Page 8 - Simon Bourke News Today

As the housing crisis deepens, and the number of people accessing emergency accommodation increases, the Wexford branch of the Connolly Youth Movement (CYM) has urged the public to unite against those responsible for the dearth of available properties across the country.

The former deputy chief executive and director of services with Wexford County Council (WCC), Tony Larkin, has been appointed to the board of the Irish Heritage Trust. Tony has more than 42 years of experience in local government in Ireland and served for over 22 years in the management team of Wexford County Council.

People enjoying coffee and refreshments at cafés on a pedestrianised Enniscorthy street are having to contend with bin lorries jostling for space every workday morning. At the February meeting of the Enniscorthy Municipal District (EMD) councillors raised concerns about Rafter Street and the amount of traffic travelling up and down it during business hours.

A new candidate for the Enniscorthy local elections is calling for a regular shuttle-bus service to be introduced for the town, allowing patients greater access to the primary care centre. Brendan Cahill-Flynn is running for the Green Party in June’s elections and says the increased use of the local link services proves there is a “strong appetite for reliable and affordable public transport in Enniscorthy”.

GreenTechHQ is inviting companies from across the south east to visit its Enniscorthy offices for the inaugural Southeast Green Tech Cluster meet up on Wednesday, February 28. Designed to create an innovative network uniting both established and emerging green services alongside green tech specialists throughout Carlow, Kilkenny, Tipperary, Waterford, Wexford and Cork, the event is sponsored by Wexford Chamber of Commerce.

While the Wexford town bolt bike scheme has been a success since its launch last year, calls are now being made to extend it to the outskirts of the town so more people can avail of it. Sinn Féin candidate for the Wexford Borough in this summer’s forthcoming elections, Lorraine Smyth, is a resident of Barntown and says those living there should be able to access the bikes.

The Wexford Festival Singers will perform Joseph Haydn’s The Seven Last Words of Our Saviour on the Cross, for its annual spring concert which takes place in Rowe Street Church at 7.30 p.m. on Sunday, March 24.

The many pathways of love will be explored in a special series of concerts at The Gallery in Green Acres next month. Wexford pianist and répétiteur Rebecca Warren will be joined by soprano Hannah O’Brien for Les chemins de l’amour, an evening of opera arias featuring the works of Dvorák, Mozart, Puccini and the songs of Poulenc, Stanford and Strauss.

At the last count there were more than 13,000 Irish people accessing emergency accommodation in the State, over 4,000 of them children. Yet those figures only tell a fraction of the story. In addition to the numbers sleeping rough, there are countless numbers of ‘hidden homeless’; people sleeping on couches, with friends or family, moving from one temporary situation to the next.

Gardaí are investigating two separate assaults in the Enniscorthy district. The first occurred at a business premises in Drumgoold on the afternoon of Wednesday, February 14 and a man (20s) was arrested in relation to the incident. He was later charged and is due to appear in court.