NEWS ROUND-UP
Christmas fire at Kilronan
Gardaí in Boyle are investigating a fire which occurred at Kilronan Castle Hotel on Christmas Eve.The fire broke out between 1.30am and 2am on Thursday, December 24, and is it is understood damage was caused to furniture and carpets at the hotel.
A man was arrested at the scene and gardaí have sent to the DPP and are awaiting direction in relation to a criminal damage charge for the incident.
TD Feighan: We need to take urgent action
We all now need to take urgent action to save others from catching this virus, local TD and Minister for State at the Department of Health Frank Feighan has said. He said that “we are now back in a very worrying Covid-19 situation” and he has asked everyone locally to do all that they possibly can to try to limit their own personal movements and “to try and reduce the number of people that you are socially engaging with over the coming weeks”. Minister Feighan said: “The amount of positive case numbers we are seeing across the country is alarming.
“This rise in confirmed Covid-19 cases is leading to an increase in hospitalisations and ICU and our health system is under the most severe pressure.
“I spoke with the Tánaiste Leo Varadkar about the developing situation over the weekend and he advised me that whilst he acknowledges the worrying situation our health system is now in, we are better prepared now than we were in March to face the challenge as we have about a 1,000 more beds, 6,000 more staff, greater ICU capacity.
“However, we really need help from the public to slow the rate of infection which will to enable us to vaccinate the most at risk in our society,” he said.
Minister Feighan said the nationwide rise in Covid-19 cases was also evident across the Sligo-Leitrim constituency and “we all now need to take urgent action to save others from catching this virus”.
“We need you to act as though you are infectious. Stay at home. Work from home and if you are an employer, ask your employees to work at home,” he said.
The Fine Gael TD said “the vaccines are here, they are starting to be rolled out and brighter days are ahead of us in 2021. We just need to all come together once more to do our best to try to halt the current spread of Covid-19. We have done it twice before and we can do it again”.
Man in hospital after shooting in Easkey
A man was taken to hospital yesterday, Wednesday, following an incident near Easkey in west Sligo. The incident involved is what gardaí described as the accidental discharge of a firearm.
A man in his 70s was taken to Galway University Hospital after being injured in the incident.
Gardaí, the ambulance service and the Coast Guard helicopter all attended the scene.
Garda roads warning as cold spell continues
Gardaí in Sligo have asked motorists to take extra care on the roads and give more time for the journey ahead. A statement said: “With this cold weather spell continuing we would appeal to motorists to take extra care on the roads and give more time for the journey ahead.
“You should not be on the roads unless the journey is absolute necessary. So we should see a big reduction of traffic on our roads from tomorrow on, given that we are now in Level 5 restrictions,” a spokesperson said. Some of the lowest temeperatures of the winter so far were recorded in the county yesterday, Wednesday, morning, with reports of -5 to -7 degrees in some places, leading to icy patches and some slippery roads.
Last night, Wednesday, there were to be outbreaks of rain, turning to sleet and snow for a time, and more low temperatures. Met Éireann forecasted that today, Thursday, to be a bright, fresh day with sunny spells and scattered showers. It will be another cold day.
Job postings in Sligo down 7% in 2020
A 7% decrease in the number of job postings offered in Sligo during 2020 has been recorded by one recruitment agency but they say that they are forecasting a 25% increase in job postings nationwide in the coming year.
The Sligo experience was worse than some counties but not as bad as many others, with overall a 36% drop in job postings nationally over the last 12 months, due to the impact of the pandemic.
The greatest decrease came in Westmeath (down 34.3%), followed by Leitrim (down 33.3%) and Dublin (28.3%). Some counties did see a rise in the number of opportunities available, with the largest percentage increases occurring in Roscommon (up 115.4%), Wexford (up 36.1%) and Kildare (up 26.9%).
FRS Recruitment is predicting 2021 will be a year of two halves in recruitment, but that the overall market should see a strong improvement over the course of the year. They say the year will start slowly but the rollout of the vaccine will bring confidence back to the market and that will create a strong pipeline of employment opportunities as businesses seek extra resources in the second half of the year.
Demand for healthcare workers is likely to see overseas candidates come back into consideration and there will be a continued demand for skilled IT personnel.
Other sectors likely to experience a strong increase in demand include roles in construction, life science as well as for temporary commercial and industrial personnel.
The largest drop in opportunities were in arts, entertainment and recreation (down 75%); hotel and hospitality (down 61.9%) and banking and financial services (down 58.2%).
Although most sectors experienced a drop in the number of opportunities available, certain sectors actually recorded an increase, such as IT support services (up 174.1%) and private sector healthcare (up 42.2%).