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The Hindu
4 hours ago
- Politics
- The Hindu
Kerala to include Governor's responsibilities, limitations in higher secondary syllabus amid govt-Raj Bhavan tussle
Kerala's General Education department will modify the higher secondary syllabus to include the Governor's role, responsibilities and limitations as the Constitutional Head of Provincial Governments. General Education Minister V. Sivankutty told reporters on Friday (June 20, 2025) that it was socially imperative that students learn about the democratic and Constitutional processes that inform the country's federal polity, including the official role of the Governor as the de jure head of State and the well-defined Constitutional curbs on the high office. Mr. Sivankutty said the younger generation should understand the executive power vested in the elected Chief Minister and Council of Ministers and their collective responsibility to the Legislative Assembly and the public. The move assumed legal and political relevance against the backdrop of protracted Kerala government-Raj Bhavan dispute over the Constitutional bounds of the Governor's office, including alleged intervention in the administration of State-funded varsities as Chancellor, 'refusing' assent to Bills passed by the Legislative Assembly inordinately, 'displaying' political symbols at State events and 'delaying' key Bills by reserving them for the President's assent. Moreover, the LDF had repeatedly accused Raj Bhavan of providing a bully pulpit for Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh's (RSS) political messaging. Notably, Rajendra Arlekar's assumption of the Governor's office in January had signalled a thaw in the earlier government-Raj Bhavan relations, often characterised by publicly acrimonious and muckraking confrontations with his predecessor, Arif Mohammed Khan. Nevertheless, Mr. Khan's refusal to sign the Bill seeking the removal of the Governor as Chancellor of State Universities, Raj Bhavan's opposition to the Kerala Lok Ayukta Amendment (Bill), which empowered the executive to accept or reject the ombudsman's findings, and the former Governor's decision to reserve some key Bills for the President's consideration remain serious bones of contention between the political executive and the Constitutional office. Following his swearing-in, Mr. Arlekar held out an olive branch to the government by promising to lobby the Centre for Kerala's development, calling on Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on the latter's birthday, and co-hosting an 'informal breakfast meeting' with Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in New Delhi. Mr. Arlekar's varied tack appeared to broadcast a detente and incremental normalisation of relations. However, a coldness of manner crept has into the government-Raj Bhavan ties, with Left student organisations protesting against Mr. Arlekar's nominations to varsity senates, accusing him of continuing Mr. Khan's alleged bid to saffronise State varsities. The chill seemed to reach a high point, with two Ministers walking out of Raj Bhavan recently to protest against the use of a saffron flag bearing Bharat Mata's image, allegedly an RSS emblem, at State functions. An apparently unrelenting Raj Bhavan dug its heels in, refused to remove the controversial image from the central hall, and termed Minister Sivankutty's boycott a protocol violation and insult.
Irish Examiner
14 hours ago
- Health
- Irish Examiner
New miscarriage counselling service: trauma and grief that dare not speak its name
The Irish Family Planning Association (IFPA) announced earlier this month that it is expanding its counselling service to include women and couples who experience recurrent pregnancy loss. As part of a HSE-funded pilot project, anyone who has two or more miscarriages in a row is entitled to eight free counselling sessions. 'We've supported the sexual and reproductive health of people in Ireland since 1969, providing specialist counselling throughout that time,' says the IFPA's counselling director, Clare O'Brien. IFPA counselling director Clare O'Brien. 'We're delighted to have received HSE funding that enables us to become the first State-funded organisation to provide the psychological care women and couples need following miscarriage.' This care is sorely needed. Every year, approximately 14,000 women in Ireland have a miscarriage, meaning about one in every four pregnancies ends in loss. According to the Irish Examiner's women's health survey, some 58% of women report that the availability of support in the aftermath of miscarriage is poor. Women and couples have turned to organisations like the Miscarriage Association of Ireland and Pregnancy and Infant Loss Ireland or to independent therapists. 'There was nothing integrated alongside medical care, up until now. Women who have experienced recurrent miscarriage, and their partners, will now be referred to our specialist counselling services by their local maternity hospital,' O'Brien says. The custom of keeping pregnancies secret until after the first scan at 12 weeks can complicate how people grieve, O'Brien acknowledges: 'In other countries, people share their happy news much earlier. But here, the norm is to wait until after that first scan. Because many miscarriages happen in the first trimester, this means many couples won't have told anyone they are pregnant, which makes it harder to share that they have lost their baby.' Couples can grieve alone, as a result. 'And they do so in such individual ways,' says O'Brien. 'Miscarriage can cause sadness, anger, confusion, guilt, numbness, uncertainty, and fear for the future. There are so many unanswered questions about what happened and why. It's a very difficult time for people.' Alice Sheridan: 'The ripple effect of miscarriage goes on for miles. It's the loss of a life and all its possibilities." Photograph: Moya Nolan No heartbeat Alice Sheridan is a 45-year-old from Skerries in Dublin. She believes many women and couples are 'silently screaming and no one is hearing them'. 'The ripple effect of miscarriage goes on for miles. It's the loss of a life and all its possibilities. For some, it's the loss of the prospect of parenthood. It's a whole future that gets abruptly and violently taken away,' she says. Sheridan speaks from experience. She married in 2009, became pregnant three months later, and gave birth to her son, Jack, in 2010. 'I sailed through that pregnancy,' she says. However, when she and her husband tried for another baby, it took them four years to conceive. 'We were so excited, but at the eight-week scan, we realised there was no heartbeat,' she says. 'We'd lost our baby.' Over the next four years, the couple had two more pregnancies, but both ended in miscarriage. None of the pregnancies progressed beyond eight weeks, meaning Sheridan never developed a baby bump. 'In many ways, I felt this mirrored how our grief wasn't seen,' says Sheridan. 'The grief that follows miscarriage isn't always recognised by society. Lots of people don't know what to say to people who have lost pregnancies, so, often, they don't say anything at all.' Jennifer Duggan, Chairperson of the Irish Miscarriage Association at her home in Carrigaline, Co. Cork. Picture: David Creedon Relying on one another Jennifer Duggan is a 40-year-old from Carrigaline, in Cork, who also knows the pain of miscarriage. When she married at 23, she never imagined she would have difficulty starting a family. 'We married in 2007 and were pregnant at the start of 2008,' she says. 'I was already starting to show when we had our first scan at 12 weeks.' They were devastated when that scan failed to find a heartbeat. Their baby had stopped growing at eight weeks. Having been reassured by doctors that their miscarriage was 'just one of those things that happens as part of women's reproductive life', Duggan and her husband soon started trying again. They experienced another loss before having their son Dáithí in 2009. Two years and two more miscarriages were to follow, before their daughter, Síofra, was born in 2011. 'Looking at us from the outside, people probably thought we had planned the perfect family: A boy followed by a girl two years later,' says Jennifer. 'They would never have guessed we had lost four babies along the way.' Both had come from large families, so they yearned for more children. 'But we held off for a while, after Síofra, for fear of something going wrong,' says Duggan. 'But, eventually, the want for another baby grew bigger than the fear.' They had two more miscarriages before they sought help from a fertility clinic. 'They told me my ovarian reserve was low and recommended we try IVF with donor eggs,' says Jennifer. 'But that didn't feel right to us, so we decided to try one last time, and, happily, we had our son Oisín in 2015.' Looking back on it now, Duggan can see how traumatic the pregnancy losses were: 'My husband and I really relied on one another for support. Our family were great at looking after us, but friends often struggled to know what to say. I started trying for a family at the age of 24, when none of them were at that stage of life.' She found the peer-to-peer support offered by the Miscarriage Association of Ireland helpful. 'Because members had been through it themselves, they understood the jealousy I'd feel at others being pregnant or the sadness I'd feel coming up to the due date of a baby I'd lost. They got what I was going through,' says Duggan, who is now chairperson of the association. Alice Sheridan: 'The grief that follows miscarriage isn't always recognised by society. Lots of people don't know what to say to people who have lost pregnancies, so, often, they don't say anything at all.' Photograph: Moya Nolan Grieving alone Sheridan benefited from counselling after her miscarriages: 'It helped me process my loss and figure out what the future would look like for me and my family.' Sheridan found the experience so beneficial that she decided to retrain as a counsellor: 'I wrote my thesis about the disenfranchised grief many feel after miscarriage. People don't always recognise the profound loss involved and how women and couples need that loss to be acknowledged.' Acknowledging that loss is what the IFPA's new counselling service plans to do. 'It's difficult to say what the demand will be, but we do know that one in four women experiences miscarriage and our team of eight counsellors will be there to support them,' says O'Brien. 'All of us are accredited by the Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy or the Irish Association for Humanistic and Integrative Psychotherapy and have decades of experience. Women and couples will be able to choose between in-person counselling at six centres throughout Ireland or sessions over the phone or Zoom.' These sessions will aim to validate people's bereavement. 'The grief that accompanies miscarriage is real and deeply felt,' says O'Brien. 'We don't want anyone to feel isolated and alone. We want them to know they can speak to us about their loss, frustrations, and fear, without judgement and with total confidentiality and support.' In the meantime, if you know someone who has experienced pregnancy loss, O'Brien has advice on how to support them. 'Sit with them and listen to what they have to say,' she says. 'Don't feel you have to suggest something to fix the situation, as they have just had a huge loss that can't be fixed. And remember that practical help — like childcare, cooking meals, doing shopping or cleaning the house — can make a big difference when people are going through something as physically and emotionally taxing as pregnancy loss.' If you have experienced miscarriage and want to avail of free counselling from the IFPA, ask your healthcare professional to refer you to the service. Click here to read our National Women's Health Survey. The Irish Examiner Women's Health Survey 2025 Ipsos B&A designed and implemented a research project for the Irish Examiner involving a nationally representative sample of n=1,078 women over the age of 16 years. The study was undertaken online with fieldwork conducted between April 30 and May 15, 2025. The sample was quota controlled by age, socio-economic class, region and area of residence to reflect the known profile of women in Ireland based on the census of population and industry agreed guidelines. Ipsos B&A has strict quality control measures in place to ensure robust and reliable findings; results based on the full sample carry a margin of error of +/-2.8%. In other words, if the research was repeated identically results would be expected to lie within this range on 19 occasions out of 20. A variety of aspects were assessed in relation to women's health including fertility, birth, menopause, mental health, health behaviour, and alcohol consumption.
Irish Examiner
a day ago
- Health
- Irish Examiner
What is the current state of women's health in Ireland? We found out
The majority of Irish women feel they are in good physical and mental shape, exercise regularly, and want to drink less. The snapshot of women's health was captured by an Irish Examiner Ipsos B&A nationwide opinion poll. Among the main findings are: Two out of three have children — the average is 2.29 — but there are signs that family size will continue to fall (less than half of mums with a single child would like to have a second); Some 4% of the 1,000 women surveyed are pregnant; Three out of four women over age 35 have experienced menopause, but only half of women in perimenopause or menopause seek medical/healthcare professional advice or support; Evidence of differences in treatment related to the gender of a GP, with women who saw a male GP three times as critical (17% vs 6%) of quality of care as opposed to those who saw a female GP; There is large support for State-funded hormone replacement therapy programme, but 48% of women in menopause have used it (38% of women currently in menopause); 38% have been to a healthcare professional about mental health in recent years, and there are difficulties accessing qualified professionals; One in three feel positively about Ozempic and a quarter would consider using it. 41% feel it is difficult to get a GP appointment. Some 65% said they felt prenatal care access was good or very good, with just 33% saying the same about breastfeeding supports. Women entering menopause now are far more likely to get medical advice than those over age 60 were. Almost half the 1,078 women surveyed said it is easier to talk about mental health struggles now, but 13% said access to help was very good in their experience. Learnings So what can we learn from the overall findings? Analysing the results by age shows the positive impact of better information, better education, and women feeling empowered to ask more about their own health. While 31% of women who answered on experiences of postpartum care in pregnancy described their experience as poor or very poor, the Ipsos analysis showed this was 'more so for women in their 50s and 60s'. It is very sad those women still carry that trauma with them, and that is remains vivid enough to be shared during a survey undertaken only last month. Feelgood editor Irene Feighan reflected on the findings, noting the mix of positive and negative areas. She said: 'The survey revealed that some healthcare developments are reaching younger women, including easier access to lactation consultations and breastfeeding support services. I hope such improvements will continue to expand to a point where women in Ireland will experience the world-class healthcare they deserve. She welcomed the evidence that 'the majority are taking responsibility for their health and actively seeking solutions' for themselves. However, she also said the responses highlight what is missing from services for many women. 'Three in 10 said information provided about postpartum recovery and self care was either poor or very poor, while almost 25% said support received for infant care was lacking,' she said. Other less health-focused questions revealed changing attitudes to ageing and to family. One in 10 said their GP offers cosmetic treatments and one in seven said that their dentist does. Looking at treatment, 10% has had Botox, and one in 16 had lip fillers, with Ipsos finding one in eight have had either treatment. Interestingly, more women think their peers are having work done than the data shows is really the case. However, 43% said they would not use the popular weight-loss drug Ozempic, and only 11% said they would really think about taking the drug. The data also shows a continuing decline in alcohol-use, with 36% of women aged 25 to 34 saying they want to reduce the amount of alcohol they drink. Only 5% of women of all ages said they drink everyday or nearly every day. Family When Feelgood launched 25 years ago, the fertility rate in Ireland was 1.9 births per woman. It is now 1.5. This was reflected in women's answers, with the average family size reported at 2.29 children per family. Struggles with infertility were reflected throughout the survey, between women talking about the cost of treatment — only 9% said it is reasonable in Ireland — as well as limited access to care. Some 76% said they were in favour of the State funding fertility treatment. Many people will have seen the excellent Housewife of the Year documentary recently in cinemas or on RTÉ. Today, just one in eight of the women who answered described themselves as working full time in the home. Some 60% are in workplaces, with the overall figures showing 36% working full time and 21% working part time. Only 2% of the overall numbers said they were self employed and this figure included farmers. Students made up 6% of those who answered overall, and accounted for 41% of women aged 18 to 24 years old. The survey does not delve into reasons why some areas of women's health have seen so many changes in recent years, but there are hints. Analysis of the data on whether women had a good or poor experience in seeking perimenopause treatment shows 24% who felt their treatment was poor had seen a male GP versus 15% who had been to a female GP or healthcare professional. It is not to suggest all male doctors are indifferent to these symptoms, but it clearly has made a difference to many patients that the majority of GPs are women, according to the Medical Council of Ireland. It is noteworthy many services women want more of — mental health care, post-natal hubs, fertility clinics — are non-hospital services. Access to these services is changing, as the HSE creates essentially a second healthcare system in parallel to hospitals under Sláintecare. New mothers living near Listowel, Kerry, can get post-natal care in a clinic there without going to Tralee maternity unit. Older women living near Nenagh, Tipperary can benefit from menopausal and other women's health care from the clinic. If you are giving birth in a small number of counties including Cork, Kerry, and Waterford, you can opt for home birth under schemes such as community midwifery or integrated hospital system. What this survey shows is how localised some of these improvements are, with women in a number of areas not seeing the changes on the ground yet. The survey was carried out by Ipsos B+A for Feelgood, with a nationally representative sample of 1,078 women aged over 16.
Irish Examiner
06-06-2025
- Business
- Irish Examiner
Government will seek to make development of apartments more viable
The Government is to explore measures that would make apartment building more viable in an attempt to increase housing output. It is understood that the Cabinet's committee focused on housing discussed how to get the greatest volume of housing output from the Land Development Agency (LDA) while requiring a minimum amount of capital funding. The meeting heard that proposals for measures that would help to make apartments a more viable option are being considered. If measures cannot be agreed, then focus would need to shift to building more State-funded social housing or developing lower density, marketable homes where suitable. It is understood that providing the LDA with a broader remit to go beyond social and affordable housing was agreed at the meeting. One source said this will require legislative change. However, it was stressed that this will only involve an adjustment to the section that defines the work the LDA can and cannot carry out and should be relatively straightforward. Ministers also discussed the 'broad direction' of the longer-term housing plan, albeit this is still in the early stages of development. While a decision is imminently expected on rent pressure zones and could be finalised this weekend, it was not on the agenda of the meeting. However, one minister noted there is a 'broad awareness' that this is at an advanced stage and could be ready to go to Cabinet as early as next week without being discussed at the housing sub-Cabinet committee. The meeting also heard of the struggles the LDA is facing in terms of sourcing enough suitable land from State bodies. It was suggested that if more land could be zoned for housing by local authorities, more opportunities would open up in new areas. This would then help to meet the National Planning Framework housing targets. Looking to private land would also bring greater opportunities in counties such as Dublin and Cork, where there is high demand. The LDA is legally required to develop 100% social and affordable housing on public lands in these counties. However, this stipulation does not extend to private land. Where it is feasible to acquire and develop private land, it is to be a mix of social, affordable, and private housing. The controversial housing activation office was also raised at the meeting, though no decision was reached on the matter.
Irish Independent
20-05-2025
- Business
- Irish Independent
Tipperary asylum-seeker centre plans scrapped
Independent Tipperary Cllr Máirín McGrath said that in following up on an original statement a few weeks ago, she could confirm that the Department of Integration is no longer considering Abbey House on Abbey Street in Cahir for use as an IPAS centre following an offer by its new owners. 'Tipperary County Council had rejected the Section 5 exemption for this building a number of weeks ago so the contract couldn't go ahead without proper planning approval,' said Cllr McGrath. 'No appeal to this rejection was made by the owners to An Bord Pleanála. The only route this property can change use now is to apply for full planning permission.' Last week, the Government published a list of accommodation centres returning to their original or alternative use. Among them is Dundrum House Hotel in west Tipperary, which has been the subject of numerous protests and controversies surrounding proposals to offer refuge for international protection applicants. The Government has announced that in respect of Dundrum House, 31 residents will be relocated by June 1 this year. 'The need for accommodation for people fleeing the war in Ukraine is decreasing across the country,' announced the Department of Justice. 'This means that some Ukraine accommodation centres will be closing, and some people will be asked to move to new accommodation. 'This process was paused during March to allow for greater planning and notice periods for residents. Relocations of residents from some Ukraine properties are now being planned to begin in June and continue throughout the summer period. 'State accommodation contracts may also be ending where compliance issues arise, or where the owner chooses to end their contract. 'Because the Department must ensure value for money and an effective system overall, this means some people will be moved to other locations, if they still require State-contracted accommodation. 'Properties can return to private use, tourism or student use, and a small proportion may be used for International Protection accommodation.' ADVERTISEMENT Learn more The Department will be sending updates, through the accommodation providers, to the residents who will be affected, to let them know that the contract is ending with that provider. 'We will inform them that if they wish to continue to receive State-funded accommodation, it will be provided in another location. We will be giving them the final contracted date of their accommodation, at least 30 days in advance. In some cases, where possible, notice periods of greater than two months are being provided. 'We will also inform people of their options to source their own accommodation if they wish to stay in the area, either through the pledge and Offer a Home schemes, subject to availability, or privately using supports available to them such as rent supplement. 'All residents who request continued State accommodation will be moved. The Department has to make best use of existing accommodation contracts, and so new locations may not be in the same area,' added the Justice spokesperson. This announcement comes after a €16-€20m contract to house 277 international protection applicants at the hotel was awarded to a Spanish company last month. The move has been widely-criticised and the issue has been referred to the Public Accounts Committee for scrutiny.
