Card scheme.

Cllr Kelly, who highlighted the high number of GPs opting out of the scheme and difficulties in accessing services, received widespread support across the chamber.

Cllr Tony Ward, who sits on the HSE West Forum, described the situation as “totally wrong”, and claimed that a number of medical card holders had been forced to borrow money in order to pay for treatment. He vowed to continue to raise the issue at the forum.

ism category while Lisnamult Residents’ Association were also runners-up in the Urban Neighbourhood category. The Melting Pot, Roscommon were also featured in the Community Wellbeing Initiative.

Fallon calls for action on ash dieback

In a motion that was passed at Monday’s meeting, Cllr Laurence Fallon called on the Council to write to the Government to request a national assessment with a view to allocating funding to remove dangerous trees affected by ash dieback.

Cllr Fallon said the main reason for such an initiative was the danger posed by trees close to public roads. He said 80 to 90 per cent of

Irish trees would be affected and the only solution was to remove them before they caused harm to members of the public.

Cllr Liam Callaghan called for a representative from Coillte to attend a future meeting of the local authority to discuss the body’s involvement with a UK investment fund. He said the fund’s ongoing acquisition of land in rural areas would leave the agricultural land market “very volatile”.

Cllr Anthony Waldron also introduced an amendment to the motion calling for funding for training aimed at removing ivy from potentially decaying trees.

Chief Executive Shane Tiernan said the local authority would not be involved in the felling of any trees on private land but would consider the removal of trees along public roads on a case-by-case basis.